Hill Tops Like Cake Tops

If your a regular reader of my blogs you will know I go pheasant beating/flushing on shoot days, with the game bird season ending at the end of  January the last few weeks have been the last opportunity to go and it's been great timing with my shopping list for the race bike going up and up. This last few weeks I've been getting things ordered and bought  to get my bike in tip top condition for the start of the season, i.e, new tyres, rims, chain, cassette, re cabling and paying for races and BC Licence fees all of which doesn't come cheap.

Right i'll start with last Monday and talk through to Sunday.
Monday was a shoot day and another opportunity to earn some vital penny's. Although it's not hours on the bike, i still consider beating part of my training, it's a day of walking through rough ground, climbing fences and walls and continuous flagging to drive the birds to the guns. And at the end of a day having been on my legs from 8:45am to 16:30 im pretty tired. At 12 o'clock i was up for getting home and having a steady hour on the turbo but come finishing time all i wanted to do was relax. So with a big pasta meal in me i kicked back on the sofa and rested up for my ride on Tuesday.

Today "Tuesday" a 3 hour ride was my aim I was well up for it and decided to do my favorite training route, the one i did with Cycling Weekly's Chris Sidwells a fortnight before, however when I got to Stainforth I decided to turn left and climb over to Malham and drop down past the cove. Up on the tops was a totally different world, i likened it to a cake with icing. The valley roads and fields were green as ever but up on the tops was a thick frost and even a bit of snow. But the roads were perfectly clear and free from ice. After dropping down the very fast technical descent in to Malham it was a fast rolling ride home through Gargrave and West Marton. Great ride done and another 3 hours in the bag.

Wednesday I was out for another 3 hours but today i'd have some company, I met my mate Sam "Hope Factory Racing" at Gisburn Auction Mart, a 30 minute ride on the A59 from home. I wanted to do another favorite route of mine, riding through Bolton-by-Bowland to Waddington and through fell woods to the Bashall Eaves RR Course. This is a great area to train, with a mix of quiet B roads, lanes and Single Track wooded roads all rolling and twisty great for the mind and not getting bored. We did a loop of the RR Course and made our way home the same way. Now on this ride the definition of "Typical and Sods law" came into play. To those of you who know the area we were riding from Chaigley to Bashall Eaves, this section of road has a good 2 mile descent. Sam said to me "How often do you ride UP this way?" i said well never why ride up here all the time when i can enjoy this great descent!", what with all the potholes and puncturing risk?" Well yeah but you just not gotta be an idiot and look where your going, then you don't run down em do you! i said. About 200 yards down the road i ran straight down a pothole right onto the rim and sure enough i'd punctured, it was typical Sam just laughed and said "what were you saying about not been an idiot? haha" SODS LAW!!! But there was one thing in my favor, it was a great day sunny and dry so at least we didn't get wet standing about fixing it.

Thursday I was out solo and i decided not to stray to far from home as the weather was forecast to be pretty rough later on in the day, but still get 3 hours in the saddle. In order to do this I did several laps of the Bolton-by-Bowland  rr course, its a good circuit to do, its got lots of small rolling climbs, very quiet lanes and  good stretches of flat and down hill. When I'd done the circuits I rode out towards Malham and Back to Gargrave and home. In the last hour of the ride what the weather man had said happened, it rained, it sleeted and it blew and despite having mud gaurds on the winter bike the rain poured off my front wheel straight into my shoe. But oh yeah here's why, the night before i'd washed my perfect "feet never get wet" endura over shoes and forgot to get them out to dry, so come morning they were sopping and me been me thought "oh yeah i'll be right, i wont get cold" my feet were perished, so cold in fact when i climbed my foot didn't flex and felt like it was going to snap, i half expected when i took my shoe off my foot would still be in there. Coupled with hail stones battering me in the face with the help of a strong head wind it wan't the best end to a  ride but i got home with a strong talking to myself i.e- MAN UP!!! its only winter in the North. 

