Strava, MTB and a sunny day.

It was a lovely spring day today, the sort of day that makes you think that winter might actually be coming to an end (and it's been a very long winter, especially as we pretty much skipped summer last year and went straight from spring to autumn). I've been trying to get out on the bike a bit more of late, I need to build some fitness as I'll be heading off to Scotland in a few weeks. Six days of mountain biking, with a group of mates who can cycle me into the ground!

As an additional motivation to get out there on the bike (and put off the DIY, work etc) I'd joined the Strava Spring Classics Challenge, basically it's to ride the....

"cumulative distance of five of cycling’s most storied races that form the Spring Classics, adding up to a monumental total of 1,319 kilometers or 820 miles."
(For the full details, check out the challenge page in Strava.)

That's a lot of mileage to get through in April. I don't ride on road (where I can avoid it), so they'd be MTB miles.
I'd got a plan of cycling to several of the 'trail hubs' in the area, Margam Park, Afan Argoed, Glyncorrwg and Bryn Betws, the route was more or less planned in my mind and I'd set myself a rough target of 40 miles. It would be a lot of fireroad, but it's the sort of thing my Kona Kula takes in it's stride, despite it really showing it's age. I'm also waiting for my Frameskin tape to arrive to wrap my new Giant in a protective cover (yes I know it's a bike and it's going to get damaged, but...well, you know!)

I've been using the Strava app on my HTC to record my rides, despite fully charging the battery - to my great annoyance - the battery ran out before I'd finished the ride. My route was lost, I checked the phone for GPX files in the hope of finding my route, but nothing. I knew my start time, and the time I got home, plus, I'd ridden sections of the route a few times before so I was able to log the route with a GPX editor to get my distance. But my times were lost, there was no way to be accurate or fair in retrieving these, more frustrating was that I knew I set some fair times on a few segments. I incorrectly thought that Strava needed a 3G signal (in addition to the GPS signal) to work, after reading the battery tips section on Strava, I now know I was wrong! I just hope we get a summer this year so that I can do the route again. This time with 3G turned off and I won't use the camera on the phone, so hopefully it will make the distance.

I surprised myself to be honest, I completed the 38.6 mile ride! It took me 6 hours, a pace that certainly wasn't setting the world alight, but I did set some quite good times towards the start of the route. In my defence, there was over 5000ft of climbing in the route, and it was more about completing the distance than setting quick times.

My aim now is to repeat the route, but with a few additions to top the distance up to the 40+ mile mark, and to do it in a quicker time.

**As a thought, when I saw that the battery was running low, if I'd stopped recording the route, then straight away started a new recording, would the first recording have 'survived' the phone rebooting itself? - that way I'd have only lost the end portion of the ride, rather than all of it. Or maybe I should just get one of those battery booster gadgets you see now.

Wentwood 50K, Goshawk Challenge, 2013

The challenging Wentwood 50K Enduro took place today (10th March), it was the 3rd year that I've attended - with the camera - the bike staying tucked up at home! For a change, I actually got to the car park with 25 minutes to spare before the start. This gave me an opportunity to chat with a rider about his Canyon purchasing experience, and also to catch up with Robert Storey, the event organiser. A thank you must go out to Robert, for taking a few minutes to give me some guidance of where to head on the route.

The weather was worlds apart from last years event, 2012 was pretty warm for an early March day. 2013 was cold - a bitter wind certainly made sure you were wide awake. After a quick look round for any familiar faces, I headed for the start line - whilst there was still space between the riders to get there - the hedged lane soon fills up. I took some pictures of the riders on the line, but like a fool, I'd not noticed I'd knocked the focus switch on the lens to MF (manual). Not wanting to get in the way of the start, I headed about a 100ft down the lane to a gateway. From here I could get some shots of the riders streaming past from the mass start. After the last of the riders had gone past I headed for the main feed station, the speed of the front runners caught me out - they'd already gone through before I made it to the route. After the majority of the riders had passed, I headed back to the car and back down the road to a forestry commission site - unfortunately - against the flow of the race. A slow drive!

A short walk into the forest took me down to a steep(ish) hill, leading to a small stream. The hill caught quite a few out, ironically, tending to be those pushing down the hill. Some riders took it at pace and flew down the hill. I spent the rest of my time at the event here - I'd filled my memory cards - so I've got to invest in a larger capacity one.

I'll upload my pictures to my Flickr site over the coming days, as the event is for charity, I only upload low res shots, if you'd like a hi-res version, then please contact me and I'll email you a copy in return for a donation to my Tribute fund towards Motor Neurone Disease. (I'll send you a link to where you can donate. Your donations have raised £34 towards MND, It's not much - it's probably cost me more in petrol! but it all helps.

I'd appreciate any feedback on my pictures, good or bad, it's a way for me to improve - I'm thinking about setting up an online shop for other events, but I know what high quality images are been produced by other photographers.

Swansea City Victory Parade

It's not strictly on topic for my blog, I'm not that much of a football fan. But it was an opportunity to see something which hasn't happened for 100 years and to take a few pictures. Swansea City Football Club won the Capital One Cup on the weekend, their first major piece of silverware in the 100 year history of the club. There was an open top bus parade starting from the Dragon Hotel in the centre of Swansea and finishing at the Guild Hall. Considering the time of day (16:30 on a Tuesday) the crowds turned out in force to welcome the team and the trophy back to the city. With the global exposure that top flight football brings, lets hope that the club will do well in Europe in the coming year and also continue to do well in the Premier League, as it can only be good for the region and for Wales as a whole. For some more photographs of the parade, check out my flickr site.