North by north west

This week end trina and myself popped down to Chester for the Chester Head rowing competition. Mostly eights, with the occasional four. 4 mile course, with a brisk breeze. The Hollingworth Vets were in full effect, including my dad.

My dad used to row a lot, in the same way i'd say i cycled i s'pose. Social life, physical fitness and friends all rolled into one.

It was ace to meet all the names i'd heard so much about over the years. A lot of strong wills there, a good group of folk. Varied in work and personality but bound by a love of the oar, the pint and fun.

It was a cracking day and they went well especially given they havent rowed together for (in some cases) 40 years!...hope to do it again soon.

Last night after the drive up we went to see '300', the film of the Frank Miller book...it was good. Not fabulous. Well worth seeing, and the use of cgi was for once in keeping and added rather than took away from the sets.

Over the week end i have had a cold, bilateral conjunctivitis and a sore throat. But to be honest sometimes you just have to say 'get a dog up yer' to circumstance and do what you need to do. So it was i headed to Ardgarten for the infamous peninsula route. 22.2 miles with in excess of 1300m climbing per circuit. It was the first time i had ridden there for oooooooooooooo nearly 2 years, and i was pretty stoked to see the trail had been improved and a god section of singletrack added. The loop starts with a long 50 min or so climb alongside Loch Long, with excellent views out to sea, and the weather was ace. Sun, a breeze and dry, dusty trails. You then cut back on an improved stalkers path to the new singletrack section across the slopes of Carn Glas, and descend to Lochgoilhead. From there it is a long sustained climb up to the rest and be thankful in Glen Croe and back down to where you started after a wee tasty bit of singletrack technical descending. All in all a good loop. The aim was to do it 3 times. 66.6 miles with ~4000m of climbing.

Ouch. I managed, despite the bug and the headwind up the climb in Glen Croe, but it wasn't pretty. Still, apart from being broken im pretty happy to have got my arse out for a decent ride. Hopefully the transcendence into a bike racer won't be too far into the future...

Also, the alpenglow caused by the snow still present to the east and the Arrochar alps was pure joy.

Bicycle Path - peninsula at Bikely.com