Bumper half term week off!

I was lucky enough to have the week off for our schools half term holiday and as the kids didn't need me much I decided to get some good miles in. 

My first ride was on Monday and I decided to go with a bit of a classic. I took a direct route to Market Harborough and then joined the Brampton Valley Way. Unlike the day before I'd remembered my lights so the tunnels would be no problem.

The direct route for me took me through the village of Braybrooke, on the Northants/Leicestershire border. I've always been amused by the trickle of a stream they grandly name the River Jordan. Those awful brown signs are inappropriate at the best of times. There's another brown sign in the south of the county which proudly announces us as the 'Rose of the Shires!' It is a pretty place away from the towns, why why why the brown signs????

Onto the Brampton Valley Way which runs on a disused train line from Market Harborough to Northampton. I grew up in sight of the Northampton end and remember when the odd train still ran on the track. These days the BVW makes a nice direct cycling route to my parents house.

Without doubt the tunnels at Great Oxendon and Kelmarsh are the highlight of this route. I can't ride them without lights, despite being able to see the light at the other end of the tunnel. I'm not scared of the dark, I just get disorientated when I can't see my front wheel!

That's a better sign. It's one fo the many National Cycleway markers. I left the BVW at Merry Tom Lane which goes up into Brixworth. It's a fun downhill or a good training climb. I might use Merry Tom Lane a bit more as I get ready for the Friday Night Summer Series.

From there I went round one side of Pitsford Water. I love this place. I've cycled it many times, walked round it, ran round it, sailed on it, fished on it and sledged down the slope from the original car park. When my mates and I started driving we used to have Friday night camp outs with a barbecue and a few beers here too. 

My ride name was 'Chasing the Sun.' That was literally the case as the Sun set on a crisp but dry day.

The next couple of days weren't as good weather wise so I was limited to dog walks as I waited for the dry days to come back.

I still had a good time with my super furry animals.

Thursday was another nice dry day and I decided to leave the MTB at home to venture out on my Giant Propel. Normally this bike stays under wraps until at least Easter but my winter bike was in the shop. I have to keep some of the bikes in the shed and this led to a very stuck seat post. I'd tried many things to shift but had to concede and I took it into C&D Cycles for Andy to have a go. I have to report that my good friend and top bike mechanic has indeed freed the troublesome seat post. This is very good news because I think it will be a good fit for my son Sam very soon. I was hoping for a couple of rides with SuperSam over the half term but he had bigger fish to fry including going to work with his brother for a couple of days.

I only did a little 20 mile loop using one of my favourite training routes. This one will feature heavily as a before work ride when the mornings get some good light. I've learned my lesson the hard way about trying to do this too early in the year as I've broken a wheel on a pothole in the dark and one one frosty morning took a tumble and ruined a rear derailleur. 

Once again my ride took me through the picture postcard villages we have around here with red phone boxes, impressive churches, thatched cottages and an abundance of Northamptonshire Old Red Sandstone.

Friday was not being my friend as we had some family issues to attend to. I had a good walk with the dogs and my wife Lee at east Carlton Park much later than we had intended. we also had an extra dog with us. Bruce our Black Lab had his first ever swim in the lake, once he'd worked out that swimming was just running with your legs off the ground!

We were home by 2pm so I decided I did still have time to ride afterall. I zipped around as quick as possible to get over to Wakerley Woods where one of our very few dedicated bike trails, The Scar Tree Trail, is a good place to test your skills. It's also a good place to work on the fitness as 'Cardiac Hill,' is very well named!

I gave myself a break from riding on Saturday as it was another dog walk with Mrs Lindsley in the morning and more swimming for Bruce. In the afternoon it was a home match for Northampton Saints who just managed to squeeze past bottom club London Irish. It's been a frustrating year following our great old Rugby Club! We'd got used to being a top team for a few years and in the wise words of James: "If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor!"

