42

Nostalgia the nice way

I am in Wolverhampton for the week at the Methodist Conference. This means an opportunity for nostalgia as I was born here (yes it was a long time ago - no rude comments needed). So tonight I left the bright lights of the City Centre for a fringe event in Wednesbury. Cycling there I half recognised many names without being sure what the connection was.

So after the meeting rather than ride straight back to the caravan (approx 10 miles) I used my Garmin Edge 705 to find places from my past.

First was Farm Road, somewhere here was my first home. Designed by Dad and built by "Bidulf & Thrift" the building firm started by my Mum's Father and his friend Mr Biddulf, Mr Bidulf died and Dad took his place after he had qualified as an Architect and finished his National Service.

On the way I passed Beckminster Methodist Church where my parents met and later were married and where I was Baptised. Near there is Bantock Park where I was apparently taken in my pram.

Next was Stoneacre Close, never realised how near it is to Farm Road. I remember Gran and Grandpa (Dad's parents) living here (and Gran alone for many years) again designed by Dad (not sure if B&T built them) still look good (and quite trendy actually) all these years later.

Then York Avenue where my Aunt and Uncle lived when I was growing up, in a house Dad designed.

Then Wolverhampton Grammer School where Dad went. Finally back to the Cannock Road about 1.5 miles from the M54 which is where I am staying in the caravan.

Total a bit over 20 miles and by far the best way to see everything. A very pleasant way to spend an evening. Roads amazingly quiet.

Tour de France 2009 Phil and Paul Bingo Game

For the first week this may be hard to play due to the Methodist Conference. But after that great fun!

Tour de France 2009 Phil and Paul Bingo Game - Bike Hugger.

Nicole Cooke takes an unprecedented tenth national title in Abergavenny

We have some seriously fast women cyclists. Congratulations to Nicole on her 10th National title.

But wow Lizzie Armitstead is fantastic, coming 2nd while still in the under 23 category. Actually she is not just in the U23's but is still only 20! Pretty safe money bet that she will be national champ one day. Sadly for some strange reason they decided she could not have the silver medal in the Elite class as she won gold in the U23 class in the same race. Seems very unfair.

Emma Pooley was right with them, if they had included the big climb that the men do in the womens race things might have been different. As it is she seems to be getting faster and faster and is real competition to Nicole.

Hat tip: Nicole Cooke takes an unprecedented tenth national title in Abergavenny

Pooley wins Grande Boucle Feminine

Pooley wins Grande Boucle Feminine - Fantastic!!

Time to Reflect Retreat

Here is the route I rode to get here yesterday. Just over 80 miles which meant starting at 4:45am, still that meant a nice 2nd breakfast in Cambridge. Only unpleasant bit of road was the A1307 south from Cambridge.

Raunds to Pleshey at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

As I wrote in a comment on Re-vis.e Re-form: This released something in me.....

By the way I am on a retreat for Methodist Ministers who are coming towards the end of their first appointment to prepare us for all the procedures of ether extension or stationing.

The leaders of the retreat are all women. 2 lay and 1 ordained (there was supposed to be a 4th leader who is a man but a family issues stopped him coming at the last minute). They are all highly qualified and this is a great gift from the Church.

Also on the retreat, which is for five districts there are 8 women ministers and 6 men (it was compulsory so not that the men chose not to come).

More signs of hope in the Methodist Church.

--

Now off to prepare for group work this afternoon, a great hardship to go out into the beautiful gardens to sit in the sun and reflect <grin>

Going for it

On Friday in 42: Getting ready for the C2C I wrote

Next week I am on a course at The Retreat House, Pleshey. It is only about 70 miles away but starts with lunch at 12:30pm on Monday so I would have to leave home very very early to be sure of getting there in time. At the moment I plan on getting a lift part of the way and then riding the rest. I do hope to ride all the way home as training.

Well, I have in fact decided to ride the whole way. My Garmin 705 bike computer has sorted me out a route which is just over 76 miles. I'll be starting at 4:30am which should give me plenty of time. Just doing my packing now, then hopefully an early night.

