High Peak MTB ride...

For a while now I've had an idea going around in my head for a longer distance mountain bike ride. Something that would not only test my stamina a little but also take me to areas that I don't normally ride. What I came up with was a 73 mile loop made up of country lanes, cycle  paths and off-road sections. It would take me from Derby to a point just north of Hartington, in the Peak District, before turning south and heading back for home. I'd take in Carsington Water, the High Peak Trail and Tissington Trail on route.

The weather could not have been better for the ride. Plenty of sunshine, very little cloud, not too hot and only a steady breeze. There was even a low lying early morning mist to add a little effect to the whole thing! The only problem with that was I wanted to keep stopping to take photos and didn't really have enough time!

Just 2 miles from home and the first photo stop.
Sunrise at Alvaston Park.

The first 18 miles or so of the ride were some of the toughest as it was almost all on-road. The tyres on the mountain bike made for a hard ride, the road was climbing for just about every mile and all I could think about was the off-road sections that lay ahead. I wanted to see the back of tarmac! Having said that, this is Derbyshire and there is always something to lighten the mood. The view from near Kedleston Park made me pause for a drink and a quick photo before pressing on.

View near Kedleston Park.

The first off-road section of the ride was a great little 4 miles or so alongside the eastern edge of Carsington Water, from Millfields car park to Hopton village. The trail was undulating but rode well. It was dry and grippy but the surface had just enough loose to keep you on your toes. The camera had to come out a couple of times too.

Arriving at Carsington Water.

View over Carsington Water.

About to leave Carsington Water.

After Hopton village came the toughest climb of the ride so far, the drag out of the village up to the High Peak Trail. The road climbs around 300 feet in just over a mile. Nothing to hard on a road bike but I knew about it on a mountain bike, with a rucksack on my back. The climb had its reward though, I was now at the start of the main part of the ride - almost 25 miles of off-road cycle trails.

High Peak Trail - let the fun begin.

I'd never cycled the High Peak Trail before but had walked it a number of times, so I knew what the views would be like. It's still a real pleasure to be out in the open though, no matter how many times you travel along the trail. And with the weather as it was, it was even more stunning! I managed to resist stopping too often for photos, but every now and again I used the excuse of having to stop for food or drink as the reason for a quick snap shot!

Taking in the view...

...view over the wall!

View from the trail.

View from the trail.

The point at which I would start and turn for home was where the High Peak Trail joined the Tissington Trail. Again, I had to stop for food and to mix another bottle of energy drink. And take a few more photos! Well, you need something as a reminder of rides like this.

The bike is ready for the Tissington Trail...

... all the signs point back where we came from!

Enjoying yet another great view.

Once back on the bike it was a fun 14 miles or so of easy riding down into Ashbourne. The Tissington Trail drops, almost unnoticeable at times, down to the town, losing around 700 feet in elevation. The legs enjoyed this section of the ride - I was able to hold a good turn of speed without any real effort. Save some energy for later in the day! It was also the last time I stopped for photos...

The old signal box at Hartington station.

The view near Hartington.

From Ashbourne onwards the ride returned to tarmac roads, and the drag of knobbly tyres on a surface they are not best suited to. It was a pretty tough 25 miles or so. The bike felt heavy, I was tiring, the breeze had picked up and was now a head wind. I enjoyed the challenge, but it certainly wasn't as much fun as the two off-road trails had been!

By the time I arrived back at home I'd been out for 6 hours 37 mins. The bike had been moving for a total of 5 hours 11 mins. The total mileage was 72.9 miles and I'd averaged 14.1mph. Not my quickest ride by a long way, but it was one of the more enjoyable ones.... so far!

The Strava details for the ride are HERE.

The route map.

February... I managed to raise the cycling mileage a little during the month with a total of 375 miles covered. I also logged my longest ride of the year so far, a rather feeble 26.23 miles on the mountain bike! Still, the year isn't supposed to be about clocking up a large number of miles by the year end, it's all about just enjoying being out on the bike. With that in mind, I'm happy with how it's all going so far.

One ride that I did put a bit of extra effort into was the commute to work on the morning of February 28. It had been very cold and frosty overnight and this had left the unmade cycle paths dry and firm - ideal conditions for a fast ride on the mountain bike. So, I left home at 7:00AM and headed off towards Elvaston Castle for an attempt at getting the "lap record" on the Strava web site for a 2 mile ride around the park! 

The best time logged on Strava had been 7mins 27secs, an average speed of 16mph. By the time I'd completed my loop it was down to 7mins 01sec! Not bad for an old 'un that, even after all these years riding bikes, still can't bunny hop the speed bumps I encountered on one part of the ride though!

A hot lap of the castle.

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My aim of getting out with the camera more during this year isn't going quite as well as I'd hoped so far. The weather hasn't been good enough, I've been short of time and, well, I've just been plain old lazy! But, some encouragement to keep at it has come my way in the form of our local paper, the Derby Telegraph. They have printed two of my photos in recent weeks.

