Welcome!

Welcome to the Blog - i'm feeling unduly proud of myself for working out how to link picasa albums, so you can be bored by the holiday shots of me and Rachel training in a variety of places, mostly cold and snowy ones. So apologies for the smugness...

Training-wise, today was a bit of a dull one for me - sweating copiously on the rollers in front of videos of the Tour from years ago is not really my idea of fun, but with race season not long away it's sadly a necessary evil. First big race of the year is now less than a month away, and not far from home for me at Sherwood Pines - it's a shame really, as having been in Nottingham for the last six months, i think i've got a bit bored with Sherwood; i find myself riding around yearning for climbs and descents, but then maybe the grass is always greener. No doubt the adrenaline of my first race in the NPS at Expert level will make it altogether more interesting come race day!

This afternoon, i discovered what it's like for less "minority sports" than mtb xc - i went to watch a cross country running race that was being held in Nottm, and boy is it a different experience to what i know. Okay, so people do camp, but there are quite a lot more motor homes, and more amazingly supporter's busses too. Even at the national xc mtb champs last year, there was hardly what you'd call a massive supporter turn out, but these guys had hundreds of people (including me!) out cheering for them - amazing. Having done a bit of xc running as cross training this winter (let's face it, the weather's required a few innovations for everyone!) i was pretty impressed at the pace of the front guys who were running too; it was enough to put paid to any ambitions i might have had of doing one of these events, at least for now. It's all about the two wheels...

I'm planning to get out into the real world on my bike tomorrow, assuming the horrendous winds that are predicted don't blow me straight back through the front door...get a few miles in before my first effort at a crit next weekend over at Darley Moor. From what i've heard, horrendous winds are de rigeur there, so it's all good.

Chrispy