Popped up to have some lunch with mum on Sunday – for her 71st birthday today. Lovely but brief visit. Went out to Kitridding Farm for some smashing lunch and then went for a play on the new play equipment in Kirkby Lonsdale. I made a short film too – was in the mood.
Everyone knows that second place is the first loser. I’m happy with that. Three weeks and a day after a general anaesthetic, a night in North Manchester Hospital and a few painful days of ‘peeing red’, most people would be happy with just riding their bike. That’s why I’m happy as I’ve been in a long time. This short page in my cycling book has been a pretty turbulent one but it seems to be creating a happy ending a bit sooner than I’d have thought.
Continue reading “First loser. A big win.”
First MTB race in what feels like a very very long time. A very low key affair in Bolton last Thursday evening. Some splendid snaps from Ed Rollason Photography tell the tale perfectly. Continue reading “Back to Mountain Bike Racing (Photo Story)”
I’m 42 and had my first fit yesterday. You might think it’s young to have your first fit. For me, it’s about 26 years later than it ought to have been.
With a mix of health problems cropping up over the last year or so from bad backs to kidney stones to even more bad backs, I took it on myself to see a Chinese Physiotherapist recommended by Alan (crossjunkie). The experience was quite enlightening (aside from the fact that she told me I had a very very weak kidney pulse – prophetic, to say the least, a few days before my diagnosis). One of the major things that Leslie (she herself isn’t Chinese… but the practice is!) mentioned was assumption that I had my bike all fitting me well and I’d been measured up, etc. Time to fess up… I hadn’t. Ever. Been fitted for a bike. Ever.
I’d seen a promotional video about Planet X’s Retul fitting service and decided the time had come for me to arrange a session… ‘just in case’ anything I’d been doing for the last 25 years or so was a bit wrong.
I had indeed been doing things a bit wrong. Well… a bit more than a bit actually.
I called my bike sugar daddy Brant to see if I could book a fitting.
I’d just taken delivery of a very very handsome Planet X N2A bike so with the brand new bike only a couple of rides old I headed down to Rotherham. Aside from the fitting itself, this whole things was a real treat. Kid in a sweet factory. You get the picture. This is a big shop and a bigger warehouse. Mmmmmmm! The fact that I’ve been riding for Planet X for six months or so but never made the time to get down to their place was playing on my mind, so the fitting made the perfect opportunity.
I was greeted by Chris Last – Planet X’s soigneur and an experienced cyclist who took me through the Retul process amidst a mass of fairly untamed cycling chit chat from both our mouthes. Chris’ experience of local riders over the last few years overlapped a bit of my time in Sheffield in the early 90s and it was great to chat away whilst simultaneously finding out my bike was pretty hilariously adjusted. Watching a stick man of myself on the screen, live, is a strange enough experience, but watching a cramped up one made it very plain to my eyes that something wasn’t really right. Through an hour or so of careful adjustment, bit by bit, we corrected all those bad angles, until everything fell within the right tolerances. New bike or no new bike, I had been riding a saddle that was 35mm too low and it seems I had been for quite some time. Talk about having a fit. Shocking, mildly embarrassing (but I’m bigger than that and I can take it), and all in all a bit of a revelation.
So… one day later, I gave the bike a really good kicking yesterday for 90 mins and over a couple of big climbs in a bloody headwind and crappy drizzle. All held up really well and if I could summarize the change I’d say that I feel like I’m getting the sort of power down that I would have done in the past by standing up. Makes sense really.
So once you’ve all stopped laughing at my “discovery”, spare a thought for how this bodes for someone who has suffered from lower back pain. Watch out… here I come. The final word goes to a certain person I know who commented: “It’s a bit like when I went to get myself properly measured for a bra in my mid 30s. I’d been wearing a 36C – then I found out I was actually a 32F”. The minor details count, but the big details count more.
Video below of the experience and if you like my soundtrack you can hear it in full here
“Eeeeehh they all grow up too fast don’t they?”, etc. etc.
Elsie turned four yesterday, much to our amazement and mild mourning of an era in our house starting to end. She’s our littlest one and she’s pretty much out of pre-school-dom now, and it’s exciting and fun but does make one feel ever so slightly melancholy.
But come what may it’s an achievement worth celebrating. There are many occasions in the last few years when I’d thought she could never get to the age of four without some period in prison. 🙂
She’s certainly living life to the full and making every minute count – a lesson to us all. Happy Birthday, Elsie.