Having questioned my sanity last week it will come as no surprise that once again it was time for a Sunday mud fest. I wasn't sure about going really, there was a good cricket match on the telly, it was cold and foggy out and did I really want to exhaust myself in the mud again? The ride to C&D Cycles to meet Andy and Josh Brown plus Chris B was all I needed to sort out my Sunday morning melancholy. It's weird how this affects me at times. I love cycling, why would I ever want to avoid it? I know if I had stayed home I would have been disappointed later.

This route was the reverse of last Sunday but without me getting bits wrong and Andy Brown is completely right. It's a much nicer ride this way around!

This selfie early into the ride shows how misty it was. We saw a few other groups out, mostly road riders and waved a cheery hello to the KCC social ride gathering in the bus shelter at Sainsbury's. Josh made sure he put on a good show by zooming past.

I'm not sure why someone has coloured in this bend marker but hey it's Saints colours! We were having a really nice ride as we'd passed through Rushton and made our way to Desborough. Chris was on a new steed which shows what great bargains are to be had if you go for the currently unfashionable 26" wheels. Having owned 26, 29 and now 27.5 I have to say my jury is currently out. My favourite MTB ever remains my 26" wheeled, no front suspension Orange P7. However my current MTB, which is way less expensive possibly only because of the brand, is very good too! That's the other thing on bargains. Some big or well known brand bikes are better. Not all of them though. On that...I really like Andy Brown's Forme Calver.

There goes our club mountain goat on that lovely CX bike.

In parts, some of us had to push....

Not all of us though!!!

Here's Chris's new bike. Sunn had quite a reputation in the MTB world. The history makes good reading here!

After a spin down the Brampton Valley Way we made our way back to Lamport and across the fields via Faxton to Mill Lane, still my favourite cycling road. I left the others and made my way home from here by road via Orton. I stopped at the church because there's a geocache there which keeps evading me. Amazingly on this occasion I found it in seconds. It was also a good excuse to take a picture of my bike in front of yet another impressive church.

Look at the state of the filthy beast!

Ten minutes later it was all shiny and I made sure the chain had plenty of lube!

Right then. That's a great week of cycling and a really big chunk of my #NHS1000miles completed. Back to work tomorrow and the rollers in the mornings. I can't complain though. My weight is going in the right direction and I'm feeling fitter.

Time to make Sunday dinner!

Happy Pedalling!!!

Winter miles = Summer Smiles...we hope!!!

Riding at this time of year is both encouraging and frustrating in equal measure. Off road riding at this time of year is both bonkers and a lot of fun! Mother nature is teasing us with Spring. The snowdrops are out, lambs are in the fields and the light is improving. However bitter winds, snow flurries and intense mud are also a strong feature.

Today, Marcus, Andy P and I met for just one of those rides. Incredibly kindly Andy planned a route which lent itself to my personal schedule of needing to be back for lunch at 12.30. More on that later. That route was one of Andy Brown's creations and that may well have been our first error. Sorry, no, THAT was our first error. Mr Brown is not at fault here. Not even one jot at fault. The culprit is in fact Garmin, with our lack of local knowledge playing a major supporting role.

Very early into this ride we were lost! We left Kettering and tried to pick our route around the so far undeveloped Cransley Park and frankly it was a shambles. Andy P was doing a sterling job trying to make sense of his Garmin and Marcus and I were clueless in our ability to help! We traversed down a bank onto what felt like the route. Then from a perfectly good trail we liked the look of a gate in front of what most certainly was a disused railway line. We soldiered on through that impassable trail to a bridge that only a complete fool would cross before common sense got the better of us and we dropped back down the embankment to inadvertently rediscover the route! In the process we invented the new sport of bike-a-teering.

Now if you think that was bad take a look at the magnificent picture at the top of the page. We did not ride for very long across this field. In fact the mud clogged us up so much we couldn't even walk our bikes. We had to carry them! The field directly followed the bridge.

This is the dodgy bridge. The bridleway goes under it. Traversing down the side of the bridge is optional!

