Now United are shit!

We flew to Vancouver with KLM in March, out on a KLM flight which was spot on but then it was a codeshare on the way back so was United, which were truely rubbish. Poor service, poor food and rubbish TV!

Flew BA to Boston in December last year, while they did have a few problems with the entertainment the rest of the flight was great, staff really friendly and kept giving us bottles of wine to make up for the broken telly. Food was good too.

Emirates was the best though when we flew with them to Cape Town via Dubai 2 years ago.

25

There is an M3 near us with the number plate PO02 TAX.

They have an accountancy firm!

Or carry on northwards to Silverdale and Arnside, which are really nice. Silverdale has nice family walks and the Wolf House cafe and Arnside is a tiny Victorian resort with a couple of decent cafes and no chavs. All within a few miles of the M6.

No Chavs!? One of my best friends is from Arnside and he was quite chavvy when he started uni, some of his friends from home were very chavvy, we were there one day and his mate came round in his chavved up polo and asked us if we wanted to go firing fireworks down drain pipes!!

It has got a really good fish and chip shop which more than makes up for it!

1.81 and 72kg

Glen Warfe – Aussie Badminton player

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Think the plan generally will be to try and get runs in 2-3 times during the week and then gradually keep building up the longer ones at the weekend.

Have had a look at the training plans but I struggle to commit to one of them as often my training has to fit around work and social commitments.

Currently my longest run in this stretch of training has been 12km and im running a 10k in about 50 mins. Going to try anf go for about 10 miles this weekend and see how I get on. Not really sure about what to take with me re. food and drink when running, dont really like carrying more than an ipod and headphones. What do most people do?

Depends what colour you want your puke to be I would imagine.

i would buy a hill and build m own trail center. and some dh runs. and would build my house on the top of the hill. would need a good lottery win tho

Me and my fiances dad always say we would do this. He lives right next to Longridge Fell and we both rackon with a load of money you could make an awesome trail centre, then put in a camping barn, tent area, bike shop, cafe/pub selling proper beer and cake! Guess we just need a euromillions win……

If youre happy to add in some bridleway sections too the Grizedale. Closer and can be made into a great full day ride with the extra bits to parkamoor etc.

If you just want to ride the trail centre then Whinlatter is a better ride IMO.

Alternatively there are more great natural routes in the Lakes than you can shake a stick at so could try one of them!?

Birmingham to Lauterbrunnen for me at about 800 miles.

Had a little stop in London to pick up friends and fill up the roof box then got the midnight Dover – Dunkirk ferry then straight down through france the following morning.

I am excited about it.

Going down next friday to stay with friends who live in Stratford. You can see the stadium from their roof so we are going up there to watch the fireworks.
Got some park tickets for saturday so will go in and just take in the park as a whole and all the different venues look pretty impressive.

I dont think we will see the Olympics back here in my life time so might as well make the most of it!

The convenience food there was was awful

Come on Mol, how about Curry Wurst, thats epic!!

If you can push out an extra tenner then this place is brilliant. We stayed there in April and the owners were very welcoming, let me lock my bike up in the garage, used the outside tap to wash it and didnt mind me trapsing through the house covered in mud and dripping wet to jump straight in the shower!

Great breakfast with both cold buffet and fully cooked breakfast too.

If you can find someone to go with it works out well inside the budget.

http://www.bryn-afon.co.uk/Bed-and-Breakfast-Betws-y-Coed.aspx

Loads and Loads of routes in the Lakes. Whenever I go up and want to get an idea for what rides are where and an idea about length, height, and some piccys I always look here:

http://www.bogtrotters.org/rides/gallery/%5B/url%5D

Sinead has gone down the offy for 4 litres of Blue cider and twenty Benson. The shop keeper refuses to serve her due to her being 14 years old. What should Sinead do?

1. Walk out calmly accepting the shopkeepers request.
2. Hurl abuse at the shopkeeper before storming out.
3. Return with her brother Clancy who then intimidates the shopkeeper into handing over the stuff
4. Petrol bomb the shop

Oooh oooh I know that one! Its a trick question, I believe 2,3 & 4 are all acceptable answers!

What do i win?

Graduate Civil Engineer working on Highways.

Ive decided to make a run my goal for the year this year.

I like to set myself a challenge every year, last year I did my first ever endurance bike ride (Gisburn Dirty Dozen in a pair). I was going to aim for Kielder 100 this year but with work plans changing I didnt know if id be able to committ to the training so i decided to enter my first marathon.

Have entered the Preston Guild marathon. Its only once every 20 years and it right on my door step so i thought why not.

Have started training but its not until 28th October so got ages to train still. Im fairly young and not too unfit so i figured I should be ok. Ive run a half marthon with a friend before when he was training for London and that was without training so with a few miles under my belt i’ll be fine.

Was out running on friday and did 11km in about 53mins. Plan is to keep putting in 6-7km training ones a few nights a week tthen introduce gradually longer weekend runs to get used to the big distance!

I was there last night.

I was never a massive Stone Roses fan to be honest (in the way that I didnt have all the albums and no all the words off by heart). I got tickets for my Fiance, her brother and Dad who all love them. They were brought up on them so I thought it would be good to get them tickets.

Anyway they were absolutely fantastic! It was amazing how many songs I knew once they started playing them. I was impressed by the quality of the instrumentals and the ability to turn each song into a 10 minute feast fo your ears. I would definately forgive the odd ‘dodgy note’ from Brown.