The first was the photo of Alvaston Lake I took back in January...

...the second was also taken in Alvaston Park, on one of the few sunny days we've had so far this year!

Hopefully as the year progresses I'll be able to post more photos here - if the weather allows that is! Right now... it's snowing once again!

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And finally... we, or should I say Lynda, have changed our car again. I don't drive enough now to have too much of a say in what we have or when we change our cars! This one is, once again, another Ford Fiesta. It's a Titanium model, metallic silver, and just a few months old. 

The new car.

A little too easy?

One month into 2013 and the plan to take things a little easier with the cycling this year is coming along nicely. A combination of dark mornings and evenings, rain, snow, ice, wind and a mindset of actually wanting to do less miles has seen me ride just 298.44 miles in January. This is my lowest monthly total since December 2010 when I covered just 139.26 miles. 

And do I feel good about this? No, not really. If I’m honest, I’m actually finding it harder to do the shorter rides than I would if I was racking up double the distance. I’m already noticing a drop off in my fitness and my average speed is lower than I’d like. Okay, riding in the dark doesn’t help, and the strong winds certainly don’t, but I’m sure the biggest issue is the lack of riding time. Time for a re-think maybe!

Having said all that, the week of proper snow we had mid-month (before a slight melt turned it to ice) was great fun to ride in and the GT Avalanche 1 mountain bike that I purchased back in November proved to be ideal for the conditions. As well as the mountain bike allowing me to carry on riding when the snow arrived there were two or three evenings when I actually added a few miles onto the journey home, just so I could play in the snow for a little longer!

Taking time out from playing in

the snow at Alvaston Park!

Starting 2013...

Well, here we go once again. A new year and a new start. If I can find the time/the enthusiasm/the subject matter, and if the weather allows, then I'd like to post a lot more updates here this year. And, if all goes well many of them will be based around photos that I take.

Photography is something that I have enjoyed for many many years, I even studied it at school back in the dark ages of my youth. But, like many things in life, trying to find the time to really give it a go has always been a problem - most of the shots I take are either when away on holiday or on the occasional local walk. In 2013 I want to try and change that by taking more photos and in the process improve my, very mediocre, skills.

Today may not have been the best day to pick up the camera - beer, Buck's Fizz (the drink, not the '80s pop group!) and whisky last night - but the weather was fine and so Lynda and I headed off for a walk and then a pub lunch this morning. The camera came along too...

Alvaston Park lake. 

Lynda and friends. 

Mute Swan and Coot. 

Teasel heads. 

 Winter trees.

Tree bark. 

Fungi - around 15 feet up a tree! 

Fungi - around 15 feet up a tree! 

No football this week!

There, I've taken the first step. Not the most awe inspiring set of photos but having just the local park to work with did at least make me look around a little more in the hope of finding things to point the camera at. 

Now, where to go next time...

The 6000 mile year...

Once again I’m sat, with a beer, looking back on another year of cycling. My own cycling that is, not the amazing year of pro-cycling we’ve had the pleasure of seeing in 2012! Well done Team Sky, Team GB, Sir Bradley Wiggins, and everyone else that helped make it such a great year!

So, back to my own year. Since I started recording the mileage I ride, back in 2008, I’ve tried to set myself a goal for each year. Between the middle of June and the end of the year in 2008 I managed to cover 1089 miles. In 2009, I logged a total of 3573 miles. The following year and the mileage was up to 4211 miles by the end of December. Last year, 2011, I upped my game a little and took the mileage to 5364 miles. 

For 2012 I wanted to try and push myself further still. I set the target at 6000 miles. As most of my cycling mileage is made up of commuting to and from work it meant I’d have to put in plenty of extra miles on top of the basic route to and from work - I live less than 2 miles from work as the crow flies and only around 2.5 miles by bike! Time to get peddling!

This is how the year went...

January
46 rides
376.66 miles covered

February
47 rides
452.63 miles covered

March
53 rides
701.92 miles covered

April
33 rides
313.39 miles covered

May
51 rides
620.66 miles covered

June
44 rides
471.16 miles covered

July
39 rides
427.09 miles covered
*Longest single ride of the year 101.37 miles*

August
53 rides
549.08 miles covered

September
46 rides
609.44 miles covered

October
40 rides
441.23 miles covered

November
47 rides
480.80 miles covered

December
46 rides
570.51 miles covered

All that little lot adds up to a total of 6014.57 miles - 14.57 miles over my target for the year!

Using GPS, I was able to plan where I'd reach 6000 miles.

The cafe at Alvaston Park - for a bacon sandwich & a latte!

As for 2013... I think it may be time to have a year without any set targets and just enjoy cycling for the sake of it! Maybe....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We're half way there...

Well, June has come and gone and with it half the year is now behind us. Somehow, I’ve managed to ride a total of 2936.42 miles in the last six months which puts me very close to reaching the half way point of my goal of riding at least 6,000 miles this year.

