Blood

I'm not well at the moment, so I thought I'd put up a post about something other than mountain bikes. Problem is, all ever think about is ..... mountain bikes!! So, I'm scratching around for inspiration, I'm ill at the moment and not really well enough to do anything useful; random mouse clicking is about all I can manage! Then, this (above) comes through the door - inspiration!

I suffer from a very real dislike of hypodermic needles. I gave blood once about 15 or more years ago. Since then I became rather unfit and tended to feel, rather bizarrely and inexplicably, that the lack of fitness and the act of giving blood were somewhat incongruous. I know, it doesn't make sense! Perhaps it was all connected to fearing needles. Since being a bit fitter, I've shaken that bizarre idea, and started to think it's the right thing to do; I should do it; and you never know, one day I could need the favour returning. So, a couple of months before Christmas, when the donor service turned up at work, I plucked up the courage (aided by the fact that it was a spur of the moment thing) and I gave blood.

Then Christmas came and I got the most horrible cold/flu and chest infection, the worst I've had in years. Again, a little irrationally I started to think along the lines of I wonder if giving blood has lowered my immunity? I wonder if I wouldn't have had it so bad if I hadn't given blood? Well, now I've got another cold and I can't believe it! It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I shook the one I had at Christmas. I haven't given blood recently, so it's not that, perhaps being fit isn't good for you!!

Of course, the colds and infections going around at the moment are bad ones. Giving blood may have a small marginal affect on your immunity straight afterwards, but I'm sure it's not significant. I will give blood again. My dislike of needles is not one of those completely debilitating irrational phobias; it can be overcome. It's just like being a mountain biker whose a little nervous of precipitous drops, but is capable of hurling himself down them anyway (and enjoying it)!!

On a different note - check out Sage Cattabriga-Alosa's Blog for some superb POV video of his antics - what a lifestyle that guy has!

It all came together tonight!

Had a blast round Penhydd tonight with a mate, D. It was nice to start the ride in daylight, but by the top we needed the lights.

The last few weeks of riding have culminated in me being right up there on top form (for me!). It felt like I absolutely nailed Penhydd's singletrack and the climbs were really coming easy.

Saw quite a few other riders out, which is kind of reassuring.

Finished on Argoed with rear puncture. Mental note to oneself: if you have a slow puncture let it down completely before lashing the bike to the bike rack. By the time I got to Port Talbot the tyre was completel flat and bike was moving round on the rack like caged animal with an escape route! Not nice.

Won't be needing lights for too much longer!

The nights are showing that steady reassuring process of drawing out. I love this time of year. Looking forward to evenings running around Clyne Woods without worrying about what's just out of sight of the lights and whether the next mud hole will throw me off or not.

Had an XC run around south east Gower last night. The nighttime views were beautiful, shame it was so windy. Cf the picture above of my Ay Up lights to a previous photo of my old Electron ones.

http://pilau-turds.blogspot.com/2008/02/nice-shot-of-my-scott-in-dark.html
http://pilau-turds.blogspot.com/2008/02/city-lights-at-night.html

Pushed hard and ache like hell today!!

Sweet natural singletrack

Rode the Doethie Valley today. MBR described it as some of Britain's sweetest natural singletrack. They may well be correct!! We started from the Llyn Brianne reservoir carpark (by the dam). We were greated by a vista to die for.

Then across the dam into a nice gradual main climb out of the Llyn Bianne valley - the perfect warm-up. Then we left the forestry for a lairy "screaming downhill" gripless gravel road down to Soar y Mynydd Chaple at the head of one of Llyn Brianne's tributries.

For some reason this sparked a decidedly Japenese moment as we all got the cameras out and went mad!!

From Soar y Mynydd a tough climb up and over the hill to the Doethie valley. At the top we were afforded a stunning view again and a look at the steep sided precipitous Doethie Valley ("we're riding down that!")

Then an excellent floaty rocky track downhill to the junction into the Doethie (I think I snapped a couple of teeth off my big chainring here :-( ). Then the main event - flowing singletrack interspersed with natural challenges like streams, boggy patches, washed away tracks etc. even the odd natural rock garden and jump. If it were trail centre they'd have designed it to be predominantly downhill, but as it was natural there was the odd short sharp climb chucked in, which just killed me flat!

Finally a horrible climb back over to Llyn Brianne. A really good day out. We NEARLY went mad and did Cwm-y-Rhaiadr trail centre on the way home :-/ !!

I'll be back!

Geek challenge

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Current little project - get this little lot talking to each other. It's a Sony Ericsson K530i phone with an HGE-100 GPS reciever & Tracker software and an HP Ipaq 2200 (I think) with Memory May installed.

Of course it may not be possible to get them talking for on-the-trail use. But I'd settle for having the ability to record tracks, download them to the PC and convert them into Memory Map.

So far, I've got to the point where I can download the file to the PC and Convert the first 500 trackpoints into MM. I used GPSU software to do that, but I need to pay 40 bucks to get more than 500 converted. That's more than I want to spend.

What I have seen so far is that the Tracker software has a finite limit to the number of points it can store. However, it's significantly more accurate than my current Garmin GPS II+. We'll see how it goes.

Christening

I think I can call the Pitch properly christened, following this weekend's spin round Penhydd. The rain/sleet/snow was atrocious and the gritty Afan mud got everywhere. It took 8 buckets of water to wash all my kit!!

Our Stinky Pud

Isn't he the cutest? He was ill this week, got us all worried. So much so it became necessary to go to the vets. Of course, £35 and 24 hours later and you'd swear there'd never been anything wrong!!

Planning a big XC ride tomorrow around Afan and Margam which should be a test of my mettle on the Pitch! And I've had a massive fish & chip supper!! So that should improve my braking, uphill!

I considered riding the Scott rather than the Pitch as I'm not used to riding the new one big distances. Perhaps I'll be more comfortable on the Scott. So I chanced to give it a once over and stick on the new SPDs that came off the Pitch. By chance discovered one of the new Tacx dérailleur pulleys had seized!! Tacx pulleys are rubbish - I wouldn't recommend them.

I've had a couple of rides in Clyne on the Pitch now and it's patently obvious to me that it's a confidence building bike. I've tackled things I woudn't have gone near on the Scott. However, it is about confidence and now I've done them I reckon I could do them on the Scott too now.

Oh wow!

Many thanks to my mate J, who helped me sort out the right pressure for the rear shock. It made a considerable difference to the ride on my new Pitch. Had a great ride round The Wall today with Evilgoose and got to really get the feel of the bike. Even managed to Once the Graveyard today - a first for me. As per J's thinking, it looks like I'm going to need a stiffer fork spring. Now can't wait for the next blast. Tuesday maybe?

What's really fun is just how many people asked questions about the bike everyone seems to love it.