Why is Marcus pushing his bike?? Well it's because the mud on some of the bridleways is just flipping impossible! To get here was at times really nice. We made our way from Cransley, over to Mawsley, and then via Mill Lane to the abandoned village of Faxton (history here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faxton, Marcus you were right, it was a plague village!)

That looks rideable doesn't it? Nope, nope it wasn't. Andy P had the most joy but this was a boggy surface which chucked up cloggy mud into our wheels. At times we questioned our sanity and then decided we knew what we were getting into. Despite the suffering we all considered the mud bashing to be fun!

We crossed more muddy fields into that bitter head wind before finally popping out onto road at Lamport. It was some relief. After an hour of riding we had covered 7 miles! In this company I have easily travelled three times as far in the same time. From there we made our way down to the Brampton Valley Way. I have never been so pleased to see that familiar old track with it's hard packed surface. A couple of miles down the track we could see the black rubber of our tyres again as the mud flew off in all directions

As we approached the Kelmarsh Tunnel I decided it would be wise to peel off and head up to Harrington via the bridleway that goes over the tunnel. It wasn't wise. It was in fact quite foolish. On a day when I thought it couldn't get more muddy...IT GOT MORE MUDDY!!! I wish I had stayed with Andy and Marcus, both for the company and the better riding surface!

Once back on tarmac I made my way to Harrington via as many road puddles as possible in a futile attempt to clear the mud. The village was quite beautiful with snowdrops, views across the valley and picture postcard features.

I arrived home with 40 minutes to spare before our family lunch date. Lee took her traditional Sunday picture of filth. She thought the mud on my legs camouflaged me against the paving slabs. This is the third week running I have arrived home in this state and frankly it points to a failure to learn! I'm also convinced that given the chance I will jump at the chance to do it again next Sunday!

First order of the day was to hose the bike down and I did my shoes and legs at the same time. I prefer to ride in shorts but at this time of the year I may review that option. The scratches on my legs are the result of trying to ride on the last dry bits of bridleway as close to the hedge as possible!

My reward for all this effort was lunch at the best restaurant I know, the Thai Garden in Rothwell. We were spending the money we were given by Lee's cousin for looking after their dog for four weeks. So not only was it a great meal we also felt like we were dining for free! The diet may have been wrecked today but who cares? Back to clean eating tomorrow!!!

So that's today...what else has gone on this week? Well SuperSam and I continue to train before work/school as many mornings as possible. I'm really proud of his efforts. He drags himself out of bed and struggles to get going and then he really really goes for it. 

Work has got in the way of some of my training this week. On Wednesday I had a workshop  attend in Reading. On Friday I was interviewed live on Radio Northampton about Children's Mental Health as part of Northamptonshire Mental Health Day. It was a very worthy day with the main campaign coming from the Talk Out Loud project http://www.talkoutloud.info/

I'm lucky enough to have the half term week off. For now it's time to relax in front of the fire! I suspect there will be many more cycling adventures over the next few days!

Happy Pedalling

More mud, less cramp, another great ride!

I need to bang this blog out quick, Italy v England in the 6 nations is on, I need to do the ironing and my good friend Malcolm is pestering me by text about all things rugby!

So four of us met up at C&D Cycles this morning for another off road mud fest. Our happy band was Andy Brown and his son Josh, Chris B and me! I'm not sure why numbers were down this week. Perhaps people were still shattered from the week before. I know my legs were questioning 'why are we doing this again?' as I made my ride into Kettering.

This Chris B out sprinting Josh on a hill...at least that's what this picture shows...

In his promotion of this ride Andy had stated that the mud wouldn't be as bad this week. Well at this stage Andy I was struggling to tell the difference. However it was a lot more fun to ride down the hill from Warkton Lane than it had been the week before with my legs cramping and the wheel coming off!

Slightly more made up than above...my clumsiness persists?

Andy took the picture

Only saddos take pictures of their bike

Erm...except MTB, pics of your MTB are cool...

