Riding Snowdon

You often hear people talk about taking themselves out of their comfort zones. Often it is said in a matter of fact way as if it is the most natural thing in the world to do something that is truly beyond what you can do. Be that to do with fitness, fear or just general lack of skills. However we all know that to truly push yourself is hard, and in most instances very scary.

Sometimes people suggest ideas to you about something that you know, in the base of your skull, will take you way beyond your comfort zone. Something like riding Mount Snowdon.

The concept is easy enough; take the Llanberis path up the mountain, have some photos at the summit and then ride down the Rangers path back to Llanberis itself.

Sounds so easy, a bit of nice cross country riding, people do it all the time. Why not give it a go?

Then you commit to the idea, you say ‘yep I am up for that’, you prepare for a riding holiday with this one ride the shining jewel in your week. You are excited; here is a true adventure, a big challenge for you, something you know that when you have finished it you will be dining out on for ages; ‘I rode Snowdon’.

Then the day arrives, still feeling good you head off from your campsite. Winding around the valley roads you get your first look at the mountain, your heart sinks a little. Is it really that big? Is it really that rocky? How much further into the cloud is the summit?

You talk to the local bike shop who tells you how tough it can be, what to look out for, how dangerous some parts are and where not to go in order to get lost and end up on a different route entirely. You realise that you are less fit, less capable and on worse machinery than your friends. You feel like you will blow up on the mountain, get lost, come off. You read a guide book about it, one that talks about the dangers of the ride. It rates it double black. Double black you think, does that even exist?

You can’t back out, you try to tell yourself that you have enough food, enough drink, you will ride what you can and if it gets too much get off early and navigate down. You will attempt it; you will be fine, even though you feel this is too much, too far beyond you, you convince yourself that all will be good.

You push as many bad thoughts out of your head, negative thoughts will do you no good at all. You begin the ride, the road up from Llanberis to the start of the path is steep, so steep your friends drop you almost instantly. Soldiering on in the granny ring you reach the trail. The bike hike – ride when you can pattern has begun.

You admire the view, you chat to people coming back down. Inch by inch and step by step you begin to relax. You begin to, and whisper this, enjoy it.

The fear and apprehension over the ride begins to dissipate. It is replaced by building excitement. The wish to ride down the other side grows and grows.

Slowly you make your way up the mountain. You catch your friends when they stop for a drink and photo break. You feel fresher than you thought you might, the whole psychology and outlook of the adventure changes. Positive vibes and feelings course through you and before you know it you have crested the summit.

You begin to ride down off the summit, blanketed in clouds. You are hyper alert, your lines are smooth, your pace steady but not quick. Then the conditions change. The weather smiles on you and the clouds part. Everyone stops in their tracks and admires the stunning view afforded to you. This is what it is to feel truly alive, this is what adventures are. This is why we push ourselves to seek out things we thought might be beyond ourselves.

You begin to ride down the Rangers path, there are bits that are beyond you but it doesn’t matter, you feel no shame walking down some of the boulder sections. However you feel huge a huge sense of achievement when you ride down some tricky bits, even though you see your mates ahead of you pulling away it doesn’t matter, you are making it down. Slowly and steadily you are doing it.

Carefully and deliberately you pass the hardest sections and the ride begins to get easier, you catch up with your friends fixing a mechanical at the foot of the mountain by a lake. It is a stunning place to stop and fix a flat, you look back. Did I ride that? Yes I did. I did ride that and I rode more than I walked too!

You are still not fully home, a short climb up to a section with badly placed stone drains (which will claim 3 more inner tubes) waits.

However these are footnotes to the tale.

You know you have made it up Snowdon and most importantly back down Snowdon in one piece.

You started nervous and finished confident. You completed the ‘best ride ever’ and an ‘epic adventure’.

You pushed yourself out of your comfort zone and in doing so set a new parameter for where that comfort zone is. You have grown as a person by riding, who knew it could all get so deep?

Still buzzing at the end you look at your friends over a beer and ask the question ‘so, what are we going to do next year?