Friday was an awful day with Sleet, heavy rain and gales. In the morning i had to drop of an application for some funding from my local council. Last year I was given £375 and a free gym pass which was and still is a great help to me. In the afternoon I went to gym and did my usual session, a mix of kettlebell work, machines and free weights. All of which focuses on my legs and core for stability and explosiveness. This program was written up by Paul Sudds  a very talented and recommended personal trainer both by myself and others who work with him. Take a look at his website, maybe you could be benefited?

https://sites.google.com/site/paulsuddspersonaltraining/

Saturday was another shoot day, and to be honest i was grateful for the money but extremely envious of anyone out training. It was an amazing day, cold but dry and sunny. On the tops of the estate you could see for miles.. Fantastic. 

After Saturdays frustration i was itching to get out into the lanes and get a good ride in. My legs were sore after all the walking and wall climbing but soon they loosened up and i felt in pretty good shape. For the second time this week i did my favorite training ride plus an extra loop, getting home with 3 1/2 hours in the legs I was very satisfied and pleased with my weeks training.

Top tips for myself this week:- The other week i mentioned to Ian Wilkinson that when I was racing I felt comfortable and strong on the hudz but uncomfortable and weak on the drops. Wilko said he knew what i meant and it was my hip not flexing enough and unable to get the power through whilst on the drops. So this week most of my riding has been on the drops both on the flat and climbing, working my hamstrings and stretching my lower back muscles and i can honestly say i can feel the difference. Cheers Wilko!! Hope your enjoying your Mallorca Training camp seen some of the "wet" photos, its sunny and dry here now, should of stayed in the dales mate haha!! 

Hope everyone enjoys the read...........cheers Hamish

Getting the hours in the saddle

Well this updates a bit late, but better late than never. Last week and indeed the next few weeks objective is getting the constant hours in. Not so much riding massive hours at a time but riding constant hours day after day  boosting the endurance but at the same time keeping the cadence high. Having a disciplined amount of time in saddle each day has made me really think about where i'm going on the days ride, making my training really fun and interesting.

Now to be honest now been Tuesday evening and me been a busy chap ive forgotten where i went last monday so i'll move swiftly on to Tuesday where a great day was to be had and a great opportunity seized. It was the day I was to show Chris Sidwells "cycling Weekly" round my favorite training ride, a 3 hour ride through small twisty hilly lanes in the Yorkshire Dales. The day went as follows, Chris arrived at my house at 10 am where we talked about how i came into cycling, what made me want to race and the pivotal point when i decided to pack my bags and go to Belgium, and to be honest i couldn't remember when i decided to make this amazing decision, but i can safely say i'm glad i did. Through the experience i learnt so much and made some of if the the best friends i will ever have.

I wasn't to do this ride alone though I had the company of Ian Wilkinson "enduraracing" a great friend of mine and someone who also does this ride quite often. "great minds think alike". This morning was absolutely perishing and i can take the cold but jesus, Ian looked like jack frost when he turned up. With the perishing weather came ice and we had our fair share of it on the ride, but fortunately I'd done this route the Saturday before and had a good idea where tricky patches were and therefore we got by with no issues. I've got to admit when we did get to some ice i ran along the grass while Ian rode across 1 handed on the phone, you know as you do!!!. When all the photo's had been taken Chris treat us to a coffee and cake in the lovely market town of Settle. After the cafe/chat stop Chris had all the info and pictures he needed and left us to our ride, when we got home we had about 3 hours in the legs and with the sun shining and the ice gone it turned out to be a great day.

Wednesday was another great day with a cold start but when the sun came out it was fantastic to be riding over Barden Moor and up lower Wharfedale to Burnsall and through to Airedale round the Malham area. Again a great 3 hour ride with no boring roads just all full on interest.

Most of my recent training has been in the Yorkshire Dales and the previous two days had been and so today i decided to venture into Lancashire and explore the Ribble valley, round Waddington and Bashall Eaves. A ride made up of B roads, single track wooded lanes and 3 local road race circuits each of which i do a lap, this ride tops out at 3 hours and is pretty nippy covering about 60 miles which for round here is a pretty high average speed. These rolling lanes with nippy little climbs and descents sure ramp up the average. FUN!!!!!!

