TRI Thrunton expedition

So myself, Phil G, Davey B and JB made our way up to Thrunton woods last weekend to take our mountain bikes out for a bit of a walk. Nope, that's not a typo, a 3 hour "ride" followed, half which involved a hell of a lot of walking, pushing, carrying and rolling about in heather, grass and not a little mud!

It turned out to be a great day and one which tool a hell of a lot out of us (or it did me and Phil who ended up sprawled across couches asleep leter that afternoon!).

See the happy smiling faces below before we headed into the bog:

I think the word boggy hardly does justice to the condition of the trails. We all struggled with the conditions but I think the general consensus was that a lot of it was definitely rideable given a bit more time spent working on our handling skills (the other lads are free to disagree however). Hopefully mtb camp weekends like the one coming up in the Lakes in less than a fortnight, will go some way to helping with this. Like most things though I guess you can't beat just spending time in the saddle!

Some highlights of the ride include the shameless posing on the crags:

Reaching the spot below after an extended period carrying/climbing with the bikes on our shoulders (which gave Davey a chance to get in touch with his inner child and climb some trees!)

And the long long long long long...... climb up yet another steep hill followed by a hammer and tongs descent back to the road (at the end of which I'd scrapped by brake pads off completely and was boiling away the plastic housing!).

Overall a great day out. I definitely lost count of how often we all fell off, but luckily we were usually going too slowly to do any real damage (only our ego's were a bit bruised!)

A bit more fitness needed, much better technical skills needed and next time maybe we'll feel like doing a bit of running afterwards... At this rate I'm not sure I'll ever want to get back on a road bike!

More trails, new forks!! and the need for training partners.

So the new found love of mountain biking continues and I found a short gem of a route last weekend that can easily be expanded by the sound of things.

First off I'll say I just got myself some new forks, a very pretty looking set of Rock Shox Revelations which look absolutely mint! But combined with some new flat handlbars and race face stem, I've knocked a good 1-2 kg off the front end of my bike, which has made a huge difference. Now add the fact the revelations actually work (compared to the crappy RST things that came with my bike!) and I can ride with loads more confidence over the roughest terrain.

Which brings me back to this route. It started off very dull - 6-7 miles of road riding to get to Macc Forest. Road riding on a mountain bike is dull... or so I've decided because after all the road riding I've done I don't like not being able to go fast on the tarmac. So it was nice when the reservoir's came into site and marked my approach to the Forest and the trails.

You can maybe see that the route up into the woods was shrouded in cloud. This looked pretty cool from down below and I was looking forward to getting up there. And I wasn't dissapointed. The trails were great, after a short and VERY steep section of road you turn off into the woods and carry on climbing for 20 minutes or so. This was more of a steady grind, and on a clear day would have rewarded you with a great view... I just saw fog! On the plus side there was this really eery mist seeping through the woods which was just cool to ride through... see below!

I started to come across groups of walkers going through the woods, which was a wee bit annoying because I had to slow down! Damn ramblers! Coming to the end of the forest trails I met another mountainbiker coming the opposite direction. Chatted to him for a bit and he told me that the way I was heading I'd be going UP this awesome downhill section, and that I should really have done the route the other way round. 10 minutes later I came across the downhill he was talking about..... and started trying to inch up it. This was where the new forks came into their own. It was more loose stony ground and I could bounce my way over rocks with far more confidence!

The picture above is a section of the descent I was grinding up, more of the loose slippy stuff I seem to be finding all over the Peaks. After the climb it was a fairly non-descript descent down some wide forest grit roads (at the bottom of which I almost ran over this blokes yappy little chiwawa dog thing..... I might have been aiming for it!). Then onto the roads and back to the car.

Overall a good route round the forest but would have been better in the opposite direction. To improve it I would cut out the road section and park right below Macc Forest, then look for other trails to make the offroad section much longer!

So still loving the mountainbiking and now looking forward to the inaugural TRI camp in the Lakes. Mountain biking on custom built trails will be awesome, the core strength advice/chat will be good too. The trail running will hurt... but might get me back into running mode.

But I think the biggest thing I've realised over the last couple of months is the need for training partners. I plugged away for 5 months in the build up to Lanzarote, averaging 10 hours a week all on my tod. I think the fact that I had kind of got fed up with that contributed to my Ironman-itus afterwards! So I've made a decision and joined Manchester Tri Club. They have loads of sessions (you can swim everday) and seem to be a very sociable club. So hopefully having a group to train with and some structured swim sessions to go to will help get me back into proper training. I definitely won't be abandoning TRI though, train with the club and race for our ever expanding TEAM!!

Thoughts on winter training - mountain biking in the Peaks

Well, today saw my second expedition into the Dark Peaks for some of the muddy stuff. It's was a great day weather wise, warm and fairly sunny so I was really looking forward to getting out after weeks and weeks of rain.

I headed to Buxton to follow a 25km route around the Goyt Valley. My last outing saw me take 2hr 45 for a 14km loop from New Mills so I wasn't sure how long I'd be out!

After my first ride a few weeks ago I realised 2 things:

1. I'm not very fit right now
2. My technical skills on a mountain bike leave something to be desired.

That said, by the end of my last ride I was a lot more relaxed and flowing over the rocky terrain far much more smoothly.

Today my first challenge came very early, after about 2km, in the form of a steeply climbing and collapsing tarmac road that was little more than a collection of loose rocks strewn on the ground. Luckily it was only short and I was able to recover from the bursting lungs on the following few km's of varied but relatively smooth terrain. After this I turned onto some rutted farmland tracks (complete with sheep either side) which was great fun! It's surprising how quickly you climb and suddenly I was looking out a some great views from the Hills above Buxton.

After a very "interesting" descent (good fun if a little hairy!), it was some more climbing on very very loose rocks. I've included a photo below which I don't think does justice to how difficult this stuff is to ride. Your back wheel just doesn't get a grip because every single one of those bloody rocks is loose.

Anyway, not to moan too much because this climb was followed by some great track riding which cumlinated in a couple of very fun descents. I think it was during one of these that I may have shouted "woo hoo" out loud. Well, only the sheep were there to hear me and it was awesome!

After a bit of woodland track stuff there was a mixed bag. A VERY steep tarmac section followed by a long trek across some moorland. After this there were some twisting rutted tracks which once again had me blowing out my arse. To add insult to my very injured lungs at this point I came across what should have been some nice smooth forest trails. Instead I found a total quagmire ripped up my some forestry machine's (see below) The track was impassable for about a mile which meant a lengthy detour through the surrounding woods.

A mile or so past the forestry monster machines it was a lengthy section of tarmac. Although smooth, this road section did climb continuously for 2-3 miles. I was thinking to myself that these roads would have been perfect for Grotty training rides!
Then came one of the best sections of the ride which happened to be the last 6km of the route back into Buxton. A length moorland section across very rocky tracks which, by this point, I was really getting the hang of riding.

Overall I had a very good and punishing day in the saddle and am looking forward to a winter of mountain terrain training. This one took 2hr 40, and worked me much harder than the same time on the road ever has. I kind of see them as outdoor turbo sessions, some of the climbs are so tough you don't think there's any hope of reaching the top without stopping. A great feeling when you do and, unlike the turbo, you're often rewarded with a great view after!

Roll on winter training!