4 years on, KiloToGo Flat Out in the Fens pre-race thoughts

It's a special weekend this coming one. I'm off to the Fens, east from Peterborough, to ride the Wiggle KiloToGo Flat Out in the Fens sportive. I'm doing the 152 mile option, which will make this by some stretch the furthest I've ever ridden in a day, assuming I complete it of course :)

But it's special because it marks the 4th anniversary of my appointment with destiny, June 21, 2010. The World Cup has been reminding me of it too - I know I watched some of the last one from a hospital bed in Preston but I can't say I remember a right lot of it. Although as an England fan that may be a good thing ;) 

4 years on

Over the 4 years since several factors have returned me to the point where I can consider doing the kinds of rides I used to do, and even go beyond. In the first place there's the NHS, who saved me and put me back together, rebuilt my leg and followed up with me until just recently, to make sure I was as good as they could get me, for free. I suspect that most people in this country have no idea how lucky they are that we have the healthcare system we do. Long may it continue to be so. 

The encouragement of friends and family has been important. None of them have ever 'managed my expectations' which would have been a valid thing for them to try to do, but I guess they know me well enough to know it's not what I wanted. If I haven't already, I'd like to thank them all again for their support - knowing when not to speak as well as when to - and also to apologise again for putting them all through this in the first place.

Finally, and in a rare departure from my usual modest self, I know my attitude has been one of the most important factors. I have tried to stay as positive as I could throughout the whole episode, and for the most part I've succeeded. Last week some people who really didn't have to paid me a massive compliment by describing me as 'amazingly positive' and 'a shining light'. These were the guys from the insurance company, a matter which I'm pleased to say, 4 years on, is now behind me.

It's unlikely I'll ever run again, which crosses off all sorts of things as possible, but I can live with that, and you never know, right? I'll never go a day again without pain in my leg and ankle, but it's the price of being alive. I will probably have another operation in the next couple of years, to break my ankle a few times and hopefully make this pain more manageable, and walking a bit easier. I might have a few more operations to make my leg look nicer, but there's probably not a lot of point is there? The days of me being a leg model are over ;)

There have been moments where I've been really sad and have struggled - I still have flashes of it and there are some persistent and annoying symptoms of post-traumatic stress, but it was worst was when I couldn't ride. In the 895 days I couldn't ride my bike, sometimes it looked a long way off, but the truth is I never genuinely doubted - I knew I'd turn the pedals again eventually and I knew I wouldn't just turn them, I'd push.

And here we are.

Flat Out in the Fens

The furthest I've ever ridden in a day before was 108 miles in 2009 in Wales. Since then I've ridden 100 miles a bunch of times. What are the issues with this ride then? OK well it's flat. I did more climbing within 4 miles of my house the other day than I will do in the whole ride on Sunday. So that makes this one different. Flat brings two potential problems to my mind: first, you have to pedal pretty much the whole time. On a more normal ride you at least get to freewheel down hills if you want a rest, etc. Second, wind. There will be no protection from potentially strong winds. There may be many, many miles riding into a headwind. I don't like that at the best of times, but after 100+ miles that could be a killer.

Got my number and timing chip, and some new OTE bottles and smart bottle cages for the occasion.

Anything else? Well, yes. Eating and drinking. Of course there's the well-stocked feed stations as usual with KiloToGo rides, but availability of food is never my problem - it's eating it. This time I will have to be really disciplined and eat regularly. This is too far to push through I think. Sometimes by 90 miles I'm thinking - I'm hungry and aching a bit but only 10 miles to go... this time it will be 60. Yikes. It's a long way. I will aim to carry enough food with me for the whole ride as usual, and only use the feed stations as top up and to get water. I'll probably adopt my usual strategy of missing the first one altogether. If it's super hot I will need water, but that should be quick.

What else? Fundraising. This time I'm going to ride for the North West Air Ambulance. I didn't need them, but people involved in similar accidents to mine regularly do and regularly get saved by them. I think they're an extremely worthy cause and will for sure help people like me, so they count. I hope to raise a significant amount this time, even though I know people may be getting tired of sponsoring me now - I have to think about that for the future. As usual, you can donate by clicking the JustGiving link on the right hand side of this page.

My other thoughts at the moment to do with the ride are slight worries about pain in my ankle, my contact points (hands and bottom) and lower back. I'm not sure what state I will finish this one in! I'll probably take some Ibuprofen and Paracetamol with me and hope not to need it. Also we can hope that the weather will play ball again - no rain and no wind would be best!  Finally, I have no idea what time to expect or to aim for on this one. As I said, it'll be pedalling pretty much all the time which is not what I'm used to. I was thinking if I finish in 9 hours I'll be happy, but really I don't know if that's realistic or not. I guess we'll find out won't we!

My itinerary for the weekend is to leave on Friday lunchtime - on Friday night I'm staying with friends in Cambridge, who I haven't seen for a long time so that should be fun! Saturday and Sunday night I'm booked into The Bell Inn in Stilton - as in the cheese - that will be lovely I'm sure. On Saturday during the day I will go and find some pretty village to look around or something equally relaxing. When I get to the hotel I might ride for half an hour if the weather is appropriate. It's an early start on Sunday morning - I'm aiming for 7am on the start line - so I decided to stay Sunday night too, didn't fancy driving for 3 hours after this one! So I'll come back on Monday.

I'm sure it'll be a great weekend whatever happens on the ride. I will see another part of the country I've never really seen before and I hope that I can raise some money for a good cause at the same time. I will try my best to write a proper ride report as soon as possible afterwards. I know I'm not always very good at that!

Ride with Brad 2013

OK, the short version is, mission accomplished :)

Yesterday was the second (annual?) Ride with Brad sportive out of Barnoldswick in Lancashire. Some of you will know that I volunteered at the first one last year while my leg was in external fixation after the rebreak, and it did occur to me at the time that if they ran it this year I might be able to take part. It was a good target.

