Here’s ours: http://singletrackworld.com/2013/09/monday-morning-debrief-38/

What did you get up to?

me and my 10 yr old did Pedal for Scotland yesterday. Good event, well organised. The wee guy did well, although getting up for school this morning was a struggle for him 😛

End of season week in Les Gets for me. With Morzine lifts closed we stayed local but lots of fun still had on the big bikes. Lots of sun, dusty trails, flattering berms and jumps, no queues and a good vibe led to an ace week. Lots of fun in the woods to be had too on the not-so-secret trails.

Manx End2End.

4:02, 125th
Pretty frustrated with not getting under 4 hours, but pretty happy with my best time by a long way.

Tour of Tweeddale sportive , great weather and very well organised.

Work and a work get together in Newcastle for a few drinks, that wrote Sunday off. 😳

iain – what route did you do? I ask because there was a couple of 10-11 year olds doing the Sportive route and they were doing fantastically well!!

Manx end to end again…. 1st go at itAWESOME!!!! Manx mud at its best. ….went for 5 hours.. Did 5.01…. Failure ( chain fell off 1/4 mile from end

My weekend started Friday morning when I started the Coast to Coast finishing Sunday!

Brownbacks racing at Lee Quarry. Hurray! Brilliant event.

Although attempting mid-race amateur cosmetic surgery on my face with a rock was not my best idea.

Cannock Saturday with a mate and two of his mates from work. My god they were slow the sort of people who somehow manage to turn a couple of hours into an all-dayer.

Went again early yesterday evening and conditions were magnificent. Empty trails and the dirt was just the right consistency. Flawless ride, legs still feeling urgent on the way back it was all I could do to not go round again.

Not much, a local 20 mile pootle, got soaked from a heavy downpour.

But spirits lifted by catching and passing two roadies up a steep hill on way home. Didn’t see them again. They’d probably just finished a 100k or something, but I dont care!

Uplift at innerleithen on sunday on the little bikes, playing on the enduro trails… Always a treat, everything’s in perfect condition- just damp enough to stick the trails together and make the roots and rocks a bit slippy, without being a mess. Rode a new trail I’d heard of but not ridden, which turned out to be pretty damn brilliant. Then fell off quite a lot on the bottom of mince baby mince, while experimenting with “relaxing and just letting the bike work it out”- did not entirely work 🙂

Great ride, only known cure for the post-alps blues.

Saturday – Nothing
Sunday – 1st round of Wessex Cyclocross Season. Nice strong start to the season finishing 7th in Vets.

I tired myself out riding The Ridgeway from home to the White Horse at Uffington and back. Turns out it’s a 55 mile round trip, but with only 2,669 feet of climbing. Managed it in 3h 43m though, which was nice.

Ulverston triathlon, nice event, mediocre performance. The highlight being cutting my eye getting my swim cap off. Moron.

55 miles on the back roads of North Shropshire in glorious sunshine before the rain came in on Saturday, although learnt a lesson, never arrange to meet at your fitter mates house, always let him do the additional 10 miles before you start!

Took Mrs And Jr Hoppy along the Llangollen canal on Sunday morning with lunch in the pub garden at Trevor Basin. Negotiating the aqueduct with jr’s trailer was interesting but he stayed dry. Rain started just as I’d loaded the bikes onto the rack to head home. Not sure how I managed 2 dry rides but I’m not complaining.

Bikepark Wales the whole weekend. Riding up on Saturday, got there a bit ‘leisurely’ but managed four complete runs. Frikkin brilliant fun.
Sunday we were booked on the uplift and got about 8-9 runs in.

Vicious valley

Willy Waver

Lycra allowed but not encouraged 😀

45 miles or so, from the cottage we’d hired on South Uist, across the causeway onto Eriskay, ferry over to Barra, up to the north tip, run up Beinn Sgurabhal, bike back to the airport for tea, cake and watching a plane land on the beach, round the west coast to Castlebay for lunch, down to the south tip of Vatersay, back up to Castlebay and round the east coast into a **** headwind all the way back to the ferry, then back over Eriskay and the causeway back to the cottage.

Leuchars airshow on saturday
A road ride from outskirts of Dundee over Glenshee/Cairnwell to Braemar and back, 96 miles, on sunday

SDA DH Rd 5 at Fort William.

