hunting for routes

Around my local area there are loads of leisurely cycle routes, and a few well trodden mountain bike trails. That's all very well, but I really do like to explore, to find out new things, to go places where nobody's been for a long time, and to believe I've achieved something slightly different.

I was looking for a suitable new route on the map when I noticed that there's a dismantled railway running from Randalstown to Toome. There's not much information available about it on the internet (which is good from an exploration point of view) except that it originally went from Randalstown to Cookstown, was built in 1856 and closed sometime around 1959. On the map it does run all the way to Cookstown, but there are significant sections missing.

The most obvious monument to the railway's existence is the amazing viaduct in Randalstown, so I started there. The viaduct is now part of one of those leisurely cycle routes and it just joins up with the main road, the original railway having had houses built over it. Following the route on the map a bit further
I did find part of the railway, at the point indicated by the blue arrow, but by that time it was dark. Looking down on it from above, by the light of my bike light, it looked like impenetrable jungle. I couldn't even see through the trees to get an idea whether there would be a rideable track on the ground.

My curiosity has been aroused, so I'll go back later and see how much of this dismantled railway is accessible. Who knows, I might find out new things and achieve something slightly different.

what a week!

I rode to work on Monday - it took an hour and a half in the rain, and I got drenched. I was wearing my spd shoes which I haven't done for a while. They make the pedalling easier, but it was a bad choice of day to start using them - they're about as waterproof as a mosquito net.
On Wednesday my schedule said I had to do some cross training so I swam in the Mediterranean and ran on the beach in Larnaca for half an hour. I wish I'd had a mosquito net there - I've got some impressive bites.
Then yesterday I did two hours on the mountain bike, riding along the sixmile water, Rae's wood, Antrim's castle gardens, the cycle path to Randalstown, before riding home in the dark.

What's that I hear you say? Larnaca? Oh, yes. I'd some business to do in Cyprus, so I flew out on Tuesday and back on Sunday. It certainly made Wednesday's cross training a bit more pleasant.

self supported

I splashed out and bought Tim Woodcock's "book" on the coast to coast ride. I put book in inverted commas because it's more of a short log with some hand-drawn maps and advice on how to prepare and undertake an off road coast to coast ride. It's still good though.

I said from the beginning that this ride was to be self supported. I assumed that would mean we'd have to camp out at least some of the time, which is why I've got whole posts dedicated to what kit would be best for a night in the wilds.

Having read Tim's book and some others, and watched a few youtube videos of a group tackling the route, I'm beginning see what Martin's been telling me for weeks:

This ride isn't across Canada. It's not even across Scotland. In fact, if we were cycling across wee Ireland we'd probably want to be prepared to camp out at least once; but this ride is across England.

I don't know much about England, but it would appear from what I've read and seen that there's a country pub, or a youth hostel, or a bed and breakfast perched on every available flat surface.
People in England don't carry food or water when they travel, they just wait until they're hungry and pop into the next pub they pass to eat a hearty lunch (with ginger beer and lashings of whipped cream, if some of the books I've been reading are accurate) before setting off to continue their adventure.
In fact if my new, better informed, vision of England is correct, we'll have to choose our routes carefully to avoid crashing into youth hostels and pubs on our way down from every inaccessible peak - instead of just at lunch time and at night when we want to crash in the "falling into bed after a physically exhausting day" sense of the word.

This is a bit of a weight off my mind - and my bike - and it means we'll be able to enjoy the exceptional off-road riding better than if we were carrying sleeping kit, pots, pans and food.

I might still squeeze a proper self-supported overnight journey into my training though.

the things you remember.

I already said I found Gideon's green today, That's not the only place I discovered.
Cycling through Duncrue Industrial Estate, Of course I got lost, but I found a few ancient dry docks and hundred-and-fifty-year-old shipping warehouses that have been converted to offices.
It's easy to forget that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Belfast was a major player in the Industrial Revolution, home to the world's biggest shipbuilders (Harland & Wolff employed 35,000 people), the world's largest rope works, and was the largest linen producing centre in the world. Shorts was the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. Sirocco Works (once the largest engineering plant in the world) was the place where Air Conditioning was first developed in its current form, and the Royal Victoria Hospital was the first building in the world to have air conditioning installed.

