Lake District Challenge!

To warm up before the tri I was to complete Steve’s three peak challenge of climbing the 3 highest mountains in each UK country.

I had already climbed Ben Nevis in Scotland in 2009 and Snowdon in Wales last month so it was only Scarfell pike left in the Lake District at a slight lower height of 980m.

As expected the day wasn’t very nice and fortunately the rain mainly held off as we attempted to climb up an exposed ridge only find the wind stronger than anticipated. This forced us to retreat down and take a more sheltered gully in which we passed search and rescue on our way to the top. There was a view from the top, at times but it was quite windy. The round trip took about 4 hours and coming back down we got some sunshine as we took the alternate route down a scree gully which proved to be a bit more interesting.

We camped out at Coniston the day before the tri also and Dave and I pre-rode the bike course which proved to be very useful as it was extremely technical. Then Dave and Stephanie (his wife) climbed Old Man Coniston via the run route (half way up of the mountain, yikes).

My friend Dave (from Zimbabwe) was doing the tri with me. I had talked him into it about 4 weeks ago so he didn’t have much time to train. (However he’s fitter than me and an excellent runner).

It rains a freakn lot in the Lakes! Fortunately most of it was at night. The day of the tri was cold and misty as we walked down to the water with the 100+ other athletes, all looking nervously at the cold Coniston water.

Then after milling around for a bit we were in and off! The swim leg was long! But my open water coaching had helped in a huge way and I had no breath loss problems this time and powered the swim, finishing in the middle of the field instead of near the back. This was pretty handy as it means you come out and can really attack on the bike to get into a good position. There was a 500m run up the road while stripping off your wetsuit to transition.

The bike course started with a brutal 3k climb up to Grizdale forest which then it leads you onto the slippery technical single track with fireroads in-between to break up the white knuckle adrenaline. The conditions were so challenging and all the north shore (raised wooden ledge which you ride on) was like riding on ice as the wood was wet.

Still I felt super confident on the bike course and passed a lot of participants, emerging near the front of the field after the 3k descent back down to transition.

I immediately gained another place on the run but then the rocky constant climb of old man made me give way to walking until it levelled out and we were running along a bridleway in the beautiful meadows of the mountains. It was the most spectacular run course I have ever done besides being the most brutal also!!

Then the run dropped so steeply down back to the finish you couldn’t run at full speed or your legs would end up going so fast you'd end up probably taking off and landing in a heap somewhere!

I finished the race and waited for Dave who appeared 15 minutes after me and looking a little weary. But he had done amazingly well for his first ever tri and I ran with him to the line.

I’d completed the tri in 2:46 minutes which was around my target time. Surprisingly I had finished 23 out of a field of 81 solo entries.

We celebrated with some Coniston fudge then spent the rest of the afternoon putting the tent down!

Results:

First Name	Last Name	Gender	Age	Number	Swim&T1	Bike	Swim&T1&Bike	Run	Finish	Position
Steve	Bilton	Male	31	8	0:37:39	1:26:55	2:04:34	0:41:21	2:45:55	23

Coast to Coast ride 2010 - Day 5 - "Proper Coast to Coast"

Sun 14^th – Day 5

A cold beautiful day dawned and it looked like the ride would end how it started. After a freezing start from the camping barn the hills were long, steep and immediately cooked me into a sweat.

Once I was at the top of the moors again I turned off the road and followed the double track along the ridge marvelling at the amazing scenery basked in the morning sunshine.

The North York Moors proved the most scenic and enjoyable single track part of the whole ride. I rode past an abandoned iron works (which I shouldn’t have) as I was enjoying the scenery so much I missed the turning.

After descending down the wrong way and checking the GPS I finally found the correct single track which was actually hidden in the moor scrub. Quite a lot of the track was rock slabs to provide a non boggy path across the moors. Unfortunately when the rock slabs finished this brought danger as I found myself catapulted over the handlebars as the front wheel dug into a rather deep boggy section. This resulted in a bit of a chuckle and a stinky mud logged glove.

After a long and bumpy downhill I left the moors and passed though several village and encountered a 33% gradient hill which climbed me up to sleighs moor. There had been a lot of big steep hills today which had surprised me somewhat.

Unfortunately the bridleway marked on the map didn’t exist so I finally found an alternative route down into the forest and managed to take a few wrong turns to find my way back to the road again.