The difference this week is that not long after these pictures were taken we were on the trails around Stanwick Lakes. It was nice to be on a firmer surface and we made good time dodging the dog walkers and the joggers. We popped out of those trails in the 'hell on earth,' that is Rushden Lakes. I think it's great that Northants has a decent shopping resource given that our towns are diabolical and Milton Keynes was getting all our money but...like Titanic and the X-Factor I plan to never see the thing properly!

Rushden Lakes Bridge, Like Sydney Harbour or The Golden Gate except it's in Rushden and a bit pants!

Boys will be boys

bumpity bumpity bump

Good skills

No Josh's were harmed during this ride

The bridge was a lot of fun. I avoided the step challenge on the grounds that I didn't want to explain a mishap to Mrs Lindsley. I'm months away from that sort of grace...further injuries may result in my bikes being melted down.

It was back to the roads for a bit after this. I thought we might go to Finedon but in fact we headed into Wellingborough and then across fields to Burton Latimer. It was all new to me so thanks to Andy for the route.

The mud wasn't done though as we headed back towards Cranford and then down a lane which took us back to my nemesis from last week. I was still the slowest by far but this week I made it back up that muddy hill and into Kettering on Warkton Lane.

After a brief piece of separation where Chris and I failed to follow Andy and Josh we all headed home. I did say to Chris that I would head home by the shortest route but I just couldn't resist the track from Glendon to Rushton. I was rewarded for my efforts with some low flying kites and the Llamas at Rushton.

Okay that's it this week.

Happy Pedalling

The long road to recovery!

I haven't written a blog since July! It's not the only thing I haven't done since then and today is my first day of putting things right.

2017 really was a mixed bag of incredibly good and incredibly bad things. Frankly I'm glad it's over and I'm hoping that 2018 will be a lot less challenging. Some of the bad things were wrapped up in good things. For example I discovered I really like the Friday Night Summer Series MTB races, however one of those races chucked me off my bike and resulted in a tiny bone fracture an 12 weeks in a cast. 

That's an x-ray of my left wrist. If you look on the right side (left if any doctors are looking!) you will see are black line going through my scaphoid. It's a tiny troublesome bone. I still get a dull ache from it now but it's not stopping me. 

I wish I could say the same for my shoulder though. 12 weeks in a cast have wrecked my flexibility and strength. I'm having physio but it's going to take a few months to correct. For cycling it's not too bad but I struggle to make left turn signals!

Whilst I had my cast on I won some American classics wheels. They finish my road bike nicely. I also got some bonus money which added to money my family gave me for my birthday, meant I could buy that beautiful new MTB. See it's a bit ying and yang and I haven't even started really!

My new MTB has allowed me to give SuperSam (pictured above,) the focus that served me so well. He's very pleased with it. We continue to enjoy riding together and he's even started turbo training whilst I'm on the rollers in the morning.

More good things have happened. Our new black Labrador, Bruce, really is filling his predecessors boots better than we could ever imagined. Ben will always be our first family dog and he is still the best dog I ever met, but Bruce, he's special too! It's hard work though with a new puppy. You get back what you put in so it's worth the effort!  

As a family we have had a lot to deal with. Lots of family members have been very ill. That despicable disease cancer has been very prominent. Then Niamh had a week on a children's ward after her appendix was removed. Secondary school for Niamh and Sam is also not a bundle of laughs! The opposite of that is our oldest son Joe is doing well with his sports coaching apprenticeship.

In the middle of all of that we had our second fantastic month in Australia. We're very lucky to be able to do that. I'm aware it's beyond the budget of many or that their work would never allow the time off. If you're wondering, we really really enjoyed swimming with dolphins!

Work has also been a challenge. Mostly in a good way! My promotion has stepped me up to a level I really enjoy but you really know you've stepped up! I have to be careful with my energy levels and MORE cycling is definitely the answer. Lee and I both did post graduate courses at Reading University. This was more pressure. I enjoyed my course and got a lot out of it. Lee enjoyed the first part but not the second so her experience wasn't as good. In addition she was away from home most weeks for a few days. It was hard!