Friday I did the same ride as Thursday but unlike Yesterday where i was bathed in wintery sunshine and had frost and  lovely colours surrounding me in the Ribble Valley I had 3 solid hours of heavy rain, drizzle, mist ect!! but I loved it,  that's the thing with these rides they're so interesting you don't notice how bad the weather is, when i got home i was like a drowned rat but it didn't  matter i could chill the rest of the day and know some good work had been done.

Saturday some money had to be earned and it was my first day Pheasant beating of 2012, a day of rain rain rain but the "mud" walking did me good and with a good coat on I was nice and dry.

Sunday me and my friend Sam went out round Ingleton and Ribblehead, a good 3 3/4- 4 hours ride on exposed roads snaking between the 3 peaks in the Dales, which I can honestly say looked amazing with the mid day sun on them. It was a tough ride, following my 6km walking the day before coupled with a very weird wind, i.e.- every direction seamed to be a head wind. And predictably   this wind blow some rain our way, but luckily we were nearly home and didn't get too wet once caped up.

Hope You've enjoyed the read... Hamish

Feeling like that hose pipe has been unblocked!!!!

To all sponsors out there, i know this is a terrible picture but i feel i'm doing Las Helmets and Pearl Izumi  a good deal here, shame i bought them!

Now you maybe be baffled by my post title but in my mind its pretty simple once you understand what it means.

Last year I trained all wrong, the gym training I did was non beneficial for cycling and my training was messy, no set program and no structure. Don't get me wrong I tried very hard but I just did the wrong things, this was down to inexperience and no personal knowledge. Therefore coming up to mid January early February I felt slow and sluggish with no leg speed, I felt very strong and powerful but no rapidness. Friends laughed when I came up with my description of how I felt, "My hose pipe's blocked" but I thought it made a lot of sense. Basically I had a lot of pressure building up but something was stopping it been released. However the same time  this year I feel a lot better, fresher legs day after day and a lot stronger and with still 6 weeks to the first race I'm sure there's more to come before I have to get my racing head on, with my  Belgian coach Luc Wante  a very credible and recommended coach guiding me through and sending me weekly programs  i'm feeling very enthusiastic.

Now I know I say this every week but this week i'm not going to ramble, its been 2 weeks since my last blog update and since then my training has been simple high cadence rides of between 2 1/2- 3 hours and the odd one over with weekend chain gang.

The week commencing the 2nd was a terribly wet week, with floods, gale force winds and recommendations not to travel if not necessary. However i decided to brave it and get out there relishing the 40mph tail winds that were on offer. Now been a bit unorganized and generally a bit of a fool i didn't write down what riding i did but just of the top of my head i know that from the 7 days 4 of them were on the bike doing a similar route each day round the maze of local lanes with rolling climbs and high dry stone walls and hedges to shelter in from the terrible rain. With my coach taking a week off after New Year my rides were down to me and i just did the same as advised and concentrated on riding with a high average cadence for around 2 1/2 hours. My ride on the Wednesday was cut very short after a very frustrating puncture in the heavy rain and wind. Now puncturing doesn't often bother me, i'm very capable getting it fixed pretty quick but when the pump doesn't work and gets jammed on the valve i tend to get pretty annoyed and twinned with the appalling weather i didn't relish the standing around in the road getting wet and cold, so the phone came out and mother was called.

Thursday's weather was even worse than Wednesday's and i decided i would go to the gym and do my cycling conditioning workout. A mix of free weight exercises and improvising static machines to help with  other exercises. Since starting doing this program I feel I have become stronger and more explosive, the trainer who wrote up this program is  a very talented trainer and really recommend him to anyone wishing to progress as a performance athlete or wishing to gain fitness and weight loss.

http://www.psuddspersonaltraining.co.uk/

Finally Friday came along with some good dry sunny weather, i'd arranged at the beginning of the week to go for a ride with my friend Graham and today was a perfect day. It was a great 35 mile ride from home through some small lanes to settle in the Yorkshire Dales then up the steep 1:5 climb over Atamire moor, to Airton and back via Gargrave and West Marton all on small lanes GREAT STUFF!!!!

Saturday was my first group ride of 2012 with a big group of about 40-50 guys meeting up in Keighley and riding up to Buckden in Upper Wharfedale and back. Riding from home to meet the group doing the ride and riding home was a well paced 3 3/4 hours 68 miles. Getting home for 1 pm knowing some good work had been done.

