Did two days at the Chase at the weekend.  Saturday was glorious – beautiful blue skies and sunshine.  Did a lap in just over an hour (1 hour 5 minutes, to be exact) – I was going fairly speedy on the trail, but I found the warmth, although very welcome, to be a bit draining.  I took a fair few breaks at the end of certain sections, especially when there were already riders congregated there.  Rode everything with no trouble with the exception of the Evil Roots and the Werewolf Drop – I think I need to be in the presence of small children to shame me into it…

To be fair, the Werewolf Drop genuinely doesn’t look too bad from the bottom.  It doesn’t really look any steeper than the exit to 8.  I think that the main thing that worries me about it is the turn – if it went in a straight line ahead like the exit to 8, I’d probably ride it.  But then again, it took me two years before I’d ride the exit to 8 on a regular basis.  Ho hum.  I don’t think my confidence is helped much watching other riders go down it – so many skip it, a lot come down it in a wobbly fashion and struggle to take the turn, or get their wheel wedged between the rock and the tree… given my innate belief that I’m possibly the worst rider on the trail, I can’t help but feel that if they struggle then I’m doomed to painful failure.

Got back in time for a rounders match and barbecue.  I’m not sure, but I’m fairly certain our team (go Team Charlotte!) beat the other team eleventy hundred to three.   The match was somewhat hampered by the fact that nobody knew or could remember the rules of rounders, and that nobody on either team could catch.  Or throw.  Alex reflected that the reason most people became mountain bikers was because they were rubbish at team based sports featuring balls…

After  Team Charlotte’s glorious victory, it was time for a barbecue.  After nomming through a variety of meat and an obscene (but delicious) amount of cake, Mr Toast and I eventually decided to go on a second lap.  To our credit, we managed the first few seconds before deciding we were too sausage filled to manage the fireroad hill, and elected to go home.

On Sunday we decided to hit the trails again – we still had a lot of barbecue and cake to work off (note: despite what certain Forestry officials may say, barbecued cakes don’t work…)!  Bizarrely, the trails were transformed – it had evidentally been raining heavily Saturday night, so there were puddles!  Puddles!

I’m not sure what happens to me when the trails are a bit damp.  I find them so much harder to ride, my confidence drops right down – I don’t know if it’s because I’m going more cautiously, which in turn amplifies every little bump and slid which I’d ignore (or wouldn’t happen) if I was going faster.  I don’t know whether I’d benefit from changing the tyres – tempted to go for some Minions or High Rollers.  Or maybe I’m just solar powered, and don’t fare as well when the weather’s poor.

Nearly had a comedy off on the Stegosaurus, coming off the last rock onto the bridge.  Took it a bit wide, nearly went off to the right, panicked and nearly went over the handlebars.  Some part of my bike smacked into my knee, making me wish my MBR subscription knee pads would arrive.  Feeling a bit wonky, I gave the rocks and the boardwalk on 7 a miss, despite riding them twice the day before.  My cowadice is fuelled by precipitation. 🙁

Second lap I went around with Mr Toast – we did the first few sections, then went up the Heritage trail to take the Tackaroo sections.  And it was awesome… sproingy, sproingy deer.  I blame the braking bumps on Bambi…

Oh, and the saga of Mr Toast’s Mojo has now drawn to a happy close.  A quick recap:

• Husband buys second hand Mojo

• Husband loves Mojo

• Husband spots crack on Mojo – having cracked his carbon Zaskar in the same place, he’s concerned

• Not knowing whether it’s cosmetic or serious, husband posts on MTBR forum.  Hans Heim, partner at Ibis, responded quick-sharp and said to send it back for warranty

• Husband is grateful, sends Mojo off to the US

• Epic disappointment as Parcelforce and Fedex struggle to get the bike out of the country.  Guaranteed next day delivery takes over a week

• Turned out the crack was just cosmetic though, but a replacement front triangle is offered for a discount.  Not bad considering husband is the second owner, and the bike is out of warranty

• Customs hold the bike for aaaaages.  Incidentally, customs also lost my Stroopwaffels sent by a friend.  Curse you, customs!

• Eventually… the Mojo arrives.  Hans has given Mr Toast a very special treat…

Mr Toast mentioned in one of his email to Hans that if he’d been the original owner, he would have got it in green.  So Hans sent him a completely green bike – new front triange, refurbished rear triangle, new bearings, new linkages.  Look at it – JUST LOOK AT IT!  Trust me, the photos don’t do it justice.  Awesome, awesome customer service from Ibis – wish more companies were like them.