Photographs by Geoff Flower.

Road and trail, where do I stand?

There are about 3 or 4 topics I want to write about. However they are longer posts and deserve more reading and editing.

Currently I am sat in a plush hotel suite about to turn 30. I have started writing in a diary and have also begun a physical bike log.

Both of these new editions I will talk about in another blog post however for now the point is, as I sip my second glass of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne, I need to get something off my chest.

I love cycling.

There phew I feel better.

However I do not care what form of cycling I am doing.

Lately as you know I have purchased and been riding a little BMX. So much fun, so much pain to fall off.

I also have been hitting the trails hard.

I have given up on Strava.

All of this should point to my total movement away from roads and to the dirt. I love being out in woods, thrashing about on trails and exploring the landscape.

Except.

I never feel 100% comfortable.

I love it, but in the way you love someone who is bad for you. The way you love someone who you know, deep down, is going to hurt you.

Today I did a blast on the road bike. I planned it last night, I worked out the route and I was only out for 42 minutes.

It was literally a short ride.

However it just felt like home.

I talk a lot about the feel of things with my bike mates. We talk about how roadies tend to feel more serious and anal about things. How mountain bikers seem to be more chilled out.

Yet I feel I straddle both camps. I love the chilled out carefree nature of a mountain bike ride. However I just don't feel I really one hundred percent belong there.

Yet I am not a weight weeny, time trialing, uber serious, power output roadie.

Although I think I could be if I let myself go for it.

I think the truth of what I am might be in the middle somewhere. I think my light carbon road bike may have been a bike that maybe I should not have gotten.

I think I should have purchased a tourer with paniers and I should be built for comfort.

The journey is more important maybe?

Or perhaps I should get a cyclocross bike and go for the halfway house?

Most likely I maybe should stop worrying.

I shouldn't care about what I am or where I best fit.

Maybe I should continue to just enjoy being on my bike. To keep getting fitter, stronger and better.

Oh and to keep finding new routes to enjoy/endure.

Technology makes you lazy. Or extreme. Or something?

There is an interesting discussion ongoing on the STW forum with regard full suspension bikes making you lazy. Now I do not own a full sus however I have hired one before, and to be honest I loved it. However I can appreciate why the use of a full sus regularly might diminish some skills.

That is to be expected, the same as having suspension at all makes you less in touch with the ground in front of you having the full suspension means that your appreciation of the roll of the land is lessened as the shocks smooth everything out. However it is the same as saying that hydraulic brakes mean that you are spoilt by being able to hit steeper descents.

Actually I am sure someone on that forum thread has made that point, as technology moves forward we don't get lazier in fact we go after more and more difficult terrain. Surely that is progress?

Always riding on the edge, like the Reverend and the Makers lyric goes - if you're not living on the edge you're take up too much room. That is why we do this isn't it?

Well yes and no, sometimes you have to go back to basics. Slow down, take it steady and really think about how you are handling your bike.

A few weeks ago I went out on my BMX to try and hone some lacking skills by riding on smaller wheels, with weaker brakes and almost no grip in the tyres.

In trying to push it too much I crashed in a spectacular manner. However having sort of fixed the brake - electrical taped the cable to the handle bars - I set out with a one brake machine in order to do some laps around Cuckoo Woods.

The first thing to note is that one brake is probably more than enough on a bike with tiny wheels, while it gets up to speed pretty quickly it does shed speed quite fast as well. That said the brake was of little to no use and mostly caused the rear wheel to skid about, fun for quickly changing direction but rubbish for stopping. Or indeed for stability!

Although I think that has more to do with the bald tires than the brake.

Now small tires do tend to catch on everything in sight, which means small sticks, ruts and logs that would be gobbled up be the hardtail suddenly become a challenging obstacle. Any incline in the route has to be hit at speed otherwise you can't climb up it without spinning wheels.

