I am a lifelong mountain biker who rarely lacks motivation. I had always ridden bikes off road like most kids but in 1976 I bought a "scrambler" for 70 pence. This was a bike which was dedicated to off road use. In 1977 I added a homemade suspension fork. I used the front suspension units … Continue reading Why I’m writing this….
Trying for a target.
I wanted to have a go at one of my two targets for this year whilst we're still enjoying dry weather. Last year I set a time of 22 minutes and 19 seconds on the Strava segment "Great Hill, out and back". Excitingly I beat the existing time for the segment thus far in 2019 … Continue reading Trying for a target.
The training ride before the big one.
I'd planned a ride before my big challenge for the year which is to ride the Mary Towneley Loop. It's 47 miles with 6,500 feet of climbing, almost exclusively off road. So today I did that longer training ride even though I may not be able to do the Mary Towneley in April due to … Continue reading The training ride before the big one.
A great way to motivate yourself.
Today the weather is lovely and sunny but after a dog walk I felt a little tired, not particularly motivated to do a ride. Coronavirus actually made me change my first plan. I thought that I'd boost my enthusiasm if I set a challenge and considered doing 5 laps of my training circuit at Birkacre. … Continue reading A great way to motivate yourself.
A bigger ride.
Despite some doubt that I'll now be able to do a my 47 mile ride any time soon I thought it would still be a good idea to try a bigger ride today, after another longer than usual break. At least we can still ride in England. In France and Italy no leisure rides are … Continue reading A bigger ride.
Coronavirus.
I haven't contracted Coronavirus, yet, but some estimates have 80% of us catching the disease before it's run it's course. Despite this, and even if I don't contract the disease or the symptoms are so mild I don't notice it, it may still affect my mountain biking. You could say that it's selfish, when untold … Continue reading Coronavirus.
A good training ride.
For a variety of reasons I haven't ridden for 5 days so was keen to get a good ride in today to maintain my fitness. With Healey Nab out of action for training I decided to ride to the top of Great Hill, especially concentrating on the Strava segment "Great Hill, out and back". I … Continue reading A good training ride.
Still finding new trails after all these years!
I’ve often thought that I knew every trail within easy reach of home. Sometimes, though, I’ve ridden along with someone new and they’ve shown me a trail I didn’t know. Within the last year I’ve been surprised to discover several trails in places I’ve been riding forever. Today I did a little exploration … Continue reading Still finding new trails after all these years!
