…which is good news. A bit of a hectic week, but I’ve managed to fit in a few rides. One of them I met up with Phil who was commuting home at 8:30pm. God knows why he’s working 12 hour days and riding to and from work, but he is. I’ve warned him that death awaits overworked stressed out engineers but he’s not having it. I diverted him from his usual commute route anyway and made him REALLY late home. 

Today’s ride was a peach. Today should have been the 3 Peaks so in honour of the race that’s not to be, I met up with Simon and Russ and we rode our cyclocross bikes over the moors and hills. I’ve not much of an idea of where we ended up, but I do know that after the rendezvous at Entwistle we went towards Rivvy/Great Hill and I think I saw a sign for “Abbey” something or other. We had a great time and even found time for cake and tea at a caff. I’m not sure how far I rode today (it’s 24 miles to and from Entwistle from Prestwich for starters) but I do know (and my legs are reminding me) that it was over 6 hours of hard and fast riding.

Enthusiasm. Willingness to get out of bed early and do something. Keeping to your plans. It’s funny how easily and qiuckly all these things slip and slide off one’s consciousness, leaving behind apathy, laziness and a shrinking comfort zone… 

It was quite hard after the Cristalp to keep things going in readiness for the Three Peaks. I was tired and I’d had a really hard time pushing myself though the training – the weather this year has made it harder but even if the weather had been fine the whole thing would have been punishing anyway (it wouldn’t be worthwhile training if it was easy though would it?)

I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy riding the MTL twice, or the MTL on a singlespeed, or riding the PBW south for 70-odd miles, or riding 2 trail centres in one day and all the roads and lanes in between, or riding for 6 hours on a weekday evening or trying to kill myself on the turbo trainer when it’s sunny outside, or getting up at 6am to go for a road ride in the rain, or feeling hungry for 6 months solid, or not seeing much of my friends or family or declining rides with friends in favour of a head-down pedal mashing session or a repeated climb up a bloody big hill… Honest to God, I enjoyed the training. For me it’s the biggest part of the challenge…but it’s nice to have a choice and to not feel the pressure of “having to get the mileage/altitude in my legs”. For now anyway. The new arrival (due end of October) means I’ll be more limited for time for “a bit” so maybe I’ll go running more. In fact, sod it. I’ll go running more for definate. Maybe I’ll enter a race or something….;-)

But the fun riding and the “hard” riding won’t happen until the mojo comes back. Luckily, I have a cunning plan….

The 3 Peaks Cyclocross race is off. Bugger.

The 2007 Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross race, due to have take place on Sunday 30 September, has been cancelled due to the ongoing Foot and Mouth crisis in southern England. The Three Peaks passes through some of Yorkshire’s prime grazing lands and with thousands of sheep still on the hills, organiser John Rawnsley has taken the difficult decision to cancel the event. He made the decision following lengthy consultations which local landowners and farmers, the support of whom makes the event possible. With riders due to travel to the race from the four corners of Britain (and overseas), including Surrey, the current focal point of the crisis, the risk of spreading the disease was deemed too great to be acceptable. All the riders who have entries for the 2007 race will have their entries carried over to the 2008 event, subject their confirming their intention to ride. Further details of this process, plus information on refunds will be posted on the event website in the next few days: http://www.3peakscyclocross.org.uk/

John Rawnsley said: “Cancelling the event is the last thing we’d want to do, and we regret the disappointment this will cause amongst the riders who have entered. Unfortunately it’s a risk we simply can’t afford to take if the event is to maintain the local goodwill it has built up over many years. I have spoken to local landowners and tenant farmers and the consensus was that we should cancel the race. The race’s future depended on us making the right decision.”

Seems to be a decision based not on the likelihood of people spreading the disease but a need to ensure that if the disease did reappear in the Dales, the finger won’t be pointed in the direction of this race, thus ensuring its existence in years to come. Oh well. That’s this year over then in terms of racing and stuff. I’ll have to do a big ride on that day to make up for it. Maybe the Pennine Bridleway again…hmmm..

That’s it. My 3 weeks off “taking it easy” had to end today. Well, not that easy, just the rides I’ve been doing haven’t been training rides like the ones I’ve got used to (high-mileage acts of stupidity as Deb calls them). I’ve been riding plenty but it’s been more of the “couple of hours blast” variety. I’ve still been trying to inflict pain on myself in those shorter rides though. This morning’s ride was a bit longer – a bit of a medium ride in fact. I thought I’d better get back into shape ready for the 3 Peaks in 3 weeks time (I’m not really out of shape but you’ve got to feel ready and prepare at the start of a race – know what I mean?) so I did plenty of climbing on plenty of ruff stuff and had a play with the timer on the camera:

It was dead foggy and freezing cold on’t moors this morning. Nice though – there was nobody around (nobody I saw anyway).

Me and Michael both went out this evening (just got back in fact) for a hour-and-a-bit ride in the dark. I’d charged the old Lumicycle halogens earlier in the week for him so we were all set.

He loved it, judging by the big grin, despite riding through some dog turd.