We opted for a smallish get together with a few friends rather than the full troupe from nursery, and were gifted the kind of weather you can only dream of for a party.
I made a film (below or here) – with help from the lovely version of Summertime by Jim Hall and Pat Metheney – and took a few photos here on Flickr.
Happy days.
I’ve had a back ache.
It’s been a heck of a year so far. I’m reflecting at the moment on a health scare of relatively small proportion but the fact that it happened kickstarts the brain into overdrive.
If you’re not in my SMS circle or following me on Twitter, let me start with the ailment:
In February I went for a run up Ingleborough in fairly tough conditions but nothing out the of ordinary, and pee’d blood. Just a bit, in fact, not enough to even register with me at the time that it was blood, but just a really blackcurrent-dark colour. I put it time to dehydration and being a bit under the weather and tired when I ran hard up a mountain in the cold.
I took a silly gamble in brushing it under the carpet, man-style. That was a bit daft, in retrospect. Last Monday I had a wake up call and the same happened. Really red. I was busy but the gamble hadn’t paid off and it was a no-brainer to get myself checked out. The GP tested and said – yes – very positive for blood, get thee to a consultant very quickly. I’m 42… it’s not like I’m retirement age or something. I just expects body to work. Is that too much to ask?
The NHS experience (all to familiar for me in recent years!) is just fantastic. One of those things that makes me proud to be British. Consultants, nurses, specialists all have been super-efficient, fast, friendly, fantastic, and in the space of just over a week I have been to basic positive test through three (on time!) appointments and a diagnosis. I have a couple of kidney stones. Nothing major, and that is of massive relief, but a little too large to ‘pass’ in the unthinkable common way. So an operation beckons. The chapter is not closed, but I’m a relieved man. I’m expecting a pretty small operation to zap the 9mm bullets stuck in my ureter just above my bladder and that, as far as I can tell, should be the end of it. I’m already very happy, even though I haven’t even had an operation yet. You know how it goes with scares. The big C was preying on my mind, having lost my Dad when I was nine to what started with back ache. He died of lymphoma within 6 months. Unwarranted and knee jerk worrying, I’m sure, but this is the domain of those mind games.
Here’s what I’ve learned, anyway:
So.. heading towards the next few days and this operation thingie, I’m already feeling like I’m over it. Maybe even that I might just stop feeling knackered every time I run or ride a bike, and just maybe I might get over this back problem and be able to put enough watts down through my pelvis again to start feeling like I’m not a past it old guy. Fingers crossed.
Even if nothing else, I’ll get to lose a stone very quickly.
Been too long since our last family trip to Scotland just over 2 years ago and we were all very excited to get a holiday booked on the Isle of Arran this Easter. It has all the necessary aspects of a good family holiday venue for us Haygarths. More outdoors stuff than you can shake a stick of driftwood at, wildlife, mountains, beaches… just great. Continue reading “Easter Holiday on Arran”
The trails are ripe again. It’s a great thing in about our famously unpredictable climate – that a spell of good weather really uplifts you. I have been physically uplifted, too, once more, by my legs, to nearby Cragg Quarry – “a fantastic spot when the trails are hot and a load of grot when the trails are not hot”. Forgive me.
Continue reading “Lancifornia 2012 – the dust is back”
Bezzy mate Alan ‘Crossjunkie‘ Dorrington’s ‘own’ ride – the Ronde Van Oost Lancashire – is in its fourth year now and growing exponentially in popularity each time round. It’s on the 31st March this year and I’m getting all little-biy-excited again for a lovely “grovel on the cobble” day out. Especially good this year is that it’s going to turn out to be a bit of a school reunion for me with – hopefully – Phil (brother), Tolly, Rich Bardgett and Rich Hannaford. That truly is a treat and I haven’t ridden with some of those people for 20 years!
Continue reading “Ronde Van Oost Lancashire 2012 – the trailer”
Time is of the essence. Everything’s a rush. That makes these trips – even the tiniest of mini breaks very valuable. All the fun of a few days was concentrated in expert fashion this weekend in around 27 hours with Dips, Jane and the girls in Oxford. Continue reading “Mini mini break in Oxford”
A short March 1st Video to celebrate a play on my new Planet X Ti prototype… only about 160 sleeps to go….
Never stop learning. Never stop being addicted to cycling. This weekend was something new all round, but it’s still just pedalling. Continue reading “Pedalling: New Drugs and Learning a lesson”
