Friday 8th May 2009
A bit too much to drink, some low flying and a very wet ride
For Christmas last year, Amy (one of the bikers) very kindly organised with our wives/parners to have us all go to the Cycle Active guys in the Lakes to participate in a skills training day.
Now I know this sounds a bit 'cocky' but there were some of us, wondering what on earth they were going to teach us, after all we are all very experienced arn't we??(!)
On arrival in the Lakes it rained. Whats new then? We found the campsite to have these lovely 'pods' for hire so we ditched the tent in favour of a couple of these. They really did save the day!
We then went to the pub, I had way too much, and then after staggering home through the rain had some whiskey, ( cheers whoever brought it, it really hurt my head)!
I got up the next morning with a proper head ache, and after some coffee thought I'd have to sit out the training.
I squeezed my helmet on over my woolley hat and spent all morning wondering why my head wasn't getting better.
The skills course, was a revelation to most of us, there was a lot of sprinting around cones, braking sharply and learning to 'lower your heels'.
Then there was some going baclk to basics on wheelie-ing, it may seem a bit silly or childish to some but the new techniques we learned have really helped me.
We ventured out to some locall woods after lunch, and spent quite a lot of time doing 'track stands' the art of just balancing without moving is a good grounding for staying upright on very technical trails.
There was then some climbing and descending training, the climbing bit turned my attenion off at 1st, (I always walk up hill normally), but actually, I did listen, and have applied the ideas and find I can get up hills I previously didn't, my back-side is complaining a bit about the technical climbing position though! (You guys no what i mean!!)
After this we did a little jumping in the woods, and had to try and remember to use all our newly aquired skills, to my knowledge no-one fell off, and everyone 'cleared' the jump
We all learned something from this excellant day out, (thanks Amy, and the wives).
Even the sceptics amongst us came away with something to talk about, and now before during and after our usuall Thursday night rides there is always someone practicing something. Personally, as I already said, my uphill technical climbing is better, and my wheelies are coming on.
We had an excellant (restrained) night in the pub that evening, and awoke packed away our gear, and drove down to Ampleside for a very wet ride. Having had severe back trouble on the run up to this weekend I was always ready to miss out this ride in order to protect the old back, and after the initial climb I made a decision to cut short this ride. George wasnt feeling too great so we both cut across the centre of the route and as it happens wasn't a bad idea. The west side of the hills where the others were was absolutley horrendous by all accounts, windy, cold and extremeley wet.
We reached Elterwater, our re-join point and I noticed that the rain had penetrated my under wear, and my shoes were full of water. We sent phone messages to a couple of the others and headed on, waiting was not an option, it was freezing when we stopped.
The final descent was a cracker, but was tainted by the amout of people who had braved the weather to get some walking in. We did however enjoy this water splash during the ride.
A cracking weekend away. Good times.
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