Almost a decade-and-a-half

This April will mark the fifteenth anniversary of my first ever blog post, on my old Fredsears.co.uk domain.

How many other people were blogging back then?

Dial up modems, jumpers for goalposts, etc.

Recent media consumption

Some 'TV' shows I've been watching:

• Mr Robot
• The Man In The High Castle
• Sneaky Pete
• Stranger Things

Some podcasts I've been listening to:

• Reply All
• 99% Invisible
• The Infinite Monkey Cage
• Book Shambles
• RHLSTP
• Distraction Pieces

YouTube channels I've been watching:

• Casey Niestat
• Tested

A blogging return?

Inspired by reading Medium articles and email newsletters, I want to start blogging again.

I probably won't.

Playing with IFTTT

via Instagram http://ift.tt/29TbmUW

You are what you eat?

Two related articles that I wanted to share:

• The Guardian - Inside the food industry: the surprising truth about what you eat
• Whole Larder Love - That's a reality I'd like to see change

I'm not anti-science at all - everything we eat is chemicals and we're a bag of chemical-using biological processes - but I'd much rather eat a cake made at home using an egg from a chicken living at the bottom of our garden than one produced in a factory using "potato protein isolate" in place of the egg.

Food for thought?

Insufficient preparation

In July, I'm planning on riding my bike around a hundred miles a day for four days. I've done virtually no riding, other than my short commute, this year so this is possibly a Bad Idea. But, I quite like bad ideas.

I've got a few rides in over the Easter break so far: I borrowed my brother-in-law's bike while we were staying with them, and have managed three consecutive days of shortish local cross rides since we got back. I've been reasonably quick on these rides, and don't feel too beaten up despite riding rooty singletrack and rough tracks on an 'inappropriate' bike.

'New' commuter

Having commuted on my X since I got it, my Yuba Mundo want being ridden, so it's been sold to a worthy local cause. But the committing was taking its toll on the X and I was getting bored of needing to wear waterproof trousers because of a lack of mudguards.

So, my Solitude has been converted to commuting duties. I splashed out on some less fugly forks, plus sensible tyres, mudguards, new rear brake, and a bag/basket; and played musical handlebars.

Route recce - Darlington to Thorpe Thewles

My sister recently moved to near Aviemore, so I'm going to ride up there in the summer. My plan is to follow the Sustrans Coast and Castles route up to Edinburgh over two days, then take two days to ride up into the Cairngorms.

So, I rode the first part of the route I'll take from home to Newcastle, following NCN14 toward Stockton before turning north toward the Castle Eden walkway. I was surprised at how much was off-road, and most of the continuation to Newcastle will be the same. Hopefully, it'll be a bit drier in the summer...

Next step is to ride the rest of the way to Newcastle, then get the train back. And buy some bike luggage and a GPS :)

Not blogging

Apparently, moving to Blogger hasn't magically made me blog more but at least I'm not paying for not blogging.

Exercise summary... Still riding to work, still not riding much otherwise. Started running in December, broke myself, stored running, restarted more sensibly in January. Did a few weeks of 100pushups programme. Started doing a circuits session after work on a Friday, but my muscles haven't arrived yet.

A new home for mactually

A new home. A fresh start (with all the old stuff too).

More frequent posting? Perhaps.

Cross at Hamsterley

Rode up to Hamsterley to ride some of the red trails on my Cotic X.

30 in 30

(Belated catch-up post.)







Tried doing 30 rides in 30 days, with an hour of riding being needed in a day to 'count'. Enjoyed it, did just over 500km in the month over 27 hours, so almost managed it. And all within the town as well.

Manchester Velodrome

 Wooded singletrack

 Gravel

 More gravel

Had fun, found a few new trails and rediscovered some more. Got faster. Going to do it again in the spring, I think.

Quick ride out - new bike!

Quick local ride out on my shiny, new bike-a Cotic X. On the first (even shorter) ride, the bike felt a bit big for me but it felt a lot better this time. Think I might need to try a slightly shorter stem though and move the brake levers about a bit. Gears are taking a bit of getting used to, but it seems fast and I like it :)

Distance: 22km (map on Strava)
Surface: Road
Time: 1:00
Weather: Cold but dry
Bike: Cotic X

Whinlatter in the snow

We were in the Lakes for a short family holiday, but the bike came along. On the final morning, my brother-in-law and I got a lift up to Whinlatter for a lap of each of the red routes; bizarrely, we've never ridden together before.

Found the climbs surprisingly easy despite this being only my second ride of the year. Commuting on my 'fast' bike this winter must have helped me make some more higher-intensity efforts. Or something.

We had to take it very easy on a lot of the descents as they were very icy, but they were still enjoyable.

Distance: 21km (map on Strava)
Surface: Off-road (plus a road descent)
Time: 2:00
Weather: Snow and ice on the ground
Bike: On-One Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres, 32:17)

First Ride of Spring - local Darlington loop

I have a pile of marking to be doing, but couldn't let today's weather pass so went out for a local spin. Mix of cheeky singletrack, kid-built jumps, council-built 4x and pump tracks, gravel farm tracks and bike tracks. Dappled sunlight and crunchy leaves.