I plumped for the 100km route option, mainly as a nod to common sense and realism that I probably wasn't ready yet for 100 miles with nearly 3000m of climbing. There were a lot of people on the ride again, and I would guess more on the 100km than on the 100 miles, so maybe word had got around from last year how hard this route is!

Rebecca and I camped at Lower Greenhill Camp site where I stayed last year, a lovely camp site with friendly people, recommended. On Saturday I picked Rebecca up from work in the hire car, and we arrived at Barnoldswick, OK Salterforth actually, just before 4pm. We pitched and then went to registration at Victory Park, the event centre. The queue for the 100km was only a few people, which is why I wanted to register on the Saturday, no queuing for ages on the Sunday morning! I was on my crutches of course, which brought a few comments, and required my usual explanation of "I know it seems very strange, but walking is much harder than riding at the moment!". Anyway I got my rider number and timing chip label - the numbers and labels have your name printed on them this year! I've never been to an event where that was so - a nice touch!

Numbers with names on. Cool!

Next we went to The Craven Heifer in Kelbrook for a beer and some dinner. I had a massive gammon steak which pretty much covered the whole plate - not exactly carbo-loading but it filled me up anyway. 

Back at the campsite I got everything ready for the ride, put the number on my bike and checked the pressure in the tyres etc. I had decided to take a non-standard pedal configuration, on account of my nerves at making it up some of the steepest gradients. I took off my SPD-SL pedals, and put a flat one on the right and an XTR SPD on the left. That way, I could wear my Shimano shoes which have the cleats flush with the soles. This served two purposes: first I could bail easily without having to unclip on a steep bit of road, and second, if I did bail I would be able to 'walk' - walking is nearly impossible for me in the riding shoes with the SL cleats on, well, without really hurting my foot anyway. I don't like this set up because it looks crazy on the bike, but in this case I think practicality has to take precedence.

Camp.

It was an early start yesterday morning - I was up at about 0545 getting excited. Got everything together, had some breakfast - tuna pasta I brought with me, made Rebecca and I a coffee and Rebecca a bacon sandwich, then packed some stuff up and headed out. Got parked and bike out of the car about 0720. Now I was happy, I'm always a bit nervous about getting to the start line on time. The start for the 100km route was 0800-0830 so everything was good. When we got to Victory Park there was a massive queue for registration, like I remember from last year, but I already had my number so I could just line up. Had a quick toilet visit, then into the line. And a long wait! I don't know why they seemed to only be letting a few people go every couple of minutes. But more likely there was a lot of people in front of me. The 160km guys had all already gone, so all these people were doing the 100km.

Event Centre, Victory Park, Barnoldswick.

While I was waiting Rebecca was alongside over the barrier taking pictures and chatting. Then there was some commotion up front and apparently Sir Bradley Wiggins was in attendance! He gave a typically verbose interview: "Are you looking forwards to it?" "Yeah, should be a good ride." Then he and the Wiggle-Honda girls were on the start line and after a half-hearted countdown, they were off. After that, they let the rest of us all go off quite quickly. That was the closest I came to Sir Brad all day!

Waiting to get going.

And ready for the rain!

The route, which I had studied on the map of course several times, starts off easy. About 15 miles of easy actually, until Waddington where the fun begins. Waddington Fell was the first proper climb of the day and it's quite long, and has a sharp pull near the top, but it was the first of the day so no real problem, legs quite fresh and all. I sent a tweet from the top, had a minute's rest and then started down the other side. Rain! No, wait, hail? Stinging the face anyway. I had set off with my Berghaus Paclite jacket on in anticipation of some rain and that helped I'm sure. It was quite an exciting descent on a wide fairly smooth road so no danger to worry about even in the wet. At the bottom of Waddington Fell at Newton there's the split point, 100km to the left. The 160km riders had gone off here for a 40 mile loop through the Trough of Bowland, which I've ridden some years ago and it's pretty spectacular. Then they rejoin us at Dunsop Bridge, so for them it's 40 miles but for us it's about 3 or so.

After that we're heading south, nice easy miles for a bit until a sharp pull up to the first Feed Station at Wildboar Forest. I stopped here at the junction for a rest and to take stock, but decided not to go into the feed stop and instead to push on. Mainly I was aware that the next climb was the one I was not looking forwards to the most, and I wanted it over. Longridge Fell, Jeffrey Hill. Now that's a ramp. It was here that I realised my pedal and shoe choice had been very wise indeed. I think I got about 5/6 of the way up the first really steep bit before I cracked. It's a shame because I knew that at the bend it eases off a bit, but there really wasn't enough strength in my thighs. It's not all about endurance - I've got loads of that (modesty) - I just need more strength for those really steep prolonged bits where I'm out of the saddle. Anyway, I wasn't the only one beaten by this short stretch of tarmac! So I walked around the bend and stopped for a little rest to compose myself. Then back on and OK until the top. But something was wrong! A strange feeling like the road got very bumpy all of a sudden. A rear-wheel puncture!

I wasn't the only one walking this little stretch! Jeffrey Hill, Longridge Fell. Hard.

I have never had a puncture on this bike before. Most likely it was all the pot-holes - some of the roads had had quite bad surfaces already. Anyway I knew I could fix it it was just a surprise and very inconvenient on top of Longridge Fell in the rain! Took me a while to get the tyre off the rim, took me a while to get the new tube to inflate, especially after I bent the valve, oops. There was a point where I was worried it wouldn't go up, but a bit of care and fiddling around and I got enough pressure in it, I hoped. Because now I couldn't afford another one! Oh, how bad would it be to fail this ride because of a mechanical? Something I had never considered - always thinking about me and my body, never worried about the bike which had never given me any problem in the past? I guess I spend about 20 minutes fixing the puncture. I knew the second Feed Station wasn't that far away so I could get there and get some mechanical assistance if I needed it, I hoped.

