Not long to go now. In a week’s time I’ll be making the 7 hour journey north to the Strathpuffer for the 3^rd time* and while I’m not quite ‘summer race-fit’ I’m in reasonable shape and for once I’m very relaxed. This almost-horizontal state of calm isn’t exactly what I’m used to the week before a 24 hour race but like I’ve said before, for me January isn’t the time of year to be getting all fired up and wearing a full-on race face, while using up all my motivation for riding when the weather gets better (because it will get better!).

My slightly chubby and wind-blasted, partial race face will have to do for now.

Finally I pulled my socks up and got the race bike ready. I’ll be riding my trusty old Scandal – one of the original scandium-framed models which has been to every race with me since I bought it many years ago, admittedly as a spare bike in recent times.

Cutting a long story short, there have been some changes to ‘the deal’ which has resulted in me no longer being an On-One sponsored athlete – I can do nothing but thank them for their support over the years but in life things change and we move on, so for the time being at least I’m slightly more self-sufficient than I was a few weeks ago.

Anyway, I’ve done a quick singlespeed conversion and the Scandal is now good to go. It was pretty light anyway but now that I’ve removed all but one gear I’m pleased with the lack of mass 🙂

As well as the lack of gears, a full carbon rigid fork, a liberal use of Mt Zoom components and the rather ace Rolf Ralos 9 wheels drive down the poundage even further. We won’t go into the extra pounds the rider is carrying….but at least I won’t feel the cold as much as the skinny lads. The 17 hours of darkness will be ridden with the help of a few of the finest lights available from Exposure.

The light weight has meant that I’ve given into temptation (and also means I’ve clearly not learnt any lessons at all from last time) and I’m running a relatively tall gear. It’s a pretty tall gear for 24 hour solo racing on a reasonably hilly course anyway although I’m sure that for general ‘just going out for a ride for a couple of hours’ duties 34:17 on a 29 inch wheel is absolutely fine.

If my back/legs/arms/toes/eyelids start to play up because of the ratio then I can always swap onto the lower-geared spare bike. But that’s quite a bit heavier. But it’s got a suspension fork. Maybe I’ll MTFU and won’t need to use it. (I’m seriously trying to ignore what happened last time).

Don’t worry – the gears will be back in use in time for the next 24 hour race in the spring.

The weather? Who knows. It’s the Strathpuffer. Maybe we’ll have snow. Or ice. Or wind. Or rain. Or sunshine. Probably all of them.

The slightly terrifying ice tyres are all ready to go, just in case…

*it would have been the 4^th time if that dozy pillock hadn’t crashed his car into me in 2010

It’s been donkey’s years since I rode the Marin and Penmachno trails in a single ride. I remember that it wasn’t particularly long at around 50 miles but it wasn’t easy either – I mainly put that down to the fact I was riding an Orange Patriot with heavyweight tyres and a lot of suspension. God I loved that bike. I did the ride on my own in the daylight and the weather was pretty bad. Even 5 years ago it was raining in July.

Fast forward to last weekend and Phil, Dave and me finished work, I picked them up in the van and off we went to Betws-Y-Coed to do the ride again, this time in darkness.

Arriving at around 8:30 in the Marin trail car park at Gwydir Forest we faffed, got changed and set off down the road through Betws and along the climb to Penmachno, some 9 or so miles away. It’s been really warm for January and that night was no exception. Hitting the top of the long ride up the road jackets were removed and we started the long first offroad climb of the Penmachno trail.

I’ve decided to race at the Strathpuffer on a singlespeed again so I was trying to keep up with the other two lads with one (pretty tall) gear. 34:16 on a not-very-light 29er isn’t much fun when you start riding it up long, steep North Wales hills but I was getting to the top…just. I made mental notes about gear ratios for my pre-Strathpuffer bike prep.

Beautiful, rocky, fast singletrack was ridden at silly speeds, we were anticipating a four or five hour ride which would mean returning home just in time for breakfast so none of us was keen on messing about.

Lighting up the forest with our new Exposure Six Pack lights (thanks guys) we polished off the 20-odd miles of steep climbs and fast singletrack sometime after all the pubs had shut and made our way back along the road to the van. A quick change of lights and water bottles and we cracked on with the Marin Trail.

