The modern interpretation is that spring begins on the first of March though the spring equinox around the 21st is a more traditional view. In my garden things are certainly starting to happen with the snowdrops almost finished with their life cycle. The Helibores are in full bloom and many early plants such as camassiaContinue reading “Is it spring?”
Riding without climbing.
A couple of days ago I had a strange experience. I lifted my arm gently to reach for a pan on the stove and felt a sharp pain in my back. I’ve never had back problems and I couldn’t tell, and in fact still don’t know, if the pain was emanating from my spine orContinue reading “Riding without climbing.”
A very hard training ride.
We had 2 glorious days last weekend but Monday was really wet. Today the skies are back to almost cloudless splendour so it was an ideal opportunity for a mountain bike ride. Looking back at my recent rides on the app. Strava I noticed that I haven’t done any tough training rides recently so IContinue reading “A very hard training ride.”
A mountain bike adventure.
Today I expected that, despite 2 days of glorious sunshine, the trails would be rather damp. I thought about a longer ride and remembered last year riding to the “Egg Hillock”. It’s a curiously egg shaped mound on a remote Moor. I decided that the trail conditions were likely to be unfavourable so chose insteadContinue reading “A mountain bike adventure.”
An angel twice in one day!
The title is a vast exaggeration but I hope I’ve done a couple of good things today. The story started 2 days ago when I walked our dog, Freddie, up our local hill, Healey Nab. After 3 named storms in a week we had some trees fallen across the trails. I couldn’t do anything toContinue reading “An angel twice in one day!”
Riding without a plan.
I usually plan my rides in advance, usually with some target in mind. Today, though, I started my ride with no particular plan because of the recent weather. We’ve just endured storm Eunice. Naming storms in Britain is a recent idea and Eunice was the second named storm in a week. The last one reallyContinue reading “Riding without a plan.”
Stormy weather.
We’ve had a lot of rain since my last ride and today was predicted to be very wet. A weather warning for strong wind and rain had been issued but this morning, despite a good breeze, things didn’t look too bad. I decided to risk a ride before the predicted deluge rather than wait intoContinue reading “Stormy weather.”
Back to the hills.
I took it easy on my last mountain bike ride because I had some discomfort and swelling in a tendon at the top of my calf. It seems to have recovered so today I wanted to return to “real” mountain biking rather than riding along the canal bank. We’ve had plenty of rain so IContinue reading “Back to the hills.”
Injury.
I’ve suffered various injuries over the last 30 years of mountain biking. I’ve had a few broken bones and have lost plenty of skin but this week something different has stopped me riding, until today. I had some discomfort behind my left knee and on investigation I found a swollen area at the top ofContinue reading “Injury.”
Wettest ride in ages but still a good one.
We’ve had plenty of rain in the last few days, especially last night, but after 4 days without riding my mountain bike I wanted to get out. I don’t often ride the hills around Rivington at the weekends because they’re are usually a lot of walkers, many with dogs, so it’s better as a midContinue reading “Wettest ride in ages but still a good one.”
Mountainbiker 