Weather.

I have experienced lots of weather this weekend. You name it, and any associated sensations, and I've put up with it, enjoyed it, struggled through it, cursed it or just ignored it. Yesterday was a properly wintery day with all that entailed and today was distinctly damp. In fact, after experiencing what I did today I am moved to say it was perhaps (at times) one of the most acutely unpleasant rides in recent memory. 

Let me make one thing clear, I like rain. In fact, within reason, I can think of nothing nicer than a nice leisurely pedal on a damp day for accentuating all the things that I love about cycling. Today however was not so much damp; more, what fell from the sky felt like the overflow from the good Lord himself having an energetic scrub in an over filled bath. Slightly dodgy metaphor, but we'll stick with it. 

I awoke with the intention of doing the Ystwyth CC Sunday club run. I looked out of my window at 8am and quite quickly realised there would probably not be anyone foolish enough to venture out, at least not for 9am. It was bathing it down (to continue the metaphor). Not 'chucking', not 'bucketing', not 'throwing'. No, it was 'bathing' it down. 'No problem', I thought, I'll just wait an hour or so and go and do a few hours on my own when it dies down. Sadly it didn't look like it was easing, so I decided to waterproof myself as much as possible and brave the conditions; after all, as I said to myself-'it's only water!' What I hadn't reckoned on was that this was Welsh water. Renowned for being just that bit colder and wetting than normal English water (or at least, that's what I'm led to believe). I was kitted out in my good old Lusso 'Max Repel' tights (they used to be water repellent. Not any more. As I later found out), my newly acquired Craft waterproof jacket, Endura Merino Wool vest and PRO Neoprene overshoes. Can't beat a bit of product placement eh? A pretty solid setup, or so I thought. To be fair though, I think only a full body Dry Suit would have done the job today. Basically, I got about 2 mins away from home and my legs were soaked and cold. Everywhere else fine, but legs cold. Never a good way to start a ride. It's (largely) unavoidable though as anyone who has cycled in the wet will understand; as soon as anything skintight gets wet it soaks straight through and then obviously makes whatever area of skin underneath rather wet and cold. Luckily, the affected areas went quite numb within about 10 mins, so I wasn't quite so aware. Although that did mean that for the rest of the ride, whenever I reached anything more than a slight gradient (which was most of it) I had that wonderfully horrible feeling of very cold muscles labouring to work and slowly and painfully warming up; only to chill again as soon as the road pointed down. As for my feet, well they lasted a bit longer; it was at least 15 mins until water began to soak downwards through the tights and pool in the shoes. I then had that lovely sensation of water sloshing around my feet whenever I changed pedalling angle. To be fair though, my jacket did put up a spirited defence, and I only noticed slight water ingress on the arms once I got back. Which is quite impressive given how wet it got. I'm not even going to mention my gloves. Even with squeezing them out multiple times mid ride, they still felt like they weighed about a Kilogram when I got back.

None of this will be new to anyone who rides in the rain, and it isn't knew to me either. To be completely honest, the first half of the ride was actually not too bad. I got rather wet rather quickly, but knew I couldn't really get any more wet-so figured I might as well make the most of it! I took a wrong turning however that sent me up a previously unknown but fiendishly steep side road that had me rather wet inside the jacket as well by the top. Nice. Unfortunately, the top was a farmer's gate. So I had to turn around. That's when things got really uncomfortable. Up to that point, my speed hadn't really gone that high-maybe maximum 22-24mph. Howling down this descent at 30-35mph and trying to keep on top of the speed (it really is amazing just how long it takes to slow down in the wet) I became rather aware of just how fecking cold the wind was. By the time I reached the bottom, I had altered my previous plan of climbing up to the Nant-Y-Moch reservoir and going to the Nant-Yr-Arian cafe (I was certain I'd find a table today!) and instead set my mental GPS for home. It was grim. My legs were so cold every rise was a bottom gear affair, and I was on the small ring (bearing in mind I'm on a compact as well) at times on the flat. Not good. I can deal with cold fingers, I'm used to that normally (I'm convinced I'm actually cold blooded). I can deal with cold feet. I can deal with cold ears. None of those directly hamper your efforts to keep moving. Properly deeply chilled legs however are a different story. 

And now for something completely different to break this up a bit:

What a dude. 

So anyway, I got back, managed an hour and a half in total and then had one of those showers that feels like it's burning you. You know what I mean, it's hot-but you're cold, and it feels too hot but somehow cold at the same time. Since then, I have eaten lunch, snacked, slept, snacked again, had a cup of tea (that's a first for me) generally done sod all. I reckon it's yesterday catching up with me, a deep rooted desire to graze and sleep that I'm quite happy to satisfy! I'm not complaining, it's all part of the fun! Pushing yourself and your limits and then enjoying the after effects! 

