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