I finished the week off going to the swimming pool to loosen up and relax.

This week just gone I've again been concentrating on cadence. Tuesday I did a quick 2 1/2 hours ride with an avg cadence of 96 which i think is pretty reasonable considering the abundance of short steep hills.

Well Wednesday was set to be a great ride bashing round the lanes with Ian Wilko but it ended premature with quite a funny but frustrating outcome, very unexpectedly my crank fell off and predictably neither me or Ian had any Allan Keys "GREAT" so he went on his way and I back tracked a few miles to find someone with brains who'd actually remembered to bring their tools with them, not like us two numpty's, and in case your wondering why we both were idiots, he had set off with a loose shifter and the first thing wasn't "morning Hamish" it was "av ya got an allan key". Anyway I got it fixed and made my way back home before anything else went wrong. With the ride been cut short I decided I would go to gym that afternoon and make my legs sore.

Friday was my next ride and what a day, very cold but beautiful sun and nice quiet roads, i didn't get out till the afternoon but i managed a good decent ride round Historic Bolton Abbey and Burnsall, and also got a few pictures to brighten up the blog. My ride was 2 1/2 hours avg cadence of 96 and 38 miles covered. My coach had sent me an email that morning, with a 3 hour ride in the cards but unfortunately i didn't read it till the evening but i think the ride i did was still a good one.

Photo Taken from Burnsall fell road

Now Saturday I had a 3 hour ride scheduled and thought it would be perfect to mix it in with the Saturday morning chain gang as this is the same kind of time, but with a -3 night thick frost and icy patches were on the roads and the 8:30 start for the ride would be too risky and I thought it be better to hang on a couple of hours for the tarmac to warm up and believe me it was a good choice. But still a great ride was had on my favorite route with me mate sam, until he decided to slip on some slush and land in a hedge but with me there  for sympathy and basically encouraging him with laughter he soon got up and we were on our way. Not 3 hours but near enough 02:56 hours!!! with a near perfect avg heart rate and rpm as instructed.

Sam Boast riding Paythorne Berg!

Me between Paythorne and Wigglesworth Great Roads!! no people , no cars!!

Tomorrow another 3 hours is planned which i think will be over in lower Wharfedale where a friend is competing in Cyclo Cross Race in Ilkley so i'll probably bob by and give some good encouragement as he as for me in the past and i'm sure he'll be giving his best support this year too.

Raising the bar and the motivation

Well the beginning of this week i was greeted with one of those dreaded emails, the type which tells you, that you haven't secured funding for 2012. Obviously I was down a bit but after a few days of thinking it through it has just given me more motivation to prove that I am worthy of summer funding from may 2012. To add to my determination to progress this season coming, I now for the first time have a coach, guiding me with weekly programmes and there like parrot on my shoulder in the season planning and scheduling my races, this has learn't me to remove my head and use his and just listen.

Well after Christmas day, with all the food and drink consumed I fancied some fresh air in my lungs, so I got out early on boxing day morning and rode my favourite ride, a nice 50 mile loop riding through small single track lanes and short rolling climbs. A ride which I am doing with Chris Sidwells for a cycling weekly article at the end of January.

On the Tuesday I did another one of my favourite rides, I didn't get out till after 3 and with the light fading I just did a quick hour and forty minutes riding with a Cadance of 100+ as instructed by my coach. A great thing about the area I live in is out of this 50km ride only 4 km is on main roads, which is ideal given the time I was out, in heavy rain and mist.

Wednesday was a bike free day and I spent an hour and a half doing some gym work at home, due to the festive season and the leisure centre not been open. Obviously a few things in my programme weren't possible as I don't have the equipment. But I just skipped a few things and added something else in which I could do and boy did I know about it my whole body was in ribbons.

After my Workout on Wednesday I thought it best to do nothing on Thursday and rest and feel fresh for Friday.

Friday I did the same ride as Tuesday focusing on my Cadance and Heart Rate regularly reaching over 185 bpm but feeling fresh and nippy.