• Under a caged sky


• The four cross track was closed


• #ahem


• Past the motorway


• Under a fallen tree


• Past the pumping station


• A (reasonably) clean bike

Distance: 28km (map on Strava)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 2:00
Weather: Sunny and dry and spring-like
Bike: On-One Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres, 32:17)

2012 riding summary

1707 miles

300 more than last year, about the same as 2007 and 1010, about 200 less than 2008 and 2009. Only 11 rides that weren't for commuting or just getting around.

Jan - 113
Feb - 90
Mar - 110
Apr - 115
May - 268
Jun - 140
Jul - 232
Aug - 171
Sep - 108
Oct - 147
Nov - 133
Dec - 70

Rubbish. Again.

Monstercross Fixietwat local autumn ride

I went for a quick monstercross fixietwat nichecore local autumn ride:



There were leaves:



I got dirty in the Buff:



It's been far too long since my last ride. I need to do this more.

Distance: 27km (map on Strava)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 1:30
Weather: Cold and dry. Autumnal.
Bike: Solitude Fixietwat Monstercross (with 42c tyres, 34:16)

Darlington to Swaledale to Hamsterley to Darlington

Sometimes I ride up to Swaledale for a ride. Sometime to Hamsterley. I've been thinking "why not both?" for a while now. Last Wednesday, I finally got around to doing it. It turns out, it's quite far and, if you've not been on a bike for three weeks, it hurts a bit. But it was still fun.

In numbers: 150km with 2200m of climbing; 10 1/4 hours; 1 gear; 7 mini pork pies; 1 punnet of cherries; 2 oat bars; 3l apple juice; 4l water.

Usual route up to Swaledale, then down Fremington Edge, over Surrender Moor and up to Great Pinseat. Down again and up to (almost) Tan Hill before following the Sustrans route via Bowes to Barnard Castle. Up to Woodland from Barney, down the end of the 'new' Hamsterley red route before returning to Woodland and riding home.

My legs felt fine throughout, but my "contact points" suffered. The stitching going around the pad in my shorts probably didn't help this... So, new shorts needed and probably going to get some chamois cream too. My gloves have had it too, so I'm going to invest in a new pair. Also thinking of swapping the oversize bars and stem on my bike for the identical but non-OS set for a bit more vibration reduction. Pondering whether a 29er front wheel with a 2.1" tyre gives more comfort than a 26" wheel with a 2.4" tyre. Long-term, I need a more forgiving fork than the steel On-One.

After 7 mini pork pies you don't want to eat number 8, so I need to find something else for a bit of variety on long rides. The cherries I bought in the Barnard Castle Coop worked, but I need something more robust for rides like Kielder 100.

Annoyingly close to 100 miles.

Distance: 151km (69km Darlington to Tan Hill via bits of Swaledale, 21.9km from Tan Hill to Barnard Castle, 12.7km from Barnard Castle to Woodland, 16.2km from Woodland into/round the forest and back again, and 31.2km back home again)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 10:15
Weather: Hot and sunny!
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4" tyres on 32:17)

Hamsterley again again again

Another trip up to Hamsterley on Thursday; the fourth in eight days, which is unheard of riding frequency for me. Dropped down (Section 13 then up the Transmission climb and down Transmission, Accelerator, Nitrous) before heading up the road climb out of the forest.

Felt much better than last ride, after a day off on Thursday, and got a mix of fastest or very close to fastest times (for me) on the climbs, and went down the off-road stuff faster than usual too. Turns out, I get faster at riding a bike if I ride a bike; who'd have thought?

Apple juice and pork pie fueling seemed to do the trick. The pies were nice and peppery, but I'm looking forward to trying the ones with apple in next time. A mix of plain, pickle and apple should be good for Kielder100 this year.

There was even enough enough sun to finally start this year's ridiculous cyclist's tan.

Distance: 83km (31km Darlington to Woodland, 20km from Woodland into/round the forest and back again, and 32km back home again)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 4:25 (1:45 + 1:10 + 1:30)
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres on 32:17)

Back to Hamsterley

Back up to Hamsterley again on Tuesday. Legs were feeling tired after Monday's ride so I just did three laps of Section 13 and then headed home. Pretty pleased with knocking 12 seconds of my previous best for Section 13, but all the climbs on the way out were slower and overall time on the ride out was much longer

But, despite the forecast, it didn't rain.

Taken Wednesday off to rest, eat and watch Le Tour. Back out again on Thursday...

Distance: 75km (31km Darlington to Woodland, 13km from Woodland into/round the forest and back again, and 31km back home again)
Surface: Road and off-road
Time: 4:20 (1:54 + 0:54+ 1:30)
Weather: Warm and dry
Bike: Inbred SS (with 2.4″ tyres on 32:17)