Christmas doo 4, The Miggly Moos.

It's the 5 Layers of clothing, not the Turkey and Chocolate. Promise!

My last Christmas doo, was with the Miggly Moos and was a drunken affair in Caerleon with a food fight in a newly decorated Indian restaurant thrown in for good measure. I was "lucky" enough to be awarded the Ebeneezer Scrooge award, for paying my subs all year and turning up to collect them at the party because I hadn't spent any of them. This year has been worse than most: I only managed 2 or 3 rides with these sterling blokes, so the flowing beer was a good aide to catching up with news and events; and falling over.

I still managed a few hours on bike the next day, mind you.

Stalwart, me.

I think.

But...

My last week of training hasn't been great, hours wise. I didn't realise how much time I would relish spending at home, eating chocolates and doing the family thing, whilst it was bitterly cold outside. I should have had Christmas week as a rest week, rather than 2 weeks previous to that.

Hindsight is great, isn't it?

We still rode for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs a day, though.

So, I've had two easy weeks this month. It's not worth getting stressed over, because there were other things that had to be done. Christmas is a no go for big hours next year.

I managed to get only one cycling related pressie from Satan: A nice big drybag/rucksack thing for commuting the expanding 22-35mile each way trip with my clothes, towel, smellies and laptop. The rest were annual necessities like socks, jumpers, toiletries, and a game for my DS.

Maybe I'm regarded as a stinky computer geek?

The DS game has been played two or three times by myself, but charged twice a day since Christmas. I can't get near it, because it's always in someone elses grubby little mitts. :)

On Saturday, Jo and I went for a wee drive up to Nant Yr Arian to check out one of the routes and to see where my route would best run through this area, from Machynlleth. 3/4 of the way there, all of the windows were suddenly opened as we were doing about 70mph, in minus plenty degrees, accompanied by the immortal words, "I feel sick, slow down!" She said it as if it was my fault, but she had been playing MY game for nearly 2 1/2 hours!!

We rode the Pendam red route in about 50mins and ran away. It was freezing! I really wish I had some winter boots- Out of stock until, er, March '09. :?

Well, we didn't run away really. We stopped to watch the Red Kites feeding by the Llyn and then hit the Cafe--- HARD!

You can see the birds, just, if you click on me.

This was a great spectacle. 40 ,or so, birds swooping and screeching as they fulfill their role as carrion scavengers, picking up the bits of meat and stuff thrown out by the Warden. They are huge, graceful birds and (funnily enough) quite a vibrant brown/red colour with a go faster stripe along the underside of their wings.

Chavs.

The scenery around Nant Yr Arian is absolutley fantastic! Compact, green and steep sided hills and valleys seemingly criss-crossed with Bridleways, and beautiful views as far as the eyes can see from the summits.

Now, scenery means hills, means trails, means bikes!!



One thing about the Mk111 is this: When you drop the seatpost you can really ride it like you stole it! It's a different animal with a low seat, to be sure. Whilst I have been prattling on about it's long distance abilities, I hadn't even tried it in "doon hill" or trail mode.

To verbally illustrate my point; when you start to crawl all over her when she's bouncing down the hill, goading you to go a bit faster, you realise that you're going fast. Very fast. It's testament to the thoughful design that you can drop your weight right back in an instant, without it going all wallowy, or you can shoot forward over to the bars and she stays completely composed. She doesn't rebound off of jumps taking you by surprise, as so many seem to do once the air can gets hot. Everything works and works well.

The bike stays composed, but I'm not sure if I do.

I love her.

The next ride for route planning, will be at Coed Y Brennin. We'll do the Beast on New Years' Day and then I'll peddle south to Dolgellau and up to the Foxes pub area to get the link started towards Mach. All I'll need to do to finish the far north is link Porthmadoc to CyB on route 8, on a warm day. That will be a fast stretch, and I'm avoiding windchill at the moment.

The stage after that, the next weekend, will be to link the Foxes to Mach, via ClimachX. That should be a fun day!

The northern end of this route is going to be a lot of fun. Actually, it's all shaping up quite nicely. It'll be hard and totally epic, but with lots of different positive reasons for each sections' being uniquely memorable.

I hope Christmas has been kind to you and your loved ones.

Have a Happy New Year!

Dave

A good day's work, and Chrismas doo no.3

No photo's, sorry. Today was a mileage cruncher and it was dark for most of it due to the weather.

Friday night was my third Christmas doo. My colleagues and I went to Brecon, from Cardiff, for a meal and a good old chat. It was a nice but late night. Gail, Lindy and Tom are good company, I've decided.

Anyhoo. Up and out at first light. God, it's early and I'm feeling it. It's been a couple of busy weeks with sporadic early (and late) nights where I have been up at 5am every morning. It's my Team Boss, Rob that keeps me on track with pep talks when I'm struggling. Cheers, Dad!

24hr riding and preparation is a lifestyle and it involves your whole day, and then some.