After Longridge Fell I protected the rear wheel a lot on the descents, afraid of going over a pot-hole and puncturing again, but I tried to convince myself that I must have done about 2000 miles on this bike without a puncture so it wasn't likely to happen. There's a lot of downhill on the next section, down into the Ribble Valley. Time for a bit of recovery. The second feed stop, near Billington, was a must for me. I could already feel the tiredness in my legs and with still 20 miles and some climbs to go, I admit I was a bit worried. But the best I could do was stop, rest, and take on board some food and drink. I refilled my bottles, took a few gels in my pocket, ate my banana and had a chocolate cookie. There was really a lot of stuff, I could have had muffins or sandwiches or fruit. Well catered. I had a bit of a chat with some lads who had seen my leg and were curious. They were impressed, I think. That gave me a boost.

I knew the next climb was the Nick O' Pendle which is pretty nasty about 2/3 of the way up. At the base of it I finally took off my waterproof jacket and stuffed it in my jersey - instantly I felt better - it was like being released from a sweaty bin liner! That helped too. I got most of the way up in lowest gear until, again, about 3/4 of the way up the steepest bit I had to stop. This time I only walked probably 50m over a little lip before I could get back on and then was fine all the way to the top. This is telling me something about my level of fitness / strength. What? I'll have to think about that!

I paused at the summit to take a picture. The rest of the ride from here is undulating almost until the finish. I knew there was a couple more pulls that would probably cause me problems and the rest probably wouldn't. Descending into Sabden I thought I'd punctured again :( But at the bottom I stopped and no, it was just a strange sound coming from somewhere. The climb out of Sabden is nasty. Three single chevrons on the OS map over about 3/4 mile. I didn't walk at all on this one, but I did have to stop halfway for a rest, "to admire the view". I was now passing and being passed by a nice guy on a mountain bike so we were having a bit of a chat.

Summit of Nick O' Pendle.

After Sabden there's a nice easy miles stretch then it goes down and up near Newchurch. Here, again, on the steepest bit, I had to walk. Coming up to a house where people were watching riders go past, a nice lady came down the hill a bit clearly concerned about me (probably saw my leg!). She asked if I was OK, "yes". She asked if I had any support riders, "no". She asked if I was going to continue, "yes". Did I need her to phone anyone? "no". It is nice when people care! But really, I explained to her and her family what I already knew - I just can't get up the steepest bits, probably because of the strength, or lack thereof, in my legs still. I knew there was 10 miles to go, there was no way now I wasn't finishing, major mechanical or body-bag notwithstanding. But her Dad told me I deserved a medal. That was enough to get me to the end.

In Barley I stopped to take a gel and eat my Go bar. Because I knew Barley Fell was a climb, but no chevrons so slow and steady should win the race! It did. After that, there's a descent and a right turn, then undulating until 3 miles from Barnoldswick. This section has some nasty pulls on it, but they're all quite short, so I didn't have a problem. As usual on these rides, the legs start to come back a bit as they sense the proximity of the finish! By the time I got to the main road, and knew it was all downhill for 3 miles to the finish, I felt like I could've done the 160km route. No wait, actually I know I probably couldn't have done that yesterday. But I will next year ;)

Crossing the finish line.

At the finish, in my dreams, Sir Brad was there to congratulate me, and there was an announcement by the commentator saying how great it was that I'd made it to here after 3 years of recovery. Of course, those things didn't happen. But it wasn't really about that was it? It was about my leg, my journey, my ride, my race, my life. I'm very happy I was able to set myself this goal a year ago and realise it. I would have liked to have done the 160km route, but that wasn't realistic. I would have preferred not to have had to walk 3 times on the steepest bits, but that gives me some information about where I am and some more space to improve into. I would like to have at least laid eyes on Sir Brad, but for the second year running, I didn't. Rebecca on the other hand met him at the finish line, exchanged a few words and got a picture! I think Rebecca was a bit bored while I was out riding, but I hope that experience made up for it a bit, and it was really good to have her there as support. I liked texting her a few times on the route. And I had a text from my friend Julia too saying that everyone at church was thinking about me. That meant a lot.

After the finish, there was the goody bag - nice T-shirt this year! - and some rider food, pasta. Then I went and found Sophie (and Leah) from Pennine Events, the organisers, who I'd been exchanging emails with in the run up to this event - to thank them and to say hi.

Then we were away, to pack up the camp and go and get a drink before heading home. I was already thinking about the next ride.

After the finish. I like my new jersey :)

If you want to you can look at my data on strava. Under the circumstances, I'm quite happy with my 5h9m moving time for this ride! Again, I find it very amusing that "there are no achievements on this ride!"

Tuesday - Kielder - Carlisle

My final day of this expedition, with a lot of miles to cover. Packed up straight after breakfast, and got underway about 0930. The first section of the route was well known to me by now, along the south shore of the Lakeside Way, until just before the Tower Knowe visitor centre. Here began the bit I was most concerned about for today - the crossing of a vast tract of forest to join a road a few miles from Hadrian's Wall. Yesterday I took Memory Map and plotted all the junction points of forest roads marked on the map that I needed to reach and labelled them with the junction number and direction I needed to turn in. Then I saved those points out as a GPX file and imported it into BaseCamp, from where I could make a route out of those points and upload it to the GPS. This way, I would always know how far away the next junction was, and in what direction. I figured that with map, GPS and waypoints, even if I got stuck in the forest I wouldn't be lost. It worked out well. There was one moment where I was a bit hesitant, because this is of course a working forest, and it had crossed my mind that I might run into logging operations or something. I did come across a sign at one point that said 'No Unauthorised Access - Chemical Spraying' which doesn't sound good, but I could see the men in the felled area in white suits and they were a long way from the track, so I just continued regardless. It was only about a 300m stretch anyway. Having the junctions in my GPS made me feel a lot safer, because you really are miles from anywhere in the middle of that forest. At one point I followed a bridleway sign into really thick forest and cut off a corner of the fireroad. If you were walking through here it would be very boring I think. Inside the forest it was really quiet and dark. Quite spooky.


