Furious Cycling

Trail race up the beast

2009-07-11T20:56:00.002+01:00

I'd like you to focus on the second half of the name of this race, not the first. Poor performance, bottom half. Something Must Be Done. I think the only only explanstion can be that none of the weak people I can normally rely on to make me look good actually turned up, such is the fearsome reputation of The Beast. 4m and 1200', not a lousy bit of flat.

28/45, 34'39"

Moel y Gamelin

2009-06-29T20:49:00.005+01:00

Hot hot hot race. Done a bit of racing lately but not enough training between. Yesterday it showed. Tough race over the hills of Llantysilio Mountain, all four of 'em. And then back over the last two. 9.5 miles and 2700' of climbing. As per usual — what a buffoon — went off too fast. Trying to hold back, but I couldn't help snatching the overtaking opportunities ...and probably lost all of them and a few more in the second half when I was suffering like a dog.

The sting in the tail up Moel y Gamelin for the second time resembled a scene from the trenches. It was a war of attrition out there, sworn enemies sharing water and jelly babies, brave warriors reduced to a shuffle with only the thought of being heckled by Joe[1] at the top pulling them onwards. It was great!

[1] It’s almost guaranteed that wherever you race, our man Joe Beswick will pop up from behind a tree or trig point to shout encouragement. Easily worth a place or two for everyone.

The kids reckon I was 33rd.

Edit: Results 35/71, 1:45'42 from the Wrexham folk.

Roache Rumble

2009-05-21T22:40:00.002+01:00

Superb evening run with Sam and Clive, starting in Danebridge. Up through the forest, under Hangingstone, Back Forest, Roach End, up to the trig, down to the edge of the Roaches, back to trig and Roach End, drop steeply down to the Dane, through the crazy Lud's Church chasm. Follow the Dane back to start. About an hour and half all in. Lovely to get onto the Staffordshire Moorlands again. A bit of me belongs there.

Rainow Five fell race

2009-05-17T09:42:00.003+01:00

Rainow, a friendly little village just outside Macclesfield. Windy evening, shortish race - 5m and 750'. One fierce bank to climb, thankfully soon over, up to the curious White Nancy monument. Along the narrow ridge of Kerridge Hill, quick descent and contour back under the hill. Almost died holding off Ian from the club on the last climb (I'd managed to forget about). Ian's normally way faster than me on the flat, so I was pleased to sneak in front of him. Or maybe he's just training hard...

New course record from Simon Bailey and women's record equalled. 40' 50, 31/86

Many moels to climb

2009-05-04T20:06:00.004+01:00

Clwydian run — Moel Arthur, Pennycloddiau, Moel Y Parc, Pennycloddiau, Moel Arthur, Moel Llys-y-coed, Moel Dywyll, Moel Famau, Moel Dywyll, Moel Llys-y-coed. Distance: a fair bit, ascent: somewhat. Cold, showery, really blustery. New jacket faultless.

Moel y gest house

2009-04-30T21:48:00.001+01:00

Easter week in Portmadoc with the family. Moel y gest just out the back of the holiday house. Ran up four times and never went the same way twice. Some steep lung-busting work on the climbs. Quite technical ground on the top, making routefinding far from obvious.

Great views out to sea, across the estuary and towards Tremadoc and over to Snowdonia proper. About 4 miles and 900' a go. Turns out there was a WFRA race up there the week after. One to get to the frontish and avoid queuing with all the twisty turny singletrack.

Chester Spring 5

2009-04-30T21:43:00.003+01:00

Wed 8 April. Fun race, didn't feel quite so outclassed this year. Knocked over a minute off my 5 mile time. 33'49, 125/347. Nice one West Cheshire.

Edit: beat first V65 this time. Things are looking up, watch out pensioners.

Ribble yell

2009-04-05T21:26:00.007+01:00

Long bike ride today. Yay! First ride of more than a snatched moment or sporadic commute this year. Longest ride on the Pompino by some distance. Tell you what, riding for 4 hours on the fixed makes you realise how often with gears you do a little pocket shuffle, freewheel and raise off the saddle or otherwise 'take the pressure off'. In the second half I was looking for the smallest rise to give an excuse to get out of the saddle.