Added to that the fact that sitting down is almost a no-no (too unstable when you're 6'2) and you end up with both an excellent physical work out (seriously I was constantly out of breath and with sore legs) but also a full on mental one. I felt more aware of having to pick lines much earlier than usual and I spent a lot of time walking trails and deciding where I would brake and pedal and how I would take corners - even considering where I should shift weight and when. This was exacerbated by the fact that in a lot of cases I had to walk the bike back up slopes to the start of my routes.

This was totally new to me, normally I am very much a grip it and rip it type of rider - and I must admit I quite enjoyed the cerebral side of thinking long and hard about where and how I would ride the trails. It also allowed me a chance to practice some of the lines I saw on yesterdays ride. In fact for most of the trails I have ever ridden the only time I know what is coming up is by riding it, not walking it and thinking about it.

Now I am not claiming I rode any of this at any great speed - if felt it though - but as said above it was a great work out and also had me giggling and laughing throughout the ride.

Again I did not Strava the ride although I did take a lot of photos. 

Coppicing has been extreme!

Lots of small flowers out and about.

I do love exploring a new trail.

Sometimes one brake is as useful as no brakes.

Am I suddenly a better rider? 

Well no probably not. 

Do I have a better appreciation of some skills? 

Yes I probably do. However like all sports this is about practice, practice and more practice.

Which gives me a good excuse to go back out and explore and play about. 

Not that I need one really.

For the record I managed to spend nearly 2 and a half hours out today just running laps around the wood. 

And it isn't all THAT big!

It is awesome though!

Hunting the Medway Megaliths

Following on from the idea of going and exploring today I set out to find the Medway Megaliths. These are a series of Neolithic stones that are in the general vicinity of the River Medway. Hunting for stones that don't move is a bit of a misnomer however I didn't take a map with me so had to rely on memory...

The stones are roughly split into two main groups those the other side of the river and those on my side. Unfortunately the Coldrum Stones, which seem to be the better preserved stones, are the wrong side of the river for me to find today. So I set out to find Kit's Coty House, The Countess Stones and The White Horse Stone. 

I  started as I always do with a quick blast around Cuckoo Wood, again I took a slight detour and found more singletrack with good potential - I am seriously finding that wood to be a wood that keeps on giving.

I also found lots of wild snowdrops which meant it was time to photograph the P7. This was to be the only reason I took my GoPro out today, and I must admit it was a bit tricky to not try filming some (bad) runs at times.

This would become a bit of a recurring theme during this ride, however being freed up from the constraints of Strava and in no particular rush to get anywhere meant that I could spend my time photographing everything in sight.

Once I had finishing bobbing about Cuckoo I started the climb up to Bluebell hill. This time I did not initially climb up to the top of the hill instead dropping off halfway in order to find Kit's Coty House.

Found it!

A running theme.

Trying a different perspective.

Shame the view wasn't great behind the Coty.

The back of the Coty.

You can just make out some 100 year old graffiti.

Making the most of the GoPro's fisheye lens!

Apart from having to spin the wheels up a hill for 10 minutes Kit's Coty House was nice and easy to find - just required walking the bike down a steep flight of steps to get down to the bridleway. 

However my attempts to find the Countess Stones came to naught. Basically I took a wrong turning, ended up in a private field and panicked. Not something I would recommend. Having looked at the map and worked out where in relation to Kit's Coty House I should have gone I feel confident that I can find the next Megalith next time I head out (see always a silver lining). 

Feeling slightly frustrated at not being able to find the Countess Stones and not wanting to go to the White Horse Stone just yet I took a bit of a detour to something I knew the location of. This is not a Megalith but a Bronze Age Burial Mound (barrow). 

The first step to the burial mound was a panicky ride off private land and back to something resembling a public right of way. Fortunately I found a road and quickly a track way I recognized from ultra marathon training runs a year ago (time flies!). I then pointed the P7 upwards and slogged up to the top of Bluebell Hill (again). 

From the picnic site on Bluebell Hill I followed the trail down past Wouldham Common and towards Shoulder of Mutton Wood.

Here I found the barrow and repeated the trend of photographing the P7 in all its glory.