Into the abyss, bridleway in Kielder Forest

After the first long stretch was over, I emerged onto a little tarmac lane between farms, with cows on the hillside and … a Royal Mail van coming up the hill! Our postal system is pretty impressive. Let's hope the new coalition government doesn't ruin it, although I fear they will by selling off part of it. Anyway, a drop downhill and a right turn later, and I'm on NCN route 68. That's right, 68, the one that runs right past my house in New Mills. It's a long route! This section goes westward to Grindon Green (ruin) where, after a mile or so, it bears south on an old road / track. This track puts you out on a tarmac road a few miles north of Hadrian's Wall. I took a bit of an extra loop so that I could go past the really impressive part of the wall I remember from the Pennine Way - that above Once Brewed. Stopped there and took some pictures, sent a tweet (now back in signal land!) and thought a bit over the PW adventure again. The sign near the wall here makes me laugh - it reads 'In the interests of archaeology please do not walk on the wall' or words to that effect. I mean, the thing's been standing for 2000 years, had most of it taken to build the local farm houses, 'castles' and stone walls, people used to walk on it. I really don't see the problem. Don't take bits of it home, right enough - but don't walk on it? Silly. It's also rather interesting to consider that Hadrian's Wall is a UNESCO world heritage site but it is in fact a manmade fortification cutting across beautiful countryside. Today, such a monstrosity would never be contemplated - but because it's old, it's worth preserving even! Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to have such a thing from the point of view of our history and the history of the Roman Empire, but don't you think it's strange?


That thing with the grass on, that's Hadrian's Wall

Ramblings aside, I continued on along the Roman Road which is now the B6318. This really is a straight road! Up and down it goes, undulating with the terrain, but dead straight. I turned off it onto the Hadrian Cycleway just before Greenhead, reflecting that I'd just done in less than an hour what I walked in a day on Day 4 of the PW (short day that was, Once Brewed - Greenhead, 8 miles). After Greenhead I passed through Gilsland, and on to Birdoswald, Roman Fort. Here I stopped for a rest, having done 40 and a bit miles so far, and some food. A Hadrian cheese and tomato sandwich, and a coffee. Nice. I maybe should have looked around the fort, since I'm a member of English Heritage it would've been free, but I decided to press on on the grounds that if I stopped for too long it would be very hard to finish the day's miles.


Milepost on NCN 72

Which numbered 21 remaining. I wasn't entirely sure what route I was going to take into Carlisle, but after a while I found myself on NCN route 72, which goes to Carlisle, so I stopped worrying about the route and followed the obvious signs. The NCN rarely takes the shortest route, because it aims for traffic 'low' or 'free' routes, and sometimes it feels like you're going round in circles just to avoid a short stretch of busy road. But it's great! I didn't really care how long it took to get there because I knew I'd be early for my train anyway. So passing a milepost with Carlisle 12.75 miles on it was good enough to just keep following the blue signs. NCN routes often go over any visible hill as well (again, these are usually the traffic 'low' routes) just to keep things interesting. The route into Carlisle city centre was quite involved, and at one point near a school I lost it, so played with Carlisle's rush hour traffic and one-way system for a while, to find myself back at the station. With an hour to kill I went looking for a real ale pub, but struggled to find one! A google search on the iPhone later, and I was at the King's Head. Good beer, nice, quiet pub. Perfect. 2 pints to finish off a great long weekend.

Train(s) back home were uneventful - direction and time of day meant it wasn't busy at all.

Monday - Kielder / Newcastleton

Today I decided to take it easy in the morning, to give my arse time to recover from yesterday! So I had my breakfast and then went for a walk to the Castle again. I went in the Minotaur Maze, a piece of art close to the Castle. It wasn't too difficult to get to the middle and getting out was easy because I could remember the turns I had taken. A bigger maze would've been better I suppose, but it wasn't bad.


Minotaur Maze at Kielder Castle

I had a coffee and a glass of water at The Duke's Pantry, got my little computer out and looked at routes. I decided to do the Lonesome Pine / Bloody Bush trail again, but this time extend it to go to Newcastleton 7Stanes red trail. So, a loop of about 40 miles. At the back of my mind of course is the Kielder 100, and whether I'll be able to do it or not. This weekend is supposed to be about finding that out!

Back at the YHA I got my things sorted out, ate some crisps, and got ready. Smeared some savlon at the tops of my legs to protect the skin a bit. Then I went and fiddled a bit with my bike, oil, resetting the wheels and so on. Everything good.
The trails round here really are good for XC. I'm sure downhillers don't find them exciting enough, but for my bike and me, they're perfect. The route up to Lonesome Pine is now familiar to me, and this time it occurred to me that there might be mobile coverage at the top. There was! Only stopped for a few minutes there though as it was quite cold. Nowhere near as hot as yesterday, but that's good because it was a bit too hot yesterday. Hey, I'm not complaining, but today the weather was more exercise conducive.


View back towards the reservoir from Lonesome Pine

Carried on to Bloody Bush and turned right to go to Newcastleton on the Cross Border Trail. Well signposted, but what a descent on the fireroad after the pass! Went on for ages. And Bloody Bush road really does look like an old road. It is easy to imagine horses and carts using that track, even now. If a film ever wanted to find a location atop moors with an old road, they could do worse.


