Center Parc weekend

With 3 weeks to go everything us still looking good. Highpoint of the week was a trip to Center Parcs just outside Penrith for a long weekend with the family. Travelled up on Friday and I set out on Saturday, with a creaky bike, to cover some of the northern lakeland mountain passes. The first place to get me thinking was Greystoke, made me think about Tarzan. Somewhere in the Tarzan legend was Greystoke, or was it Greystokes? I'm still not sure but it gave me something to think about.

The weather was beautiful and the scenery looked fantastic, the lake is Buttermere which looked amazing.

The creaky bike was a bit of a worry as it had just come out of the shop but it seems to be one of those intermittent faults that mechanics must
love. Whenever you put your car or bike, in for a check the noise never
happens, but the minute you get it back, there it is. Still, it got me through the day, creaks and all.

I did cover quite a few of the northern mountain passes as I had wondered about covering the route of a very well known sportif ride in the Lakes called the Fred Whitton Ride. This covers about 112 miles and takes in all of the best known mountain passes. This means it includes over 12,000ft of climbing, a real tough ride. As I was in the wrong place to start, Penrith and my bike was creaking I decided to give it a miss. I did come across a sign for the ride, advising motorists that on Sunday 9th May there would be 1,000 cyclists on the road taking part in the ride.

The photo I took of the sign was at the bottom of the Honister Pass, which as you looked up the valley zigged and zagged up into the distance and
disappeared at what looked like a cafe. It was a cafe, the Sky High, when I got there but it wasn't quite at the top which was a bit demoralizing when I realized there was still a bit further to climb.

Sat and had a coffee and a muffin in Keswick market square, still basking in the sunshine before setting off for the second half of the ride. This would take me over the Kirkstone Pass. The weather broke just before the pass, torrential rain, dark, grey and very wet! Terrible conditions for the climb but no option but to carry on. The rain lasted about half an hour then it took the same time again to get warm, not the best hour of the weekend. Still, that was all the major climbing done for the day. Covered 101 miles and climbed 7,300ft, a tough day out but apart from the storm over the Kirkstone Pass, a good one.

Saturday night at Center Parcs we entered a pub quiz and won on a tie break about how far a mole can tunnel in a day. First prize was £30 which paid for the night out. We even beat a team that had someone who looked just like Jesus in it. He came over to ask me what our answer was for the mole question, you would have thought he would have known that. The answer was 80 yds, we put 90 and the Jesus look-a-like went for 40.

Had to leave on Monday to come home, so of course I decided to ride home. Lovely weather, even though the wind was cold it did stay behind me for a good part of the day. Stopped in Scorton at a well known cycling cafe for a coffee and cake. (Still eating plenty of cake). Just inside the door was a collection of bike locks on a rail. When I asked, the waitress pointed out they were all combination locks and that they were left by regulars so they could lock there bikes up when they got there. Had another good days training, even putting in a time trail effort from Hutton back to home, managed the first 10 miles in just under half an hour and the full 19 miles home in 1 hr 21 seconds. I was pleased with the effort as I had covered 82 miles at Hutton. Got in another 101 miles and 5,200ft of climbing.

Just 2 weeks to go, that's 1 more week training and the last week, easing up on the miles, resting and eating lots of carbohydrates.