Calves and triceps a bit tender this morning 😆

Great local ride round Netherton, Coxley Woods, Briestfield and Whitley.

Not so quick local loop round Holymoorside on Sunday. Never done it before so lots of stopping and navigating, well that’s my excuse anyway 🙂 Pretty good fun.

Dalbeattie in the p…..ing rain on Sunday morning followed by a grande feed in the Cafe in the Forest 😆

Did my local 12 miler to get the legs working again after a weeks holiday (none biking).
Got told off from an old dear in Dunham Park for being on the bike she did hold a gate open for me though. 🙂 Would not be too bad but I’m only in the place about 3-4 mins 🙄

Brownbacks XC at Lee Quarry here too. Smashing fast course, lovely weather, brilliant marshals and organisation, great atmosphere as ever*, and I managed to get round without any mechanicals this time, hooray! Ace fun.

Pics of me bimbling around the course by marsdenman of this parish.

(*Apart from being accused of cutting the course by some numpty – I checked with the marshals next time round and my line was legit, so ner 😛 . I resent the implication that I’d actually bother to cheat my way to a lower-table weekend warrior placing, jeez… 9th/20 in weekend warriors apparently, woo, but still… )

Took my boys XC racing in the locally held round of the national cup, great weather, great fun, only gutted I couldn’t race as well.

Did however manage a solid two hour all in blast on the road bike and an interval session on the rollers this weekend.

Saturday – Bumping around notts and derby cyclocross race
Sunday – Road ride to try and loosen my legs from the saturday.

Managed to get out for a solo ride on Sunday and ride a local Lantua trail I have not done in a long time, unfortunately I also forgot what hard work it was to get to, and to ride in 30plus weather.
Recent Typhoons had caused some serious erosion but in this case I thought it made in more interesting, also bumped into a fellow solo rider I knew so we stopped halfway for a beer on Pui O beach……

Heading back I did really feel the heat a bit after taking a cheeky trail diversion back that turned into a jungle adventure as everything had grown over through lack of use.
Finished the day tired and happy, as it should be.

Saturday rode to Bolton to do Parkrun (came 9th, pretty pleased with that – and just sub 20mins too) wit’ Mrs. Rode back.
Sunday – raced at Brownbacks. Had a good one. 2nd V50 and won Singlespeed Cat and yes, there were others in it this time! Rode back on/off road.

35 miles along the Ridgeway from Swindon back to Didcot with two mates.

Brilliant.

First Youth A race for Son1 and a Cat 4 race for me at Hillingdon in fine conditions. Plenty of work on the front, felt pretty strong and tried a couple of attack before recovering for the last five laps. A BIG crash on the penultuimate lap (again) meant I lost my nerve and position whilst trying to stay up and dropped back for the last lap. I still outsprinted a likely national champion though#

#OK she’s Youth A track points leader on restricted gearing, but a sprint’s a sprint, eh?

Tour of Tweeddale 99 miles for me. 5600ft of ascent. Great day and well organised. Happy chappy.

XC blat to a mate’s house for his little boy’s birthday followed by taking the long way home and turning it into an interval session.

Scores for the weekend as follows:

Riding: Nil
Walls rendered: 2
Cladding wood stained: 75%
Shelving systems constructed: 1
Walls demolished: Half
Bruised thumbs from inaccurate hammer work: 1

The new mancave is nearly complete! 😉

Hills, hills, still boring myself.

Sunday I waited for it to pee down then went out. What doesn’t kill you makes you wetter.

Torridon.
It’s great.
🙂

Eldest OAB and I pottered round Loch Ordie, and discovered the Pass of Caves – ace steep singletrack.

IMAG0369 by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

IMAG0371 by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

IMAG0375 by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

Pedal for Scotland Sportive
180km, 1,600m ascent/

I really quite enjoyed it

http://www.blog.scotroutes.com/2013/09/its-not-race-you-know.html

SingletrAction chainless challenge at Stainburn. Fine weather, good crowd, nice tracks. Felt suitably spent for an aggregate actual 6 minutes of race runs. Pump it!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BQyNA0cq2M&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

Some folk even walked away with prizes kindly donated by STW.