I arrived at Sugarloaf Halt, in a howling North Westerly wind and headed north in the rain on wet silty fireroads. Heading around Llyn Brianne on the East side on a very hilly road left me breathing out of my ears and other orifices quite quickly.

Progress was quick. Well, it was relatively quick when compared to my speeds over the last few weeks in Rhayader. What was slowing me down was the dead feeling in my legs from 20hrs of training this week. 20hrs, up to the point where I plopped my sore hamstrings on the front of the saddle this morning. I tried to find a way of stopping all the cold, stiff bits in my legs and back from complaining, but failed.

Today would be a good indicator of my potential speed in the middle of my unsupported non-stop ride from Caernarfon to Cardiff.

I had one episode of moon grass, but due to the info supplied by Numplumz, I knew that if it didn't get any better then I could turn around and find a better track. Maggie (the Mk111) and I turned around 30mins into bog trotting, after disappearing up to our knees and axles, and having to use the bike to drag myself out.

So, we then headed off, together and in a Westerly mood, until we joined up with a track that would eventually lead, both North and South, in exactly the direction that I was actually going! Result!

To cut a long and windy story short, I ended up in Strata Florida. I was tired after battling with the headwind for the whole 50km or so (with detours).

No messing, here. I turned around straight away and headed back on the "new route" (Cheers Jack, Matt Page and Ian Barrington for the help) and skirted the West side of Llyn Brianne on a fire road that eventually took me over the dam at the end of the reservoir. The track is not identified as a "right of way" but there is an open gate (people sized) at one end to stop cars and totally free access at the other end. It is accessed on this ride from the totally open end and I know that this route is used by local mountain bikers with no issue- So it stands as part of the route (so far). In any case, most of the trail goes through Forestry Commission gravel tracks, which are fully and legally regarded as accessible at the moment- so I'm ok.

I got back to the car via the same route, at Sugarloaf Halt, which was hard but uneventful. My watch said that I had burned 4000 calories so I dropped into a sweetshop in Llandovery and spent a small fortune. :)

Maggie is turning into a real mileage bike. She's super efficient and and comfy. I couldn't have had a better bike, even for this area where there are lots of fire roads. But I will definately need all of the travel when it comes to skirting and riding some of the Coed-y-Brennin, Climachx, Mach and Nant-yr-Arian trails on my way to Cardiff.

This morning, Sunday, I woke up late (7am) and got out of bed a little gingerly. After downloading my watch and calculating my training stress score for the week, I realised that I had gone over my score with a day to go. Tss of 900 when I should have ended after today's work at about 750. Recovery day today, in case I over reach.

I'm happy with yesterday's ride, and the fact that joining up to Nant-yr-Arian will be straight forward, so I'm not stressing about not having reached there this weekend.

Going Christmas shopping now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Dave

Christmas Parties. Round 1.

Car Parks can be lonely places.

It's been a busy weekend, and I think that I may feel it's effects later this week. Take it from me, things didn't really go very well.

Friday night was our first Christmas doo. Mine was with my friends from a local group of Mountain Bikers in the centre of Cardiff. Jo's was with her work, on the outskirts of town. We got home at about 1am, after having a good night.

I was up, dressed, and out of the house just after 7am for the drive back to Rhayader to check out the first of a couple of tracks that I had been informed might work for the WC2C.

The promising track was duly followed for a few km, until it just stopped in the middle of nowhere. I spied another track and headed for this by trudging through 2 foot high moon grass. It looked like it was heading in the right direction, and I thought that the Bridleway may have moved over time due to ease of contouring a path, rather than going straight over the top.

It stopped.

Ever the, "Glass is half full," type, I trudged on hoping to find that the track resurrected itself. I had been going too long to turn back and start on the other track, it would be dark in a couple of hours. I quite liked carrying my bike, anyway.

Nothing.

After hours of pulling, pushing and stumbling over the tumps of moon grass and bog, I decided to go back. This route was never going to work in a month of Sundays, and I was just kidding myself.



Saturday night was Christmas Doo No.2

This was a "White Tie" Dinner and Dance, in Cardiff town centre. We were dressed up to the nines and my kilt had it's 3rd or 4th outing for the year. I always feel good in a kilt. It must be the air conditioning.

We had a good night, with some lovely food. It was unlike me, but I didn't dance because my legs were all trudged out and I felt that I had tweaked one of the long flexors in my foot, sorry Jo. We got home after 1 am.

Sunday morning saw me rise at 7 (ish) and get out the door quickly and back up to Llanwrtyd Wells to test the same track as yesterday from the other side, in case it became obvious where the Bridleway ran.

There was 4Km of road, or so, and the ice made it really difficult to make any headway, but I did manage to get to the start of the track up onto the top of the hill that I struggled to find yesterday. Or so I thought. I ended up in a frozen wasteland of pathless countryside (in the main) covered with 3 to four foot high moon grass tumps on a bed of slippy rock. This was a broken ankle waiting to happen.

