the Schedule - Overruled

The Schedule said I had to do three hours on the mountain bike on Saturday. My Daughter said I had to take her to the Lough Shore. My Daughter won.

I loaded her and her brother into the bike trailer, Granda borrowed my marin, and we took the scenic route down along the river, through the castle gardens and down to the shore; ate ice cream, watched the pirate ship race, saw a demonstration rescue by Lough Neagh Rescue and lay in the sunshine.

I couldn't help but notice a girl in the crowd with her arm in a sling and a plaster cast all the way up to her shoulder looking awkward holding a wee baby. That wrist surgery's never far from my mind these days.

Martin does a lot of his training with weights on his ankles. Personally I don't see the logic in this, because the weight's balanced - so when you have to pull one weight up, the other's pushing down, cancelling out the effort. Pulling a five year old and a three year old behind you in a trailer, on the other hand, now that's a definite training enhancement.

The problem is that my straight line cycling fitness isn't my biggest worry. I really need to improve my off-road skill, so tomorrow I'm heading down to the Mournes for an overnighter, taking my new £10 Lidl lightweight tent, sleeping in my as-yet-not-used Scottish Silkworm sleeping bag liner, and cooking on... I'm not sure which of my too-many stoves I'll take.

I wonder where my compass is.

ill advised

On Monday, with the ba in tow I decided to take a shortcut home along a section of singletrack that I usually ride when I'm starting out for a quick evening ride. Normally it's mostly down hill and I'm usually on the mountain bike. On Sunday I was taking it up the hill on the hybrid with the trailer behind me.

It was hard going, with the wheel spinning in the mud and branches slapping against me and the trailer, the ba looking round her totally bewildered, thinking I'd lost my mind. Every time a particularly big branch cracked against the trailer I'd look round to check she was OK. She wasn't fazed, just sitting there taking it all in.

At the top of the track when I was turning out onto the road I looked around and asked her if she was OK. She looked me in the eye, gave me a wee nod, and we went on our way.