Bloody Bush Toll Road

At Newcastleton I looped around on the red trail. Confirmation that Deadwater is harder than a red, this was more what I expect from that colour. Great for XC with a few hairy bits thrown in but nothing scary, and no getting off bits. Turns out that the Exposure 24 race was on Saturday, and a lot of the signage was still out. That was a 24-hour solo race, so the trail marking was quite detailed, for the dark hours. There was one bit though where it would've been fairly easy to go off an edge if your concentration lapsed at the wrong point. But all in all it is easy to see why they chose Newcastleton for this race (first running of it) - there's not a great deal to go wrong in the dark. It's not a difficult loop. Perhaps I should do that next year - 24 hours on the bike sounds a bit painful, but that's what it's all about ;)

Anyway,, at the back of the loop is the Border Stane (an engraved stone). Here I had to decide what to do. My original plan had been to go all around the red route and then up back the way I had come to Bloody Bush. However, the alternative was to come back here (to the stone) and then turn right and follow the Cross Border Trail like on Saturday back to the turning for Lonesome Pine again. Given that amazing descent would now be a climb, I decided for the latter option. Not that I'm scared of a long climb you understand, just makes it a nicer loop ;)


Newcastleton Border Stane

To get back up to Lonesome Pine, now the fourth time I've done that - it occurred to me that there really is no substitute for knowledge. Every time I've done it it's got easier, mostly I suppose because of knowing what's coming.

At Lonesome Pine, sent a tweet again, exploiting the only bit of signal coverage I've had this weekend, then plummeted off the mountain on the trails past Skyscape and down to Kielder. Those trails on the descent are fantastic, flowing, not scary, fun!
Back at the YHA I cleaned myself up and went out to the pub. Closed! Worried that I'd come unstuck and already hungry, I went back and asked Richard if he was doing dinners tonight. Turns out he was making a vegetarian three bean salad for the lady who's also staying, said there was enough for me too! Lucky, I said I'd eat anything. Ten minutes later, eating a lovely salad - I wouldn't normally choose vegetarian options but maybe I should, the times I ever have I've always found them to be very tasty, often tastier than meat dishes. Anyway.

Bought a few beers from the office and now watching England v Mexico, the last friendly before the World Cup starts on June 11. Full time score, 3-1. Not exactly as convincing as the scoreline suggests...

Today I have almost reached the 1000 mile mark on my 'new' mountain bike. I have now done 998 miles on it, since I got it last October. Tomorrow, therefore, I will pass 1000 miles, somewhere along the Lakeside Way. Today I have also surpassed my monthly record for altitude climbed on bike. So far this month I have climbed 21000m. To put it in context, the previous record month was last month at 20600m, and the previous before that was July 2009 at 15600m. I have also biked more mountain bike miles this month than any other 'since records began', which was August 2007. One may confidently assume this is the same as in my life so far. I am only about 50 miles short of my monthly record for distance as well, which means I will definitely surpass that one too, maybe even tomorrow, with almost a week to spare. God I'm good. The program mytourbook, which I use to record all my rides, is really awesome in the statistics respect, and you know how much I love statistics ;)

Sunday - Lonesome Pine / Bloody Bush, Lakeside Way

Set off after breakfast, to explore the other man-made trails here, the Lonesome Pine and Bloody Bush trails. It's possible to link them up making a good 20 mile loop. Start off on the Lakeside Way - an easy trail that goes all the way around the Reservoir (more later). After a few miles, where the trail goes under the road, the red LP route branches off into Lewisburn Valley. This is a nice trail, much more Andrew friendly than the Deadwater Fell one - just flowing singletrack through trees. Lovely. After some time there is the obligatory fire road, but somehow the fire road in Kielder Forest doesn't feel as bad as that in, say, Whinlatter. Maybe it's the gradients - you know I'm gonna check that later when I recap the weekend, sad case that I am!

The section on the map where the Bloody Bush Start / Finish is marked isn't built yet! That kind of surprised me a bit, but definitely it's supposed to start on a certain corner, and indeed, there are red flags on trees where they clearly plan to build the singletrack, but it ain't there yet. Anyway doesn't really matter, having too much fun to moan about that. And it was sunny - hot - sun cream weather again - two days in a row, wow!


Switchbacks up to northshore at Lonesome Pine

The last bit up to Lonesome Pine, obviously so-called because it's a big pine on it's own on the hillside, is first a steep rocky set of switchbacks, and then, north shore. Lots of it. There is a junction at the top where Bloody Bush goes left and Lonesome Pine goes right. On the board there it even mentions the Kielder 100 from last year which was the first 100 mile singe lap mountain bike race run in this country. The winner took 8 hours something. I won't! Anyhow, the north shore is 2m wide! Apparently, this is because if it's a windy day, it can be so bad that you need 2m to be blown into. But there's a lot of boardwalk up there - more than I've seen anywhere else, so far.


Crossing a felled area towards Bloody Bush

Turning left, the trail goes down off the hillside, and into woods. Again, lovely flowing singletrack, although the Bloody Bush trail does feel a bit more rugged already. Climbing again through the forest, totally disorientated, emerging onto a felled area again. Then a long descent with some avoidable jumps thrown in. There's a chimney visible across the moor, but I can't look at it properly because it would mean taking my eyes off the trail, which wouldn't end well. Getting closer to the 'chimney', I realise that it's the Bloody Bush pillar. On arrival, this is the England-Scotland border, and the pillar is engraved with the costs of passing the toll and the distances to various places. Fascinating!


Bloody Bush toll

I put a toe in Scotland, then carry on with the trail, down a brilliant singletrack / fireroad descent. Eventually I arrive at a point I was at yesterday, where this time I turn left and go back up to the corner where the Bloody Bush trail is supposed to start, and back up to Lonesome Pine. This time turn right, and drop down fast on north shore, rocky trail and flowing stuff through trees.
Passed by Skyscape, some kind of viewing experience for the dark night skies here in this remote area of the UK. Then some awesome singletrack descending on rocky trail down a valley, and into the lower forest. Crossing a few footpaths now as we near civilization, and the Lonesome Pine trail dumps you out at The Bike Place, bike shop.

Altogether, fantastic XC trails.

Getting hungry now, decided to ride to Leaplish to The Boat Inn for lunch. That was good - an outside table overlooking Kielder Water, watching boats, pint of beer, pint of coke, burger and wedges with chilli mayo.