It had clouded over again and it was all road riding as I screamed down the hill into robin hoods bay and the end of the ride. Cold, tired, relieved but missing a feeling of satisfaction I waited for Steve to kindly pick me up in the “chasing trails” work van.

This ride hadn’t given me the same buzz as the west country way. I don’t know why. It had been longer and harder and the scenery more dramatic. But it had only been around 2/3rds of the original route and about 30k’s of the ride had to be skipped.

But it certainly had been an adventure, cycling through the storm, making a decision to turn around on the first day, and finding alternative routes to complete the ride.

Daily Stats

Distance : 56km

Elevation gain : 1025m

Elevation loss : 1200m

Max Elevation : 400m

Min Elevation : 10m

Start Time : 10:00 AM

End Time : 3:50 PM

Total Time : 05:50

Riding Time : 04:16

Average speed : 13.1km/ph

Max speed : 72km/ph

Notes : 10k extra getting lost. Crossed out of north york moors

Coast to Coast ride 2010 - Day 4 - "Off road again"

Sat 13^th – Day 4

Sunny and very cold conditions greeted me again on day 4 of the ride. I spun left and right down country lanes following more or less the route that Steve had marked out on the map.

Leaving the dales I entered into the north York moors and immediately decided to go as offroad as possible. The ground condition was pretty good and I stopped for lunch with a fantastic view overlooking the valley.

Then the big hills came as I began to climb up to the top of Raisdale moor. The down into the valley was un-ridable and a number of walkers were quite surprised to see a cyclist pushing is bike down a mud ladened bridleway.

It was back up to the next moor via a lot of pushing through the forest. Once I’d reached the ridge the views were terrific and the different colours of the brown tussock grass swept the immediate landscape. This was finally the real coast to coast.

After following the ridge for a while I descended down the side of a steep field and arrived at Farndale camping barn. Unfortunately it turned out be a real dive of a place to stay with only a small wooden stove for heat and no insulation so it was basically a shell of a barn with some furniture and beds thrown in.

There was a family staying also so I got a lift to the pub and taught the boys how to play coin rugby after dinner.

Daily Stats

Distance : 70km

Elevation gain : 745

Elevation loss : 670

Max Elevation : 490m

Min Elevation : 50m

Start Time : 09:30 AM

End Time : 3:30 PM

Total Time : 06:00

Riding Time : 04:22

Average speed : 16km/ph

Max speed : 45km/ph

Notes : 4 k extra for going wrong way. Crossed into north york moors

Coast to Coast ride 2010 - Day 3 - "On my own"

Fri 12^th – Day 3

The wind howled all night. In the morning it revealed grey blustery skies but thankfully no rain. I had checked the weather report and decided that I would press on. The weather said the wind was dying out and the weather was going to improve over the next day.

I set off late morning and had replanned my route yet again. Since the bridleways were all waterlogged I decided to stick to an onroad cycling route to get to Richmond in the Yorkshire dales 70km’s away.

The wind was still quite blustery and I was blown up the scary A685 past Kirkby Stephen, along English country lanes and into the Yorkshire Dales national park.

The wind still made the conditions very cold, but I was keeping up an impressive average speed as I followed the twisting ribbon road through the beautiful and stark treeless moorlands of the dales.

The scenary would have been so much more beautiful if I wasn’t so cold. But the sun did come out in the afternoon and I did brave an off road excursion into Richmond which turned out to be a little gem of a bridetrack. After that it was a quick 5 mile ride through rush hour Richmond and down to the Brompton on Swale camping barn which turned out to be a gem of place, with a hot shower and tea on arrival from the owner.

Daily Stats

Distance : 73km

Elevation gain : ???

Elevation loss : ???

Max Elevation : 600m

Min Elevation : 90m

Start Time : 11:10 AM

End Time : 4:10 PM

Total Time : 05:00

Riding Time : 03:45

Average speed : 19.2km/ph

Max speed : 77km/ph

Notes : Crossed yorkshire dales. 1k extra

Coast to Coast ride 2010 - Day 2 - "The not so perfect storm"

Thursday 11^th – Day 2

The day was rainy and the wind was forecast for gale force later in the day. We cycled out 20k to the train station basically just down the coast from where we had started the previous day and caught the train to avoid the ice lake district passes.

This is where Steve and I split up, making a critical decision which would affect the rest of the trip.

I decided to take the train south and around to Windermere were I would ride about 20 miles/32k to get to the camping barn following mostly the original route that Steve had planned.

