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)