What to do now? Well, I had thought to go back to Kielder and follow the 2009 Kielder 100 route, but in the end I went round the whole reservoir on the Lakeside Way. On the way, crossed over the dam - wide! - and then about 10 miles back along the north shore of the reservoir to home.


On the Lakeside Way, south shore.

Getting back to base a realised that my bottom was quite sore! Some chafed skin near the top of my right leg. Not good. Stuck some savlon on it and hope for the best I guess - still 2 days cycling to go! I suppose part of this weekend was about seeing how my body copes with four days of sustained cycling effort on this bike. I'm finding out :) Anyway, it doesn't feel too bad, should be ok, but better safe than sorry.

Dinner tonight was in the Angler's Arms, a lovely roast lamb plate - big! - with mashed potato, cabbage, carrots, turnip, peas and a Yorkshire pudding. Fab.

Saturday - Carlisle - Kielder, Deadwater Trails

Up early, 0630. Washed bike. Packed bag. Train at 0901 from New Mills Central. Met Ciska at Piccadilly for a coffee, and bought some travel sized toiletries from Boots, good for my small rucksack. Train out of Manchester at 1016. The usual nonsense trying to get on the front carriage. A large group with a wheelchair got on, then got off again when the station guard realised they couldn't change platforms at Oxford Road. Hmmm. Anyway, meant I could get on easily with my bike.

Standing and messing about moving the bike until Lancaster! Then the train was almost empty, across the Lakes. Some funny girls came to use the toilet - three of them - and played pranks with the door, first repeatedly opening the door while their friend was inside, before she had time to lock it, then, funnier, repeatedly closing the door while another friend was trying to open it! Well, you had to be there. It was the most eventful part of the journey - apart from the scenery which was beautiful, especially in the glorious sunshine.

Got off at Carlisle, of course, and set myself up outside the station in the shadow of the Citadel. Got on NCN route 7 northbound, passing by Carlisle Castle. It's English Heritage - had forgotten that. There must be an outside chance that I will visit it on Tuesday, if I have time and if there is somewhere good to lock my bike up.

A few miles outside the city I rang Alison to wish Aimee a happy birthday - apparently they both (ie. Andrew too) love the Gruffalo colouring pencils I bought, but they're Aimee's of course. Hope that doesn't cause too many problems!

After some miles, I ended up on NCN route 10, the Reiver's Way. My carefully planned route to stay on country roads with little traffic worked brilliantly. I only saw one car in 25 miles, or thereabouts (only a slight exaggeration, I assure you). The downside of this route was that it didn't pass anything like a pub or cafe, which by the end I could have definitely done with. Anyway, after passing Bewcastle, the miles passed by until I arrived at Kershope Bridge and the Scottish Border.


Kershope Bridge, Scottish Border

Here I joined the Cross Border Trail, basically forest road which follows the border and Kershope Burn (or I suppose, follows Kershope Burn as does the border). Starting on the English side, but soon crossing over into Scotland, a long, steady, gradual climb ensued, but in glorious hot sun. Thirsty, I was running out of water. No chance to refuel, I just had to keep on going ;)
At the waymarked point, I left the fireroad and crossed back into England. Some singletrack through a felled area, then back on fireroad. Ultimately it joined up with the trail markers from the Kielder routes, but I kept following the Cross Border signposts, which dumped me out finally on the road, which I followed for the final few miles into Kielder Castle.

Found the YHA no problem (there's not much in Kielder!) and got my key. I'm the only one in the dorm tonight, perfect! Decided to have dinner in the hostel tonight - soup, tuna pasta salad, and fruit salad. Very tasty :)

Excited about the prospect of MTB trails, I went out straight after dinner to do Deadwater Trails, the man-made route up Deadwater Fell. I reckoned I had enough daylight left to do the 10 mile loop, and so it proved. The climb up onto the fell is quite long and drawn out, but with the failing light of the wonderful day, the views back down the valley to Kielder were impressive.


View from the top of Deadwater Fell, looking north

Now then - Deadwater Trails is a red route. But, parts of it are very difficult. I don't like scary downhill stuff, and I think this trail is black in places. A wuss, I am, but hey - I've done a lot of these kinds of trails, and I reckon this is, in places, technically harder than all of the other red routes I've done. It's just not my thing I guess. Even though I know they must be rideable because they're man-made, I can't do it. Fear, and my hardtail XC optimised bike conspire against me! So I won't be going back and doing the black section of this trail, not on this bike ;)

Got back to the hostel, found no one around to give me the bike shed key, so, as I'm on my own, took my bike upstairs to bed.

The Lake District Day 3 - Awesome Skiddaw Loop

And awesome weather! We've been really lucky - it has rained, sometimes heavily, but only while we were asleep! This being the last day, I decided it was time to do a 'proper' ride. It would be a shame to not have done a single route out of my Lake District Mountain Biking book, so I chose to do the Skiddaw Loop. Something like 30 miles. I can say, without risk of exaggeration, that this was one of the best rides I have ever done on my bike! Maybe the best. Everything was perfect - the weather, the scenery, the tracks, the descents, climbs, distance, everything! Of course, the weather could have totally ruined it, but it was lovely - hot enough for short sleeves, but not hot enough to be uncomfortable.

Started off going up the track we came down on Saturday, but this time continued beyond the head of the dale to Skiddaw House. For some reason I had forgotten that this was a YHA - must be great staying there. There is a true wilderness feeling up there. In each direction you look, you can't see anything like a building or a road.

Turned right at Skiddaw House, sublime singletrack and sketchy, rocky in places track down Mosedale. Saw a walker, probably had stayed at the YHA. Just great biking in great conditions.


Right down this dale, miles of brilliant mountain biking

Turned left on the road in Mosedale, then looking out for a track to the left after a few miles. Needn't have worried, it was obvious to find, just before a cattle grid, like the book said! Good track then, climbing up past old mines. The descent to Fell Side was clear. A bit more road and then picked up the Cumbria Way, another great track, and an absolutely superb grassy descent!


