Descisions Descisions...

I couldn't decide what to do - several phone calls later and no-one decided for me I went for pulling out of Calderdale Hike to save my legs for a BG recce next weekend, take photos for Runfurther around the event and then do the Dark & White Peak Traiquest on the Sunday. I have been trying to have a blast at my biking to get my legs back into biking. I did a roady ride last saturday, then the Open 5 on the monday (running and biking) and then a 6 hour fast ride on wednesday and then this trailquest today (sunday) and today i finally felt like my biker legs were back (so now i have to keep both the running and biking legs going!). Oh and I came first too - also beat all the girls in the other categories too - am feeling pretty chuffed. Was also 29th out of 132 riders - yippeeeee
I feel like my legs want to ride hard again and not hurt. I was very disturbed with my biking over the last few years as my legs were never quite what they used to be on a bike as I was doing so much running - now I want both and I want both to be feeling good! - i don't ask for much do i! Well as I have been asked to join Team Haglof's for a big four day adventure race in August - i am trying to be as good as I can get for them! See our Team Haglof Pages HERE

Easter & Open 5 Weekend.....

Well Easter had the promise of rain, gales, snow and wind - pooh! So I planned not alot and got - well some fantastic weather and some great activities. Friday was a bit pants on the weather front so did some DIY - well I made a picture frame for my Ama dablam photos and then found a friend who needed a roady ride on Saturday - we set off thinking it's gonna rain - but it didn't - phew - I needed a good ride to push me and Steve was fast enough to pull me round so i showed him a cultural tour of the peaks by the road (not my usual off road stuff but good), we went through Chatsworth, Haddon and Thornbridge hall estates and it didn't rain - phew. Next was a meal and too uch wine at a friend's house up the road and the morning bought gorgeous weather again - so of course the hills beckoned and off I set on an Easter Run out the back of the house up Bradwell Edge. I knew I had to save my legs for the race on monday but the sun was out! I decided to drive to Ruthin for the Open 5 in the morning as the forcast was for rain overnight and my van is quite noisy to sleep in in the rain, so an early night and an early morning. The clouds looked big and black as I got near Ruthin and then i saw the hills, oh i remember these hills - they are quite big - umm maybe should have saved my legs a bit more for this event! Oh well if I don't do well i can just put it down to multi day training! When we all got there we found out the start was about 8km away up a hill - oh well will spin it out on the bike and use it as a warm up! The clouds started to disappear - hooray! I started on the run and the map looked like a mass of contour lines - my legs were gonna love this!!! The hills started and i lapped them up - doing what I had planned in 2 and half hours in 2 hours - oh well i get to do more biking! The biking started well for about 10 minutes - then I got to CP 17, a broken wall crossing the bridleway, the CP was supposed to be 10m up the wall, so i went for a romp over the stones and found nothing, so I thought maybe there was another wall a bit further on (upon reflection i should have looked at the other side of the map, the running map was 1:25000 not 1:50000 so showed the walls - and there wasn't another one!) I fell over lots by the wind pushing me off the slippery muddy horrible track and found no other wall. I was a bit discouraged and thought I had better turn back, it was about a 20 min turn around now back to CP17 and back to where i was - i dithered and then abandoned the idea - apparently I was only about a meter away from the CP but it was quite hidden - bugger! So i carried on and got to lots of mud but an excellent downhill - this cheered me up - was giving myself a hard time for such a stupid basic error - oh well - have a good ride now and forget the race! I had a good ride and got alot more points and felt my legs a bit on the last up hill to the finish but it hadn't rained and I'd had a good day. Road back to the event centre with a mate, definately pushed the legs over the edge, stood in a queue for a bacon butty and then sat down to listed to everyone get their prizes. I had just missed out by a minute on 3rd place (same points), so if I'd bothered to look for CP17 a little better I would have come 2nd!!! 4th felt good though! Then to my surprise the series points were announced and I'd come 3rd over the series - yippee i got a trophy!!! What an excellent way to end a good weekend... Now where was the easter egg....

It is now wednesday and I found a play mate for a 6 hour ride around the Peak District - bit of rain, lots of mud, some excellent downhills, well i chose the route and put all my favourite ones in, and then I got an easter egg - yippeee! Am now officially stuffed!