Saturday was a busy day with things to do and  people to see after all it was New years eve and the bike stayed in the house for the day.

New years day the 1st day of 2012 my ride on this day last year ended in sliding along the tarmac having crashed on the ice but today was an all together different ride, getting a puncture 2 mile from home, hopefully  a good charm for this year to get the punctures out of the way early on. With about 5 layers on i went out to sweat out the alcohol from last nights festivities and I can say it was a great idea, this evening I feel fresh and no hangover.

Hope you enjoy and Happy New Year!!!

Two weeks of nothing much

Well to be honest in the past two weeks I haven't really done anything exciting so I'm going to keep this update short and sweet.

Having not updated for a couple of weeks now I'm going to start from two weeks ago. On the Monday I went pheasant beating at my local shoot, the day started off pretty nice sunny cool and clear but soon the heavens were open and it was another wet finish, not a great thing considering that night it was below zero and all the rain froze. Predictably the next day the roads outside the house were covered in ice and getting to the bus stop to go to the gym was a little tricky.

I was a little lost in the gym, I'd done gym all last winter but none of what I did benefited me so I got chatting a PT. I asked him if he new anything about how to train for cycling, what would be a good routine and where should I get started. Instead of just standing around yapping I thought it best to book a session with him so I could have a good demonstration and description of all the workouts beneficial to cycling. (This would be the following Tuesday). So I hadn't really done anything in the gym but talk so I went in the pool for a a while and did a mile.

For the rest of week I didn't really do much just a few short spins round the lanes when the most of the thick morning frost had gone. Thursday night I was looking for cross races local to home, there was one in Wakefield I had planned to go to my sister's a few miles from the race and then ride home the day after. But when Sunday morning came around I felt very tired and didn't think it was worth spending £10 on a race I knew I wouldn't do well in and further more not knowing the weather conditions of Monday whether I would be able to ride home safely. Sure enough Monday was icy and a bit snowy so I'm glad I didn't risk it.

Tuesday came around it was my session at the gym, over the weekend the PT had written up a programme specific for me as a cyclist. I was confident with what he'd done because it was very like exercises my friends do, so I had a good hour and a bit going through motions and him accessing what my strengths and weaknesses were. for 3 days after my body was in ribbons every muscle ached.... but no pain no gain!

Wednesday I took the time to get some presents for the nearest and dearest, this took about half an hour at the most... not really a shopping type

Thursday me and my friend Sam went out for a few hours to Waddington and round Bashall eaves climbing over Blacko in thick mist absolutely soaked from the low lying g cloud and Friday I just went out steady away round the local hilly lanes and enjoyed my bike, it was good to be able to get out on the smaller lanes without the threat of icy patches. Now the weekend with family around i think the next bike ride will be boxing day!! hope you enjoy the read!!

Rain, Hail, Snow, Sleet, Wind...... You name it!!! last week I had it

Since my last update the weather has been on and off, bad to worse. Open the curtains in the morning to be greeted by light rain, get down stairs and it's hailing go outside and its freezing and I mean perishing with savagely cold wind taboo. 

Monday 5th  December- Well Monday morning I didn't feel like going on the bike, with a thick frost on the small lanes, paired with the 80mph gusts I didn't feel keen venturing out.  In April this year I was given a small amount of funding from my local council and with this came a free pass for all leisure centres in the area, so I took full advantage of this given the weather and headed to the pool. Before I started racing I was a  keen swimmer and raced for the local club regularly, so I thought my first proper swim in two years would be a doddle, but it was't. My Stroke was messy I was breathing all wrong and when I'd done the first few lengths I thought Jesus, this mile I'm aiming for is going to be hard. But its like riding a bike!! and I soon got back into it and did a mile (64 lengths) quite comfortably. 

After the swim I decided I'd make my way round to the gym only in the adjacent building, very handy considering it was bucketing in down outside.  Now my first gym session since last winter so I didn't want to over do it, 10 sets of 10x 41kg on the leg raises and  4 sets of 25x110kg on the legs press and I was done, saddle up and get home to the log burning open fire and a big bowl of noodles!!!! yum.  A good days work

Tuesday 6th December- Split day-

Part 1-Today was a very different day to Monday, bright, sunny and even colder but the maze of surrounding rolling lanes was calling!! Now I wasn't going to do anything insane but when I got into the really narrow single track lanes it wasn't my effort raising the heart rate, but the very nice strip of slush down the middle and the occasional icy inside puddle kinda twitchy to say the least but i made it home unscathed.