P7 standing proud/propped up by a well placed tree stump.

Odd to think no one knows who was buried here or why.

Always cool finding trails and history on your doorstep.

On the way back up to Bluebell hill I stopped for a much needed banana break having been out and about for the best part of two hours by now.

Happy because I have eaten.

Looking good.

In the summer this is a spectacular view of the Medway valley, honest!

I then hammered my way up and over Bluebell hill. Then I tried to be clever and wind my way down the hill via a woodland, however the woodland ran away from where I needed to be and it was muddy.

Like the Somme muddy. That thick, sticky, strength sapping mud. 

So I retraced my steps swallowed some pride and rolled the bike down a road until I reached the cross roads with Pilgrims Way. 

When I used to do a lot of trail running I ran along Pilgrims Way in order to get up to the top of the Downs. I have no idea how I haven never spotted the White Horse Stone before. It is ridiculously easy to spot from the main track. The shame is this has meant that people have drawn on it quite a bit and it does not look as impressive as it should do. Bare in mind this is a Neolithic stone (4,000-2,500 BCE!), possibly a marker for something much bigger which has since been lost - like the nearby Smythe's Megalith which was in a field that I have run along many times (who knew?).

Modern world (ish) meats Neolithic.

How I never spotted this giant stone before is a mystery to me as much as why this stone is here in the first place.

With the final megalith found and the rain beginning to fall I decided to end my Megalith adventure and head home for a hot shower and a cuppa. 

I will head back out and try to find some of the other stones that I haven't managed to see or have missed. There is also lots of castle ruins etc to try and find and explore.

All part of having an adventure on the bike and not just falling off down hill or trying to go as fast as possible on roads.

So far its a change that is most agreeable.

Chasing Trails (How I gave up stats and began to enjoy the ride).

There are two things I really enjoy about going out on the bike - specifically the mountain bike. The first is taking pictures of where I am - mostly trees it would seem.

Afan panoramarama

Cuckoo Wood Maidstone

Cannock Chase plus snow!

Sometimes I even take arty shots of the bike!

Ooooooh arty!

The second is a well publicized obsession with data. How far, how fast and how high. I think for mountain biking it is seeing how much I have pushed my body that day that I really liked. The 'oh look 40,000 ft elevation and 2000 km ridden at 6 mph average speed' kind of thing (although that would be a long painful ride). 

Most of this data though is useless, because unlike road, the terrain and weather play a massive role in the ride when it comes to mountain biking. However I have detailed before my growing displeasure at the way in which the 'values' of rides in terms of statistics have begun to replace the true value of a ride - the ride itself.

Which brings me to Saturdays ride. This time instead of going out with a GPS unit and going over old routes I went out with an OS map, Geoff and an idea of some trails based upon areas we used to run when we were trail marathon training. The rest was all down to exploring.

Good old OS maps!

A Geoff is not a requirement but I am sure he would not mind!

We are lucky in Maidstone in that the North Downs runs just outside of town. This is a stunning set of chalk hills that runs from Surrey to Dover. 

Naturally they are pretty fun to ride over, however often we end up riding the same routes - which are awesome - but for variety we headed out to pastures new. We did however stick to existing trails so we didn't get too lost and also so we couldn't be accused of trashing the environment.

The best part of all this is the finding of new trails, well ones that we haven't ridden before. 

Seriously it is surprising how much fun it is to go off and try to find something new. There is a sense of adventure and exploration tempered with the fact that unlike Scott, Shackleton and Feinnes the worst that could happen is binning your machine and maybe some bruising to pride and skin. Plus providing you don't go too 'off-piste' it is easy to turn around and go back the way you came from.

There was also the opportunity for some good old photography and enjoyment of the environment without having to worry/or worrying about lap times or segments. 

Trails? Trails?

There you are!

First Bluebell of the year! Oh and Geoff's full sus.

It is also worth noting that this exploration does not stop up and around the Downs, having bobbed about Cuckoo Wood a lot lately I have started finding extra trails and routes. This I think is the same for everyone, no matter where you are. There are trails in your local woods, areas where perhaps you over look because you might be focusing on the same segments and areas and not just 'exploring' the outdoor spaces near you.

