A little update on what I have been up to this month. It started with Dusk Til Dawn. I missed this last year due to being broken after my solo attempt at SITS. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise with the awful weather that the event suffered. This year I was back for another solo attempt. My first solo was just before I got married. This time it is just before I become a father - nothing like a significant event to focus the mind. Both times I have been given number 79 too.
In short, it was ace. Dry, dusty and sandy. I rode my inbred with a nice low 32:20 gear. This let me spin along on the flat bits, pootle up the (gentle) hills and go faster than a lot of folk on the singletrack. The singletrack that was possibly the best Thetford singletrack I have ever ridden.
I exeeded my own expectations by managing 8 laps (about 85 miles) even with my pitiful summer of riding behind me.
After D2D I was then straight off on my holidays with Claire. This involved a healthy dose of doing nothing in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, combined with a nice old skool XC ride in the Dales, and a couple of days blasting around Whinlatter Forest while Claire took some slow walks in the forest and enjoyed the cafe. The momentum from this has now been kept up with weekly night rides in Sherwood forest after randomly meeting a few guys there. I then stumbled across a 4 hour enduro race at Sherwood. This was attacked with a more sensible 32:17 ratio, and got me a (just) top 50% placing with 5 laps of the forest. Ace.
Mountain bikes are brilliant, but I think I am going to have to re-learn to love the road bike now the weather is finally fading.
Of course there is always 'cross, but my competitive streak is struggling to come out yet this winter.
Pictures to follow once i find them...