Descend, fast, on grass

More road, before the final piece of amazement - the path up past Dash Falls back to Skiddaw House. Tough climb in places, but totally doable - just the right sort of difficult. And super spectacular views. I'm going to run out of superlatives soon.


That's where we're going, up!


Looking back down the track to Dash Falls

From Skiddaw House, after a brief pause, I blasted it back to Threlkeld down the same path.


Skiddaw Loop, awesome

Got to be some of the best biking I've ever done.

The Lake District Day 2 - Old Coach Road

Today for my bike ride I wasn't sure whether to go north to do some bridleways around Skiddaw, or south to check out the Old Coach Road. I decided on the latter. Again, I wasn't really in the mood for a major outing, just exercise in beautiful surroundings. Turns out the Old Coach Road is part of the National Cycle Network Coast to Coast (NCN C2C) route, off-road option. It's brilliant. The climbing is on loose rock, which is always tricky, especially the way my bike is set up, but it was all doable. In fact it was so good that when I got to the end of it, I just turned around and did it in reverse. I saw one other person on a bike, and a couple of walkers, with dogs. I did have a vague plan to take the bridleway up Matterdale Common towards Great Dodd, but again, I'll leave that for another time.


The Old Coach Road

After that, went to Keswick again to get a few things - meths for my spirit burner, some bacon for tomorrow's breakfast, bread and snacks. I impulse purchased a wind up lantern in the outdoor shop. That's cool - very light, doesn't need batteries, and very bright. Apparently one minute of cranking gives 25 minutes of light. Perfect for backpacking. On the way to Keswick we stopped off at Castlerigg Stone Circle. I must've cycled right past it last year and didn't notice! Anyway, it's kind of amazing, given its setting and everything.


Castlerigg Stone Circle - awesome location!

Then we went into Borrowdale to do a walk. Stopped at Roshthwaite and walked a 5 mile loop towards Seatoller and back along the Allerdale Ramble path and around Castle Crag.


Rosthwaite from the Allerdale Ramble path

Later we went to the Coledale Inn for dinner - that's a really nice place. One day I will stay there and see what it's like. I ate there several times last year when I did the Whinlatter Altura race.

The Lake District Day 1 - Lonscale Fell

Camping! With Ciska. We drove up this morning and set up camp near Threlkeld. Burns Farm campsite - just what you need - not fancy, but clean and well run. Had a momentary forgetful episode about putting the tent up. I think it's only about the 6th time I've pitched it, and then not since last September, so I was confused to start with. But it got sorted out in the end.


Burns Farm campsite, Blencathra view.

First off we went to Keswick to get some supplies and something to eat - turned out to be at the Lakeland Pedlar, Wholefood Cafe - vegetarian, but that's ok I don't need to eat meat with every meal. Sort of. Had vegetarian chilli - very nice actually. Big bits of carrot and a lovely salad on the side with all the sorts of things I never eat but are really quite tasty.

Then it was back to the camp and set up for bikey bikey and runny runny. We decided to tackle Skiddaw - perhaps not the gentlest introduction! We made it up the steepest initial bit of the path - actually I was quite impressed with how far I got before I inevitably lost control and traction and had to put my foot down. When Ciska arrived at the same point, we both decided we'd had enough of that path! It's damned steep. And we weren't out to prove anything to ourselves today, so we took the path around Lonscale Fell instead. That was much better, although the exposure at one point was quite frightening. On the premise that where you look you go, I had to get off and walk that bit! Then the track became very technical as we descended to the head of the valley. The track on the east side that leads back to Threlkeld was really good riding. Wide, undulating, rocky in places, but not too challenging. On this occasion, just what I wanted. Ciska said the surface was a bit too hard for her feet.


See that zig zag path? It looks easy from here, but it's not!

We met back at the camp and then got ready to go for dinner, which would have been in the Horse and Farrier, but it was full, so we went to the Salutation Inn instead. They're owned by the same people anyway. After we looked at the adult menu instead of the children's one, we ordered and ate. Lekker! Back to the tent for a sleep.


Lonscale Fell. The Lake District makes it hard to take a bad photo, especially with weather like this!

Lakeland

This weekend I'm off to the Lake District. Camping in Threlkeld, taking mountain bike, hoping to do some great trails. Weather forecast is for sunny intervals tomorrow and monday, but heavy rain on sunday. Well, they never get it right for the Lakes, so it could be anything. Last time we went it was mizzle (mist + drizzle) all week. Fingers crossed.

Hope to get up Skiddaw (bike, run or walk), and maybe up Great Dodd on bike via an old track I see on the map. Maybe take in Whinlatter forest as well. Think there's a nice pub in Threlkeld, and the camp site (Burns Farm) looks good. Excited!

Taking Feet in the Clouds with me too, hoping to get suitably inspired to get back fell running. One day I'll do that Bob Graham Round, mark my words :) I could probably walk it, and run in between the peaks, in less than 24 hours. Well, maybe. Shame there isn't really an equivalent to that challenge for mountain bikers. Hmmm. Maybe someone can invent one! To be a serious challenge it'd have to be on a par with BGR in terms of time. So it should be doable inside 24 hours, but not without some serious thought and planning and training. Something like a distance between 150 and 200 miles on a mountain bike will sort you out good and proper. Thoughts on locations and routes?

Forest of Bowland

For the Bank Holiday weekend just gone by I decided to go and explore a bit of the Forest of Bowland, somewhere I'd heard of but never been. I think this is because it lies between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, and so always went to one or the other, and missed it! Needless to say, it's beautiful - remote moorland, quiet country lanes - perfect cycling country. There aren't many off road tracks, but the ones there are are brilliant, as we'll see below.

I stayed 2 nights in the Slaidburn YHA. This was a good choice - I mean, you get what you expect, but everyone is quite friendly and they are still much cheaper than a B&B or hotel. This YHA used to be a pub - and Slaidburn means "slaughter by the river" - just so you know.