Steve went north and would take the train to Kikby Stephen which was just outside the lake district and had about a 5 mile ride riding back to meet me at the camping barn.

We set off and I was hopefully as the sun broke through the clouds that the weather might improve.

I got to my new start point at Staveley rail station and headed off east. I tried to detour through a bridle way but ended up getting quite lost as I ended up not being where I thought I was. In the end I ended up riding through a farmers field after loosing the poorly marked bridleway and found a promising road. After getting back on course I joined the sketchy A6 and followed this until the turnoff down into the valley on a track road.

By this stage it was getting quite grey and the wind had picked up quite considerably which was also driving the rain through my waterproofs.

Fortunately the wind was behind me so it buffered me through the valley dodging the huge puddles and I ended up crossing the M6 in the failing light.

I was back on the A road and the wind was now howling all around me driving the rain. I was literally blown along the back roads as twigs and branches were snapping all around me in the dark.

It was quite a scary moment and my concern for Steve was growing as he would have to be battling into the galeforce winds.

Thank the Lord the camping barn was well marked and I ended up following the signs and getting there wet cold tired but relieved to be out of the storm.

Steve was not at the camping barn much to my dismay. I had expected him to be there an hour before me. The farmer said he saw him on the road walking. I was about to go out and look for him when my phone managed to get some signal and a text came through from Steve saying the wind was too strong and he was on his way back home on the train.

I had no food for the evening but fortunately there were two climbers staying at the barn also and they took me down to the pub which was about 2 miles away. I was relieved to have some company and decided to see what the weather said tomorrow before I determined whether I would carry on the ride.

Daily Stats

Distance : 44km until speedo broke

Elevation gain : 615m

Elevation loss : 490m

Max Elevation : 400m

Min Elevation : 195m

Start Time : 9:10 AM

End Time : 5:30 PM

Total Time : 08:20

Riding Time : 03:45

Notes : 3 hours spent on train getting to Windermere.

Coast to Coast ride 2010 - Day 1 - "Calm before the storm"

Wed 10^th – Day 1

After a later than hoped for start Steve and I set out from the west coast of the Lake district at St Bee’s beachfront and headed into the hills of the lake district in search of big mountains to ascend and descend.

The day was an absolute cracker. Blue sky, sun but very cool crisp temperatures meant it was actually quite pleasant riding conditions.

We proceeded past famous Ennerdale water and began the ascent of black sail pass. This ended being less than enjoyable as it was to steep to ride up and at one stage we had to negotiate a rockband with bikes and packs. With ice everywhere it became risky putting your foot onto any damp rocks.

However we reached the top of the pass and descended down unfortunately having to walk a number of bits due to the snow and ice.

Steve came off half way down but mercifully no damage was done.

We reached the valley floor at around 4pm which was rather too late and began to go up the next mountain to get over the next pass.

We were stopped by a hiker who advised us conditions were treacherous, with snow up to our knees now frozen solid at the top. With no light left in the day and dropping temperatures we decided to not risk it and turned around and went back down to the B&B which was back in the tiny village at the bottom of the valley.

So still a mountain range away from where we should have been and rising winds forcast around exposed areas tomorrow we would have to make a change of plan to avoid the pass.

Daily Stats

Distance : 52km

Elevation gain : 920m

Elevation loss : 810m

Max Elevation : 580m

Min Elevation : 0m

Start Time : 10:10 AM

End Time : 5:30 PM

Total Time : 07:20

Riding Time : 04:10

Average speed : 12.5km/ph

Notes : 5k extra. Hiked over black sail pass.

Coast to Coast ride 2010 - "Fun times in the Lakes"

Tuesday 9th November

Had a car hired today and drove to Winlatter forest and rode the red single track there. The route took me high into the hills and I ended up cycling through fresh snow at the top. This was looking a bit ominous for things to come on the coast to coast.
After the cycle I potted around the lovely town of Keswick and drove up to check out the view from Skiddaw which looked over Keswick and Derwent water (lake). It was pretty windy at the lookout and the weather changed quickly as the cloud rolled in and the rain began to bite as I ran back to the car. Not before I’d had a chance to marvel at the views of the sun shooting dramatically through the clouds. The lake district was living up to its reputation for me for being one of the most stunning parts of Britan.
Steve from Scarbourgh joined me later that night in preparation for the start of the 5 day coast to coast tomorrow.