Kev's Extreme Pow-Wow!

Went to Bracknell forest for some biking with Nich, Kev F, Helen and Blair last night. Nich plotted the route this time. This mapping is getting catchy!

Mountain Mayhem this weekend…

To see why I was moaning about how much it hurts to ride a hardtail, I can share the route I took yesterday with you. Point yourself at this bad boy and you can see that I did 33 miles of Wiltshire biking yesterday alone.

Ok that’s the map sharing bit done (thanks Nich!), now how do I overlay my heart rate and altitude onto the same route?

And some biking related observations from this week:

In order to make me feel better about my recent time out from exercise, I spent last night booking all manner of events to take part in in the next couple of months.

The weekend after next I’m due to take part in the Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem 24 hour mountain bike race near Hereford for the first time in three years. Previously I’ve taken part with teams from Nationwide but this time I’ll be racing for my local bike shop. I’m excited about this although I’ll be needing my bike lights back before then!!!

The first week of July I’ll be taking part in the British 10km run in London. I had been looking for a 10km run and when it was mentioned at the weekend I jumped at the chance to take part.

A few weeks later and I, along with Nich, will be taking part in the 12 hour pairs mountain bike race at TwentyFour12 in Shropshire. Having not done this event before I’m really excited by the prospect. Also the idea of stopping after 12 hours at midnight and having a few drinks whilst the 24 hour racers carry on is quite appealing.

I’ll soon be appealing to Mum and Dad for support at both of the mountain bike races although they don’t know it yet. However, where they can’t help is ensuring that I’m fit and ready to take part. Fortunately I don’t think my fitness has taken a significant hit after a few weeks of little or no exercise and I’m looking to get back into the swing of things this weekend with a return to serious training.

My doctor didn’t say anything about not going to rock concerts so last weekend I headed off to Nich and Liz’s so that we could go and see Bon Jovi in Milton Keynes together.

Going to see Bon Jovi was only a part of the weekend though and I’m looking back now on a weekend that was both relaxing and fun, chilled and lively.

Saturday involved watching England’s World Cup kick off with a match against Paraguay. After Nich and I had woken up post the match, we headed off to Rickmansworth’s nearby canal and lakes and I was introduced to kayaking for the very first time. Nich’s pretty decent at kayaking by all accounts and I feared for retribution after dragging him down many a technical bit of singletrack. However, Nich was patient and helped me get used to the kayak without any worries. As a result, I can see myself getting hooked and I’ve not even gone near anything other than flat water yet!

To celebrate another glorious weather evening, we (Nich, Liz, Amanda and Rachel – Nich’s sister) headed over to the boating lake for a barbeque. A fitting end to a chilled out day.

The next day, after Amanda returned from taking her horse for a spin, we headed over to Milton Keynes to fit in a spot of skiing at XScape, the indoor snow slope. Having hit the triple black diamonds at Whistler in March, these slopes were a slight step down in the difficulty ladder but despite this, and despite furthering my ski instructor qualifications earlier this year, I still decked it in view of just about everyone! We all seemed to have fun there although Amanda realised that attempting skiing from scratch on that sort of a slope was asking a bit too much (even with a qualified instructor on hand! – sorry Amanda).

The main event of the weekend was of course to see Bon Jovi play and we (along with Liz’s friend, Julian) arrived in time to catch the end of Nickelback, the support band. After they’d finished, we headed into the main crowd and got reasonably close for such a large crowd. Bon Jovi came on and played all the classics for a solid 2hours 40mins, the highlight of which was of course the pounding rendition of Living On A Prayer. Rachel in particular seemed entranced by the whole experience and I think her introduction to rock concerts couldn’t have been better chosen. We all had a great time and even the 40 minute, crowded walk back to the car seemed enjoyable after such a great weekend!

The first week of dealing with my bashed up face was quite hard going with me having to visit the office most days and explain how I’d come to get two black eyes, a swollen nose and a nasty gash to the head. Well fortunately, the gash started to heal and the black eyes reached their peak on the Thursday.

By the Saturday, the time had come to remove the dressings and tissue-glue from my gashed forehead. Not wanting to dwell on my injuries, I did all of this just in time to head off to Kington in Radnorshire for the Rough Ride endurance mountain bike ride!

The Saturday night was spent camping with Nich, Blair, Helen and Kev and drinking wine out of mugs to the point where I couldn’t be sure whether my headache was concussion or wine induced. Add to this the 40km bike ride on the Sunday in searing hot temperatures and with hindsight, you can see why I was feeling pretty poorly again last Monday.

We all had a great ride in the sun though and the whole gang did really well. Next year the plan is to return and take part in the 70km event.

On the Monday, I took a visit to my GP and he said that he was sure I must have broken my nose so I was whisked off to X-Ray but it came back inconclusive. By Wednesday I was so paranoid that I visited the GP again but this one was much more reassuring and suggested that I just needed a lot more rest. Therefore until tonight, I hadn’t really done any exercise since the Rough Ride.

I realise now that doing the big bike ride was a silly thing to do, but as was suggested to me the other day, had someone told me not to do it at the time I wouldn’t have listened.

What has really become apparent, particularly last week, is that although outwardly, injuries can heal very effectively (my black eyes have gone now and the gash is slowly starting to become less evident), the effects of a fall like the one I had can be much further reaching than one might expect. My mangled Oakley lenses are a strong indicator of the magnitude of the crash that I had and were it not for them, my injuries could have been much much worse. Yes I’ve been suffering from headaches etc. and dizzy spells (yes I know that is not unusual for me) but I can’t help feeling that despite this I’ve somehow escaped what could have been much more serious an injury. For that, I’m grateful and I will endeavour to take more care in future.