Epic Road ride this Saturday

Epic through the Howgills and Yorkshire Dales planned for Saturday - no going back as have just bought the train tickets !
One way train Preston to Oxenholme, the on the bikes head east over Howgills, pick up Swaledale then down Ribblesdale to Settle and back home via Forest of Bowland. It sounds so easy just typing it - update on how it went will be here by Sunday !

Planned route is here:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/gb/kendal/118128455135095302

Gisburn Forest MTB Trails - Sunday 26th September

Finally managed to get another off-road training session in. Dave (brother-in-law) and myself headed off to Gisburn Forest early on. I'd heard that there had been some significant upgrading and loads of technical red graded singletrack put in since I last visited many years ago but I was woefully unprepared for how much this has developed into a fantastic trail

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb-20090910-New-Graded-Trails-at-Gisburn-Forest-0

Really long boardwalk section, some really rocky ascents and descents plus the awesome "hully gully" rollercoaster section with 25 ft high berms. Advice given from some lads we met up there - "it may not feel like the right thing to do, but just go as fast as you can" (down hully gulley)

All I can say now is that my wrists ache !

Wet Wet Wet

Nothing to do with Marty Pellow, just the state of the weather yesterday (Sunday 19th) was absolutely shocking! I planned to do another 40-50 miles on the road bike but the weather was too nasty even for me. My tennis session in the evening was cancelled but did go out for a short run instead!

Hilly 50 miles

Mark and I headed up the same route I did last Saturday - Quernmore, Trough, Chipping. Cobbled Corner cafe much quieter this weekend so has a most satisfactory coffee and buttered teacake - reward after 2500ft of climbing and 50 miles !

The photo is of my bike at the top of Westfield Towers after a gruesome climb - the views are worth it though, you can see a huge swathe of the Lancashire coastline from up here, including Blackpool Tower in the distance probably about 25 miles away!

Cumulative miles on road 527 since mid-June. Road target (500 miles) achieved! Just need to get out on the MTB a bit now.

Reality check - Nepal Visa has now arrived !

Just over 6 weeks to go and I received my passport back with Nepal visa.

Planning a couple of rides this weekend!

11th September - ride out to watch Tour of Britain

Colin and I set off to watch the 1st Stage of the Tour of Britain pass through on of our regular spots over the Trough of Bowland. Decided to do a chunk of the route in reverse so headed north on the quiet roads to Quernmore (near Lancaster) then inland onto the proper hilly stuff.

Weather was interesting to say the least, but we made it to the top of the Trough in good time.

Completely by chance ended up standing by Stuart who runs a bike guiding center I used a couple of years ago: http://www.cycle-adventure.co.uk/ you can see him and his strategically placed Landrover in one of the pictures (trying to get some free advertising maybe?)

Also spoke to the author of "100 Greatest Climbing Rides" Simon Warren who was up at the top promoting his book (and, yes, the Trough is one of the 100!) he's the guy with the "100" sign, strangely enough.

http://road.cc/content/news/17803-just-100-greatest-cycling-climbs

Saw the pro guys fly through - a little bit quicker than we do, then it was heading off for the rest of the ride. Got drenched 10 minutes from home, but who cares? Warm shower followed!

Cum miles 487.

8th September - Fantastic evening training ride

Managed to get a couple of hours "window" so decided to get back in the saddle after work. Went on the retro Peugeot (circa 27 years old) just to make it a bit harder.

Decided on Beacon Fell but took slightly convoluted route there exploring some roads and lanes I've never been down - it was a beautiful evening clear and sunny around 20 degrees so I stopped a few times and took some pics !

25 miles - really enjoyable !

Cum road miles 437 since mid June. Couple of off-road trips also planned to get ready for Nepal

Holiday over - back into training !

Just had a relaxing week and a half doing not much activity whilst on holiday - unless Crazy Golf counts !

Got back to an email from Moira at Computer Aid informing us it is now less than 10 weeks away - must get back into training.

Dipped out of a bike ride yesterday as "catching up" with stuff but did manage an hour of tennis last night. Ached this morning!