Then, there was the river crossing. It wasn't a burn or a babbling brook, it was a piggin' river.

Somehow, the eternal optimist kept popping through my grumpy facade.

I got to the top, on a vague sheep trail and much more moon grass and finally realised my short term goal of peering down into the valley that I had battled with on Saturday. The view I was rewarded with after all of this toil?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. No path, no bridleway, no sheeptrack, no oasis of calm and reassurance that I had done the right thing in pursuing this track as a viable route.

Nowt.

Jings, now I'm feeling tired.

So I trudged all the way back, carrying my bike for most of it. I then rode along the roads back to the car, and nearly fell off on the ice. Now that would have been a proper end to the weekend if I had done that, wouldn't it?

The river needed a second crossing too.


At least my bike looks the part, though. :)

The neoguard keeps your face clean much better than my brace of mudguards (from lots of manufacturers)

I stopped for tea at Matt's house, as his mum was just about to cut up the Sunday roast. Good timing, or what? :)

We poured over the maps for a while as I released some of my frustrations, in verbal form.

Got home, re-planned about 80km of the route to head over to the Tywi Valley and onwards to Nant-yr-Arian, then Mach.

The Bikes were duly washed (Jo's was dirty too) and put to bed in minus plenty centigrade. Then I went to bed after watching an hour of a spooky and exciting Norwegian Cop story. I was too excited to sleep then!

We are going to take the Gnarlavan up to Mid-Wales this weekend coming so that I can get some relative sleep and also have the chance to do a good 4 or 5 hours of recce each day, with Jo.

Shocker!

Jo and I were up early on Saturday. We left the house at 7am and got to Rhayader by about 8:30am.

It was freezing, absolutely Baltic.

Leaving our car, we rode West and then South on a wet, then icy, bridleway with great views. This ended up with a long descent into the Elan Valley and a pleasant circumnavigation of the reservoir on a permissive route, to the pretty little church where our friends got hitched this year.



After that, we did a bit of road work, and headed towards a promising track with bridleway access rules. 2km and about 250m or so of climbing later, the track stopped and the bridleway carried on- into a rocky, peaty quagmire. The track heads toward the town of Lanwrtyd Wells, and is the only hike a bike section as yet. It's a pity it's 4 or 5km long.

If it's hard for me then it'll be hard for anyone else that does it, if I can't find another way around.

However, Jo had a sense of humour failure about a third of the way along the hike. She went very, very quiet. So I took her back to the car, via the road. She cheered up then.

I forgot to mention the first 5 minutes of this ride. Silly me. We had to cross a river, so got wet feet right at the start of a 5hr 20min ride, and it was minus plenty of degrees in the shade, all day. My feet had thawed by this morning, just.

The info we received from Clive Powell Bikes in Rhayader was priceless. Thanks for the help!

We saw loads of Red Kites, flying around after their feed at the Farm in Rhayader,and a good few Buzzards.

Back again to suss out a couple of alternative routes next weekend, which is nice. This is a really scenic area. If you've never been, you should consider visiting.

Up and out by 8 this morning, for a social ride.

Rest week now. :)

Team Photoshoot and New Bikes!

Another good weekend.

Saturday Morning, 9am sharp(ish) we meet at Rob's place to put the finishing touches to our new bikes, which he spent hours building for us the previous day. Rob and I had a Mk111 Elite each and Rich had a new Bootleg 3.0. Josh had nothing at all, because he looks like a Pepperami and his bike hadn't arrived yet.

Next was a trip over to Leigh Woods, in the freezing cold, to take photos for the Official Team Release, under the watchful eye and skilled gaze of Matt Cope the Pap. There were lots of photos, and I was gurning in most of them--Practice required. Goodness only knows what I look like as I ride my bike normally, when I'm not bothered about trying to look cool and in control!

Being a true Pro, I had forgotten my helmet and had to borrow Matt's for the shots. He has a head like a bear, so it was slipping all over my head as I rode along, looking gnarly. Not.

Sunday was a day spent at Afan Argoed with the team and some other friends. This was the first time that we really got to ride our new bikes...

...The Mk111 is awesome. The frame is stiff, it doesn't bob under power and it is seriously quick in the singletrack twists and turns.
28lbs out of the box for a 19" frame is kinda cool for such a hardcore machine.

I'll be fiddling with the setup of the forks and shock and then start having some real fun on it!! It's going to be the most plush 24hr bike out there.

This weekend looks busy. A big day on Saturday, checking out the area around Rhayader, and then knocking a few miles out, to the South on Sunday.

I've decided on an 8 week period in which I aim to ride the C2C, probably unsupported. This will allow me 8 weeks or more to re-peak for 24/12, with a tune-up race in the 12hr solo at Bristol Bike Fest.

In fact, look out for a particularly visible team presence there. :) All will be revealed, one day.