Rossendale Triathlon 2007 – no socks, chlorine sweat, and a temporary tattoo.

Temporary TattoI don’t go in for triathlons very much, but there’s one on my doorstep, and it’s great fun to take part. This year’s race, organised in very slick fashion by Rossendale Harriers and Rossendale Leisure Trust, was very successful, attracting 150 entrants. The course, based on 16 lengths of Marl Pits pool, a hilly 14ish mile ride, then a mixed-terrain 5km run, was really enjoyable (if that’s the right word).

No socksDespite being 82nd fastest finisher in the swimming leg (the last time I swam a length of a pool was two years ago in the 2005 Rossendale Triathlon!), I managed to do a good ride in the cycling leg and then cling on in the run to finish third overall. For those of you about to suggest I should train for the swim a bit …. shut it…. it’s just a bit of fun, and even if I’d swum 3 minutes faster than the 8:22 I managed, I’d still have only been second!

Big thanks due to everyone who made this event so enjoyable to take part in.

A girl’s best friend

Lily and TobyLily’s got one of her best little mates to stay whilst the cat’s away.

My mum broke her leg the other week and as a result, she’s not best qualified to walk her cheeky little Jack Russell. Toby arrived at ours last night for a week of babysitting (of him – not Lily) and also, it transpires, a spot of slimming (he seems to have been consuming more than he has been burning … the age old Haygarth problem).

Anyway… he’s settled in brilliantly, summarized by an evening of utter laughs trying to savage Elvis while said King of Rock’n’Roll tried to fetch his Frisbee in the long grass of the meadow. To round it all off, Toby had his weight watchers tea (~one carrot skin) and then decided to retire to Lily’s room for what I anticipate will be a good 12 hours’ kip.

Welcome to the madhouse, Toby.

Moonwalking bird


Okay, let’s not go into how I came to found a video called ‘Birds Moonwalking’, but this is just great. To see a bird strutting their Jacko stuff along those branches makes me feel like life’s beautiful. What’s next? Penguins dangling babies over balconies?

Belmont Winter Hill fell race 2007


Winter HillBelmont Winter Hill race Results now here (PDF) courtesy of Dave Bateson.

I had a great race with less than 24 hours notice it was actually happening (yep – dozy) at Belmont yesterday. An idyllic summer village fête and about 120 runners all togged up in not much. Great classic 4.5 mile fell race starting and finishing on the village playing field. We’re so lucky round here with so many of there going on all the time. I worked hard during the race and felt justly rewarded with a pretty good position. Lacking in some areas, but I enjoy it, and that’s got to be what counts.

View the route in Google Earth: Belmont – Winter Hill Fell Race 2007 Google Earth KML File

Watch willfoxere2k7’s video of the race departure and arrival on youtube (you can see why fell running’s not a TV sport!)

Rochdale Optician to be opened shortly in Norden

Rochdale opticians have one thing to worry about… my friend (and Wheelbase cycling team mate) Lewis Craven is about to go it alone in Rochdale (well, Norden, near Rochdale) and open up his own optician’s practice called Craven and Murray after a few years working as a consultant optician throughout Lancashire and Manchester. Rochdale Optician? What are you on about, Dave? Have my eyes deceived me? Do I need an eye test or other opthalmic services? Why the free ad ? Well. Read on… for this post is a SEO ploy.

Norden? Rochdale? Optician… Craven and Murray need to think about Search Engines…

You see, minnellium.com seems to have many of the ingredients of being good at getting search engine results. Combined with my own growing knowledge of search engine optimisation, I wanted to post this article about ‘Rochdale Opticians’ or ‘Norden Opticians’ to prove to Lewis that people will not come and look for his website by any other means that search engines.

As a Rochdale Optician, he needs to be reaching people in Rochdale who search on the that search. i.e., people using their computer to look for a Rochdale Optician. We’ll leave this for a few weeks and see how the Search Engines rate this post. I reckon, if the search engines don’t need their eyes testing, they’ll think I’m reasonably good at SEO.

Oh, by the way, feel free to ignore this if you’re not interested in SEO or Opticians in Rochdale or Norden. If you do need an eye test, please do see them. If they’re as good as Lewis is at cycling, then you’re in for an optical treat.
Craven & Murray Opticians

675 Edenfield Road
Norden
Rochdale
OL11 5XE
Tel: 01706 641138

Fashion Advice for a 37 year old.

Fashion advisersI got an interesting thing in the post this morning from my brother- and sister-in-law, offering fashion advice, following unprecedented piss-taking after my stated intention to wear leather jeans to a party the other week. That’s Sally and Simon, in the photo. Fashion advice.

Fashion AdviceOn the article that they sent me (from one of Sally’s high fashion magazines like “Take a Break” or something), the fashion ‘barometer‘ (presumably, this means the people under the most pressure to be fashionable), Katie Price and Peter Andre are at the top. Truly the height of fashion. The same magazine said that leather jeans looked no good. Cutting edge advice.

I know where they can put their advice, and to be honest, I know that Simon, for one, would probably enjoy it.
😉

Podcast: “I am from Mars”

My first tune from my first album. Lots of samples that I really have got round to getting permission for, but it’s all part of life’s rich pageant.

If you’re interested in the samples and don’t recognise them, the ones I remember are from:

I can’t source the other samples but I remember playing the main guitar riffs, sequencing the bass and drums, and sweating over it a bit!

Credit is due to the providers of these lovely originals sounds we pilfer ….

Please subscribe to my podcasts using iTunes and get them all delivered to your MP3 player without me nagging you!

Matthew – a short film


I treated the manic videoing of Phil’s family trip to our house a bit differently this year and have decided to edit it into little chunks of film. Matthew’s a good age now for co-operation when it comes to things like this, and he makes a good subject (and a lovely nephew!). Music is “Aquarius” by Boards of Canada’s timeless album – released ten years ago, “Music Has the Right to Children

On the road again

I’ve had to change my fitness strategy since leaving my old job and losing the cycle commute, and I’ve started to do a little bit of road racing on the bike again. I’ve been fairly encouraged by the results but not startled. It’s just nice to do something different than cyclocross or fell running. I love both of them, but road racing’s so different.

I’ve also realised that I’ve become more aggressive in my road racing as I get older. I can’t be bothered to mess about slip-streaming and saving my energy for the finale -I’d much rather give myself a good kicking. If I lose a few places in the finale as a result, then so be it, but it’s a lovely thought to hammer yourself in the breaks whenever possible just in case they pay off, which they sometimes just do!

The Bowland Road Race today (Google Earth KML file here) was surprisingly fast for a 3rd category race, 23.9 mph – albeit only over 42 miles. It was hilly and breezy, and fairly relentless. All worked out well though when my team mate Stuart Reid got in the break that worked, and won the race. I finished fifteenth or so. My legs cramped on the uphill finish and that was that. A great, hilly, fast workout though.

A little present to brighten my day

Flower DrawingThe new job has meant that I’ve hardly had a chance to look up from the desk for two weeks. It’s very enjoyable – don’t get me wrong – but there’s plenty of learning to do and things aren’t quite intuitive yet. A warming advantage of working at home, though, is hearing a knock on the office door when a little person comes in from pre-school to bring you something like this, neatly folded up. Thanks Lils. xxx