Riding a 24hr solo mountain bike race had been an ambition of mine ever since I rode my first team one more than 5 years ago. So, this year I finally went and signed myself up for CLIC 24, a charity 24hr race in the Mendips. Training for it dominated my riding for months beforehand. . . . → Read More: CLIC 24
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The May bank holiday means a lot of things to a lot of people. To mountain bikers this year, it meant the Dyfi Enduro and SSUK – I partook in the former. To Channel Swimmers, it meant the start of their training in Dover Harbour. For weeks and weeks until their crossing, they head out . . . → Read More: Swimming With Crazies The facts are these: I spent the 11th to 28 January backpacking around India from Bombay to Goa, Kerala, and then back up again. It was awesome. The trip consisted of many tiny fragments and many special moments, all churning together to make a delightful state of chaos. Even if I wanted to, I don’t . . . → Read More: India – don’t try to make sense of it My dreams have been taking a dystopian turn. This morning I was in some sort of (prison?) camp that contained a school-like building (all lino floors and heavily painted radiators) and a field area with a wire fence. I was being taken to see the unfortunate people and felt a mix of anticipation and unease. . . . → Read More: Dystopian dream Man is a bridge to the superman; man must overcome himself: all that jazz. Nietzsche would have ridden a singlespeed and ridden it up this hill. He’d have seen the point of struggling in a battle that you can never win. Toiling against a hill that’s not just long enough and steep enough but, in . . . → Read More: Nietzsche Would Have Ridden Singlespeed Well, I’ve had my first attempt at climbing… and it was really good fun. Just like the first time I went mountain biking, there was an initial period where I had to make a step change in my perception of what is possible. Watching Phil or Nik flow up the wall and even across the . . . → Read More: Not yet a human fly My first impressions of the water were the blue, the depth, and the grin so wide that it interrupted my breathing. We had jumped off the boat under sunlit cliffs and my trepidation had duly been slapped by the shock of the water. But as I started to swim, as I started to warm up, . . . → Read More: Swimtrek in Malta/Gozo It’s all Adam’s fault. In defiance of the knee problems, I’d started riding again and it had been fun. The pain wasn’t any worse, and I could get out on bikes again. And then he went and mentioned Cheddar Bikefest. An 8hr race with a dodgy knee? Tempting… very tempting. Deciding about Cheddar was postponed, . . . → Read More: Cheddar Bikefest Well, I’d been trying to keep the dramatic tension for anyone who didn’t know about how the PCT ended for me. The rate and detail of posts about it probably gave the game away though, so other topics are going to creep in-between, but the story will get finished. After a while my knee packs . . . → Read More: The Sad Truth About The PCT Our plan for the day was to head along the Laguna rim and see how well my knee held up. Unfortunately, we were behind schedule and would need more food, so we decided to split up for the first section. Once again, Morgan was taking up the slack caused by my failing knee – this . . . → Read More: PCT Day 4: Mt. Laguna to underneath Sunrise Highway |