Red & yellow brick, white granite, and green copper - Belfast is actually quite interesting. I wonder if there's a self-guided city cycle tour. Maybe I could create one.

hallucinations

I decided to come in a slightly different route to work today.
I knew that there's a cycle path along the side of the M2, so I thought I'd have a look for it. From Glengormley, I headed down towards the lough, turned onto the shore road towards Whiteabbey. I wasn't quite sure how to get across the railway line and the motorway to reach the cycle path, but I ducked under the first bridge I found, out into Gideon's Green, which I'd never seen before. Then along a path where there's another bridge going under the M2. Surprisingly simple.

I was just up to speed when a hefty redheaded girl came up behind me ting-tinging her bell and forced me to swerve towards a dog-walker as she bombed past on her Raleigh. at first I was a bit miffed that she was going faster than me, but then I realised she cycles the way my mother-in-law drives - get to top gear as soon as possible and leave it there no matter how much the engine labours.

I soon reeled her in on the next incline and pulled alongside for a chat. "Hello" says I. she glanced at me and said nothing. "Beautiful day". silence. It was the strangest thing. She completely blanked me. As we rode along, side by side, beautiful scenery, lovely weather, not another soul in sight, she just kept pedalling as if I wasn't even there. When we got to the end of the path she stopped, turned and headed back the way we'd come. Maybe she wasn't real. Maybe I'd had too much lucozade sport.

seeking sanctuary

On Thursday I had to burn a pile of DVDs for the women's organisation in church - but I was also scheduled to do 30 minutes cross training.
I'm an inventive soul, so I decided to combine the two.
Our church buildings are a modern sort of design, with the meeting house, two halls and various rooms all joined by corridors around a central atrium.
It takes our DVD printer about two minutes to print an image onto a disc.

I decided to find out how many times I could run round the corridors before a disc had fully printed.

So Disc in printer, press the start button, out the door, down 3 steps , along the corridor, through the corridor's swing doors, down 4 more steps, through the doors at the back of the main hall, left, along the long wall of the hall, through the hall's side door, fast as I could run past the kitchen and up the longest corridor, sharp left past the entrance to the sports hall, past the Committee room on the right and Session room on the left, up the 5 steps and round the decorative woodwork and up the three steps into the meeting house.

The disc had loads still to print, so the next disc I did two circuits, then three, then four and finally five. so if anybody ever asks you, it's possible to run round our church buildings five times between loading discs into the printer.

45 minute road cycle

The training schedule called for a 45 minute road cycle on Saturday. It worked well, because I'd a meeting in Ballyhenry church, which is 11 miles (or 45 minutes) away. Perfect.

Of course when you ride for 45 minutes in one direction there's no option but to turn round and ride another 45 minutes to get home.

hard decision

I made a hard choice this week. The padwork in kung fu hurts, and not in a good way. I can't punch hard because on the impact I can feel the bones in my wrist crunch. Another problem I found is that my wrist's limited range of motion means I can't even be a decent sparring partner.

I've given it up.

It's a pity because it was a good way to get an hour's workout into the week, and the circuits were challenging, and I could feel my body getting used to it.

On the bright side, the nights are getting shorter, so there's more opportunity to ride.

I've a bit of a hamstring niggle after Monday's effort, so tomorrow's cross training will be mostly upper body work.

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.

rebel yell

I was off work today, and got left holding the baby - literally.
So I bundled her up, plonked her into the bike trailer and headed off.
the attachment for the trailer's on my hybrid bike, so I ignored the training schedule's 15 minute off-road ride (15 minutes? that's not training! it's a nip down the shop to buy a pint of milk!) and opted for a longer ride, mostly on paved paths. I must've ridden for over an hour with the ba sitting happily taking in the world around her; and dragging a steel trailer behind has got to be considered good training.
There's a new sign up by the sixmile water trail which looks something like this:
Now I find that offensive.
Can we please have a sign that says "No Walking" too? or "No Breathing"?
What I find most annoying is that I'll only see the sign when I'm plodding along on my retro road bike causing nobody any harm - in this case with a one-year-old in tow.
When I'm tearing up the singletrack along that stretch of river, being a menace to society and risking the life and limbs of myself and all who may be unfortunate enough to come across me, the chances are that I'll get there along some rabbit track through the trees and burst out on any unsuspecting passers-by without ever passing one of those detestable notices.

today I disobeyed the sign. I hope I haven't introduced my infant child to a life of crime and rebellion against authority.

