Not getting any faster

With the Mawddach Goldrush looming on Sunday I’m now taking it easy for the second half of this week so that I’m fresh for it. I did however have to do some bike maintenance earlier this week and whilst at it did a wiper seal service on my forks and a rear shock air can service too.

So, yesterday I felt that the bike needed a bit of a shake down before Sunday so went for a ride around the Pendam Trail at Nant yr Arian. All felt fine with the bike, but I’m not getting any faster. Last time I did the Pendam Trail it took me 40 minutes and 42 seconds, which was pretty slow in comparison to my best ever of 37:22. Yesterday I was slower still at 41:05.

It was pretty windy out there which may not have helped, and I did go to circuits and swimfit the night before so wasn’t well rested. However, it doesn’t look like I will be breaking any records at the Mawddach Goldrush on Sunday!

Pendam Trail - March 3rd

After the first lap of the Pendam Trail I then went around the lake again and did some geocache maintenance on one of my Watery Wales 1 series of gecoaches before fiddling with the suspension settings on my bike and doing the Hippity Hop section again. A nice afternoon out in the hills, but I’m not as fast as I should be!

The trouble with trying ti get fit is that it can become a little more than a habit and become an obsession. You end up trying to do more in order to improve, but in the end just do too much. Resting is very much an important part of any training schedule and after last night MTB ride I think today and tomorrow will be rest days for me.

I felt tired from the start and I guess that isn’t surprising. The day before I did a turbo trainer session in the afternoon, followed by a circuit training session and a swimfit session. Then, on top of all that I didn’t sleep very well, only managing to fall asleep for an hour or so on Tuesday night. I then met Dave in Penrhyncoch for a long ride last night. We started off with a long ride up the Bont Goch climb and it wasn’t long before I realised that my legs weren’t up to it. I was soon lagging behind Dave who seemed to be more spritely than usual!

I made it to the top where we met Dan and we headed off through the mist and fog around the Summit Trail. Dan isn’t quite up to speed at the moment either, so at least I had someone behind me on the leg-burner climb, but Dan headed off home after that leaving me trying to keep up with Dave again.

We came back down from Nant yr Arian via Cymsymlog which although a descent does have quite a bit of pedalling along the flats and little rises so even that was hard work but at least I managed to put it in a big gear and keep up. The battery on my lights then died so I had to stick with Dave’s wheel for the last half mile or so in order to see where I was going.

As you can see, it was a fairly hilly 20 miles.

Last nights ride

A good ride, but I’m not sure how useful it was as I was just plodding around doing my best to keep going. Time for a rest day today and maybe some yoga in preparation for a nice long steady ride over the weekend.

It was a silly idea in the first place, but we hadn’t been out on our mountain bikes for a while so Dan, Dave, Martyn and myself met up at Nant yr Arian last night for a ride in the snow.

To be honest it wasn’t that much of a ride as we only covered 5.4 miles in close to 2 hours, but it was good fun and lovely up there with the snow all around and not a soul in sight. The scenery from our headlights was really nice and the riding was fun if not exhilarating. We all fell off quite a lot but the landings into deep drifts of snow were at least soft.

I forgot to take my camera, but Dan took a couple of shots whilst there, such as this one:

which you can see on his flickr photostream.

We’ve just got back from a nice little walk up at Nant yr Arian. There’s loads of snowy scenes up there and some cool ice crystals on top of the snow.

Winter Textures

We had Morgan with us so I didn’t really have time to sit there and play with my camera but there were plenty of photographic opportunities. It’s surprising how a covering of snow can really open your eyes to the world around you.

At last, I finally got the whole family out for a mountain bike ride, and I think they enjoyed it.

Unfortunately there isn’t a proper, family-friendly trail at Nant yr Arian. The easiest trail there has a few bits in it that aren’t really suitable for complete beginners or 4 year olds, and there is a bit of a climb out of the centre that would be too much for Morgan. So, we started from the car park at Pendam and simply went along the road, which is a very quiet road, and then down along the ‘Spine’ and around Llyn Blaenmelindwr.