Trip to Lancaster to visit sister and cousins. Set off hours before the rest of the family and bizarrely we arrived within seconds of each other. Anyway, in the course of crossing at least four different accents, I'm giving it some beans in rural west Lancashire, just by the John Deere showroom, and this old giffer on an ancient Ribble gives that low fist shake you give to the local boy doing surprisingly well in a race against visiting professionals and lets out a fantastically childish 'Gwaaan!'. Cyclists eh, such berks at times, but also the very best of people. Kept me going for ages that little cheer. About 70 miles all in, didn't die.

Llangynhafal loop

2009-03-28T20:59:00.009+01:00

The hills around Moel Famau belied their gentle appearance once again and handed out a severe beating.

Many times during the course of a modest 4.75 miles I wondered what on earth I was doing there. And as for the Great Stone Shoot... surely one visit would be enough to convince a fellow never to return? Not this fool. A rough count of the climbing puts it at around 1150', most of it in around a kilometre. The second half was pretty much unrunnable (although I've no idea what happens at the front of the race).

Woke up with cramp this morning. Events conspired to put me late to registration. A panic-stricken climb across fields to get to the mass start arriving tired, just as 112 runners were leaving. Begged a number from the extremely generous timekeeper with a promise to pay later. He even went to the bother of timing my delay to try to adjust the results. It wasn't long before I was on the back of the field. Passing was a nuisance, and you don't benefit from being dragged along by people of a similar pace. Blah, blah, blah. It was hard, I ran badly, I'll get over it. Total ascent for the race 1750'. Cooked.

Thanks to Alastair Tye for the pic. Great set.

Capenhurst borders league

2009-02-23T15:19:00.003+01:00

A return to racing. Lovely morning, two laps around the Capenhurst 5k course (minus a bit). Running without my watch, plus some time out with the ankle again, so not sure how I was going really. Pretty pleased with the time of 37'12" for (I think) 5.3 miles. Bang on 7s, mustn't grumble.

First back of the Helsby lot, but really need to get fitter and move up a bit. 132/151. Next target is to get in the top half of this club series. And then save another minute and a bit to get ahead of the first V65. A modest target I think.

http://www.bordersleague.org.uk/

I'm a twit, you're a twit

2009-02-17T11:49:00.004+01:00

I've started twittering. Can someone remind me what it's for? twitter.com/steverile. Like anyone cares...

See you on the other side.

An unusual hormone

2009-02-08T23:09:00.005+01:00

Three days riding in a row. Quite remarkable, something of a mojo return going on. Set off in the dying minutes of daylight, after a day at the museum. Still riding at 5:30pm without lights which, for someone slightly obsessive about sunset times and solstices, is a very cheery thought indeed.

Anyway, so I'm at the top of this 'new' hill I've only ever run up and enjoying the unexpected bonus of snow and daylight and set off down the hill, which I know has a kicker halfway. Before I even get there, I'm gathering a good amount of speed (which is hard to get rid of with icy rims and badly maintained v-brakes) and the front wheel's heading straight for this 26" wheel shaped depression. I just know it's going to end with a thump and a whimper and over the bars incident. Somehow I come out the other side and carry on gathering speed and mopping up smiles through the bowl-shaped whoopy turns, and there's an unexpected thumping in my chest. I batter to the bottom and brake for the kissing gate, feeling slightly weak at the knees. Adrenalin rush, it's been a while. No bad thing.

The whispering commute

2009-02-03T15:12:00.002+01:00

What a strange day yesterday was. I figured a ride in would nicely dodge the chaos of an inch of fresh snow, and so it was. Sailed past the long queue of traffic waiting to join the expressway and dodged the new field of broken glass in the underpass. A few beautifully executed fixie skids completed the trip nicely.

Popped out for a run on the heath with Clive in the snow, which was great fun until I went over on the ankle again. xxParental Advisoryxx. Hobbled back. Lots of self pity. Thought I'd seen the back of that.

Turned down Sam's offer of a lift home, after the ankle turned out to be less bad than feared. Bike then. Coccooned in the warm gear with a cap under the helmet and a neck gaiter over the mouth, I kind of got lost in my own space. Everything a bit more real than real. Acutely aware of breathing, traction, cold wind and every passing car. It was a hyper-concentrating trip. The sound deadening blanket of snow. Big fresh flakes occasionally hitting me square in the eye, blinding for a moment. One stretch of downhill was mostly done with the real wheel locked just feeling the subtle shifts of balance and where they sent the bike.