That said the view is always amazing from the top of Bluebell Hill.

Now a few admissions. 

Firstly we knew the areas pretty well - although the exact area we explored was new to us we knew the surroundings pretty well. I wouldn't recommend exploring a totally new area without fully researching it first - you never know what sudden drops etc you might encounter (danger! danger!).

Secondly this area is well known and bridleways are all over it - which means we were in no danger of trespassing - something to consider when riding anywhere let alone areas you don't know about.

Thirdly we made sure that we gave walkers and runners a wide berth - specifically avoiding areas we knew to be popular with them. Common courtesy etc.  

Finally even though this was only timed in the sense that we knew when we left and arrived home I still had to look up the length of the route - sick I know - but I haven't worked out speeds or elevation (I am getting better). 

For those who wondered we cycled for 18 miles in total over 2 and a half hours. 

However as a ride it was much more. 

So yeah, all that aside I would recommend digging out an old map, looking at routes and going on an explore. You may not find loads of singletrack, you may not find some gnar downhill, however what you may find might surprise you and you are still out on your bike. 

Which surely is what it is all about?

Goodbye Stava, it's been nice.

Firstly the title is a tribute to this!

As a teacher I have seen the increase in a data driven approach to education. That is target grades, current grades, league tables, value added, etc. etc.

None of which, in real terms, seems to be a benefit to the students in my class. I will admit there is a strong argument to make that culpability and progress of students and teachers has to be measured. In fact I will concede that I can't see another way of rewarding students for their work outside of exams and whatever way you judge teacher performance would have to be linked to something that could be implemented nationally. However the free spirit inside of me who values the development of students as people as opposed to exam robots will still rile against it.

However I am also a massive hypocrite.

You see I am (and have spoken about this before) a massive Strava addict. Which basically is all of the things above but related to sport - league tables, performance measurements, improvements based upon data - all of which grinds against the notion of doing things to enjoy it.

That was fun, but how high/far/fast did I go?

Actually we could also throw in some of the 'attempts' at creating a edits/videos as well. Although I am still taking the camera out this weekend - mostly to take photos!

Trees!

However I have found that chasing segments, constantly looking at average speed, pursuing elevation gain has started to get in the way of my enjoyment of a ride. Especially when going off-road.

I am not a professional cyclist, I do not compete in races, I am not a member of a club. I literally ride because I enjoy it and like being outside.

So I have taken a decision to stop using Strava, to stop caring about how far, how fast, how much.

I have decided to reclaim the ride. To go and ride because the ride is fun and is a worthwhile pursuit on it's own. Yes I will still work out and try to improve core fitness - it makes sense for a holistic approach to fitness - however the emphasis will be more now on riding for riding's sake.

Well that's the idea. We will see how long it lasts for.

Love the ride?

Evening rides and other commitments.

An excellent article here got me thinking about riding to work and then extended rides home.

I will go back a second.

When I was committed more to riding than earning I would take a short, direct route to work and then ride home a longer more winding route. Often my route home would be roughly double the route in. This would give a nice ride to bookend my working day.

All done on skinny tires.

However lately I have been looking at maybe bringing the hardtail to work and then thrashing that back over the Kent Downs.

Or any off road I can find.

However the main issue with this idea is the fact that I have quite a lot of commitments after work on an evening - tutoring etc - plus the school calender throwing up late night finishes (parents evenings go on until 7).

I know that none of this will last and when the summer term rolls in the tutoring load gets lighter and the longer evenings will allow for more riding time.

However.

I am so impatient to get going. I took the BMX out briefly on Saturday and then followed up with the hardtail for another hour.

None of which, I am honest has fully satisfied me for the week ahead.

Maybe the answer is to ride much more at the weekend? Or to be more gnar? Or maybe to try somehow and squeeze extra rides in where I can.

I don't know, but I guess now it is getting brighter this is the time to try and find a solution.