All that leads us to today! I've been gradually getting back into cycling. As per usual my weight is an issue and I'm back on myfitnesspal with renewed determination. At Christmas I topped 15st again. That's way too heavy. I'm hoping to be at 13st for the kick off of this year's FNSS. I haven't been out much but I have done a lot of work on the rollers. That's good for a lot of things but it doesn't do the whole job. I'd been considering a return to C&D Cycles CC for a few weeks but kept finding excuses. The excuses stopped today!

I arrived at C&D Cycles at 08:30 this morning for an off road adventure on a route created by Andy Pendred. When I arrived Andy was the only one there but we were then joined by Marcus, Mark, Bairdy, Ken, Andy Brown and Graham. A lovely group of great people to ride with. They welcomed me as if I'd never been away and then, in the time honoured fashion of the C&D brothers, the piss taking began!

First order of the day was to question the road pedals on Bairdy's tiny wheeled retro Scott.

Then it was noted that Ken doesn't discriminate, all of his bikes are filthy!

Graham quickly removed his single glove but mate those shorts! Andy I think we captured you mid snigger!!!

Things started well as we headed through Prologis Park and down the track to Rushton. We had some tarmac time over to Newton and then the first hint of things to come. Any time we crossed a field it was really claggy. The mud seemed to double the weight of our wheels and slowed our progress. It was quite a heavy grind.

Llamas or Alpacas, I'm not sure which

Memories of a school field trip in 1986!

For reasons best known to us, we thought Geddington Chase would be a good idea. Up to a point it was! This tree didn't help but it was nothing compared to the boggy bits. Andy Brown had a tubeless fail and had to stop to put a tube in. I really like tubeless but when it fails it is a complete pain!!!

Here's Bairdy who was posing for his picture on #Ihatemountainbikes. He did way better than me today though so I need to keep quiet!!! Mark C took a tumble and proudly announced that his camelbak saved his life! Andy P then demonstrated his extensive lyrical knowledge.

Andy Brown may have had mechanical issues but that face says it all. We were having a good day. From Brigstock we head to a familiar route towards Lieveden New Bield. My legs were destroyed in that section by more claggy soil and a horrible wind! We were heading downhill but you would never have known.

On the way round today we tried some new routes. The trail through Fermyn Woods may have been soggy in places but it was some good riding. That route was punctuated by a pitstop and a slab of malt loaf each from Ken's impressive lunchbox!

Not long after that we swapped sports and took up bog snorkelling. Andy P told us there was some downhill in a minute but it was no respite! On swampy rutted trails there were multiple tumbles. My pedals were clogged with mud and this prevented unclipping and I landed in a big puddle. I was riding through the puddle to try and clear the mud which was now stopping my wheels from turning. It was suggested that if I was going faster the mud would clear itself. Harsh but fair!!!

I really was broken as we emerged back onto the tarmac heading towards Slipton. I was also getting cramp in both legs every few minutes. Just before we headed back into the muddy lanes, Ken and Graham made the totally sensible of continuing home by road. I perhaps should've done the same thing. It was just clag and grind and cramp. The cramp got so bad I kept getting stuck like a turtle on it's back. I couldn't get off the bike and I couldn't peddle. The mud forced my back wheel off. I got off to put it back on and my thigh cramped every time I tried to do it!!! I'm sure it would've been quite funny to watch. I cramped several more times on the way back to the shop.

I'm not convinced that Chris was that pleased to see the mud monsters in his shop. A Mocha Iced Coffee and Snickers were very welcome. Andy Brown insisted on giving me a lift home. His rationale was that I'd suffered enough for one day! I was grateful for this.

filthy beast

Not so filthy

I'd like to thank everyone today for putting up with my unfit self. It's not the first time that rule one "no one gets left behind," has been strictly adhered to in my name. I enjoyed the ride so much despite the suffering. As Eddie Merckx says: "Just Ride!"

The blog is back. Cycling with C&D is back. 

Happy Pedalling!!!!!