Anyway, no serious death threats, which was nice. So cold though, the gloves just didn't work. Got home and inside and everything shut down. Couldn't concentrate on anything but getting warm.

Helsby Half Marathon

2009-01-24T18:31:00.005+01:00

The organisers always seem to book the weather well in advance for this — another cracking morning. Sunny and cold, not at all like the hail showers the forecast was predicting.

Set off thinking I'd get a bunch of 7'15"-ish miles in and see if I could avoid slowing down too much. In the end, I hung on pretty well to get round in 1h34 and a bit. 4' off my best, where I'd pretty much plateaued three times running. 301/1550 (top 20% statistics fans). Good stuff.

Picture from Dave Pinnington's excellent set.

Town Park XC

2009-01-12T14:05:00.005+01:00

Sunday League event around Town Park Runcorn. I've been coming up here occasionally for a couple of years on lunchtime runs, so it was nice to race there. Shortish and furious race with a couple of climbs. One gratuitous beast with really slippery mud right at the top, followed immediately by a slippery, fast descent.

Someone nudged the thermostat up and turned all the lovely hard frost into lots of sticky mud. Not a bad position, 42nd, helped I think by the County Champs being held the day before.

End of term report

2009-01-06T13:03:00.004+01:00

Satisfactory. Improvement needed in key areas.

Ooh so close!

2008-12-18T14:27:00.002+01:00

I won a meccano set when I was 10. Last night I nearly won something else. 2nd in the club handicap, just over 22' for about 3.3m. Set off quite near the back and, because it was an out and back, I could see how many people were in front by about the half-way point.

As I picked through them I realised I was on for a place. One more fast person to get and someone I knew I could catch. With about 1/2 mile to go I realised I'd overtaken Gareth but not shaken him off. He took me back again and there was not much I could do about it. A long way from fastest — some bloke's very talented son did 17', but with a miserable handicap to claw back.

Bottle of wine prize and free fish and chips for everyone. Splendid!

Stadt Moers XC

2008-12-13T21:34:00.005+01:00

Blimey that was tough! A whole lot harder than Arrowe Park. Lots of mud and an intricate course with lots of turns made cornering a challenge. A grand total of two Helsby vests again - me and Andy - neither of us troubling the results too much, but a good hard work-out was had by all. Just short of 10k I think, which put me into mischief a little. Racing this week at least, rather than making up the numbers with a cold.

A bizarre sequence of events after a lift offer from Clive. We were a few minutes from the race start when we realised we were travelling to entirely different events! His Manchester & District League race was a few miles up the road in St Helens. Ours being the Liverpool League. Clive very kindly took it on the chin and rather than trying to make the start of his run, entered ours as a team of one for West Cheshire. Good man. Shame he left me behind after 2k. Results here.

Arrowe Park cross country

2008-12-10T14:12:00.007+01:00

About 4.5 miles around Arrowe Park up on the Wirral. Felt awful - tail end of a cold - "I'll just go up and watch". Who am I kidding? Anyway, I was surprised to get there and find myself changed into racing kit. I'm guessing about 100+ club runners turned out. Ground frozen solid with some muddy bits that had caught the sun. Smaller loop, plus two big loops.

I'd heard lots of scare stories about how hard x-c events are, and I guess they might seem that way if you do all your running on the road. Anway it seemed like a flat excuse for a fell race to me! Not that I could keep up a decent pace. Faded a bit in the second half. Usual story, went off too fast. Getting giddy, thinking I'm better than I am. 61st overall, 1st counter for Helsby (which isn't saying a lot!). Must get faster.

Turning back the clock

2008-11-10T16:44:00.006+01:00

Man turns back the clock, not in a good way, just catches the hands and stops them spinning rapidly back to a time when he couldn't balance on two wheels.

Missed out on what should have been a cracking weekend away with friends. Managed a little muddy outing Sunday morning. First time off road in a looong time. Funny how you forget, riding a bike, that is. Alarmingly funny.

Comically bad at anything remotely techy, kept putting a foot down on the approach to puddles, you know in case they were fifty foot deep or contained killer whales or something. Confidence. Slowly it came back.