Part 2- After the easy morning spin round the lanes I decided I would step it up a little bit and head onto the turbo for some muscle busting, hard resistance work.

Don't really know how to make turbo sound exciting so I wont ruin it by training, so below is what I did make of it what you can, but I'm pretty sure its beneficial.....

10 mins warm up

10 mins 52/12 (resistance 5/5) stud up 

10 mins 52/12 (resistance 5/5) seated

5 mins fast spin

10 mins- 5 x 30 second sprints @ 1 1/2 minute intervals

15 mins warm down

Unfortunately I didn't have the cadance sensor or heart rate fitted but for the 1st turbo session this winter I don't think will hurt.

Wednesday 7th December- Hurricane class winds, torrential rain and sub 5 degrees temperatures it was another day for the pool, and boy was it going to be a tough 2nd swim (all my fault) but you got to love pushing it!! Now Obviously using this alternative training for benefit on the bike i thought swimming with a board and just doing leg kick would be a great idea. So i set myself a plan for the days swim. 

2 sets of :-10 lengths kick

                16 lengths front crawl

                10 lengths kick    

                16 lengths front crawl 

This took me to have done 1 mile front crawl and 40 lengths kicking, i thought well its only another 24 lengths and I've done 2 miles, so i got on with it, 2 miles came and past and i ended up doing a total of 2 and a half miles. Which showed its effect in the last 10 lengths resulting in me cramping and looking like an idiot mid lengths like someone who needs a red ring throwing round them and pull to the side, but i got out had a stretch and finished the job at hand .... something I always try and do

                

+ 46 lengths front crawl and 10 more kick for good measure

Thursday 8th December- Today was by far the worse day of the week, trees down everywhere, roads flooded, people been advised not to travel,  thankfully today clashed with a local club Christmas dinner, which weeks in advance I'd put my name down for, honest!! a day out in the car just happened to be on this not so lovely day. The club isn't really a club but a group of still pretty fit old boys who meet at the local cafe  every Tuesday and Thursday for a good distance ride around the dales. I used to go out with them every holiday off school when I was 15 &16 polishing off a good 80-90 miles each ride. so every occasion I can I still meet with them for the monthly dinners and Christmas gatherings.

Friday 9th December- Another split day first off it was going to be 2 turbo sessions but I decided it would be a short but leg burning turbo in the morning and a steady loosening pool session in the afternoon. Again I wont bore you with rambling about a turbo session, I'll just put the figures below to show what it was all about, However this time i had been more prepared and got the cadance sensor fitted and chucked a new battery in the heart rate band, numbers were there!!! and cyclist love to see numbers, well good ones anyway...

Turbo 45 minutes total

0-10 mins warm up           rpm  92 HR113 avg-141 max

10-20 mins resistance 3/5  rpm 95  HR161 avg 169 max

20-30 mins resistance 4/5  rpm 95  HR 179 avg 184 max

30-45 mins warm down                  HR 169 avg- 183 max

After the Turbo i kicked back on the sofa and watched a film, knowing I'd done some good work. Then it was a matter of sweetening  mother up for a lift to the pool. Idid a mile and half steady away with breaks every 16 lengths or so. 

So a good weeks work done, I kick back for the weekend now and get some odd jobs done and earn some penny's all a build up for what I hope to be a great 2012 season, sorry to ramble in places but how can you tart up something that's pretty simple!! stay tuned for of what else I'm up to, maybe another cross cross race is on the cards and some bush beating with them pheasants>>> cheers for reading

         

What's happened since the first post!!

Well the week before I created this blog, I decided I would buy a cyclo cross bike for winter training and maybe to do a few races on too. Well I couldn't resist as soon as the wheels went in the bike I couldn't wait to have a dabble. The Following weekend I did a race in Myrtle park, Bingley. The gap between my ability and the top lads was huge it was so hard, setting off like a Kermess race but  running up steps, negotiating trees and jumping off the bike, which was all new to me but i plugged away and finished respectably,  falling off a few times on the technical parts of the course but its only mud!!!