The plan is to go off to Llandegla tomorrow, taking the Mojo on his maiden voyage.   Well, maiden-ish – frame’s new, the rest isn’t.  As far as I know… 😛

Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Follow the Dog, and some more Follow the Dog

Highlights:  Rounders and barbecue.  And cake.  Lots of cake.

Bad bits:  Being a bit skitty in the wet

Post ride food snaffled: Can’t even begin to list the naughtiness…

Good dogs seen:  Mainly Jack Russells….

I’m currently in the Peak District, so I’ll post a bigger update at the weekend.  So far I’ve been up Mam Tor (smaller than I remembered…), around the Dams and along the Snake Road.  MANY LAMBS!  Plus our neighbouring cottage has numerous cats, chickens, and a blind Jack Russell called Jim.  He’s ace.

I’m picking up the new Toastmobile on Saturday, but this still leaves the thorny question, “How do I get to work?”

I’m not a fan of buses.  Partly because they’re expensive, but mainly because I get horribly motion sick.  I get sick on buses, coaches, in cars (when I’m not driving) and on trains.  Strangely I’m fine on rollercoasters – never quite managed to figure that one out.

Anyhoo, today I did something new – I actually rode to work.  Truth be told, I was dreading it – I’m not a morning person, and having never really ridden a bike as a kid, I don’t really have any road riding experience.  Nevertheless, I got a ridiculous amount of stuff together in a huge heavy rucksack (Mr Toast enquired whether I needed to carry so much, I pointed out I needed a change of clothes, deoderant, body wipes, makeup, a hairbrush, and miscellaneous stuff) and took Cletus out for his maiden voyage.

And it was awesome.  My knees were grumbling – it was cold, early and I don’t normally move much during the week.  But otherwise I was fine – the route is fairly quiet, takes in a good chunk of baby bunny riddled bridleway, and even riding into town wasn’t too bad, as we start work before the main rush.  Riding back was a bit harder going as there’s a good chunk of hill* to ride up, but better it’s at the end of the day rather than first thing in the morning.

Few niggly things that needed to be sorted with Cletus, most of which Mr Toast sorted tonight – a few gearing issues and the rotor needed realigning slightly.  I’m also looking at new saddles, at the moment he has the original saddle off Mr Toast’s Avalanche.  I’ve ordered some new brake pads, as The Professor’s pads were looking a bit worse for wear…and oh my, don’t they get a lot of wear!

Riding in again tomorrow, going to try a smaller backpack though, as my huge one** sometimes throws me off-balance. Hopefully it’s something I’ll be able to do more regularly – it’ll save on mileage and fuel bills, and get me fitter and thinner for weekend riding!***

* By Leamington standards

** Not a euphemism

*** Also not a euphemism

An eventful weekend to say the least!  We managed to get ourselves and our bikes to the launch on Saturday, which was awesome.  It was also the maiden voyage of Mr Toast’s Mojo – as we exited Basset’s Pole island, Mr Toast pointed out that if we managed to get over the bridge, it’d be the furthest the Mojo had ever been.  There may possibly have been a Lord of the Rings movie reference uttered…

And here’s a picture of the aforementioned Mojo – Mr Toast requested that it be pimped across the interwebs!  As it was the first ride, he decided to go it alone, which was fortunate as there were a couple of minor niggly mechanicals that held up his ride.  All good now though!

Arrived at Birches Valley with an eager crowd huddled around the start of Follow the Dog.  There were speeches, champagne (ish) and peanuts aplenty, and Giant gift bags – modelled here by the lovely Jez.

After a lot of photos, the ribbon was cut (I still maintain it should have been done by Chase Trails’ Martin, with a chainsaw…), and the hordes rode onto Follow the Dog, eagerly anticipating the new content.  These included posh new signage:

First ride of the day was the guided ladies ride, headed up by Veronica from Swinnertons.  There were quite a few of us, with quite a range of experience and confidence levels.  The most confident being Jessica, who was also the youngest (eight, I think?).  She rode everything, including Evil Root Number Two and Werewolf Drop (oh dear, I see a new nemesis for me there – the drop, not Jessica!).

The new sections that have replaced 13 onwards are amazing – incredibly fast and flowing.  With huge berms.  HUGE!  The last section caught me by surprise with some drops, which I rode in a slightly panicky fashion.  Then at the end a series of jumps which are awesome, and incredibly easy to get air on.  I think I’m actually going to have to learn how to land properly! It was actually awesome to ride in a group with no pressure and a lot of encouragement, and there was a great sense of camaraderie (and slight heckling of men-folk, after all the new entry posts to each section do have ‘No Men’ signs on…).