Slaidburn YHA

The first day, Saturday, I took the train from home to Preston for the princely sum of 14.50 GBP return. I am always slightly nervous about going on the train with my bike, mainly because I'm always worried that there won't be room to fit in. The Transpennine Express from Piccadilly to Preston was full to busting - but! I know a trick on those trains. You go to the First Class carriage at the front! No one ever goes there because they assume it's all First Class, but it's not! You can stay in the (quite large) area near the toilet, where there are about 6 seats and plenty of space for a bike. You have to stay with it, but I'd do that anyway and for 47 minutes it's not too bad.

So anyway, I arrived at Preston and set up my gadgets and off we go! I took National Cycle Network route 6 north out of Preston. That was really well signposted - I didn't have to think which way to go once. The Ranger system (of which I am part of course) must be working well I think. The route near to Goosnargh has obviously changed since my OS map has it going through the grounds of a hospital, but now it is clearly impossible to do so and the current OS maps like on bing.co.uk show the actual route going around on the road. Just north of Goosnargh I diverted off the NCN which continues to Lancaster, and headed via country lanes to Chipping, where I stopped in The Sun Inn for food - bangers and mash in fact, and a pint of Black Sheep.

After Chipping, my route took me off road, turning north at Leagram Hall Farm and proceeded via the North Lancashire Bridleway to join a good track at Stanley. A road mile further on and another left turn took me via a good track to a bridleway leading through Lower Fence Wood. This was a fun bit of singletrack through the trees, subsequently over open moorland and then a fantastic grass descent to Hareden.


Superb grass descent from Mellor Knoll to Hareden farm

Next I followed the road to Dunsop Bridge, but decided to leave Dunsop Fell for tomorrow. Continued to Newton, turned left and went up a climb to New Biggin, getting good views of Beatrix Fell, Burn Fell and Dunsop Fell. Finally, the road drops down sharply into Slaidburn.

Upon arriving, found the YHA and the local pub, Hark to Bounty, no problem. Slaidburn isn't a big place, and they are next door to each other. It was four o'clock but the YHA was not open yet. Another cyclist, Steve, had arrived. He was obviously doing a big ride because his bike was covered in panniers! Turns out he was on the LEJOG, day 7. He'd come from Ellesmere that day. Then a girl arrived on a full-suss mountain bike, with a big rucksack. She was going to go walking and had biked in from the train at Clitheroe. Anyway, 5 o'clock came around and the warden arrived and let us in. I had a shower, and then went across the road to the pub to look at my map and so on.


Slaidburn, a quaint village on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border

On Sunday I went and did a big ride over Salter Fell (great track) and looped around quiet lanes to the road that goes through the Trough Of Bowland. The track across the fell is really brilliant - I didn't see anyone else up there except for sheep and two motorcyclists (probably legal as it's an 'other route with public access'). The track was quite loose and rocky in some places making some tricky climbs, but most of it was lovely offroad moorland track. Once back onto road, some farm gates had dead moles hanging from the nearby fences! I'm not sure how that is supposed to deter the creatures (if indeed it is), since they can't see anyway. But hey! Interesting local custom? Competition between farmers? You decide.


Fabulous track over high moors of Salter Fell

The road through the Trough of Bowland is great, especially in the north-south direction I took it in. A steep initial climb, followed by some rolling hills, followed by a gradual climb gets you to the top of an awesome and steep road descent through the Trough proper. Didn't (couldn't bring myself to) stop and take a picture! At the bottom was a roadside cafe where I got a cheeseburger (0% meat? only kidding - it was lovely) and a mug of coffee.

At Dunsop Bridge I took the bridleway that I passed on Saturday. That went up a farm road to Whitendale where the path turned steeply up Dunsop Fell. A fair amount of that was unrideable (for me, at least), so it was 20 minutes of hikey-bikey. Not my favourite thing. But then, the descent back down to the road was mostly grassy and finally some great singletrack requiring concentration. The last bit was farm field agricultural bog rubbish, but only for a couple of hundred metres or so. In total, that route was about 38 miles.


Descending off Dunsop Fell - Stocks reservoir and Gisburn Forest in the distance

I got back about 14:45 and locked the bike up, went for some chips in the pub, then sorted my stuff out to go back out to Gisburn Forest and do the trails there. I didn't want to hump my bag around so I only took the minimum stuff. The trails were very good - some tricky rocky bits, but some nice singletrack through trees and across forestry land. Not too much fireroad :) At the black Whelpstone Crag bit (of YouTube fame) I ran into a couple of guys. One of them was going to do the steep bit - he wasn't wearing a helmet - nuts! Anyway, shortly after I caught them up again and they asked if I wanted to go around with them. I did for a bit, but then I was getting a bit tired since I'd already done about 50 miles at that point! So I called it a day near the reservoir and roaded it back to Slaidburn.


Boardwalk in Gisburn Forest

Had a nice evening looking at maps and reading my book, had a lovely lasagne in the Hark to Bounty, then Vicky (walking girl) came in and we stayed there until nearly midnight! She was very nice - it is good to run into people at random like that and get on with them :)

On the Monday I left the hostel after sorting everything out, and made my way back to Preston on a vaguely circuitous route via Waddington - where I stopped for coffee and coffee cake, and saw a bit of the Scarecrow Festival - Birdy Brow (tough long road climb) - and Ribchester, where I saw the church and the Roman Museum. It might be good to go in there one day. A bridleway (the Ribble Way?) took me along the river to a road leading to Longridge - then joined up with NCN 6 again to get me back into the centre of Preston.

Direct train to Hazel Grove meant that I decided to bike back from there. Almost rained on me, but held off. Home! Great weeked, total of 131.5 miles, 6603 m of ascent, 12 hours 33 minutes moving time in the saddle. Brilliant. Also, the weather was pretty good - I could see the views all the time, it didn't rain, and it wasn't too windy!