Am planning to go on my normal Trek road bike which will make this my longest ever ride on an upright bike. My 2nd longest ride ever. The longest was to Cheltenham in a day as part of a day and half riding to a retreat at Lindors Christian Guild Hotel. The first day was just over 90 miles in January 2007 on my recumbent trike.

Anyway after a very hilly (for this part of the world) ride on Friday where I did nearly 60 miles (and 3750 feet of climbing) on my full suspension mountain bike I figure this should be possible.

Phone signal permitting, Pleshey looks about as remote as Essex gets :-), I'll confirm safe arrival tomorrow.

C2C Training in Leicestershire and Rutland

Here is today's ride. It was gorgeous. Note that the average speed includes stops at the bike shop on the north side of Rutland water, the coffee shop on the south side of Rutland water and Costa Coffee in Oakham. Plus I bonked in a major way about 8 miles before the end. Had to walk up one hill and used 1st gear a couple of times.

Weather was lovely and the route was great, very quiet and lots of hills (except round Rutland water) which is what I wanted for C2C training. Distance was about the same as a C2C day and the climbing about 1/2 what I will need to do on the first 2 days of the C2C.

Note I started at Belton-in-Rutland, the other waypoint is an extra because the Garmin Edge 705 had stopped recording totals for climbing and descending, turning it off and on again fixed it but created a waypoint. It seemed to go wrong at Costa Coffee, maybe it does not like my Massimo Fair Trade Latte with skimmed milk and extra shot.

C2C training in Leicester and Rutland at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Getting ready for the C2C

Just over 2 weeks to go before I ride the Coast to Coast. That is Whitehaven to Sunderland 135 miles 13,600 feet of climbing.

So I have been getting some of the preparation done, in doing that I have committed myself to a round trip. Now I am riding the Coast to Coast in 3 days (Saturday 2nd May to Monday 4th May) and then continuing on the Two Rivers Route to Tyneside (8 miles) and then back to Whitehaven on the Reivers Route (170 miles). That will start in a small way on Monday 4th and finish on Thursday 7th.

So in total it should be about 310 miles and 16,600 feet of climbing in 6 days of riding.

All the accommodation is booked, just waiting for a couple of confirmations about car parking and bike trailer parking. As I am doing the Reivers route on my own and need to carry all my stuff I am using my Bob Yak trailer (not easy to carry enough stuff otherwise on a full suspension mountain bike).

I am hoping to drop the trailer off at the Sunday night B&B as I drive up to Whitehaven on Friday 1st May (only an extraq 35 miles, not too much in 300 total) . Then I will be able to tow it for the last day of the C2C (which is mostly downhill) ready to continue on with the Two Rivers and first 18 miles of the Reivers route.

The whole purpose is to raise money for Christians Against Poverty and so far the total is over £1,500 but I want more. Please visit www.justgiving.com/davewarnock and make a donation if you have not already done so. I am paying all the costs so every pound goes to Christians Against Poverty.

It seems there are 18 of us riding with over £9,000 in sponsorship so far. If you have already sponsored me then why not sponsor John Hearson who is sharing a room with me for 2 nights (the money still goes to Christians Against Poverty).

Tomorrow (well actually today now) I am heading for the hills and the rain. I plan to drive to Belton-in-Rutland (just west of Uppingham, off the A47) and ride to Oakham for lunch (via Loddington, Launde Abbey, Knossington) and then back to the car, they have much better hills there than we do in Northamtonshire so it should be better training. I want to aim for 50 hilly miles to build some confidence.

Next week I am on a course at The Retreat House, Pleshey. It is only about 70 miles away but starts with lunch at 12:30pm on Monday so I would have to leave home very very early to be sure of getting there in time. At the moment I plan on getting a lift part of the way and then riding the rest. I do hope to ride all the way home as training.

I have done about 30 miles so far this week, plus plenty of digging to plant potatoes but it is not anything like as much as I would like to have under my belt this close to the event. Still if I can manage another couple of hundred beforehand I should be ok.

Stanwick Lakes gets better

The new visitor centre is now open at Stanwick Lakes which is very close to us here in Raunds.

As it was a beautiful afternoon (and I wanted to procrastinate about the things I am procrastinating about now by writing this post) we decided to ride over to have a look.

