I grabbed at a small window of opportunity this evening when mum had invited Lily to go to the theatre in Lancaster – to see The Jungle Book. I thought I’d throw the MTB in the car and belt up to Grizedale for a quick dash round the North Face Loop there. With an off-road triathlon coming up at Coniston on Sunday that includes a lap of the loop, I was keep to suss out just how much technical stuff there was to decide how to set up the bike. Continue reading “Grizedale North Face loop – a mad evening dash”
A Lancashire Heat Wave? Well – it’s not been bad.
It’s amazing how a bit of warm weather makes life so pleasurable. Home life for the past week seems to have been a perpetual cycle of playing in the garden, going to the park, sitting outside, eating outside, riding bikes and generally not being indoors to do much other than work and sleep. I even heard talk of a heat wave earlier today ont he radio – the very prospect thrills me, I must say. Continue reading “A Lancashire Heat Wave? Well – it’s not been bad.”
An overnight visit to Kirkby Lonsdale
We had our first overnight stopover at mum’s house in ages this weekend. It’s been an odd year with the sleep patterns of a baby and going to someone’s house has generally represented hassle for me since Elsie came along, but she’s been sleeping so well for the last few weeks and Katie & I wanted to get oursleves out for a meal without children – so going to see mum was a really ace opportunity to kill a whole flock of birds with a very small stone.
On top of it all, the sun shone despite a dreadful forecast.
I had two ace bike rides – one on the way up; the ‘usual’ way over Gisburn Forest I ride – and the next morning I opted for a (mildly hungover) hilly and gobsmackingly scenic ride from Kirkby Lonsdale to Barbon, Dent, Deepdale and Kingsdale – on my way to Katie’s family’s house in Ingleton. Continue reading “An overnight visit to Kirkby Lonsdale”
Don’t blog around much anymore
You’ll have heard it numerous times from numerous people, but things are so busy at the moment…
I haven’t fogotten about Minnellium.com and I know that the quality and frequency has really taken a big dive, but the way that social media is heading, I’m slowly coming round to a rethink about the way I ‘do’ my online Dave stuff. Continue reading “Don’t blog around much anymore”
MTB Ride: Mary Townley Loop
Had a lovely day today. My training rides these days tend to be not much more than an hour in length. This has its advantages – you can go out and totally hammer yourself for an hour or so and get all the training benefit; I really believe that if you want to be fit to race well you can gain little from pounding out the miles. Greg Lemond agreed too in an excellent article in one of last year’s ProCycling magazine articles.
However, training theories aside, there comes the odd day when you really just fancy a long ride on yer bike! Continue reading “MTB Ride: Mary Townley Loop”
Elsie’s first birthday – and a mini street party
The sun seemed to shine on the righteous this Bank Holiday weekend, as we had a bit of a houseful to celebrate Elsie’s first birthday. Much as we did the same with Lily – and not being the type of folks for Christenings, we thought we’d get friends, family and neighbours together and have a right old knees up. Continue reading “Elsie’s first birthday – and a mini street party”
A slow recovery
I had my checkup earlier today at the hospital 34 days after my crash at Lee Quarry that gave me a broken collarbone. I’m so intrigued about the healing process that my body has gone through so far. When I first had my X-Ray on the day of the fracture, I was a bit shocked to see how clearly ‘snapped’ the bone was – with the two ‘pieces’ about two centimetres apart from each other.
Continue reading “A slow recovery”
Friends Reunited: Ben Cole visits from Canada
It’s great catching up with old friends. Sometimes it goes far too long between seeing friends. It’s hard enough to co-ordinate good time together with people who live a few miles down the road in these busy days of raising children, let alone people who emigrate to Vancouver. Continue reading “Friends Reunited: Ben Cole visits from Canada”
Lee Quarry Mountainbike Race… but just watching
It comes to us all I hear.. spectating rather than doing. Continue reading “Lee Quarry Mountainbike Race… but just watching”
Happy Anniversary Phil & Anne
Ten years today since my brother Phil got married to Anne – it was a lovely day in Devon – very sunny and warm – and I remember being a bit nervous as being best man for the only time in my life! (Update: My great friend and my best man Matthew has just reminded me I was his best man also!! What an utter dope I am!)
I was also recovering from being sick from cider the evening before.
They’re in Paris today !
Nikon D40 New camera
Just got a Nikon D40 
Ballet on a bike
I’ve been sent this three times now in the last two days – it just makes me gasp with utter pleasure – even Katie likes it. “It’s like Ballet on bikes” was her comment. The best mountainbike video ever?? a strong contender. Continue reading “Ballet on a bike”