I've also realised I eat a lot of money. To illustrate, as my flatmates will testify, I eat a lot. My dinner tonight consisted of 200g of pasta, a veg stir fry, pitta bread, a bag of salad, 2 cookies, 2 welsh cakes and a bowl of yoghurt. I bought most of that stuff today. Not very economical. But very satisfying it must be said! 

So for my blog-postial sum up:

• Welsh roads are still awesome.
• If you go out in the rain expecting to get wet, you will get wet. No amount of fancy clothing will prevent that.
• I need a bigger room. I've got that much kit strewn around, hanging up, drying out etc it would take me at least 5 mins to navigate my way to the door in the event of a fire.
• Tinsel doesn't rust.
• Mudguards are a winter cyclist's best friend.
• This has been a rather dour, serious post. So here are some Yorkshireman jokes to make up for it:

1. Yorkshire man takes his cat to the vet.
   
   Yorkshireman: "Ayup, lad, I need to talk to thee about me cat."
   
   Vet: "Is it a tom?"
   
   Yorkshireman: "Nay, I've browt it wi us."
2. A Yorkshireman's wife dies and the widower decides that her headstone should have the words "She were thine" engraved on it.
   He calls the stone mason, who assures him that the headstone will be ready a few days after the funeral.
   True to his word the stone mason calls the widower to say that the headstone is ready and would he like to come and have a look.
   
   When the widower gets there he takes one look at the stone to see that it's been engraved "She were thin".
   
   He explodes: "'ells bells man, you've left the bloody "e" out, you've left the bloody "e" out!"
   
   The stone mason apologises profusely and assures the poor widower that it will be rectified the following morning.
   
   Next day comes and the widower returns to the stone mason: "There you go sir, I've put the "e" on the stone for you".
   
   The widower looks at the stone and then reads out aloud:
   
   "E, she were thin".

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. And next time you're out driving and you see a soggy cyclist going the other way, spare a thought :)

Cwmystwyth Adventure

Well. Quite a ride today. Or perhaps I should call it an 'adventure', as this was not your ordinary 'bike ride'. No, this had it all. 30 minute climbs, short sharp gradients, wind, snow, ice, sleet, rain, sun, moors, woodland, wildlife, desolation, isolation, suicidal sheep, lakes, chocolate spread sandwiches, cafe stops that didn't quite work out, mars bars, numb fingers and many of those moments where you suddenly realise the insignificance of humans in certain areas of the world. Yep, this was a Ride among rides. I am sat here munching on some cheese and biscuits in my ongoing attempt to refuel. So if I suddenly stop writing (not that you'll know), I'm having a nibble. Do excuse the interruption.


I suppose I'd better start from the beginning (always helps eh?). My Dad has been saying for AGES that I need to ride through the Mystic Cwmystwyth 'It'll be the best thing you've ever done' 'It'll beat the pants off the so called roads back home' (Ok, those may not be his exact words-in any shape or form, but you get the idea). So I decided to do it today. I did myself an extra round of toast this morning (you read correctly! Pushing the boat out there!) and rather made a chocolate spread sandwich to take with me that Mother would have been proud of. I would have done the old Audaxers favourite Jam butty but didn't have any jam :( life of a student eh? I knew I'd be traversing some pretty remote proper Upland roads, so I put my waterproof in a plastic bag (no shortage of initiative here) and strapped it onto my pannier rack and managed to avoid taking too much tinsel off. Did I mention my bike now sports some rather fetching silver tinsel? Yup. Mr Festive or what? Anyway. So yeah, I took the main road out of Aber and headed deep into the heart of Wales...or at least I did after getting up to Nant-Yr-Arian. 20 minutes of climbing from cold, wrapped up in full winter gear. Yeah, you get the picture :/ bit 'damp' to say the least.


So I eventually climbed into the snow line, or above the snow line. Or through it? Whatever. This was a bit unexpected and a bit unnerving as I knew I was going to be going a lot higher later on! With this there came a new level of chilliness and I soon couldn't feel my fingers. Luckily, I'd also brought a nice pair of liner gloves with me just in case! Quick stop sorted that problem, and before I knew it it was onto the main road heading in the direction of Rhayader. I don't remember much about the 10 miles before Rhayader as I was feeling a little grim. My back was a bit sore/cold/stiff, my fingers were numb again, I couldn't feel my face (it was only after my shower after getting back that I became convinced it was still there and hadn't dropped off somewhere) and my legs hurt. All in all a little worse for wear! I blame Pilates on Wednesday, soothing and comfortable my arse! Those weird movements and stretches left me feeling a little battered this week. Good workout though, I recommend giving it a go, especially as it really works the areas cycling neglects.


