10 Under the Ben - Sat 31st May 08

Have bike, have wife, have kid…we’re off!

Following the arduous but increasingly view rewarding journey north we finally got to Fort William around tea time on the Friday. With a quick check in at the guest house we were reluctantly back in the car for a quick 5 mile trip to the Nevis Range where the 10 Under the Ben event village had been assembled. Surprisingly when we arrived it was fairly quiet so we promptly made our way up to the Nevis Range centre at the top of the gondola ride where registration was taking place.

Only at this point I think I realised what I had let myself in for, when listening to other riders it seemed everyone else was taking part in a team….oh how sensible they are, but where’s the fun in that? Now, accepting this as the point of no return, I gave my name in exchange for an electronic ankle tag.

So, after a very quick look around at the top Kay, Oliver and me set off on our journey downwards back to the event village. Deciding there wasn’t a lot happening at this point we made our way back to base camp.

By this point, Caroline, my third support crew member (3 – Kay, Oliver, Caroline) had made her way down from Ullapool to join us for a huge pasta tea. Huge is probably not the word, in fact mammoth with lots left over is probably more apt. Got slightly carried away with the Fussili !!
Friday night saw me have the best nights sleep in months and I woke up extremely refreshed and full of adrenalin for today’s race. Two bowls of porridge for breakfast and I’m now full of a mixture of adrenalin and Scottish oats.

We got to the event village for just gone 8.00am and as it happens we got a really good car parking spot right next to the course which turned out this was going to be my support / rest area.

Dressed in my racing attire (sorry folks there was a bit of Lycra going on) I ambled over to the compulsory race briefing, not sure why it was compulsory as they never told us anything new from what I had read in the event programme. Back at the car I got myself together, dressed, wheels on, seat in, water on board, checked seat height, checked I had my water, checked I was dressed! And I was ready for the off.

The start area was now very busy, so after a last toilet check I get myself nicely positioned somewhere near the front of the pack which presented a few photo opportunities for my support team.

After a fumbled count down we were off, to a very slow pace as riders sorted themselves out and gradually got both feet clipped in and pedalling. The pre race lap must have been around 3 miles which soon had us coming back through the transition area and off to start the first official lap.
I made good pace round the first lap completing it in around 1hr 5mins and after a very short stop and another photo I set off for lap 2.

I found it hard to pace myself against other riders as there were riders of all abilities and also team riders who were going all out on their laps. So keeping my head down I plodded along at what I thought was a sensible pace.

Lap 2 seemed to be quickly over and after a short rest I was away on lap 3. Things were going well! By this point the sun was getting very hot and the white stone tracks were throwing heat back at me from every direction. The good weather meant the tracks were on the whole very dry and fast. In terms of mountain biking, the whole of the course was fantastic and consisted of a bit of everything from rocks, roots, drops, berms, fast downhills, river crossings, boardwalks and plenty of other things to choose from. To have this on my doorstep would be good!

Now, when it comes to punctures, I have never seen so many people with tyre lever in one hand and a semi inflated tube in the other in one day. I kept wondering when it was to be my turn, surely these rocks were not going to let me get away with 10 hours of riding at full psi? I must have had someone looking out for me on Saturday because smooth rolling with no technical issues was the order of the day for me.

Nearing the end of lap 3 I decided now was the time to take a longer rest before setting off once more and for some unbeknown reason to me I made the fatal mistake again (I didn’t learn from the Merida in Wales) of eating too much. After a good rest in the shade and now full of bananas, cereal bars, sandwich and energy gel I sumped back onto my bike for yet another hour plus in the saddle. Lap 4 wasn’t good, it hurt and I felt sick…I seriously thought this was going to be my bail out point, how could I do anymore feeling like this. Granny ring on all the hills to conserve energy I finally made it round. Back to my support team who amazingly told me I looked better than I did when I came in off lap 3! Time for a drink, change of plasters on the hands to protect the blisters, banana and that was it this time, no gourmet pit stop to be had.

Reluctantly but at the same time willingly I lifted myself onto my bike once more. Lap was good! Felt loads better, picked my pace up slightly and got round another time. Some of the sections, in fact, one in particular which was a bloody steep short climb had me taking the bike for a walk but I figured better to walk a small bit and feel better for the rest of the ride. I nearly did myself a mischief at the start of lap 5, a very steep drop with a few steps plus tiredness equalling complete lack of concentration had me entangling my plums in my handlebars! This I decided was also to be walked on my next lap.

My personal target, for whatever reason, was to do 6 laps, and so with that in mind off I trundled for the last time into Scottish mountain biking bliss. In fact, lap 6 felt great, it was fast, my legs felt good, the hills seemed a bit easier again and even the blisters were not hurting as much. Inner strength, second wind, whatever I were to call it, it got me round and quickly. But, truth be told, I was glad to see the finish line for the last time and have my end of race photo taken.

