Just come back from a great weekend up the Lakes doing a solo Borrowdale Bash attempt. I had a great tale though diidn’t quite complete the rocky mammoth…
(more…)
Archive for November, 2007
Borrowdale Bash
Sunday, November 25th, 2007Looking forward to a Keswick weekend
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007Well, another couple of weeks have gone since posting so thought I better update…
Firstly, still loving the new bike. Definitely made the right choice for my kind of riding. Much faster and more responsive than the old Marin around smoother rides like Follow The Dog. Even keeping it immaculate washing straight after ride (though that might diminish after the first scratch..).
Haven’t ridden or walked since Cannock last Wednesday mainly due to the weather. Its great, I was desperate for some decent snow last year, to learn some crampon use, but this year, no such antics are possible with the knee. So last thing I want is snow, as it isn’t very mountain bike compatible, and this winter looks set to be cold.
The rest of this week entails:
1) Bike ride around Sutton Park tomorrow afternoon after hopefully getting my new HTC mobile phone / pda thingy.
2) Attending Project Managers leaving do on Thursday evening
k
3) Last and certainly not least, packing Thursday evening for a fun and scenery packed visit to Keswick and virgin ride around Derwent Water doing the ‘Borrowdale Bash’. Standard outdoorsy Lake District fodder of driving up Friday evening, fun on Saturday, then maybe some photography Sunday morning before driving back. I have got to test my knee before final consultation on 4th Dec, so might do Catbells if the weather aint too bad.
Dogging in the Chase
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007Today, I rode the Follow The Dog mountain bike trail at Cannock Chase for the first time. Great ride, and first purpose built XC trail I have tried and I love it. Brilliant twisty singletrack that go on forever, with fun bermed curves. The weather was great and the bike didn’t get too dirty which is a bonus in November. Also reckied it for some night riding but think I will have to familiarize it more before trying under lights. Did about 10 miles in total and felt nothing from my knee 
New day, new bike
Sunday, November 4th, 2007Since my last post, things have happened quite quickly on the bike scene. As some will know, my knee still isn’t right and this has led to a reduction in walking, and hence posting here. Also, my physiotherapist suggested cycling as an exercise to help with recovery. I used to mountain bike years ago, and haven’t been on a bike for about 2 years. So the last couple of months, I have been on my old Marin several times, and during some thought on upgrading it inline with the 21st century, I decided to replace it altogether.
I went upto Hawes a few weeks ago to test ride an Orange P7, and really liked it. So much so that I ordered a couple of Mondays ago, but due to hivering and hovering about sizing, spec etc, I messed up the order. This combined with an Orange stocktake, meant I would have to wait until mid November for the bike.
How surprised was I yesterday, when I got a call from Swinnertons @ cannock to inform me the bike was ready. Although I needed to complete doing our flat roof and the guttering due to the roof leaking, the call of fancy new equipment was too strong, and I picked it up on way back from getting our power washer serviced. At home, I took the obligatory pics and attached a crud catcher and some
frame protection.
My original plans for today were to sit on the turbo trainer for a couple of hours, as I still don’t trust my knee sufficiently to go out proper riding just yet, but the new bike was sufficient to force a trip over Sutton Park, albeit driving their to avoid Barr Beacon. I only did a single circuit of the park, but it was great fun – riding hardtails is so much fun having to actually pick lines rather than tumble over anything on a bouncer. Maybe some of the fun came from the newness factor also though.
Anyhow, it was a good day, and now that I have just sold my old Imac, I have ordered some more tools to treat the bike to some TLC.
The only outdoors thing to happen last week was a further discussion with Phil Sant about a few day trek around the Lakes next year. Probably set up a base camp at Langdale, and do some circulars or hopefully two dayers from there on. Oh, and I have my final knee consultation in exactly 1 month. Just hope the knee is fully mended for than as its been 4 months since last walk and I am eagerly awaiting the call of contour lines again!