It didn’t start too well as Anna managed to fall off her bike in the car park – before she even got on it! but no harm was done and it gave us all a bit of a laugh. Morgan was a little tentative to start with, but he hadn’t been on his bike for at least 3 months so it took a while for him to get going. Anna was the same really and didn’t seem to enjoy the Spine to start with.Morgan did well getting up the little hills on the far side of the lake though and had a huge smile on his face when he did. He soon got tired though so after a quick circuit of the lake (about 2 miles) we headed back to the car.

I then sent Anna off on another circuit of the lake and told her to include the ‘Diggers End’ section as well. By the time she got back she looked much happier and seemed to have enjoyed it. I then had a quick spin around the lake and down the Hippity Hop section as well.

All in all a successful little ride and something I’ll have to force everyone to do more often so that they can improve and start to enjoy it more.

The clocks have gone back, the evenings are darker and it feels as though Winter is properly on its way. A depressing time for many, but I really like it.

It isn’t very cold at the moment but there’s nothing nicer than snuggling up indoors in front of the fire whilst it’s cold and miserable outside. There are also lots of parties and celebrations to look forward to. There always seems to be lots of things happening at this time of year and Christmas isn’t far off too.

This weekend we have the annual Ynyslas Bonfire party to attend at Dave and Sarah’s house. Its a nice community get together with a bonfire, fireworks and of course lots of delicious food to devour. Then Saturday evening is the annual lantern procession and light display in Machynlleth. We went last year and had a good time, so shall be there again this year. Morgan wants to make a lantern too, so we might have to actually join in with the parade this time. Apparently if you have a lantern you get free admission to the light show after the parade which will be a bonus.

If that doesn’t take your fancy then you could brave a night in the woods with eerie sights and sounds and ghostly goings on at Nant yr Arian. Then head back to the visitor centre and indulge in some supernatural snacks.

There is also a firework display in Aberystwyth on Bonfire Night itself.

Don’t let the short days and dark nights get you down, get out there and enjpy them.

With less than a week to go until the Dyfi Enduro we decided that this weeks night ride would be a little different. Rather than just doing a loop around the usual trails, Martyn suggested sessioning a few of the bits of singletrack on the Pendam Trail.

Dave, Martyn, Bernd, Myles and myself met at the Pendam car park and we started off with a ride up to the Hippity Hop section which we then did 3 times in a row. The first time was quite relaxed, I went a little quicker the second time but then pushed a little too hard the 3rd time around and actually went slower.. Being smooth and controlled is the key!

We then headed off around the lakes and up to the Drunken Druid section which we did twice, before heading down the High as a Kite section to the visitor centre. We then went back up the hill and did High as a kite a second time before doing the Italian Job section and heading off back around the lake, to Syfydrrin, up the final climb and then one more time down the Hippity Hops.

All good fun. The rain stayed away and although I don’t think it helped with my technique on any of these sections it  did make a change from the usual night rides and Myles took some photos too. The next ride for me will be the Dyfi Enduro on Sunday.

Al on High as a Kite

Bernd. High as a Kite

Dave, High as a kite

Martyn, High as a Kite

Seeing as James asked for a daily updates as far as my attempts to get fit are concerned, here are the stats from my Mountain Bike Ride around the Pendam Trail at Nant-yr-Arian today.

First the route itself, My Speed and Heart Rate graph… Max 172bpm once again! And the summary stats.

After the first lap I then did another lap of the most northerly loop, and on the way checked in on a couple of my geocaches to make sure they were OK. Both caches were fine, but the tree hiding the cache at Blaenmelindwr has been felled and a few people have had problems with the coordinates for the cache at Syfydrin, so I took some new readings with my Forerunner 305 which has a better GPS receiver than my old eTrex.

I was impressed with the performance of the Foreunner, as it seemed to keep GPS reception even through the forested parts of the trail and looking at the route in Google Earth, the trail made by the second lap was perfectly on top of the first time around so accuracy seems to be good… Shame my fitness isn’t quite up to the same standards!