A fair bit shorter than the Penmachno trail and a quite different ride – even though the Marin is man-made, it’s been there so long that it’s about as ‘natural’ as many other ‘natural’ trails out there. The amount of climbing that it packs into its modest 11 miles is enough to give anyone a good kicking and perhaps as a result it’s one of my favourite man-made trails. It was even dry in places – very dry. Dusty, even. The first time any of us had ridden dry offroad trails for months and it was the middle of the night in January. The weather really is broken!

We got back to the van after the epic final descent, grinning, sometime after 3am. Dave and Phil chucking Jaffa Cakes and strong coffee at me, I drove the van back to civilisation and dropped them off – I got home just after 6am a little bit tired….

As a continuation of my current “riding my bike for fun because it’s winter” Strathpuffer training strategy, I met up with Phil, Budge, Simon and Guy Martin (yes, that Guy Martin – starting his 24 hour solo ‘career’ with the Strathpuffer) for a ride in the Peak District near Macclesfield on Sunday. Not everyone wanted to ride for hours and hours so I fiendishly (or lazily) devised a route that was pretty much a classic. Up into the forest, down Charity Lane, Cat & Fiddle, Three Shires, Cumberland Clough, Macc Forest and then back to the van. Those that wanted a longer ride (Phil, Guy and me) would then go and do the whole thing again. Which we did 🙂

I’d learned (or rather re-learned) some painful lessons about singlespeed gearing on the previous ride so I’d fitted a different cog to the bike that gave me an easier gear (34:18 this time).

The trouble was, I’d forgot just how bloody steep the climbs are around Macc Forest so it was even harder this time (having said that Friday’s gear would have made my back and knees explode).

The big uphills were more than rewarded by the utter quality and fun offered by the rocky downhills though – Macclesfield Forest and the White Peak really is one of the best places to ride a bike offroad in this country and I’ll be making regular trips there from now on.

The last few weeks of Strathpuffer24  training have been a bit ‘loose’. There’s been a plan, as without The Plan I’d probably find myself slacking or I’d be almost-constantly wondering what kind of things would be appropriate, beyond ‘just going out and riding’, to be doing at that point.

It’s not easy to fit everything in  – working, family, mending broken bikes – as well as training for 24 hour solo racing  so for me The Plan is pretty important.

The downside is that it’s a drag at times. It’s hammering down with rain and this thing here is telling me I must go out and ride my bike for six hours AND somehow fit in some hill repetitions. Or when I just want to spend my lunchbreak at work sat down eating my sandwiches this thing here is telling me I need to go and throw weights around in the gym.

It works, but it’s a right pain in the arse sometimes. Motivated by the fear of being crap and at the same time seeing (and feeling) improvements keeps the motivation levels high but one needs to relax every now and then. Ideally at this time of year, I’ll put the work in, but relax the structure and remember to enjoy it. No point in giving myself a proper kicking now. There’s plenty of time for that later in the year.

The Plan has been merely a rough guide this time around. Sure, I’ve (mostly) done the hill reps and the turbo sessions that I should be doing and I’ve been getting out on the bike early and late to fit in the volume around a day job but as for doing it as and when directed….? No. Entire ‘hard’ weeks have metamorphosed into ‘easy’ weeks because the weather’s been especially crap.

Easy weeks have become not-so-easy weeks because the week before I didn’t put the effort in. Two hours on the bike has on a couple of occasions become one hours of off-road running (because you’ll never see me running on the pavement).

Sessions in the gym at midday have become half an hour of weird core exercises in front of the telly after the kids have gone to bed.

It’s been bloody great. The outcome of the Strathpuffer24 will tell me whether I’m going to pay dearly for this lack of discipline (on top of the  standard “paying dearly for doing the damn thing in the first place”) but up to now the power numbers have been going in the right direction and I feel great – certainly better than I would normally do in December. I’m not as light as I’ll be in the summer but that’s fine too. It’s winter insulation 😉

The past week I’ve been enjoying taking on the challenge of the Rapha Festive 500 – nearly 15,000 people worldwide put their names down and attempted to ride 500 kilometres between Christmas Eve and New Year.

