Sort of.

Training has been going well as the weather has been excellent, motivation high, and friends willing to hammer me on the bike.

Brilliant!

There are a couple of new sponsors to announce in the next couple of weeks, and I must say that I'm a lucky, lucky, lucky boy.

The planned attempt on the WC2C (mark 2)by a friend has been postponed due to injury, but he'll be back!

Last weekend was a mix of 3hrs Fast Friday, 5 1/2hrs long and quick Saturday (with Huw) and then 3 1/2hrs easy pace on Sunday. It was a good weekend of sociable(ish) riding with a good base of training built in.

So I did it agin this weekend with other team members...

Friday was a fast and furious 3hrs around the steep riding that we have around our locale. It scares people that aren't used to it, but it's all ok, really.

Saturday was actually a bit of a plum of a day. I started late, on my own, and not feeling that great about the ride to come, after a late night socialising and abstaining. Motivation had been waning all day which I should have taken as an omen. Anyway, I went out and did some steep climbs, but my heart rate wasn't responding as it should, so I sacked it and came home. My Chronic Training Load might take a dip, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

I'm glad I did sack it, as Sunday was a great day!

Mark and I repeated my climbstravaganza of the other week, but we also added another climb and xc section since we were making REALLY good time. This section was inadvertantly christened by my mates from Rush Cycles (Bridgend) as we rode it one day a few years ago. Des, Colin, Ade and Jase all termed it it "Clucking Bell!" (well, that's sort of it's name) as they hurtled down the slope in which you HAVE to hit a berm to help you control your speed. Kate went head over heels, all the way down the slope, Matt did the same and then nobody else would ride it. So we call it "Clucking Bell" (sort of). :)



Machen and Sirhowy miles are hard miles, especially when you are taking in the nadgery technical climbs and descents. So after 3 1/2 hours of climbing and fear, when I was looking forward to some easier climbing, we arrived at Cwmcarn and did a quick loop of that. We were flying.

This was a good day!

An increasingly gentle ride home left us back at my place and ready for cakes, biscuits and being waited on hand and foot by my long suffering lady, Jo.

But, Jo had just got back from an offroad 1/2 marathon in which she had done a significant PB.

No cakes. So we all sat down and drank coffee and muesli bars whilst we waxed lyrical about the massive array of riding (and running) terrains available around here.

We are lucky people.