There were quite a few 40-50 year olds trying to turn back the clock to the 90’s looking like they had seen better days but who cares. Everyone was having fun and the atmosphere was amazing.

I’m going tonight too, can’t wait! After rain and however many thousand people is Heaton park now a bog? Trainers or wellys?

All these BFe threads are making my want for one grow all the time. Like the idea of running exactly like yours with a 1 x 10 and a 130 fork.

Please just tell me it’s rubbish then I’ll feel a little better.

Damn saving for a wedding!

At university we ran the Ski and Snowboard club and were sponsored by Relentless one year. I remeber drinking 4 x 500ml cans one after the other. Thet really played havoc with me, I got the shakes a bit and then had to run to the toilet before I erupted like Mount Vesuvias! We also used to drink Supermarket own brand energy drinks in vast quantities early in the morning on the way to Ski Races, always got there buzzing!

Nowadays I only occasionally drink red bull. This is either with Jaeger as a JaegerBomb or just have a can of it if i’m doing a big long drive or on a back to back day to night shift, and then thats only because I dont drink Coffee.

I dont mind the taste of it but could never drink it early in the morning anymore, far too sweet.

Does that mean if you get Pro you finally get graphs showing distance vs altitude rather than time vs altitude?

Thats one thing with Endo that bugs me.

Ahh right, yeah must be death in service. guess if im going to die early I best make sure its at work!

I thought this too, when I did mine through work they asked who I wanted the money to go to and in what amounts.

That Whin Fell down to Brennand Farm?

Which is ouster rake?

Well I dont have a road bike so if you do road I will be very slow……

I’ve never actually ridden Dunsop fell and whitendale etc, i’ve heard its some what boggy unless theres a long period of dry weather. Ive always wanted to try it though. Can always stop in the Whitewell for a decent (if somewhat pricey) pint on the way back past!

Have done chipping over to Hareden and back through dunsop and back across burholme bridge and thats alright.

We could set up a longridge branch, there seems to be a few people from that way.

Longridge ride would have to start/end from Corporation arms and go up the fell, mess about, down to Hurst green, down to the river and along through Marles wood and back up from Ribchester, that a regular of mine.

Shibboleth – Member
And there’s a good bouldering wall at Longridge – at the back of Dilworth Reservoir next to the holiday park…

It is a small world, my Fiances family live pretty much next door to that!

So where we thinking for the official Preston branch ride?

Oh btw are there any climbing walls around?

Yep there is one at West View Leisure centre.

I’m just round the corner on the main road a couple of doors down from the Plough!

Thinking a STW preston ride sounds like a cracking plan!

Yeah Winckley Square is a nice option, handy for the train station and centre of town plus youre a couple of minutes from Avenham park so bring your running shoes as its great for jogging through there!

Shibboleth – now who would have thought there is 3 of us from here in Grimsargh alone, its tiny!

Are you out on roadie of mountain bike from chipping tonight?

Yeah the black bull on Friargate? Still usually has a good few different beers on.

Mol, where abouts are you going to be working? Us locals might be able to help you out with suggestions for the more ‘friendly’ bits to live in that are easiest to go to.

Slight hi-jack but what about the White Peak. Me and the missus are going to Chatsworth House on a saturday for a concert with my parents. We are going to stay over nearby so might as well try and get out for a couple of hours on Sunday morning.

Anyone recommend something down that way?

When are you moving up here?

As it goes this year is a great year to be up in Preston as its the Preston Guild year so the whole city id getting behind it with loads of events going on. Main week of it is 1st week in September which will be busy.

I live in Grimsargh which is just the other (good) side of the M6 from preston out East.

Echo what other people say, nice and close for plenty of good mountain biking. Longridge fell, Grindleton Fell, Darwen Moor, Rivvi, and Lakes are just about an hour away.
Lots of Roadies about going out through the trough of bowland. Given the weather that we tend to get if you are wanting a quick evening ride then the roadie is a safer bet.

If your looking for digs I would recommend looking outside the centre, Its dead easy to get into by bike (even car isnt that bad) and the areas to live are much nicer.

If you want to know anything else email in profile.

Edit: Wo Wo Wo what wrong with a night out in Preston? Theres a lot of good real ale pubs in a small area so you dont have to trek to far between pints in the rain!

Here’s one I did from Belmont on Wed last week, not massive distance but takes in most of the best descents and youre pretty much always going up or down.

Belmont Ride

It all seems a little odd to me.

I bank with Natwest and got my salary in on time (actually came in a day early) and havent had any problems transferrring money on line or DD going out.

Is it just hit and miss with some people being affected and not others?

You need to set your weight, age etc and youll get a more accurate idea. Its still not spot on but I was out on Wednesday and did about 20km around Rivington and Winter Hill, about 600m of climbing in about 2 hours and that came in at about 900 calories which I figured probably wasnt too far off.

I really like the idea about havine a couple of different route cards. If I can go from the door of the pub on a nice ride that finishes back there then im much more likely to end the ride with a pint and some food than if I have to get in the car and drive somewhere first.

Big sharing plates and proper beers are top of my list post ride so sounds like you could be on to a winner, especially when you combine that with the cracking riding around that part of the world!

Hope it works out for you and keep us posted on any progress!

I walked in with a big packet of Jelly Babies in my jacket pocket and didnt get checked.

They were stopping a searching bags though so I should imagine you’d struggle if you wanted to try and bring a full picnic hamper in!

This was at Coldplay 2 weeks ago.