Our youngest has not yet done much solo road cycling (lots on the back of tandems or on a trailer bike) so it was a bit of an adventure for him. Jane decided to ride the XXL recumbent trike for comfort and I went on my mountain bike - no point in my riding anything fast with those two :-)

Again we were reminded that Stanwick Lakes is a great facility and rightly very popular. But also what a total mess for local access. There is still no safe pedestrian, cyclist or horse rider access from Stanwick - you have to cross the busy A45 dual carriageway at the Stanwick roundabout with no help whatsoever.

From Raunds we have "better" access down Meadow Lane which is track in a terrible state of repair, then a bridge under the A45 which is flooded most of the time (even today after no significant rain for ages there is still a huge area of mud by the bridge), then through two tight kissing gates.

Now I don't mind the kissing part of kissing gates. But even my mounatin bike does not fit through without being held vertical on it's back wheel. All recumbents have to be carried over. To top it all our son got stung by the nettles around the gate. This is crazy for "public" access from the nearest town to a

unique countryside attraction in the heart of the Nene Valley in Northamptonshire. It is a site which really does offer something for everyone: leisure opportunities, access to attractive countryside and abundant wildlife can all be found here.

Once you are past the useless access Stanwick Lakes is superb. The adventure playground has been maintained well and is large and very popular.

The new visitor centre is great. It is supposed to be the first really green building in Northants (we are a lot behind the times here) with grass roof, solar panels, ground source heating, wind turbine etc. It also has a nice cafe with a terrace over one of the lakes.

At the central area by the car park there is also a bike hire scheme provided by AJ Bikes (see 42: AJ Bikes in Northants). Elsewhere there is an outdoor amphitheatre, bird hide, assault course adventure trail and a fair amount of walking and cycling.

So we got a nice coffee, a nice sit in the sun while the adventure playground was used and then a gentle ride back.

One little bit of excitement was to find a flat tyre on the recumbent trike when we got back to the bike rack. That was when I realised I did not have a pump with me. Fortunately I did have a cannister of seal-n-flate which you just connect to the valve, press the button and it fills the hole with gunk and inflates the tyre. Cool for a temporary repair. Ok I could have taken a pump and 3 spare tubes (3 tyre sizes with us) or repair kit but this was wirth every penny in convenience for us today. Plus Jane said how easily she could do that herself whereas she has never been keen to repair punctures herself (and to be fair some of the tyres on small recumbent wheels are really difficult to get off). Anyway when we got home I found the culprit which was a thorn nealy 10mm long going straight through the tyre.

As for the access problems, one of the Sustrans Connect2 routes runs from Stanwick Lakes to Wellingborough. Hopefully when that gets started we will see some progress on the cycling access to the lakes (good from Ringstead, poor to terrible from everywhere else).

AJ Bikes in Northants

Here in East Northants there is good news for cycling.

First a local Bike shop has moved to new larger premises. AJ Bikes are now at Unit N, Bury Close, Higham Ferrers, Northants. NN10 8HQ.

This is not your average small, local bike shop. Apparently they have 10,000 square feet and over 200 bikes on show. I can believe it. There are bikes from pretty much every major genre (kids, bmx, town, fixie, folders, road, cross, lots of styles of mtb) all with several brands. Ok no recumbents or cargo bikes (yet), however, much much better than anything else I have seen in Northamptonshire. To find anything similar would currently mean going to Cambridge or Milton Keynes.

Not only this but I have found them really helpful. I bought my full suspension mountain bike from them and the service has been very good.

Last week I took my fixie in as I saw they had some neat looking chain guards. They fitted one for me within 2 hours (at the same time giving my mountain bike it's free service).

Yesterday, our oldest had a day off school (inservice training for staff) so the two of us went for a gentle ride to find lunch. After a very nice lunch at Beans in Higham we called in at AJ Bikes as I needed a helmet replacement after a fall (see 42: Will I or won't I? and 42: Home from retreat). Despite the fact I had not bought the helmet from them they checked with Specialized, found out the replacement policy and then said leave it with us and we will sort it out. As I said great service. If you live in Northants then I recommend them.