As ‘training rides’ go, they don’t get much more beautiful, thrilling, punishing than the Grizedale Mountain Bike Challenge. Continue reading “Grizedale Mountain Bike Challenge 2009”
Lily’s seventh birthday
Lily turned 7 yesterday and we celebrated with a smallish but perfectly formed family and friends gathering.
Lily’s ‘main’ present was another bunny rabbit called Daisy, 12 weeks old, who was greeted by Lily’s male rabbit Ozzy in a VERY enthusiastic way. They’re being kept apart for a short while until he’s been to the vets! Continue reading “Lily’s seventh birthday”
Summer Holiday in Wales – Ogwen Bank
A third family holiday this year for us Haygarths in the UK – the ‘Staycation’ (or ‘Holistay’ – a more ‘English’ version of the new term I prefer) has really come of age. We booked a ‘log cabin’ (or really more a pine lodge – not as romantic sounding) in Ogwen Bank – just on the Snowdonia National Park boundary a few weeks ago, and had a great stay there last week.
Continue reading “Summer Holiday in Wales – Ogwen Bank”
Gisburn Forest Mountinbike Trails… now with added fun.
I managed to finally get to ride most of the best bits (I think) of the new MTB trails at Gisburn Forest last night. I must say I was impressed. I’d be primed / appetite whetted by a combination of Matthew, some photos by Andy Rushforth, and a blog post by Dave Powell.
I headed up last night because I decided to take a mental break from racing for a couple of weeks. Thursday night’s Preston crit night so I wanted to ‘do something’ other than racing. On a nice clear, calm evening, Gisburn made sense. Continue reading “Gisburn Forest Mountinbike Trails… now with added fun.”
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)”
Manchester International Festival – ‘The Great Indoors’
Ace day on Saturday – we took Lily and Elsie into ‘The Great Indoors‘ a wonderful collection of children’s creative activities and performances all over the insides of Manchester’s Town Hall, as part of the Manchester International Festival.
We met up with Sally, Sim and Olly, had a romp, got home early and relaxed – job’s a good un. Some nice photo moments too here.
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”
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.”
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”
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”
Elsie’s first birthday – and a mini street party
The sun seemed to shine on the righteous this Bank Holiday weekend, as we had a bit of a houseful to celebrate Elsie’s first birthday. Much as we did the same with Lily – and not being the type of folks for Christenings, we thought we’d get friends, family and neighbours together and have a right old knees up. Continue reading “Elsie’s first birthday – and a mini street party”
Friends Reunited: Ben Cole visits from Canada
It’s great catching up with old friends. Sometimes it goes far too long between seeing friends. It’s hard enough to co-ordinate good time together with people who live a few miles down the road in these busy days of raising children, let alone people who emigrate to Vancouver. Continue reading “Friends Reunited: Ben Cole visits from Canada”