Delamere's changed a fair bit this summer, lots of the spadework has been levelled, presumably by the Forestry covering its back. Some of it's left though. Enough I think, for punters like me to aspire to something. Anyway I found myself looking up from the bottom of No Brains. This used to be the initiation test when I first started. My old mate Steve wrote a rather nice piece on it in Singletrack a couple of years ago. Things have moved on, but it's still some kind of benchmark I think, so I had to go and have a peek from the top.

First attempt I got no more than a few feet down the now deep cut channel at the top and slithered into the slides, whimpering at the drop-off ahead. Really this wouldn't do. Second go, get off the front brake a bit, get off the back of the saddle further (on a 1994 race bike, that started life jey-as-you-like, that's a long way back). Much better. And you know, I got a real sense of achievement from staying in control on something I've done hundreds of times.

Bikes eh. Always the same, always different.

British fell relays

2008-10-19T22:30:00.009+01:00

Well I guess I'll have to stop whinging about the ankle! Today was the FRA British Relay Championship in the Clwyds, and it was great. Helsby were good enough to give me a run in the team of 6, despite the transparent cynicism of joining the club just for a run in these championships.

I was on Leg 3 along with Andy, club captain. Leg 3 is unusual in that you don't get to see where you're going until after you start. You get handed a map and you then need to visit 6 checkpoints, in order, however you see fit to get there. I initially deferred to Andy on the navigation, but it turned out we were pretty evenly matched and stopped each other making poor decisions on the fly. Andy was a bit short on legs later into the run, but that was probably a good thing as it held me back on the descents and stopped my undoing the rehab. Definitely helped having a bit of local knowledge, 2 of the 4 legs were pretty much identical to two of the summer series. I'm guessing our leg was something around 8 miles and 2,000' of climbing.

We were rubbish, I mean really rubbish, a few places up from bottom probably. But we all had a great time, and it's great to rub shoulders with the greats of the sport. Marvellous.

Blocked cyclepath

2008-10-13T10:41:00.004+01:00

The 90's nostalgia boom continues to gather pace. Last week the plaid shirt and Doctor Martens out on the street, this week the return of the bunt out car. Smokin! Quite literally. A little bit spooky wheeling past the still steaming empty hulk.

A Montego Estate I think, can't be many of them left.

Fingers crossed

2008-10-10T09:27:00.004+01:00

Now an expert in strapping techniques and regular customer at Return to Fitness. Several short steady bike rides and a few short runs. Still a bit swollen, not that painful.

Went to watch the Sandstone Trail Race on Sunday, with a few mates racing. Normally something I really look forward to, but good fun to watch. The girls were ace and got stuck in helping out on the water table. Inspiring stuff, got me out for 45' in the evening.

8 miles with the club on Wed night. Went alright. I feel just the kind of cockiness returning that got me into bother last time :)

[1] Apologies for self-absorption. Heck, it's a blog.
[2] Architecture in Helsinki aren't bad.

Fallen!

2008-09-22T14:03:00.004+01:00

Raced the other night. Went really well, 'I'm back!' I thought. Got cocky and ran some hills next day with Sam (never believe his 'easy leg loosener' claims). And then went out with the club in the evening. About 6 miles in and went over again on the ankle. Much foul language later I managed to hobble to the nearest road and get driven home. --> Square One.

In other news, today is apparently the Autumn Equinox. Which would be fine — I love the cool clear days you get at this time of year — but I think I'd like a refund on the Summer. Badly underperforming on a flimsy asset base, it seems to have had a hostile takeover by the season known as Grey. No government help available.

Chariots of fire

2008-09-17T06:57:00.007+01:00

I seem to remember Nigel Havers running along the beach somewhere on the Wirral. You know, back when we could shed a small tear at heroic deeds without irony. I know the track at Bebington featured, could be imagining the New Brighton bit.

Anyway, that brings us circuitously to race 3 of the Wirral Multi Terrain series. He's back! And slower than ever! A curious run and no mistake, and my first in the Helsby green courtesy of Adair's well used spare club vest (shrunken into more of a crop top and a cut likely to be appreciated on the gay scene).

The crunch of 300 pairs of club runner's feet, over the razor-clammed high tide line is definitely new to me. Hard for a mostly flat run. Good fun. About 4 miles, just over 30'. 103 and room for improvement is the best spin I can manage.