My weekend of riding

I spent Friday and Saturday in the saddle. On Friday I headed out to the Peak District in search of hills as I thought this would be representative of my challenge ride in September. Really glad I conquered Mam Tor which sits between Edale and Castleton. I approach the hill (mountain??) from the Edale side as a colleague at work (thanks Dave M) mentioned it was slightly more challenging from that end. The climb has featured on my 'bucket list' of rides ever since I got seriously into cycling, so I am really pleased with the achievement this weekend.

What I wasn't prepared for was the decent into Castleton on the other side. The road signs do not point to Castleton and I ended up doing another min climb back from the Blue-john cavern after realising I took the wrong track. Once I got onto the right track I had the 10% drop into Castleton which seems to descent forever. This was really scary. The ground was wet, and lots of pressure was applied to the brakes to stop the bike from running away. I haven't checked the stats, but I reckon I averaged 5mph all the way down. Lots of things were going through my head on that descent and non of them were good. My mind was playing tricks on me and I was imaging smoke coming out of the rear disc brake. The front brake was screaming like a banshee, which drew attention of every hiker in the valley to me. Once I was safely down, I made a bee-line back for Sheffield and home. 66.8miles in the bag.

On Saturday, I was back in the saddle again at 7.00am. Isaac my eldest had a two hour football practice session which finished by 12.00. We had lots planned for the day, so I set my alarm on my mobile for 2hours 30minutes. I was a case of see how for you can get along the usual route before I turned back. I was sore, but the legs soon eased of as I began spinning the pedals, but the arse was a bit uncomfortable. Despite that I achieved a lot in the ride. From home I rounded Mexborough and went the full length of Manvers, before heading out toward Pontefract via Barnsley. I stopped in a place called Brierley for a quick time check and a bite to eat. I had clocked 1hr20mins, so thought Pontefract would be about my limit in the time given. How wrong was I? Pontefract, came and went, as did Knottingley and as I approached Eggborough I was beginning to think that the phone had packed in. I stopped off at another regular point for refueling and was delighted to see that I had another 10 minutes spare. I had gone far enough by that point, and decided to head back. Oddly, this ride also clocked up 66.8miles... bizarre!!

The objective of this weekend, was to achieve 3 rides back to back totalling nearly 200miles. I will not achieve this as I fear that another 60-70miles will cause an injury in the nether region. I have learned a lot about myself this weekend, I performed 2 fixes on the fly (rear derailleur and crank arm coming loose), I know I have enough energy in my body to go the distance, the only sticking point is saddle comfort so I'm off to the bike shop to see if I can get a better saddle.

Top of Mam tor in peak district

What a climb!!!

If you can't beat em... join em!!

OK, its confession time.

I get on at the kids for playing on the xbox and playstation too much and for constantly tapping me for money to buy virtual Downloadable Content (or DLC for short). This usually comes in the form of a map that Isaac (my eldest) needs so that he can battle it out with his mates on Call of Duty, or a new random custome that Jacob (my youngest) needs for his Sack Boy avatar on Little Big Planet.

Anyway, on the Diet and Fitness website that I participate on, I signed up for a Tour De France challenge, where teams of nine try and clock as many miles as possible during the event. As part of the challenge I have been awarded a virtual dossard to sport on my profile pic, and here it is...

So there we are... please don't tell the kids.

Easy does it... home commute

Took it steady on the commute home tonight. Got a flat on the road to Murder-hell. Fixed it in good time, but the tyre lifted out of the rim, so I let some pressure out to prevent a blow out, but best to go slow in those circumstances. Decided that cleaning the cassette, chain and derailleurs was also a good idea whilst I fixed the flat. That was my evening, beats Corry!! The route planning for the weekend rides will have to wait while tomorrow evening now.

June 30th milestone approaching

Ok. Strava says my ytd mileage is 2,748. The commute home and tomorrow's commute should add 30miles to that total. So if I am to hit the big 3,000 by month end I need to put in 222 miles. I set myself a target at the beginning of the year of doing 100 miles in a single ride. Guess this weekend is the right time for that along with 2 100km ride to get me over the line. Just a case now of deciding what order to do them in. Will sit on that for a while and update later. ;-)

Hello

If you are reading this post. I am just getting started with a blog documenting my journey towards a 3 day 195 mile ride in September from Wales to Stonehenge in aid of the new Stonehenge visitors center.

I have literally created this blog in five minutes before I go to work, which I will work on when I get home tonight. Thank you for visiting and please don't forget to call back regularly. A special thanks if you have donated to my Virgin Just giving account which can be found at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/CarlBirch