 The Following week I couldn't bring myself to change the tyres and was hooked on riding off road. On the Tuesday I decided I would ride to a cafe at Airton about an hour & a quarter ride on bridleways, sections of canal and through fields, running with the bike slung over my shoulder when ever it got a bit to tricky to ride, so a good 2 1/2 hours had getting plastered.

Wednesday- I thought I would just have a quick rip round the local lanes through the Paythorne, Hellifield, Winterburn and Gargrave area, but still with the fast moving cx tyres on another track became to tempting. This time to those of you who know the area, it was from Hetton to Gordale Scar, Malham,  a real tough pull 50% on a old rough drover road and then into fields and across bordley moor "riding on grass is harder than it looks" climbing up to an altitude of 377 meters above sea level. Then the fast road decent down into malham, where i found myself running out of brake block!!!!! again absolutely plastered in mud i was a site for the local WI at the cafe!! But another great 3 hours in the saddle had!!

Thursday- I had get the road tyres back on! a road ride with my mate sam was calling. Today it was through the lanes to settle, then a long pull up to ribblehead "witha  beast of a tail wind" round to Ingleton and back through clapham and home. A really good 3 and 3/4 hours through cracking scenery.

Friday- A steady spin about 2 hours with my mate john to the local cafe and then to Wilks Racing  stores for some much needed new over shoes and gloves, oh hang I mean his wardrobe!!!!


Sunday- Today was a good day, I had arranged to meet my mate Daniel Patten Who I lived in Belgium with this year in the Peak District for a Publicity ride, which was organised by and to publicise ONIX bikes. The ride was based from Langley near Macclesfield  and took in some great countryside, most notably the cat and fiddle climb, which was made even more eventful with unbelievably strong winds "so strong as i was riding with David Harmon he just kinda disappeared of the road" I mean I know chatting to me sometimes is a bit much but no ones ever gone to such lengths before!! All in all though it was a nice day and good excuse to ride on some different roads.  That afternoon Dan came back up to my place to about 5 days riding in my neck of the woods. For some Yorkshire tea and maybe some caramel slice....... a long standing joke!!!

Cat and fiddle with David Harmon, Ken Jones and Dan Patten.

Monday- After a nice steady ride on the sunday in the peaks, i decided Monday would be a nice 3 1/2 hours around the dales, showing Dan what the north has to offer as far as great cycling roads are concerned! and I think he really enjoyed it, at times I was listening to myself and think I sounded a bit like a guided bus holiday, "over there is...., just down there on the left is......"

Tuesday- Now today was a different kettle of fish, is wasn't a day for the bike but a completely different kind of exercise. The North of England is famous for its Grouse moors and in winter as part of my training and just as importantly my bank balance I go grouse beating, flushing game birds out for the pleasure of the Gentry to shoot, from lords and ladies to I'm quite proud to say Royalty!! Its hard walking, bad weather and great for building fitness, so me and Dan went on the moors for the day on my local shoot!! Petrol money for his journey back to SUNNY essex!!!

Wednesday- Back to two wheels and another great ride with Dan Patten and Sam Boast, a good 3 1/2 hours through single track lanes to Wharfedale, up round the Hubberhome triangle and the back down the valley to the cafe, which was much needed after a strong 20 mile head wind!! But no caramel slice we had to do with scone and cakes!!!!

Thursady- Today me and Dan met up with Craig Middleton, Onix bikes,  for a good leg spinner round the Ribble valley and a coffee and cake at waddinton cafe!! I don't think we had a flat bit of road all day and the car count on the road was in single figures "GREAT"!!!!

Friday- Today it was Salue Manneke Patten, the long drive south awaited and a day chopping wood awaited me but you gotta have a rest sometime!!

Saturday- And then today Saturday, for me another day trogging over the moors flapping my flag, hard walking this time through hip high heather!! 

Hope you've enjoyed reading this blog, i'm sure theres no other like it............. Yorkshire tea and a caramel slice!!!