Electronic tag handed back, miniature bottle of Whiskey received and a check of my times, I decided this was now time to go home.

All in all a fantastic event. Carloline did ask, about 10 mins after finishing, if I would do it again? Still not given her an answer, but the answer would be a definite yes. I can’t wait.
A huge thanks to Kay, Oliver and Caroline for supporting me on the day, I could not have done it without them.

And, to top it off, a fantastic amount of sponsor money raised for the Thembalitsha organisation.

All round big smiles

Now looking forward to Mountain Mayhem in a couple of weeks…

Final ride stats

6 laps - (approx 63 miles including pre race lap)

ride time (including stops): 9hrs 44mins

in the senior solo male category i finished 45th out of 88

less than a week to go...

Saturday 31st May will see me going round and round in circles up in Scotland, it's the 10 under the Ben race at Fort William.

Trainings going well

Feeling the fittest I have felt in a long time

Been training at a high intensity with the idea that on the day I should be able to go for longer at a lower pace...just got to remember to go at a lower pace!

Settled in on the Superlight now, mind you i think the merida in wales helped a lot with that!

Energy gels and drinks a plenty purchased

new cycling shorts (extra padding!) bought

still to get disc brake pads and spare tubes

need to start eatin lots of pasta!

and overall, really looking forward to it in a strange 'I can't wait to go to Scotland and completely knacker my entire body' kind of way

again and again...oh...and again

for yesterdays ride I decided to give myself a taste of what is to be at 10 under the Ben at the end of this month. 10 under the Ben (for those who dont know) is a mtb race in the foothills of Ben Nevis, its a 10 mile course and you have 10 hours to complete as many laps as you can or want to! I have entered this as a solo rider and with me will be the family to give me support, food and drink.

So, Saturdays ride...

the route: home - Low Ackworth - Rogerthorpe - Upton - Hemsworth Bypass - Home (10.5 miles)

terrain: mix of off road and tarmac (I used the tarmac to really push myself and maintain a high pace)

conditions: warm, slight breeze (which was behind on the homeward stretch!), muddy tracks

laps: 3

total distance: 31.5 miles

lap time: 45 minutes

overall, felt good after doing this, the hardest thing I found (and this is the reason why I decided to do some laps) was the mental obstacle of doing the same tracks over and over, but i need to get used to this for the end of the month. Physically I could have carried on, which is good news as on the day I think the atmosphere will hopefully carry me round also and take away the monotony of lap after lap

my first Merida - Builth Wells Spring Marathon

“flippin hec’ – that were hard!”

Saturday 12th April

I arrived in Builth Wells, after a marathon of a drive, at around 1pm which saw me clear to getting a good camping spot tucked away in a quiet corner of the campground. By the time I had all the bits to my tent strewn around the place and the outer tent blowing around like an oversized empty crisp packet the camp ground was starting to fill up rather rapidly.

After a very quick tent building episode (to try and avoid the rain from the ever darkening clouds!) I took a walk over to the event village to see what was happening. A mix of trade stands, registration, food bar and general boggyness under foot. The remainder of Saturday was fairly relaxed (reading, listening to music, drinking tea) and I met up with Glen and Dasnut from Bad Brains.

That evening we watched the ELBNO race get under way just before 8 and I think I hit the sleeping bag and roll mat combo at around 10.

Sunday 13th April

It rained heavily through the night that could mean only one thing; it was going to be wet and muddy today!!

The marathon was due to start at 10.30 so I made my way to the start area just after 10. Myself and the other Bad Brainer’s lined up together for the start, we positioned ourselves fairly close to the front which incidently was to be the only point of the ride where I would be near to the front!

We were off, a mass of mtb’ers pedalling away through the town of Builth Wells and less than a minute in, the pace car was gone which I am sure was closely followed by a number of Elite riders. Glen started showing good pace early on and I decided to let him go on ahead and suss out the route! ;) I made good pace up the first hill which was on tarmac, finding it hard to ease off if other bikes were passing. “pace myself” I kept saying “save the legs”.

The first feed station was around 25km into the ride, just before this little tent of energy there was a wooded section which on map looked good but in reality and in thick ankle deep mud was in fact a bloody nightmare! A combination of mud, slippy tree routes and riders bunching up made for a very tricky section.

Shortly after the first feed station, where I ate a banana at light speed and filled up my Camelbak reservoir, we were back into another uphill tarmac section followed quickly by up hill off road. There certainly seemed to be more up hills on this ride than downhills! Somewhere around this point a fellow biker asked me how to get rid of cramp which he was suffering in both legs, I told him about the old Salt n Vinegar trick which I had learnt from numerous people and offered him the only bag I was carrying. Not long after consuming these on the move, and I had pulled away a bit now, I heard a great ‘yelp’ from behind and turned to see the Salt n Vinegar man going down like a sack of ….!! Maybe the crisps idea was not the best advice after all?! He wasn’t the last I saw suffering the effects of cramp that day.

