Author Archives: Phill

Norfolk & Fun.

By 19 commentsDiabetes, Photography, Rides, , , , , , ,

Sorry about the brief hiatus.  I’ve been away and not blogging, on account of living in a field and all that.

Sandringham Sunshine

While the North West enjoyed the weather that it’s famous for (i.e. bobbins), we headed to Norfolk, to camp within the grounds of Sandringham, where the Royal family spend 10 weeks each year and eat their Christmas dinner together.  To sum up the week in one sentence, it was sunny; relaxed; idyllic; woody; tasty; splashy; barbecuey; pretty and fun.

The #August150 Update

As I write, 40 people are featured on the August150 spreadsheet.  8 have already finished, another 3 have done more than two-thirds of the miles and 29 people have logged some miles.  If you want to join in, let me know and I’ll tell you how.  Basically, I need the email address you use for Google, and you’re in!

Personally, my Norfolk week didn’t go well in August 150 terms.  We only got one ride out really, aside from a couple of trips to the shop.  On the day we’d planned a good explore, N1S’s bike inexplicable exploded whilst leaning against a fence.  On closer inspection, it seems I’d pumped the tyre up too hard and an errant spoke was causing a stress point against the rim.  When he’d done a little lap around the site, the warmth and pressure had got up and then the tyre simply went “BANG! PFFFFT!” once the bike was rested.  Grrrr.  One failed repair and a trip to Halfords later, the bike was ok but our time was gone.

We did get a ride along NCN Route 1 later in the week though.  It’s gorgeous.  It got me thinking: We’ve rode along NCN1 now, and I live on NCN66 – that leaves 64 routes.  Too many.  So I might look into which routes I could travel to within a day from mine and try to tick a bunch of those off – what d’you think?  Speaking of canals (I know I wasn’t but NCN66 is along Rochdale Canal a good slug of the way), have you seen LouLouK’s blog about her ride along the Leeds-Liverpool canal?  You should – it’s an inspiration to anyone who thinks they might not be able to get some big riding done.

Holiday Diabetes

Just a brief note here.  In the past, I’ve had some crashing hypos whilst on holiday.  The trouble with Type 1 diabetes is that I tend to dose myself up with the same amount of insulin most days, but on holiday you do loads more exercise by stealth.  By stealth, I mean that you don’t realise.

Then what happens is that you wake up at night with crazily low blood sugars, doing weird things and amusing/terrifying your loved ones.  Well, I’ve found the secret: test more!  By taking my glucose monitor and simply doing the finger prick tests more often, I was able to avoid any silly hypos this holiday.  In fact, my only low was on the last day, when packing up took us way past lunchtime.  A quick Cadbury’s Twirl and I was back on track!  Sorted 🙂  Feel better, go longer, be safer, test more.

That’s all for today, save these few photos of our lovely break.

I’m hoping to get out for a ride with Jon tomorrow evening, so I might make a start on some proper miles at long last – maybe too late for the August 150, but fingers crossed I might just do it!

That’s Another Lovely Evening. #July150 completed.

By 11 commentsCycling Challenges, Photography, Rides, , , , ,

Just a brief post today, because I’ve not done anything special, except in my own little mind.

Woohoo! I Finished The July150!

I knew I had about 12 miles left to finish the July150 challenge, and that I might not get out on the bike again until Sunday (the 1st of August), so my Tuesday night autopilot loop would have to be half a mile longer than usual.

Also, I still haven’t pulled the slicks off the Fat Boy, so after the bit of rain we’d had I stuck to the roads .  I did my usual route up to Hollingworth Lake and it was dry enough to do a loop o’t’Lake too.  Half way round, I was faced with this view so my aim of keeping the average speed over 12mph was discarded while I took a couple of photos.

I dropped into Littleborough then took the main roads back towards Rochdale and home.  When I arrived, I noticed that I’d only done a shade over 10 miles so I did something that only the July150 can be blamed for: I took the path between Firgrove Playing Fields and set off for a quick loop to Milnrow and back.

The loop was partly along a narrow grassy track, but I thought I’d be ok as the rest of the ride had been nice & grippy.  Not so!  I was like Bambi on ice, sliding all over the place in my granny ring, seemingly covering as much ground sideways as forwards!  I really must get those slicks off.

Arriving home a second time, I’d amassed enough miles to hang up my bike for a few days and grin quietly to myself at covering 150 miles in the month.  This would never have happened without some of you lot spurring me on, so thanks a lot.  I love you all.  But not in that way. 🙂

Are you lot up for an #August150 ?

The Lads Took Me Over The Edge

By 19 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides, , , ,

What A Lovely Way To Spend A Saturday.

On Saturday, Joby and Chris rode up to mine and we went on a ride up Blackstone Edge.  I’ve only ever ridden up there twice before in my life, in 2000 and 2001, on both occasions for charity.  I remember it flooring me the first time, and the 2nd time I had to walk halfway up the damn hill.

Basically, Blackstone Edge is a 3.5 mile ascent from 150m to 390m – and for me on my Focus Fat Boy, it’s bloody hard work.  It was a gorgeous day though, dry and not too hot, so with the encouragement of the lads (and the sight of them disappearing up into the distance) I just kept the granny ring turning all the way up.  I was well chuffed with myself 🙂

Hard Work Done.

