Got up on Sunday feeling pretty tired but headed to Wales for some biking despite having spent most of the day tweaking the Tomac. Went to Coed Y Brenin and it was 2pm by the time I got started.
Bearing this in mind, and combining it with the knowledge that I’m not really in great biking shape yet this year, I still for some reason opted for the 38km Karrimor Trail; the most demanding route available at the Coed Y Brenin biking centre.
A few hills down the road and I was struggling uncharacteristically on the hills and, shock horror, even had to get off the bike a few times for breathers! Anyway, how pleased was I to complete the loop in just over 3 hours despite all that. Fortunately, I managed to conserve enough energy to give it my all on the descents and the 6 consecutive downhill sections were storming as always.
The trails were in great condition and, although it was pretty damned cold, the day was great. Shame I didn’t have my camera on me whilst biking because the views from up in the snow were lush. I couldn’t bring myself to stop on the way back via Bala; primarily because I was having too much fun in the Type R.
Anyway, if you’re not feeling in good shape or you wake up tired, take my advice; stick to the MBR or Red Bull trails! Hopefully going to be back there in a couple of weeks anyway.
Karrimor Trail 0
Family catch up in Farndon 0
Spent a lovely weekend with the family up in Farndon and was delighted to share it with Lia, Steve and Grace. Grace is looking fantastic and is a real little character. Grace seems to have learnt how to rip-off desktop spinning toys, throw water bottles and fall off the techno-bavarian sit-on walker without any tips from her Uncle Kev. I’m so proud!
Afan Biking 0
So I looked at the forcast for today… I looked on the TV, I looked on the Internet, I received texts from my parents, I even looked at the sky… every indication was that it would be sunny but cold in South Wales. Therefore I set off for Afan for my first bit of serious mountain biking this year.
As I pulled into the car park, I was unable to get out for 10 minutes because of the hail! Don’t get me wrong, it had been sunny all the way along the M4 but it decided to hail when I got there. That turned into rain, which subsided quickly and the sky cleared. Hurrah, time for the biking.
Got halfway up the whites level climb (wets level today actually) and it started to snow. It didn’t stop snowing until I’d made it back to the car. Fortunately that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the trail and I gave it everything; going off some of the jumps at the side (albeit cautiously today).
When I got back to the car I thought I’d better not stop for tea or hot food because I’ll never get back on the bike so I turned back around and headed off up the climb again. When I got to the top I went on the sneaky shortcut over to the top of the final Skyline descent. By this point I was absolutely worn out so the descent was done with caution.
Anyway, the weather on the drive back was stunning; including the 15 or so miles of windy welsh roads before the motorway… how I’ve missed my V-Tec revs during the daily commute to work.
Had a smashing day nonetheless; my washing machine is now grinding through the small hill of mud attached to my clothing and the bath is filling as I type this. All I need to do now is chuck something in the oven and then I can relax for the evening. Can’t wait till dry, warm crazy biking…