We were fast (or probably slowly) approaching the 40km mark at which we knew there was a hell of a hill to climb. No sooner had we remembered this, we found ourselves dropping into granny ring yet again for another long drag. I think this ride is the only ride I have done where most of it has been in my granny ring!! We made it to the top where a photographer was waiting to take a pic of the pain in our faces, I’m sure he must have succeeded with me.

After an awesome downhill the choice to take the route for the 50km race was presented to us. Dasnut, who I had been riding with for a while decided this was to be his chosen path back to Builth. I quickly convinced myself that I would carry on and conquer the 65km, especially now I had come this far. Shortly after saying our goodbye’s I started to wonder if I had made the right choice especially now that the heavens decided to open. Huddled amongst a crowd of bikers under a gazebo in the middle of nowhere I found myself at feed station number 2. This time, I could hold back from stuffing my face with biscuits and crisps and the occasional banana. I set off in the rain, some more tarmac and then again off road into what turned out to be, for me, the hardest climb of the ride. A climb so long and with so many false horizons, this turned into a challenge of mind over matter as well as fitness. I eventually got to the top of what I thought was the last hill of the ride.

On the decent, which was grin-tastic again, I met up with a welsh bloke who just happened to be similar pace to me. So, not through discussion, we ended up riding the remainder of the ride together. The hill which I thought was the last, was indeed not. We were met by a marshal who had a smug look about him and proceeded to inform us that we could carry on back on the road which would be 6 miles back to Builth Wells or continue with the marked course up another huge hill for a 7 mile trip back to the finish. At this point my heart sank, thinking I had used up all my energy and that I would most certainly die if I went up this last hill. But…my new welsh friend somehow gave me the motivation and encouragement to do it and go for the 7 mile with huge hill option…so that we did. And, amazingly, I got my second (or maybe this was my third!?) wind from somewhere and started feeling good (ish!) again. The climb was hard, a fair amount of walking but the constant chatting made it all the better.

The final off road downhill was crazy, basically a very steep mud chute, that I rode completely out of control. Concentration at this point was minimal. A short tarmac and path section threw me into the winding finishing slalom through the farm yard and to the inflatable finish line. A finishers T-shirt was shoved into my hand and I made my way wearily back to my tent. 6hrs 25minutes of riding got me round this marathon, I was pleased just to get round, never mind what time I achieved.

There is something quite addictive about this kind of riding, although when doing it I’m sure I asked myself numerous times ‘why’ and probably told myself not to do this ever again, but worryingly I am looking forward to the next one….

I'm off...

off to Wales. My first Merida is upon me and I can't wait. Driving down to Builth Wells today, hoping to be there early afternoon to get my tent up and waterproofed! All my kit is laid out ready to be packed, anyone would think I was going away for a week or two! And I'm so worried I am going to forget something...I can see double and triple checks happening.

The bike is clean and well oiled, new brake pads, puncture fixed and air pressures set...

blimey...I thought i was just going for a bike ride, where has all this extra pressure come from?!

With the pressure comes excitement, I slept like a kid on Christmas Eve last night...says it all really

anyhow, its early and theres a lot to do.............now where did I put those tent pegs?

...good news...bad news...

good news - i now have new bike, off for the first ride on it tonight, somewhere local, something not too demanding just so I can get used to it.

bad news - still coughing like a an ex-miner, i just can't shake this bloody thing off. I have managed to get a couple of turbo trainer sessions in but not sure if they made me feel and better or in fact worse?!

off for some food and a ride on me shiny new bike

the dreaded...

...'man-flu' has struck at a pain in the arse time of the year. Not rode my bike, or the been on the turbo trainer for that matter, since Monday, its now Friday and I am feeling anxious to get back on the bike. I just know that if I do any training at all then it may make the symptoms even worse and when you are talking 'man-flu' that could end up very serious indeed!!

So a day of bed, coughing and spluttering, fresh orange juice, loads of water and a heavy dose of the latest mountain biking magazines it will have to be for me.

it's happening!

the santa cruz will be in on Thursday this week, Anodized Blue, superb!! So, hopefully up and running with it by early next week....

19 days to go...

my first Merida is nearly upon me. Builth Wells April 13th and I can't wait.

The training is going well, I'm noticing a definate increase of speed and stamina which has to be good. I am getting in a good mix of on the bike time and turbo trainer sessions (and family time of course!!). The bike itself is another matter...