After that, there was a little Chase Trails get together.  I ate a delicious Bambi Burger:

…and acquired a rather attractive blue hoodie.  As in the garment, not a chav.  After declining the Forestry Commission’s kind offer of free bananas, I set off for a lap of Follow the Dog with Abby.   It was the first time I’d ridden 6 & 7 for a while – the Stegosaur has had its teeth pulled somewhat, with the last couple of rocks onto the bridge made considerably easier.  Still good fun though, and prior to the repair, the last rock was a bit mental after the erosion.  Besides, there’s lots of new rocks on the Monkey for people to smash themselves up on, so it’s all good!

I rode section 8 quite slowly whilst Abby went flying off ahead – I was quite annoyed with myself, because I was braking far more than I needed to.  I just tend to brick it on the pebbly sections, same as with bits of section 2.  I seemed to take the jumps a bit more comfortably this week, I’m not sure whether that’s because it was dry, or because of the slight adjustments to my rear shock and saddle position. Part way around there’s the crossroads – Monkey or Dog?

Given that I was on a bit of a time limit (meeting Mr Toast back at Swinnertons), we carried on down the Dog.  Fortunately 9-11 were re-opened, but felt strange in some places due to the tree felling.  Not bad strange, just different from how they used to be.  Sadly we ran out of time, and took the Heritage trail to see if Mr Toast and his Mojo had made it out of the Monkey alive.  Both were unscathed, and rather cheerful!

I’m really looking forward to riding more of the new stuff, and pushing my riding a bit more.  Good work to Chase Trails!  We managed to get a car this weekend as well, just need to get a towbar fitted and we’re off!

Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Bit of green, bit of blue, all of FtD (just not in order!)

Highlights: General awesomeness, beautiful sunny weather and dry trails

Bad bits:  Getting shown how to ride by a small girl, yet still knowingI’m going to have a complex about that drop…

Post ride food snaffled: A midday Bambi Burger.  Had a mahoosive Chinese meal in the evening, omnomnom!

Good dogs seen: Leo of the Grimey Limeys, who’s possibly one of the best dogs in the universe.  He sings as well!

Well, I’m currently sitting in our house freezing (central heating is broken), waiting for Enterprise to call (car is broken), and maybe I’ll actually be able to go to work at some point today. :/  But none of that matters, because on Saturday…PHASE TWO IS UPON US!

I made a poster, alas it was a bit rushed so the layout of the text isn’t as quite thought out as I’d like it to be.  But it does have a monkey (OK, an ape again) on a bike, and that’s the important thing, right?

I’ll be there by hell or high water (YOU WON’T STOP ME, NISSAN!), and taking part in the Ladies Ride.  So if anyone wants to see me sliding around on my face and enjoying a range of low speed crashes, be at Birches Valley at 11.30am on Saturday.  And be female.  Or at least dress up like one.

I went for a local ride yesterday – it was quite nice, lots of lambs and bunnies about (and a toad), but I do wish there was more off-road riding local to us.  Apart from anything else, the Professor’s tyres a bit draggy on tarmac.  However, I do have a cunning plan for road riding, oh yes….

Today is Ada Lovelace Day!  You may be asking, “Who is Ada Lovelace, why does she have her own day, and why is Missus writing about her?”

Ada Lovelace is regarded as the world’s first computer programmer – working in conjunction Charles Babbage, the famous mathematician and engineer who is credited as being the ‘Father of the Computer’, she created an encoded algorithm which is now considered to be the world’s first computer programmer.  She also predicted that one day these computing machines could do far more than crunch numbers, including creating music.   Windows 7?  Her idea, probably.  

As a lifelong geek and technophile, I’ve always found her influence on modern computer sciences to be pretty impressive.  The influence of her work has been both practical and inspirational.   Apart from helping to light the way for those who followed, she had a programming language named after her, the British Computer Society hands out a medal with her name on it, and Microsoft have used her portrait on their product authenticity hologram stickers.   It’s a fairly impressive way to leave your mark on the world for anybody, but particularly impressive when you remember she was a woman who lived in the early to mid 19^th century, prematurely popping her clogs at the age of 37.  Given that women today still often have to struggle against preconceived notions that they’re somehow limited when it comes to science and maths because they possess a set of ovaries, her achievements are incredible.

So once a year, people in tech like to remind the world that not only are there more notable faces in the history of science, technology  and engineering than just Bill Gates, some of them are actually women.  As a woman in technology myself, I feel obliged to honour the cause.  So, who to write about?

It’s a tough one for me, because I’ve worked with so many amazing talented women – 3d artists, programmers, etc.  Obviously I’ve worked with equally talented men, but they generally haven’t been treated like some sort of freakish aberration for their interests and careers by friends, family and colleagues!  So in a bold move (and in a vague attempt to keep this post in keeping with the rest of the blog) I give you…

Roxy Lo!