We stopped at The White House for lunch.  I had a steak & onion butty, Chris went for chilli and Joby had the biggest sausage you’ve ever seen in your life.  And a cumberland with chips 😉

Following the 3.5 mile climb was a 7.5 mile descent into Hebden Bridge.  Basically, it goes like this:

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

After finally hitting my 30mph target last week, I hit 33.4mph cruising down lovely wide, smooth, quiet roads collecting flies on my exposed teeth.  I just couldn’t stop grinning.  It’s worth the climb, I can tell you.  The views up there are stunning.

The cuppa stop about 5 miles from home at Gordon Rigg’s in Walsden was probably the nicest tea ever.  I needed that!

I’m chuffed to have, in one ride, got the highest and the fastest since I rekindled my love of cycling.

Thanks Gents!

I had a cracking day.  It’s not lost on me that I only cycled 28.6 miles whilst Joby and Chris rode from their houses to mine before the ride, then home afterwards.  I would say chapeua to them, but Le Tour’s finished now, so:

Hat, lads.

Thanks for a cracking day’s riding 🙂

A to Z Playlist

By 6 commentsTat,

It’s Not My Fault. They Made Me Do It.

For the following, blame Joby and Anna Banananana.  I didn’t want to do it, but they made me.  I’ve hated every minute of doing this.

I’m a liar.  It’s bloody brilliant and you should try it.

My A to Z Playlist.

I set myself a little rule: all tracks listed have to be in my collection.  I broke it once – the Frank Zappa track isn’t, but I sing it to myself regularly so it’s allowed in.  And now I’ve listed it, I’ll buy the track anyway.

Alkaline Trio – Time to waste
Beastie Boys – Skills to pay the bills (Biffy Clyro & Busted came close)
Cud – I’ve had it with blondes (containing the perfect lyric “I was a teenage stamp collector: I’d lay on my back and youd stamp on my face”)
Deftones – My own summer (Shove it)
Elbow – The bones of you
Foo Fighters – Monkey wrench (the best pop song ever written. Fact)
Gene – Olympian
Hyper – We control
Iron Maiden – Run to the hills
Jesus Jones – Info freako
Kings of Leon – Fans (pipped KLF to the post)
Led Zeppelin – Ramble on (the best Foo Fighters encore ever with Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones brought on stage, Taylor on lead vocal and Dave Grohl on drums, 2009 at Wembley with Number One Son – memories are made of this)
Muse – Hysteria (the finest, most relentless, driving bass riff ever. Ever. Also awesome live. Their “Unnatural selection” comes close though)
N.E.R.D. – Lapdance (it was so hard not put a Nirvana track in)
Ok Go – Invincible
Pendulum – Showdown
Queens Of The Stone Age – Go with the flow (another Dave Grohl on drums classic)
Radiohead – High and dry
Senseless Things – Homophobic asshole
Teenage Fanclub – Star sign (try it, it’s lovely)
U -(I don’t have any tunes by artists beginning with U.  I must rectify this)
Velvet Revolver – Slither
Wedding Present – Take me (way overlong jangly brilliance by the Gedge)
X-Ecutioners – It’s going down
Yes – I’ve seen all good people
Frank Zappa – Beauty knows no pain
It’s a bit early-to-mid-90’s-centric, but then so am I.  I was a stooodent in ’88 to ’92 before enjoying a growing social life with a proper job and some money through the 90’s.  Deal with it.
Any comments? 🙂

Soggy Sunset Cycling

By 12 commentsCycling Challenges, Rides,

Tuesday night is riding night.  I have taught myself that this must be so despite the best efforts of Mother(fecker) Nature.  I got my jacket and tights on and donned helmet and gloves with the words of Clive Chapman ringing in my ears:

  • “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.”
  • “You only get wet once”

Littleborough Roadie Practise Loop

The slicks are still on, and I’ve got a road loop planned for Saturday with Joby and Chris.  I therefore opted to stick to the roads, especially as it was pouring down, and have a little uphill stint in the night’s ride.  I won’t talk too much about it, but here’s the route I took.  Just click it to see it a bit bigger:

Littleborough Road Loop

Last Night’s Road Loop

Two things are worth mentioning:

Climbing:

As practise for Saturday’s loop, which you can check if you click this link, I rode the first part of the climb to Blackstone Edge.  I only went as far as The Moorcock pub – and no I didn’t pop in for a pint:  had I not been a drowned rat I would’ve been tempted.

I was happy to have worked my way about 40% of the distance up the hill, but I know I have much steeper gradients to contend with at the weekend.  Also, the fact that my heart was trying to escape through the top of my head when I rested in the pub car park can’t be a good thing!  Ah well, no more rides until weekend, so fingers crossed… 😉

I Slew The 30mph Ghost!

My usual downhill from t’Lake only mustered 26mph last night through the puddles, so I didn’t hold out much hope of besting my PB speed on the Fat Boy.  But, I was wrong.  The longer descent from the Moorcock back into Littleborough gave me a 30.7 mph top speed.  Wooohoooo!  I did it!! 🙂

Now what? I suppose I have no choice but to top 35 mph on Saturday.  It never stops, does it??

Roll on Saturday!

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