Thursday 28 January 2010

Trail centre - Cwmcarn

My new year resolution of visiting some of the mountain bike trail centres around the UK is progressing nicely, last Sunday I took a drive over to South Wales to ride the Twrch trail at CwmCarn. It's only a 30 minute drive past the Severn Bridge, so dead easy to get to for those living in the south and close enough for me to drive there and back in a day. Bar a few hundred metres of wider fire road, the Twrch trail is 18km of excellent windy singletrack. It starts with a pretty hefty climb that took about an hour with a few stops to take photos and catch breath. It's an interesting climb though, winding alongside a river then zig zagging up the hill with plenty of roots and rock steps to keep you occupied. At the top is a freeride area with tabletops and berms aplenty, followed by about 45 minutes of mostly downhill or flat singletrack back to the carpark. The last couple of minutes of descent in particular is very smooth, very swoopy and very fast, which puts you on a nice adrenalin high when you come to a halt back at the car. Just time to grab sandwich and a drink before heading out for a second lap...

Definitely worth the effort for a visit, although next time I have a spare Sunday I might try Afan which is another half an hour or so along the M4 and has a wider selection of trails.

Monday 25 January 2010

Bike skills coaching session

I attended a mountain bike coaching session last Friday with Tony Doyle of UK Bike Skills. The day was bought for me as a Christmas present last month and I'd been waiting for the date to come around with some anticipation. I'd heard good things about Tony's courses but was also a tiny bit sceptical about what there was left to learn having been mountain biking for 20+ years.

I'm happy to say that any negative thoughts instantly evaporated once we got underway. Turns out there is plenty to learn and I picked up more in 5 hours on Friday than I have done in years. Particular focuses for me were cornering, smoothness through complex series of sections and a fear of my wheels leaving the ground. By the end of the day I was clearing tabletops, handling small drops with ease and flying through berms at what previously would have felt like impossible speeds. Swoopy singletrack is now more fun than it's ever been.

Big thumbs up to Tony and UK Bike Skills.

Friday 15 January 2010

So, 2010

Here's a few notable bits and pieces from 2009
  • Got married
  • Had an amazing holiday in New Zealand and Australia
  • Got a half marathon personal best of 1:56
  • Entered my first triathlon
  • Bought a few bikes
  • First sports car free year since 2002
  • Set up a darkroom in the garage for 'proper' B&W wet prints
  • Completed my CIM Diploma (awaiting results)
A few of those were realised 2009 new year resolutions. There were a few other failed resolutions that will have to carry over to this year though, notably spending more time in the darkroom printing up and framing some photos for the house and perhaps making a photo book or two.

Now is also the time to start looking at the sporting calendar for the year. I'm so far booked in for another 'Rat Race' urban adventure race (in London this time) in September and will no doubt also do the Milton Keynes NSPCC Half Marathon and maybe one or two 'Ace Races' one-day adventure races. I'm going to have another crack at a sprint triathlon again too, I know what to expect this time so can concentrate on getting a slightly better time. Something in particular I've got my sights on this year is trying some enduro events - endurance mountain bike races that last 8 hours/100km-ish - I like the idea of pacing something like this out rather than going hell for leather and coughing my guts up hard for 45 minutes.

Finally I want to visit at least a couple of MTB trail centres in either South Wales or the Scottish Borders. My last trail centre visit was Coed y Brenin in about 2000ish so I'm keen to take the riding a little further from home again.

So there it is. Basically, take more pictures and ride more. On that note, here's a picture from a recent ride.

(click for larger version)