It’s been quite a while since I’ve been out in this much mud. Here are the top things I must remember for next time…
Bike setup must be right – it’s critical when your mech is bunged up with mud!
Tyres are better if they actually shed the mud
Select a route without too much mud (a managed trail centre would be a great choice)
Finally…
Smile.
Spider monkey, whale shark, dog fish, cat fish, sheep dog, spider wasp, tiger shark, tiger prawn, eagle hawk, bird spider…
It’s important to have lists. More later.
Feel free to add to the list.
Finally, after more than two months, I feel like I’m back in the game. A brief mountain bike at Sherwood Pines, a road session and some running. It’s all going well.
Not 100% – there are no tricks yet past the track standing (must learn to do it with the left pedal forward) but it’s getting there.
Target:
climb a Nottingham wall 5a by the end of September
playboating session by the middle of September (15th for argument’s sake)
cycle 50 miles after work by end of August (road)
cycle a 40 mile off-road route before the end of September (may not have the weekends for this but hey, it’s a target)
I’m not as good at mountain biking as I’d like to be. Or as good as I think I am.
Dislocated collar bone
There’s something that I want more of. I’ve tried short-cutting but it doesn’t work. The trouble is, the maximum rate that I can quench my thirst is one day every 24 hours. Even that is an optimum that is rarely achieved.
Experience. It makes everything easier be it in the office, on the road, at home or at play. Maybe some day, we’ll be able to have an experience upload so that we can think like a professional athlete, a nobel prize winner, a chief economist, a war veteran. Or all of the above. Who knows.
‘Til then, I’ll be plodding along. Trying my best to take as much as I can from each day so that by the end of the year it’ll be one where I’ve got as close to 365 days of experience as possible.
When did this start happening all of a sudden. It’s crept in, perhaps from the same place that “whatever” came from. And it’s really annoying, a blight on communication. Can we not start a sentence without the beginning “so…”.
Yes, I do it myself. And I annoy myself with it. So …
I’ve learnt three things from a recent trip to Florida…
1) American food portions are huge
2) Americans are more openly friendly than I’m used to (and more so than the British)
3) For three days of work, it’s a long way to the USA.
My parents are fond of saying that if you haven’t got anything worth saying, you shouldn’t say anything at all.
After such a long hiatus, the reader should hope that I have something worth saying. In subject, you would be correct but in form it is not there yet.
For the past weeks, I’ve been pondering on the importance of goals. Last night, I was lucky enough to see Jerry Moffat talk a little about his career as a climber. I was most struck by two things:
1) His dedication to reaching the target he had set himself, and;
2) The rivalry that spurred him on to get there.
It should be noted, and noted well, that without having a target or a goal, it cannot be reached. Be it a project, a business, a sports event, a state of mind or something else.
Merry pirate Christmas one and all!
Arhg!
It started as a joke. Now I like it.
