Drought Alert!!

With no rain for an entire day Wales is plunged into a catastrophic water shortage. Meanwhile I had a great day out trying to push myself into harder to reach places without getting a soaking. Wasn't a legendary route but has the makings of one if I ever come this way again.

Nant yr Arian's Syfydrin Trail

Feeling good about this one: mainly because it's a 22 miler which I managed in 3 and a half hours. Considering Monday's ride was the same distance to within 100m but took 2 hours longer, I think that's a result!! What made the difference? Well, mainly not needing to stop every 200m to get a map out helped!! It turned into a bit of a social ride as I bumped into another lone rider and we tagged along together. Normally that would slow me down, but he was fitter than me and like me wanted to push on. I hammered on at a distinctly faster pace than normal. Sometimes it helps to push the boundaries!!

So what was Nant yr Arian's Syfydrin Trail like? Good, but definitely biased to the XCer. That made me a little too tired to really enjoy the excellent singletracks at the end. Anyone thinking of doing one day in Nant yr Arian should only do the Syfydrin Trail if they are really fit. The outer sections are typical well used bridleways and byways which you can do almost anywhere (oh, and these ones are awful in the wet!). To get the full effect of the singletrack do the much shorter Summit and Pendam trails or shortcut Syfydrin at the lake, Llyn Syfydrin.

OK, it barely rained, but I still finished up as wet as a Welsh hilltop in summer!!

There'll be a reason for that!?

Mum's on holiday in Italy. A funny text exchange:
MUM: Just sitting with half a pint in the very hot sun in Malcesine.
ME: Sitting on a windy drizzly Welsh hilltop with a plastic bag of water, but strangly enjoying myself!!

And I was!!

Another shot from on top of Whites. I think I can see my house from here!! How lucky am I?

Keeping my fingers crossed for a UK holiday interspersed with regular MTB excursions has worked!! Off up to Mid Wales on Sunday. The world's my oyster, mile after mile of bridleway and byway XC, Nant yr Arian trail centre, the Strata Florida loop, even a section of my Sarn Helen run could be in the mix.

If Whites Level WAS level it'd be easy!!

Evilgoose and I did Whites Level today. It was mostly my idea to do Whites. I fancy my speed on the off-road sections is reasonably respectable and fancy competing in the Kona Mash-up. And as that is set out on Whites thought it might be an idea to see what I was letting myself in for!! My verdict - it's small but chewy!! I think we were both lying on the floor when we realised we'd only done 5 miles. The names of Whites sections are a bit confused, for example the Energy and Darkside sections are to my mind both blacker than the Black Run. And Energy is darker than Darkside. And as for Two Tombstones - uh????

I liked Whites but not sure I'm ready to compete in the Mash-Up there. We'll see.

Will it ever stop raining?!!

I can't believe it, I took Friday off work to go for a ride. I imtended to take a couple of hours to do some work on the bike, but discovered one of the front wheel bearing races was shot. Sod's law, I lent my cone spanners to D on Thursday!! So, not suprisingly it took all day to fix. The only sunny day in weeks I get chance for a ride and I spend it in the garage!!!! Of course, this morning the bike's ready and it's raining!! Nnngghh!!

Back to The Wall

Finally made it up The Wall today!! Wey hey!! This ride's been just over 6 months in the making plus I held off for a couple of weeks to pick the right moment to make my comeback! It was a little touch and go, I discovered my Rock Shox had bust a seal yesterday. After several hours of swearing I switched back to my original Suntour XCRs. The ride itself wasn't without incident. I stopped to replace my rear brake pads and the wheel skewer fell apart in my hands!! Fortunately it was possible to wedge it back together and continue. Had me worried though!!

So how was The Wall? It's actually easier than Penhydd, in terms of climbing - ironic, as I picked Penhydd as the training ride to get me fit for The Wall! I think with the advantage of some familiarity it will become a better technical ride than Penhydd. Penhydd is easier technically to pick up and run with. The Wall is a little more difficult technically. I was suprised by how much it's changed up there. Bits of the ride I should have recognised, but didn't. Some parts I did recognise, but usually only vaguely. Our old climb up to the wall is really overgrown and is a walking trail now. I was disappointed that some of my old favourite single track is not part of the wall (and once again are walking trails - damned ramblers - I'll run a couple of them over for that!!) .

Now I've done The Wall I'll need to set myself a new long term challenge. Whites will be next and if my plans go OK I'll do the 2 longer Nant yr Arian trails....

Brothers in arms!!

Not the only one in our team to cycle to work today. Evilgoose joined the fray.

I've had 3 consecutive days commuting this week and I'm starting to feel the strain!!

I feel quite good despite this and reckon it's time to return to The Wall. Just need a dry day!!!!

I'm fed up with this weather!!

Everything I own is wet!! I've been gambling with the weather this week in cycling to and from work. Got away with it for 3 trips but tonight I got caught big time. It rained hard for the entire 40 minutes. I was truely soaked to the skin. Standing in the kitchen in my underwear I was still dripping!! With my cycling gear wet, my bike wet, the kitchen and bathroom both wet and big load of washing waiting to be dried it feels like everything I own is wet!!

I managed to get up Penhydd last weekend. Tested out my new rim, that's OK. Discovered I'm feeling very nervous on the trails, that's not OK!! I guess the fact that my ribcage is still just very slightly tender doesn't help. I got one jump a little wrong and landed on the edge of ditch. I recovered it but at the end of the track I was physically shaking. Hope I haven't lost my bottle!! I was happy with my pace on my extended Penhydd run, taking 2 hours 10 minutes. I feel ready to do justice to The Wall - it's about time I revisited my old test of the metal.