Some how...

Taking a BMX off road.

The street I grew up on was fairly flat and straight which meant that we could ride our bikes up and down it safely. As we got older we were allowed to go round the 'corner' in the road and eventually down to the next street which was a cul-de-sac. 

Eventually we were allowed all of the way around the block. Which was exciting. 

All of this was on tarmac, none was on grass - we had a park although that was a place to ride too, not a place to ride at. 

Often we would race each other up and down the street however the bikes very much stayed on pavement/tarmac. When we got too big for our kiddie bikes and got 'mountain bikes' the closest they ever got to off road was country lanes, fire road and the occasional canal towpath. 

All of which means actively searching for off road is still fairly new too me. As in I have been 'proper' mountain biking (with actual mountains) for just over a year now. 

As such when I reminisced about my BMX - for paper round purposes - recently I got a lot of replies on forums about how people learnt to ride off road on one. People also talked about their development of skills that are useful/required/additional (depending on preference) to good off road cycling. 

So when I saw an advert on Gumtree for a BMX at a reasonable price I went for it. £20, happy days, turns out it was an ex student selling it which is very odd/weird. 

Yours for the cost of an round!

Naturally I was keen to get out and try the BMX off road properly but like all things in life I had to wait. 

And wait.

And wait.

Now during this time the p7 was in the bike shop being repaired. Coincidentally on the Saturday that I had planned to ride the BMX the p7 was fixed. 

So finally after picking up the p7 I headed out on the BMX. 

The ride can be viewed almost in its entirety here. Now the ride itself lasted a mammoth 25 minutes. 

Not deliberately but mostly due to the broken brake lever.

I LOVE fixing bikes...

However once I have sorted the brake lever and made the bike slightly safe again I intend to take it out once more. 

Not to practice jumps and manuals etc because I am just not skillful enough to do that, in fact the video footage always shows my 'epic' attempts at being nothing more than riding like it is a drop and surviving (must book a skills session). 

No the reason I will be going back out on the BMX again was because, even with the big crash, it was so much fun. When I got home and reviewed the GoPro footage all I could hear was myself giggling away.

Yes I still have to work on selfies!

So even if I look ridiculous, even if the crashes are surprisingly painful, I will be back out trundling along on the BMX off road, Giggling away and loving every second of it.

Which is totally narwhal! (Did I use that right?)

So this happened...

Having spoken to some people on a mountain bike forum about the bikes that we all wish we still had I decided my BMX was the bike I missed the most.

A quick scout in gumtree saw one locally for sale cheaply. So I plumped for it.

Turns out it was an ex students bike his parents were making him sell.

So I now own a BMX.

Awesome.

Work till you're dead, the morning commute.

First the good news! My bike parts arrive today so at least I can begin to get it rebuilt (hooray!). Hopefully my jinx of breaking bikes is now at an end and I can get back riding.

                                    
                                                       Hope I don't break another one!

Which is the point, really. I sat in the car from 7:15 - 7:50 to do a 20 minute commute this morning (normal commuting time and in traffic), actually the commute takes 20-25 minutes by bike depending on how 'fresh' I feel. Before anyone asks I can't commute by bike (road) at the moment due to tutoring commitments after school. However as I sat in mental traffic I wish I was on the bike again.

This was my view this morning.

Not happy, also managed to forget my beard today.

Traffic was so bad I even caught Geoff.

In fact that is what get's me through the days at the moment. The next ride. work is well work but apparently there are plans to raise the pensionable age from 68 to 70. Even the much vaunted early retirement that teachers used to enjoy is gone now, replaced with heavy sanctions if you retire early - meaning a huge loss in pension.

I do enjoy my job, but I can't see myself still in a classroom at 70.

Would you want a 70 year old teaching your children science?

Didn't think so.

All makes everything as bit of a damp squib to be honest, which is exactly reflected in the weather.

Still being out on the trails would be awesome.

Wet and grim out there, still better than in here!

 Just to finish, a blast on the exercise bike does not count!