spooky

I went for a night ride along the sixmilewater river last night. Not far, just five miles or so. I was on my hybrid bike, so I didn't venture too far off the path. The only lights were from my bike and the only sounds were the water and the wildlife. I even heard a fish jumping in the mill race. I reckon the best things to do to relax are simple, but require your full attention, like juggling, or flying a kite. Night riding off road definitely fits into the same category. Because it was so dark, I found myself using sounds and smells for navigation almost as much as my sight.
I'll definitely be doing some more of that - next time I'll take the marin.

it's all worked out beautifully

On Friday I'd another appointment to get my splint adjusted, So I took the bike on the train again and rode there. Bit better prepared this time, I had canterburys on and a couple of geobars in my pocket, but I left my bottle of water on my desk in work.
When I was about a quarter of a mile from the OT's I felt the dreaded rumble.
Flat tyre.
No repair kit.
15 miles from home.

Pushing the bike, I was trying to think where the nearest bike shop was, when I almost walked past this:
"Can you fix a puncture?"
silly question to ask in a puncture repair shop.
"you'll have to leave it" they said.
"I'll be back in an hour" I said;
and crossed the road to see Ali for my appointment. After my appointment I picked up the bike, gave them a fiver and rode the rest of the way home. Couldn't have planned it better.

knew I wouldn't keep it up

So it would appear that my regular entries to the old blog are slipping. I'll bring you up to date. Friday two weeks ago I took the bike on the train to work, then cycled home. I wasn't properly prepared - I was wearing jeans and boots, and I didn't have any water or food with me. I know it's only 25 miles, but there's no point making life harder than it has to be.

Coming out of the city it's uphill for the first few miles. I was tootling along, pleased with myself that I wasn't off and pushing (OK so it's not that steep) when a man in his seventies whooshed past me on a racing bike. Boy did I feel inadequate. I caught up with him at the lights and he slowed down so we could chat. He was 'winter training' but on his good bike because apparently there's a race next week. He told me I should do some charity cycle at the end of march, because it's for all abilities. Of course I promptly forgot where it is. Then he recommended a quiet road that'd take me home and hared off into the distance.

Maybe when I'm in my seventies I'll suddenly become that fit.

fits like a glove

Yet another appointment for my wrist, this time with an occupational therapist to make a 'gauntlet'.

Ali Hunter is the OT extraordinaire. She asked all the usual questions, then she actually measured my range of movement and grip strength. She's the first person to have done it properly with all the tools, and even I was surprised at how bad my right wrist is. I was certain, even though it's sore, that my right hand was significantly stronger than my left; turns out it's quite a bit weaker.

The aim of the gauntlet is to take the weight off my ulna (and therefore my TFCC) when I'm riding.

Ali then took a sheet of thermoplastic, cut it to size, melted it (at 65○C apparently) in an electric frying pan like my mum used for cooking in the caravan.
She'd been thinking quite a bit about how best to make a splint specifically to wear while riding the bike, so she cut a tiny hole in one end and draped it all over my arm, with my thumb through the hole. She held it in place, with my wrist at the angle I usually hold it while riding, and the end of the splint along the palm where the handlebar will sit.
The plastic cooled in shape and Ali took it and did some cutting, cleaning up and added some padding in a very fetching pink colour. I just don't understand why medical companies think bright pink makes things invisible. I even looked it up online thinking it was just that Ali only had one colour. Nope, it's called Hapla Fleecy web, and it only comes in 'flesh' colour. Let me tell you, medical experts, if your flesh is that colour you need to go and see a doctor quick smart. It's never going to be invisible, so they could at least make it a less embarrassing colour.
With a couple more minor adjustments, she added Velcro straps and away I went.

It's very comfortable and it does hold my wrist firm while I'm riding. Haven't tried it on singletrack yet, but bunny hopping up and down kerbs last night at 25mph I was able to pretty much forget I was wearing it.

Winter training

Kung fu has been getting easier week by week. Not only have my muscles been getting more used to the upper body exercise, but also the classes have been better balanced. Another couple of weeks of pad work and circuits before ritchie plans to step up to the next level of cardio fitness. Can't wait(!)
On the downside, all the padwork is not good for somebody with perforated wrist ligaments and osteoarthritis (did I mention the MRI shows i've got arthritis?) I strap-em up tight and try to punch fast rather than hard, so I'm still hanging together.