I’ve been working throughout the festive period with only Christmas and Boxing day off work, as well as spending time with family doing the usual Christmas stuff so it’s been far from easy – despite this I somehow put in a reasonable shift and managed to ride 507 kilometres (that’s about 317 miles in real money) in five separate rides as well as getting out for a run a couple of times. It’s neutralised the festive food and drink excesses and it’s given me plenty of useful riding time.

I’ve deliberately avoided riding flat routes for the Festive 500 as I’m using it as an excuse to get me into some kind of race-ready fitness. The big downside to this strategy though is that the past few days have been windy and wet – one ride in particular where I rode over Holme Moss and Saddleworth Moor was cut short after it basically became The Worst Ride I’ve Ever Done™.

Huge gusts of wind sending me into the middle of the road and forcing me to apply all my strength to the pedals just so that I didn’t come to a complete stop with horizontal sleet making it virtually impossible to see where I was going. And it was dark. And by the time I’d ridden down the hill I was almost hypothermic and as such I cut the ride short – my 120 miles planned became 70 miles, leaving me with some remaining unplanned kilometres to ride on the final day of the challenge….

In contrast, the final ride of the challenge was quite pleasant and unlike the previous day’s ride, it didn’t make me consider taking up snooker as a hobby.

Happy New Year!

During the 2013 race season (which these days seems to last pretty much all year) I’ll be aided and abetted by some amazing people who send me some equally amazing stuff. I’m a lucky lad (but I work hard).

I’m chuffed to bits that Team JMC and On-One Bikes remain. Without their support it’s doubtful that I’d be able to race anywhere near as much as I do and on such well-sorted bikes.

I’ll also be supported again by Mount Zoom – providing super-lightweight finishing kit, nutrition from Clif Bar (including the near-legendary Double Shot Expresso gels) and chains will be kept moving  by Squirt Lubes.

For the next year, Exposure Lights have stepped in to look after my retina-burning lighting needs. Teko Socks are keeping my feet warm/cool and my old friends at 2Pure have sorted me out with a brilliant Rolf Prima lightweight wheelset, some gorgeous gloves from POC (some with fingers, some without), Chamois Butt’r  (some tingly and a bit minty, some not) and a super-light and minimalist Nathan hydration pack.

I’ll be hammering all of the above in races, training and some epic rides and I’ll be letting y’all know how it all gets on.

In the meantime, here’s a big hug to all my sponsors 🙂

There aren’t many things as painful as cold toes when you’re out on a big ride in the middle of winter. The feeling that you’ve just dropped a couple of bricks on your feet is enough to make anyone dash off home early, grimacing in pain.

“There’s no such thing as wrong weather, only the wrong clothing” is how the saying goes. If you’ve got the right clothing though, happy days. Stay out all night. Hopefully it will snow and blow a gale. I don’t care. My feet are warm.

I’m lucky enough to have the warmth and comfort needs of my feet looked after in 2013 by Teko Socks – I think the entire operation is controlled by a knitted monkey so that’s good. They’re also manufacturing their products and obtaining the raw materials in a sustainable way, which I guess is important too.

I’ve been sent, just in time for the winter and the horrors of training for the Strathpuffer, a selection of warm socks that up to now have kept the ‘toes trapped in a car door’ sensations at bay. My current favourites, for obvious climatic reasons, are the organic merino “XC Light Nordic Ski”, which as their name suggests are good for Nordic skiing, so they should be fine for riding around in circles in a Scottish forest.

They’ve been fine so far with repeated soakings, high-speed winds and freezing mornings. They’re nicely padded in the right places. They’re not mega-tight around the top. They’re WARM in so much that they’re a bit too warm for wearing around the house with the heating on. They look nice and they’re not dead bulky either. I’m well chuffed with ‘em.

The monkey has sent me a selection of other socks too, from thin summer ones  (which I’ve worn around the house a bit) to slightly heavier “SIN3ERGI” hiking socks that I expect will be bob-on for 9 months of the year.

The seemingly endless search for the right clothing (well, socks anyway) might actually be at an end 🙂