Wirral 10k

Mandy and her mate Helen did their first ever 10k run. In a practice training run they did 10k in 1hour 15mins so it was a huge surprise to me when I saw Mandy trot home in 58 minutes and Helen come in a few minutes later and in her excitement just run right past all the medal/t-shirt people. It was an even bigger surprise for me to hear the name Alan Cross on the tannoy and I thought as if it was going to be the king of racanteurs.......it really was.

3 Peaks 2013

This is my fourth year at the 3 peaks cyclocross race and I've never raced it yet, probably never will, I'm not even sure if I'm strong enough and good enough to complete it. I go as the support dude for Yani. It's getting to be sort of routine in parts for us now, we set off early, yani needs a shit before we arrive, we park in the same sort of area, yani starts at the very back. This year the weather was sunny, bright, dry but pretty windy which made it slightly chilly. Yani rode awesome and didn't seem to struggle even after catching his bollocks into the chainstay bridge and also losing his garmin at some point. It is an incredible race, it is just so raw and untouched by over the top protocol. Yorkshire bred and raised, gnarly as fuck.

Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain time trial rolled into Knowsley Safari Park. It was a very wet day. the road surface was soaked and it was cold, so it must have been freezing in a skinsuit.  It was good getting to see how fast a person can go and amazing how close they are to the public. Mark Cavendish rolled past inches away from me. Bradley Wiggins was the favourite and he killed it. The school kids cheered and got hyped even in the rain.

New Bird birth

And so it begins.........

A cold and wet winter day. The first ever photo of the first layer of concrete on the first section of New Bird.

New Bird. Concrete sculpture by hand. Motorhead.

A few years ago I started helping out building New Bird skatepark. There was a constant and fairly regular crew building and paying for it. At the time I was so stoked just doing it and the more it seemed like people wanted it to stop the more my positive vibes towards the whole DIY idea grew. I'm sure one of the hardest days graft I have ever done on anything was at New Bird. There have been various events held at the park since it was (completed) and I'm sure there are a few mixed views on this but it is a good acknowledgement of what a few can achieve with hard graft and determination. This is the Vans demo and is by far the most populated the park has ever been. I think the park has fulfilled it's purpose to be skated and get skaters stoked to skate. I know and appreciate every person that moved bricks, cleaned up or 'got another mix on' and I'm stoked to know that my sweat and piss is bonding that concrete together.

Mash it in the summer

It was sunny for a few weeks but that it a very distant memory now and it's all back to normal with the weather. Nothing says British Summertime like having to wear arm warmers.

Snowdon

I try to go up Snowdon at least once every year. Each time there is always a few things that take me by surprise. This time was no different, apart from seeing a helicopter rescue, countless people in fancy dress, a large group claiming the summit for Pakistan and a whole stack of downhill bikers there was this clown riding down on a unicycle. He went to great lengths to explain about the special set up and as he wiggled off at speed all I could think was there is a reason why you only

see unicycles in the circus.

Jennifer Trouton

Jennifer is an incredible artist. Such skill, talent and craft. Exquisite attention to scale, detail and composition with wonderful subject matter that can be sombre and joyful with a delicate use of colour. Her work blows my mind that it is possible for a human to create such beautiful images by hand. Her work gets a reference (Looking at the Overlooked) in that 50 Shades Of Grey book and this is a print, that hangs proudly in my living room, of a section of that painting and the interesting thing for me is part of that painting is of a telephone in my house.  I also like that fact that the book about a perv and is bought up by horny middle aged housewives has sold more copies than the book about the baby Jesus.

White water

I've never been water water rafting before but I would certainly go again. The guide gives you a load of instructions of safety drills and where to position yourself when he shouts instructions and then next thing you're hanging over the side of a massive raft, soaked and laughing. Adequate rafting.

Spent a weekend in the Brecon Beacons glamping in a Mongolian Yurt. It was in a very remote valley, in it's own secluded field with a large flowing river, compost bog, kitchen and outdoor shower. Not as adventurous as raw dog camping but definately a really good experience. Stunning scenery, checking out ancient erections, using natures drinks cooler, watching natures tv into the early hours and prancing around not having to do anything to energetic.

We could be hereo's

Some of us are super hero's,

some are super and others just fabulous. As usual, I'm just adequate.

Comedy carpet

Pier head to Pier to Pier

The good weather recently has been ace for riding and for going the seaside so i thought I'd combine the two. I took the track bike and headed out from the pierhead and went up the Formby bypass and got to Southport pier pretty easy as the wind was very gentle. From Southport pier you could see Blackpool off in the distance. After a quick breakfast I headed off out towards Preston. the flat roads and cycle paths are pretty fast and the wind stayed very calm. Preston to Blackpool took me away from the main roads and kept me close to the coast. The route stayed flat and fast and I could see the Tower again from the North Promenade approach. Black prom has had a major facelift, art instalations and new sea defences are all great but Blackpool remains the same, stag and hen do's are out and about at 11am. The comedy carpet was a good distraction from me being a social sneering snob at the lurkers. After a good mooch I bought fish and chips for £2 and a whole bunch of bars of rock and headed home.

Strava Route

http://app.strava.com/activities/66373470
Last year while with sandy and Taj i discovered that you can hold the internet in your hand. It can also exist inside a mobile phone and it will then follow you about and then at what ever time you choose you can ask the internet where you have been and it will know. This is all dependent on having your phone with you, which i rarely do. King of hip stuff and man cave dweller, Tank told me about this Strava thing and with his help I have now been about to show you my fave bike route. I don't fully understand how it all works but it say that there have been 123 people down the shaft of my, 'root' and that i'm 102 fastest. I'm lovin the interweb phone thing cos it is so clever.

Sun

It's taken till May this year for my first ride without having to wear overshoes or gloves. Summer miles here they come.