Sherwood Pines Mudbath

A group of four of us rode the trails at Sherwood Pines in Nottinghamshire yesterday. The temperature was mild for this time of year (9-10 degrees c) but it had been raining all week, so it was extremely muddy. Here's what my MTB looked like afterwards:

It was great fun, but the sucking of the mud made it so much harder than usual that I was exhausted by the end. The character of the course changes a lot when it's wet. Even on the harder and less muddy parts of the trail your speed is affected, as there are lots of puddles that could have tree roots at the bottom, so you can't safely splash through them.

Annoyingly we had to stop after the first quarter of the course to get one of the hire bikes changed, as it had bad brakes, gears and wheels. Another Sherwood Pines Cycles classic. The hire bikes are cheap, but we've had so many problems over the years that it's hard to avoid the conclusion that you get what you pay for!

Some more pics from the day:

Boots, Gloves and a test ride

The last items I thought I needed for my winter wardrobe were a pair of gloves that are warm enough to keep my poor hands warm and that I could use with a phone, plus a warmer pair of boots. I don't know what the problem with my extremities is, but they get painfully cold when it gets down to 10 degrees celsius or below. I've invested in a pair of Lake MX303s on the boot front:

They are seriously toasty when paired with thick hiking socks and fit me well. Not bloody cheap mind...

On the hand front I wanted something that would keep my little and ring fingers together like my lobster gloves, but that were also touchscreen compatible. There was a deal for some E-Glove Snowboarding mitts that sounded perfect on a site so I bought them blind:

Obviously I removed the wrist protector (that is seriously uncomfortable when trying to climb hills out of the saddle) and there is another niggle in the forefinger, once the touchscreen tip is deployed from the insulated outer, it's basically impossible to get it back inside without removing the glove (defeating the point!). The thumb inner is fine on that front though.

The skiing version of the E-Gloves are probably a better choice for upright cycling as you can cinch the cuff to prevent the ingress of rain. On a recumbent with tiller steering however this isn't a problem as the cuffs are pointing downwards! Might need to tuck them in to my sleeves if I'm riding my brompton and it's raining, however.

My rides today were slow and difficult. It's been 11 months since I pulled the trailer on the Nazca and I was definitely feeling it.

As for those being the last items I thought I needed, it turns out that most of my winter wardrobe is now too big for me. Great.

Back to it!

Aside from a trip to Sherwood Pines last month I've been concentrating on the half-marathon so almost no cycling at all. Now with Christmas approaching it's time to get back into the saddle. Planning a ride in Lincolnshire on Sunday.

Despite being off-topic, here's my half-marathon performance in a nutshell: ~2:18 at a pretty consistent 6:25 per km.

Summer riding roundup

I've been training for a half-marathon, so haven't been cycling much!

During a difficult period at work my colleagues and I did manage to get out on our bikes on two of the hottest days of the year, for just about the same route; the first one on the Brompton:


And the second on the recumbent:



Plus we managed to get around to visiting Cannock Chase on the MTB. Was really not doing well on this route, needed a lot more cycling fitness:



As soon as the half marathon is over (28th Sept) I'll need to start training for my winter riding again!

Off-topic: Apps and accessories for diet and exercise

Some people asked me about it on Facebook, so I thought I'd run down exactly what I use and why.

Fitbit One; Fitbit Aria; Wahoo Blue HR; Smartphone.

Sherwood Pines: The Revenge

Made it back to Sherwood.

Two laps with neither illness nor injury this time. My legs felt very fatigued towards the end, but I felt pretty good.

Managed a complete lap almost without stopping as well:

Sherwood Pines - worst possible start to the MTB season

By season I mean riding season, not racing or anything fancy!

My colleague JM and I drove up to Sherwood for the first trail ride this year. It started fairly well. I think my lower weight made the climbs and balancing the bike a touch easier, but I think I'm significantly weaker from the diet as well. They've started to add rock gardens to the first quarter of The Kitchener Trail!

About a third of the way around the route I noticed that I was really struggling on the hills and while I felt like I was pedaling flat-out, I was just crawling along. About two thirds around I felt a lot worse, called it quits and went slowly and fecklessly (going kilometres out of the way) back to the trail centre via the fire roads.

No appetite to eat anything, I drank a Lucozade and headed home. Turns out I'd picked up a cold virus, and lost the rest of the day to lying in bed with a fever. Brilliant. What a great way to start the year.

Never mind though, I'll get back into it soon. I've tried to embed the Strava widget here, which isn't showing up in the preview, hopefully it will when I publish:

Trip to Holloway in the Peaks

I visited the Peak District this past weekend to hang out with some nerds friends. I decided, pretty much at the last minute, to try cycling there on the Brompton.

Deciding as well to use Google Maps to navigate was a grave mistake. It sent me first down a flooded disused access road (complete with rusty barbed wire hanging from nearby fences). Then it tried to send me down an unpaved country track (which had turned into a mudbath. Third on this list of misery, it sent me down a private road with a locked gate.

Last but by no means least it sent me up some of the steepest hills I've ever attempted. That last one is almost forgivable, I should really have been riding a bike with appropriate gears (not a twin speed Brompton) and there's no getting around that my destination was on top of a tall hill.

Those first three are pretty stupid though. Google don't seem to differentiate between what you can do on a (mostly) road bike and what you can do on a fully equipped trekking fatbike. The directions were fairly clear, though I did preempt some turns and had to backtrack a little.

My luggage for the weekend was the Brompton S bag and a Carradice Longflap on the back. It was officially the hardest 38km I've ever tried! There was a lot of getting off and walking towards the end near Crich.

Next year: Recumbent or modified Brompton. I should have better navigation by then courtesy of Hammerhead as well :)

Volt 50 and Volt 300

Today's the first time I used both my Volt 50 and Volt 300 on a late evening road ride with some dark canal path segments.

I found it easy to switch modes on the Volt 300, using the flashing mode on the road and the full beam when I went into the unlit sections. The unlit sections were brief but I was surprised by how much of the terrain ahead I could see with the narrow and powerful beam.

The mount for my 50 is still broken and there still doesn't seem to be a spare to order, so after a few bumps in the road it would start to point upwards right into drivers' eyes. I'll bodge it with an elastic band next week!

Xmas ride results

In total I managed 160km (approx. 100 miles), scuppered by dangerous high winds and other commitments interfering with the last legs.

Well, it's a new year so time for a new goal! How about riding 100 miles in a single day by the end of the year?