I have had my eye on a Santa Cruz Superlight frame for some time now and last week I finally took the plunge and ordered one (via Stif bikes in Leeds). I never realised how weak I was at choosing colours, been a designer I thought it would have helped, but not in this case! After many a minute of deliberation I opted for the Anodized Slate, then after many more minutes of filling in details for my order and a phone call from Stif to Jungle (UK importer of Santa Cruz bikes) it was confirmed the chosen colour is out of stock....noooooooooooooooooooooo!.....3 weeks lead time at least......! I left it on order with the other bits I needed (XT front mech, Syncros seat post) and came away very unhappy at the thought I may not have my new bike built up ready for the 1st Merida.

After a restless night of 'what on earth can I do' thoughts I woke with the positive attitude of changing my order to the Anodized blue option, after all they told me they had all othere colour options other than the one i chose. I would of course have to order a new Hope headset in Black as my current headset in red would look a tad odd on a blue bike!?

So, 9.30am came around and I put a call in to Stif, "no problem sir, we can change that over for you sir", "I will just check with my colleague that we can price match your headset", can I give you a call back sir?"

The call back confirmed to me that the Anodized blue is also not in stock! Flippin hec, how hard can it be??! I mentioned to this 'new to me' sales person that they did confirm on Thursday they had every colour other than anodized slate...."can you double check?"...and so that is the call I am now waiting for tomorrow.

Anyway, I gave the Trek a quick wash down this morning to wash away last Tuesday's Pootle remnants so I didnt have to carry all that unwanted ballast, so a quick wash later and with my camelback reservoir filled I was off on a Monday morning mainly road blast. The reason for the 'mainly road' outing is because the Trek is desperatley in need of new bushes. I do hope the Superlight turns up next week so I don't have to have these replaced just now.

The ride out this morning was good, it took in the views of Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Featherstone, Heath Common, Walton, Haw Park Wood and back home - 18.2 miles, 1hr 30mins constant cycling, 12 mph avg speed. I was happy with that.

Had a good wash of the bike once home ready to swap all bits and pieces over to the Superlight next week........hopefully.....fingers crossed.....

4 hours of ups and downs

the Peak District, that was the chosen playground for this weekends riding. I had arranged to meet up with Pete and Tom (Bad Brains recruits) for a ready to ride start time of 8.30am at Heatherdene car park near Ladybower Reservoir. Waking to wind and a little rain was not going to curb my motivation for yet another day in the saddle. After a detoured journey through Sheffield I finally found my way back onto a road which I had some recognition of and evetually found myself at Heatherdene. The other two had hit the same problem as me in Sheffield and rolled up a little while later. Our ready to ride time shifted to just before 9.00am.

So off we set, taking a right out of the car park and heading towards the A57 and with a short section of Peak District tarmac we found ourselves heading off left on to a bridleway just next to the Ladybower Inn. This is a steep and rocky ascent which warmed the legs up in no time. The track eventually turns left and still headed skywards we were finding ourselves battling the wind more and more. Good news though...the rain had stopped.

A fairly long climb and it brings you to a superb viewpoint overlooking Ladybower Reservoir and the surrounding beauty of the Peak District. The next section contours for a bit then takes a sharp left for some downhill fun. A steep descent, albeit, through a number of annoying gates lands you right next to Ladybower. Its amazing how quick you can lose your hard earned height.

Our path (or as it happens 'our tarmac track') brought us round to Fairholmes car park just infront of the dam wall. The dam, it must be said, was looking very impressive today with the amount of water it had dropping of its top lip.

We made our way up the West side of Derwent Water and never been far away from very steep hills to climb, we decided to do just that. More or less doubling back on ourselves we took a bridleway UP through Gores Plantation with our sights set on getting to our 'summit point' from where we would take a right turn to lead us to Rowlee Farm and its grintastic downhill. Full of switchbacks and natural berms and near on ear popping descending this can only be described as awesome.

The pleasure is all too soon followed by the pain and that said we were now facing another long rocky climb. The legs were certainly getting some use today. We were now on a track which if followed further than we chose to go would bing you to Hope Cross. We took a right turn, signposted Edale, before you get to the stone cross in the middle of nowhere, a track I have done many a time and a track I love more the more I ride it. Its downhill, its long, its fast. There is an uphill section about midway down, not a rocky one this time which comes as a bit of a treat at this stage of the ride. Then more downhilling as fast as you dare (or as fast as your bike wants to go with hardly any brake pads left!!) right down to a B road near to Nether Booth.

Turning left onto the B road and following it until we got to Townhead Bridge where a left turn brought us to the start of our last major climb of the day. Another rocky climb but the legs were still turning. A switchback eventually took us even higher with the thought in mind that this must be leading to yet another fantastic downhill section, and that it did. We were finally spat out onto tarmac near a place called Aston which left us with a few miles of road work to finish with.

Back at the car, thouroughly pleased with our pace today and a mouthful of fruit gums kindly donated by Tom, I felt a very happy man. What started as a rainy and windy day turned into a dry (ish!) day with even a bit of sun. And whats more, I am feeling fast on the bike...the training is paying off...