The weather has, once again, been more of a challenge than the actual cycling over the past month with the rain and strong winds putting paid to any chance of me getting any big rides in. The longest ride I did was the ride up to Alport Heights, a distance of just 40 miles. As a result, the total mileage for the month of June was 471.16 miles - around 200 miles less than I would have liked!

This past weekend has seen the passing of a long-time friend. After many years of faithful service my old mountain bike has come to the end of the line and been killed off. For the last couple of years I’ve faced a constant battle to keep it roadworthy but this time the costs involved didn’t make this worth doing any more. Quite how many miles the bike had covered I’ll never know (I didn’t log its mileage for many years) but I'd ridden it for over 11,000 miles in the past three years alone! I’d owned the bike for over 16 years so it certainly didn’t owe me anything!

The bike was stripped of it’s tyres, mudguards, lights and rear gear mechanism (the only usable parts!) and handed over to the scrap-man on Saturday. Farewell old friend, I’ll miss you!

Alvaston Park. A regular

haunt of the mountain bike.

All set to raise money for the

Britsh Heart Foundation.

Sherwood Forest - November 2008.

36 miles of thick mud and heavy rain!

The end of a very grim ride!

The end of the road! June 2012.

Removing anything of use.

A sad old sight!

Enjoying the start of spring...

Getting some extra miles in, by riding the bike during my breaks at work, didn’t quite work out as planned this week. I managed just one lunch time ride, of 5 miles, on Monday and then didn’t get chance again for the rest of the week! The best laid plans and all that. Still, it’s been another good week with a further 161 miles being covered. Of those miles, 122 were from commuting to and from work and the other 39 came from a rather nice ride in the sun this morning.

During the ride into work on Monday I heard my first Chiffchaff of the year with a single bird singing by the river near Alvaston Park. By the end of the week the number of singing birds was close to double figures. On Friday it was Sand Martins that put in their first appearance of the year (for me) when I spotted two flying around over their regular nesting site, again by the river.

On Monday and Tuesday I took a little time out to watch the sun start to go down over Derby whilst riding home from work. I didn’t have the camera with me so had to make do with the one on my phone - not great results but you can get a feel of how nice the weather was.

This morning I took the Cannondale Bad Boy out for a lazy few hours of riding. The 39 mile ride could have easily been much longer, if only I could have been bothered to put some thought into were to ride! I set off at just after 8am and just followed my front wheel. I had no idea where I was going to go, or how long I planned on being out. Not a great way of achieving a decent mileage.

In the end, my route took me out to Swarkestone, along the canal path to Weston and then Aston, through the grounds of Elvaston Castle before heading to Alvaston Park. Here, I took a little break, Hobbit style, and enjoyed “2nd breakfast”. A sausage and bacon sandwich from the cafe set me up perfectly for the next part of my ride!

The second part of the ride saw me head over to Allestree, Duffield and Little Eaton before climbing up into Holbrook. From there I passed through Kilburn, Horsley Woodhouse, Smalley and Morley before heading back towards home via Oakwood and the edge of Spondon. The ride served its purpose, in so much as I got some miles in, but it proved that, for me, the secret to longer distance rides is planning. With no pre-planned route I just fumbled my way around and headed for home too early. The body was strong but the mind was weak!

The Cannondale Bad Boy, in the

early morning mist.

Stats for todays ride were...
Total distance - 39 miles
Total time - 2hrs 30min
Max speed - 32mph
Average speed - 15.9mph
Calories burnt - approx 1705

Bacon butty power...

Two weeks on from my last update and the weather, the season and the mileage has moved on, swiftly.

The snow has gone, the temperature has rocketed up to the dizzy heights of around 17°c during the past week, spring flowers are in bloom and my cycling mileage has benefited as a result. The week of Feb 13 - 19 saw me cover a total of just over 132 miles, a huge leap from the meagre 25 miles I managed in the snow and ice of the previous week. During the past seven days, I’ve upped the pace a little more and clocked up a further 160 miles.

As a result of these two weeks of better weather my mileage for the year now stands at 770 miles, a rather pleasing 102 miles more than I rode in the same period last year. If I’m to hit my target of 6,000 miles before the end of the year I’m going to have to start and rack up some much higher totals over the coming months but, at this point, I’m feeling reasonably confident that it may just be attainable.

Although I’m going to be focusing on my yearly mileage target this year, I’ll be making sure that the way I go about reaching it will be as enjoyable as possible too. So, today's 50 mile ride around South Derbyshire included a stop at Alvaston Lake, to see the birds there, a quick photo stop for spring crocuses and, the best bit, a delicious bacon sandwich an hour into the ride! I burnt around 2,400 calories during this morning's ride.... so a bacon sandwich is just like putting a couple of gallons of fuel in the tank of your car! That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking by it!

Having just seen the weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon (rain) I think I’ll be riding the short route home from work and treating it as a “rest day”.

Enjoy your week!

Crocuses in Alvaston Park.