 Roxy Lo is an industrial engineer, and in a portfolio that includes products ranging from Camelbaks to diving lights there is also….the Ibis Mojo.    Without her, there would be one less bike in our living room.  Roxy Lo, we salute you!

Mr Toast pointed out today that my blog is two years old as of yesterday!  Hooray!  You now may commence eating cake to celebrate!

Strange factoids over the past two years:

* When I started this blog, I couldn’t even ride all of the Follow the Dog in one go.  Riding all of it was a major achievement.

* I used to push up all of the hills

* I’ve never actually attempted Evil Root Number Two since I came off it in May 2008 -my first (hopefully not last) attempt

* I’ve had both my knees operated on

* I’ve got married

*  Despite demoing a huge number of mountain bikes, I’ve only ever owned two – the Trekadee, which is now with a new owner, and The Professor

* Despite demoing a huge number of mountain bikes, Mr Toast doesn’t actually own anything he’s ever demoed.   Current bike count stands at three – the Meta, the Mojo and the Stumpjumper.  We’ve said goodbye to the Enduro, the FSR XC and the Zaskar (RIP).  The BeOne frame lives in the shed

So, over the past few freezing weeks we’ve been hibernating a bit, going progressively more stir crazy.  On the plus side, I’ve finished Bayonetta, got most of the way though Darksiders, started Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations, and managed to hit over 9000 dps on my WoW rogue.

On Sunday, however, the sky was a funny colour.  After much scratching of heads, I eventually recalled that this colour was ‘blue’, and that glowing yellowy orb was ‘the sun’.   We’d already decided on Friday that we’d go biking on Sunday ‘no matter what’, so the fact the weather was actually pleasant was a winner all around.

In addition to being the first time back on the bike in a fair few weeks, it was also my first Follow the Dog effort of the year – and the first time since November!  We got there about one, and the car park was rammed!

I was very shaky to begin with, and with it being very busy (ah, the sun!) I was having to pull over quite a lot.  Didn’t ride the end of two, as there were people about.  Six and seven were closed, so we (‘we’ being Mr Toast and myself, he decided to take it easy) pootled along the diversion to eight.  I was quite pleased I rode up the big hill, and mostly in the middle ring (mostly!).  I actually seemed to go at a fair pace – faster than it takes Lita Ford to belt through ‘Kiss Me Deadly’, anyway.  At the top of the hill we took a breather, and I took a couple of pictures with my new phone.  They’re now in widescreen!

Fortunately by the time I got halfway around eight, I was feeling a lot more confident.  Rolled over the jumps in an even more half-arsed way than usual though, and didn’t ride the exit (there were people about!!!)

 9, 10, 11 and 12 all went fairly well, although I nearly came a cropper on the one section.  I was being approached from behind by a much faster rider,  and went to pull over to the left on a flattish bit – unfortunately Speedy Gonzales decided he was going to overtake on the left.  No harm no foul though, he missed me and sped along.

With it being alot drier than it has been over the past few months, I took section 13 a lot  faster than I have for a good while, and it felt great.  By this point though, my energy levels were seriously flagging.  Got partway around 14 before having to pull over for a group, and suddenly felt exceptionally flimsy.  And lo, I did vomiteth on section 14…before I even got to Ill Phil’s Hill.  Felt better, but started to feel increasingly spaced out over the remaining sections.  By the time I got to 16, I felt decidedly surreal – I was weaving through the trees with perfect control and balance….but incredibly slowly.  Then a faster rider (there were a lot of them…) approached me, and I pulled over.  Unfortunately I was on a hill, and could I get going again?  Could I hell.  Walked to a flatter bit, got back on the bike, realised I was actually right near the end.  Got to the cafe, narrowly avoided passing out in the queue.

Although this entry might make the ride sound hellish, I absolutely loved it.  Loved being outside, loved being back on the  bike again, loved marvelling that chihuahuas are actually the same species as huskies.  I need to get back into the swing of things again and reclaim my lost fitness, but hopefully that shouldn’t take too long!

Ride: Cannock Chase

Trail: Follow the Dog

Highlights: Sunshine!  Vitamin D!  Exercise!

Bad bits:  Realising that I’d let winter steal my confidence and fitness again

Post ride food snaffled: Tea.  Felt a bit flimsy.

Good dogs seen: Chihuahuas – do I like them or not?  I can’t quite decide.  Definitely like huskies, minature schnauzers and minature daschunds, all of which were present and accounted for.