Almscliffe

Good 20m ride to Almscliffe with Jonathan and his friend Jezz. Jezz's first cycle for a while so bit slower than usual, but nice recovery ride for me after yesterday.

Biblong tights!

Due to a combination of my old cycling tights falling to pieces and suffering a cold back from the top layers riding up, I invested in a pair of Endura biblong tights. Never worn these before and to be honest they look horrific, but I can see that they will be good for keeping the back warm. Will try them out tomorrow!

York

Wanted to do a 50-ish miler today, but I like to have a destination in mind, so opted for a ride to York (ca. 66m)

Not a wonderfully inspiring route (apart from the cool inversion layer 2 miles from home - see below), but good to hav an extended ride and my legs felt it at the end.

Inversion Layer

The bike outside York Minster

Leeds Loop

Decent 25 m circuit into Leeds tonight. Bit of rain/sleet which made things a bit hard going (and very cold) but good to get out still.

Ilkley 15

Briony late home so late night cycle to stick to the plan. Very foggy and cold, but a decent ride nonetheless.

Weekly Plan

I like a schedule. I need a schedule. Here's my schedule.

Week Commencing 22.02.10
Monday Light weights
Tuesday Free
Wednesday 15m road
Thursday 25m road
Friday Weights (FAIL - had a curry!)
Saturday 50m road (65m)
Sunday 15m off-road (20m road)

Weekly Mileage 105m (125m)

More snow

More snow fell overnight so I didn't fancy taking the road bike out. Instead, I opted for the expedition bike and thought I'd follow a road which I saw yesterday while on the road bike. It was a good decision as the road soon became a track through a beautiful pine forest which then became a moorland trail through heather and deep, deep snow drifts (had to carry the bike for a mile!). Great descent along tracks until I picked up the road again at the top of Denton and flew back to Otley.

Stupidly I forgot to take my mobile phone with me on this ride and also forgot my watch so I had no idea what time it was. I was supposed to get back to collect Beth and only just made it (by luck rather than good judgement). Although I took a map and some warmer clothing in case of an emergency, I was stupid not to take my phone or wallet or anything else with in such conditions. Lesson learned.

As it happens, everything went well and I really enjoyed being out on the moor with no-one else in sight.

Training begins

Started the training today after the Highland jaunt kickstarted things. Cycled a hilly and extremely cold 29m across the moor and into the Dales National Park, along to Bolton Abbey, Addingham, Ilkley and back to Otley.

Felt tired as still a bit of lactic acid in the legs from Scotland, but a very enjoyable ride nonetheless.

Train

On the train to Edinburgh. Another one complete.

Dunkeld

Last food stop before Perth

Escape Route

Made it to a cool bike shop. Phil's bike is on the mend :-)

Check out Escape-Route outdoor shop!

Day 5

Heading off to Perth. Cracking day.

Day 4 more

We Phil made it back to me with a second hand wheel lacking a couple
of gears!! But he could now pedal, which was handy since we had to go
the 30 miles in 2 hours with the snow following us and it getting dark.

But we've made it to Pitlochry and may even celebrate with a beer

Deer me

And his bike was loaded in to the back of the van with 15 dead deer!!
Very weird site!! Still smiling!!

Sent from my iPhone

Day 4 Major problems!!

This is Phil pretending to ride his bike!! Pedals turned, back cogs
didn't!!! Oops. So we free wheeled down hills and pushed up for 5
miles. Then when next to the loch again a kind delivery man took Phil
and his bike the 15 mile back to a cycle shop in Newtownmore! While I
cycled alone and cold in the snow to Dalwhinnie. Getting there only to
find the only eating place in the village didn't open til March!!!

So I'm sending this freezing from a bus shelter hoping he gets sorted.
I love winter expeditions ;-)

Day 3 cont

Oh and the bridge was not quite what we expected either! Another hour
of pushing the bikes through peat and snow later we made the bothie
and lit a roaring fire and ate pasta. This made up for all the slog
it took getting here! Beautiful.

Day 3

Met a security guard for lunch. It was we thought at the time good
fortune. The bothie Phil had mention earlier in our planning phase
seemed to be inaccessible due to snow. However Bob informed us it was
possible to get there on mountain bikes!!! So after telling us he
would leave us some logs by the bridge we set off. Very scenic to
Dalwhinnie and the 5 mile along the banks of Loch Ericht. It was the 5
miles after that 'off road' that was the problem. But I have to say if
you look closely on the pictures below, there were loads of deer!!

Bike cleaning time. Just done lunch at Newtonmore

Day 2

Heading out of Inverness we seemed to climb for hours!

Then we hit snow! Tough going for while

Departing

Leaving Inverness in the rain. Heading for Aviemore. Only 45 miles

Inverness for tea with the family

:)

Train

Still on the train. Getting snowy. 'A frozen hell hole of a place'
according to Phil

Inverness bound

You'll be pleased to know I made connection. Ran across station
bumping people out of the way and made it with a huge 30 seconds to
spare. Now relaxed on train looking out over beautiful Scottish hills.

Sent from my iPhone

The Journey

Great start. Just seen Phil in Newcastle, they wouldn't let me on his
train. Mine running 20 mins late so there is a very good chance I'll
miss connection to Inverness. Then I'll be buggered!

Sent from my iPhone

The Start

Made it to station. Bit wobbly with all this weight. Sure I'll get
used to it by Wednesday!!

Prep

I'm thinking about being ready!!

In Preparation...

...for the additional Winter trip this year, I have been doing a lot of cycling over the last couple of weeks and today I went out on the fully loaded bike which I will be using to cycle from Inverness to Perth next weekend.



And here is some great stuff I found for keeping sunglasses fog free even on the coldest days with warm balaclava breath being sent directly onto the lenses. Doesn't sound great, but does seem to work!

Broken bike

Went for a ride wth Jonathon and Dom. Cycled up to Bramhope to meet them, but lost all drive on the free hub on the way back down to Otley. So ditched the road bike and tagged along with the expedition bike (fat tyres still!).

Rode along to Ilkley, up the Middleton loop and back along the back road.

Good ride but much harder work to keep up!