Berwyn arrival.

-3°C to -6°C (at summits). Brisk NE, mostly sunny.
February mountain day! There’s a first.

image

The morning after.

Arrived yesterday about 6pm as it got dark. The camp owner fixed of us with some firewood and directions. I drove down the pastel track to the field but got the car stuck in the bottom corner. The mud was fees and gummy. The priority was to sit.I the tent and make food. The car can stay where it is for the night.
But there was an odd noise in the field.
For the first time I used firestarters with no kindling. Surprised, it worked quite easily. Sitting to fact your supper under a cold clear sky is, under these circumstances, a pure pleasure. It was so clear that even under a bright first quarter, the stars and clusters were in sharp contrast. Not far from the moon were the Pleiades.
There’s also little white lights of a another kind- horses. They hung their heads over the gate to greet. Some horses are agreeably good looking like the one in Poldark. Here were not those horses. The Shetland pony was especially ugly, a real bag of spanners.
After fixing the fire, next was time to cook. This is also the time snow started to fall. There’s another first- prepare a meal in snowfall. The tricky bit, apart from handling the pans with cold hands was visibility. Each flake was bright in the headtorch beam. In the contrast, more distant objects were harder to make out.
Eventually, fed and watered, I sat by the fire reading and occasionally looking up at the stars that appeared from time to time.
By bedtime, the whole sky had cleared and temperatures fell hard and fast.

Quicker

I rode The Jake with MapMyRide+! Distance: 18.33mi, time: 01:26:13, pace: 4:42min/mi, speed: 12.75mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1345027265
Much faster today. The puddles are shrinking and surfaces firmer. In response, I put the hammer down. This north east wind is piercing though. It eats through your clothes and bites your skin underneath.
I did set off with the intention of riding the ‘cross. The fixed gear Paddy Wagon has a flat rear tyre. So it seemed series, at the time, to jump on the Jake.

Planning a hike.

Maybe next week:  Cadair Berwyn just beyond the Welsh border.
It’s approximately 800m high on a ridge with soft heathery slopes on the west and cliffs, opposite,
With luck, the weather will be terrible. Mist would be great, or blazing sunshine, either really. The sun brings colour, the mist brings interesting navigation.
I want to camp there for at least one night. I have never camped in February before.
Continue reading

Favourite route, 1 st. Lighter.

I rode Fixed. with MapMyRide+! Distance: 51.99mi, time: 03:42:53, pace: 4:17min/mi, speed: 13.99mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1337951053
Climbed Bannister Hill for the first time in ages, possibly six months. Last time I went up weighing about a stone more. It still felt hard though, but my lungs didn’t feel as though they were about to turn inside out.
image

A very satisfying day’s ride.

First proper Sunday 50.

9°C, no rain but very wet roads, minor flooding in places. Storm Henry is brewing up.
I rode Arrow with MapMyRide+! Distance: 49.59mi, time: 03:44:52, pace: 4:32min/mi, speed: 13.23mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1329584081

I’ve worked hard today. Up before five, catalogued more LPs, marked for 4 hours, then rode all afternoon.

First proper Sunday ride of ’16. Windy, wet roads often covered in mud. The average speed is quite low and it all felt like wading through treacle. Another week to build up should improve on that. I have lost form during the previous fortnight. With patience and effort, I can pull it back soon.
Easter is early this year, so the question remains, will I get the usual 1 thousand miles done in time?

Found a new cafe today in Shackerstone. Well, new to me it is. The place was empty; these places do struggle in January each year. However, the guy running it was very amiable and probably appreciated some company. I shall go back in the next few months. It will probably fill with steam train people in the summer. The coffee smelt good but I opted for tea, can’t risk disrupted sleep.
I took no photos today, so here’s one from yesterday:
image
What are you doing in my kitchen, it’s still January?
I carefully lifted her off with a piece of paper, then put her in the first place I could think of- a Spider plant pot.

Try cyclocross they said…

6°C, sunny with moderate SW. very muddy all over.
I rode The Jake with MapMyRide+! Distance: 17.43mi, time: 01:52:19, pace: 6:27min/mi, speed: 9.31mi/h.
http://mapmyride.com/workout/1327847005
Endless deep mud. It makes the going quite slow. The worst stretches returned an average 8 mph. It was tremendous fun though. That was the first outing on the ‘cross. Some stretches were such a quagmire that I had to jump off and run. There was lots of side slipping and the ever present threat of a cold water dunking in the canal.

image

Need to clean this better.

Slime tubes work in an interesting way. I pulled the cross bike out to find flat rear tyre. Slime tubes will self seal if you put some pressure in. Even better, if you can find the leak, you can see green blood bubbling out. The trick is to turn the wheel so that the leak is at the bottom. That way, the slime inside the tube will seep towards the puncture.
As I have been ill recently, the bike has stood still for a few weeks. This is a problem because if you spin a wheel, it feels very unbalanced. The slime has probably gathered at the bottom and added weight there.

By the way, I’m fully recovered.

Kona, 1 year.

One year ago, I bought my Kona Jake. Remember how excited I was? In that time, I clocked up almost 1,000 miles on it add have no regrets about the choice. I clearly remember those nervous outings on slimy surfaces. Contrast that with improved bike handling now. It’s a transferable skill, I ride the commuting bike on muddy lanes less cautiously these days. There’s justification for a CX bike in anybody’s stable.

image

A good purchase.

Coldest day, (annual average)

1°C, sunny, quite nice really.
Sent home. So unwell despite driving in to work. My tutor group is upstairs and the two flights emptied my energy. Nearly at the right room, I saw their previous Form Tutor and had to ask her to register them.
One of the managers could see the state I was in and ordered me home.

Home. Sleep.

Soup for lunch and noticed birds interested in the feeders I put out on Saturday. Four Coal Tits, 2 Blue Tits and a pair of blackbirds.
image

Spring is coming. Feeling grotty again after the avian excitement, Plas-y-Brenin rang. About the query yesterday, this guy was more upbeat about my question: “How do I know whether I am ready for assessment?”.
Optimism shot up after his opinion. I’m going for the easter date. It only gives a week before the Silver and Gold training.
There, I have a plan:

Practise more micro-navigation,
Read up on legislation,
Practise timing against our route cards.

There are two more stages:
1 camp skills Module,
2 Mountain Leader Qualification.
3 feel a warm satisfied glow.

Weekend at home.

-2°C, clear, rain has frozen, treacherous outside.
Snow is coming. Today could be a brief window where I can grab a ride between melting ice and the predicted snowfall. This week’s milage is low, and despite a one mile swim on Thursday, I am restless. Very restless.
This bad tempered, fidgety feeling is exacerbated by work stress.