Author: Dave Haygarth

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Blackburn Grand Prix – Back in Black(burn)

I spent a strange but ace year of my education at Blackburn College in 1990/91 and it’ll always hold some great memories for me. This evening I rode in the town centre race there and had a good ride. I’m glad I did – I was starting to get concerned.

When you have bad days and little dips in form now and then, you generally deal with it and wait for it to pass.

When you have a bad day then another then another and you’re 39 (and a half), you start to think that maybe the bubble’s burst… your time’s come, and you’re not going to regain any semblance of form. Ever. Continue reading “Blackburn Grand Prix – Back in Black(burn)”

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Coniston – Grizedale Mountainbike Triathlon – biting off more than I could chew

An interesting day today for me – what I entered into as a bit of a challenge turned out to be a true test for me – physically (to an extent) – but largely psychologically.

In early May, Katie and I were looking at the Westmorland Gazette and I was feeling down in the dumps about being laid up with a broken collarbone. When Katie spotted the Coniston-Grizedale Mountainbike Triathlon was open for entries, she suggested I give it a go. It was a good idea – I’ve done three sprint triathlons before and despite being a slow and cumbersome swimmer, I’ve always done well. The notion of a full on mountainbike, lake swim, fell run off-road triathlon in the Lake District just seemed a great challenge. And what a formidable challenge it was. Continue reading “Coniston – Grizedale Mountainbike Triathlon – biting off more than I could chew”

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Grizedale North Face loop – a mad evening dash

I grabbed at a small window of opportunity this evening when mum had invited Lily to go to the theatre in Lancaster – to see The Jungle Book. I thought I’d throw the MTB in the car and belt up to Grizedale for a quick dash round the North Face Loop there. With an off-road triathlon coming up at Coniston on Sunday that includes a lap of the loop, I was keep to suss out just how much technical stuff there was to decide how to set up the bike. Continue reading “Grizedale North Face loop – a mad evening dash”

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A Lancashire Heat Wave? Well – it’s not been bad.

It’s amazing how a bit of warm weather makes life so pleasurable.  Home life for the past week seems to have been a perpetual cycle of playing in the garden, going to the park, sitting outside, eating outside, riding bikes and generally not being indoors to do much other than work and sleep.  I even heard talk of a heat wave earlier today ont he radio – the very prospect thrills me, I must say. Continue reading “A Lancashire Heat Wave? Well – it’s not been bad.”

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An overnight visit to Kirkby Lonsdale

We had our first overnight stopover at mum’s house in ages this weekend. It’s been an odd year with the sleep patterns of a baby and going to someone’s house has generally represented hassle for me since Elsie came along, but she’s been sleeping so well for the last few weeks and Katie & I wanted to get oursleves out for a meal without children – so going to see mum was a really ace opportunity to kill a whole flock of birds with a very small stone.

On top of it all, the sun shone despite a dreadful forecast.

I had two ace bike rides – one on the way up; the ‘usual’ way over Gisburn Forest I ride – and the next morning I opted for a (mildly hungover) hilly and gobsmackingly scenic ride from Kirkby Lonsdale to Barbon, Dent, Deepdale and Kingsdale – on my way to Katie’s family’s house in Ingleton. Continue reading “An overnight visit to Kirkby Lonsdale”

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MTB Ride: Mary Townley Loop

Had a lovely day today. My training rides these days tend to be not much more than an hour in length. This has its advantages – you can go out and totally hammer yourself for an hour or so and get all the training benefit; I really believe that if you want to be fit to race well you can gain little from pounding out the miles. Greg Lemond agreed too in an excellent article in one of last year’s ProCycling magazine articles.

However, training theories aside, there comes the odd day when you really just fancy a long ride on yer bike! Continue reading “MTB Ride: Mary Townley Loop”

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A slow recovery

I had my checkup earlier today at the hospital 34 days after my crash at Lee Quarry that gave me a broken collarbone.  I’m so intrigued about the healing process that my body has gone through so far. When I first had my X-Ray on the day of the fracture, I was a bit shocked to see how clearly ‘snapped’ the bone was – with the two ‘pieces’ about two centimetres apart from each other.
Continue reading “A slow recovery”