Finished my cheese and biscuits :( was perhaps a little optimistic expecting them to last the whole of this session. 


So yeah, Rhayader. I stopped in a bus shelter for 10 mins to give my back a rest, eat my butties and avoid a little rain shower. It was at this point that I realised I'd already done over 2 hours and hadn't even got onto the meaty filling of the ride yet. Rhayader is a lovely place, well worth a visit if you're around here. Holidayed there many a time in my yoof-and throughly enjoyed it! So then I joined the road signposted 'Aberystwyth Mountain Road'. This was more like it. I'd ridden parts of it before when I was about 10, on a mountain bike, in about 30 degree heat. It couldn't have been more different today. The actual climb out of the town is really quite severe, climbing about 1000ft in maybe a mile? Anyway, I had to weave quite a bit unfortunately-although not as a result of being tired, more in an effort to avoid the various icy patches! That was slightly ominous. 

The view back from the top of the initial climb. 

Then it was along the top of the mountain road and then down towards the Elan valley (kinda)-again, really nice place and well worth a visit if you're ever around.

The view from the top of the mountain road, snow capped peak in the distance. I think. Camera is a bit sh*t. Could be a smudge for all I know!

I was stood there snapping away, turned, saw that and thought: hey that's coming this way. It was Snleety hain. Yep, snow, sleet, hail and rain all mixed up. Very strange.

What can I say about the next bit; it was a bit 'grippy' at times. Big patches of stuff that looked like ice, and sometimes turned out to be such, but more often than not were just water. Bit hairy. There are some truly phenomenal roads though around there though:

Let's hear it for Google Street view!

And again! Weather wasn't that good today...

Ideally, I'd copy and paste all the Google street view images, but that would probably be a fairly major copyright infringement in some form or another. Anyway, I highly suggest you have a look at this in street view, and travel along the B4518 a bit to just get an impression of how amazingly remote it is up there. Rhayader in google.
Here's another pilfered shot, just descending into Cwmystwyth properly:

Ride safe indeed.

Unfortunately I found the headwind once I got into the valley, soooo it was quite a chore to get down. Saw some frighteningly low numbers on the speedo, but then again-it was a stupendously strong wind. Honest. 

Pic Overload. Some of the old mine workings in Cwmystwth.

Looking back the way I came.

Sun! 

I was acutely aware of suddenly being among trees and 'proper' grass again at some point. Interestingly, the wind dropped, the temperature picked up-and so did my spirits! I had survived the legendary Cwmystwyth! Ok, so I'm probably making a much bigger deal of it than is absolutely necessary, but it really has to be experienced to be appreciated. After that it was  a simple matter of getting back to Devil's Bridge and then potentially the biggest decision of the day:


Go left, and be back home in about 30-40 mins. Or go right, and get to a cafe in about 30-40 mins.


 Bearing in mind at this point I was on about 50 miles, and a good 3 1/2 hours. I went for the cafe option :D as, I said to myself as I made the turn, I would subsequently be able to do more, maybe another hour or so after the stop-thus nullifying any adverse training effects of cake. (as if there are any I hear you cry!). Long story short, I got back to the Nant-Yr-Arian cafe...only to find there were no tables free inside :( and to make matters worse, they had no chocolate cake! :O I hung aroud in the queue for about 10 mins looking forlorn and cold (which wasn't that hard to be frank) hoping some nice old couple would offer me their table and maybe buy me some lunch-but alas, to no avail. Instead I bought a take out coffee and a Mars bar. Rock and roll. I downed the coffee in about 5 minutes outisde, nearly making myself choke in the process; why is the stuff in the bottom of the cup always so much hotter than the rest? And set off again. I decided to add another loop that's quickly becoming a favourite of mine, going up onto the hill tops again out of Ponterwyd to Penrhyn Goch via the Pendam reservoir. None of that will make any sense to 90% of you I'm sure, but just so you know :) I got to Penrhyn Goch and decided I may as well chuck another loop in. This one goes through Bontgoch. A truly gorgeous valley, literally 5 miles out of Aber. I've done it every time I've been out this week it's that good. Interestingly, the timer ticked over 5 hours at this point-and in all honesty I felt waaaay better at this point than I had in the first two hours! My slow and steady build up of training load over the past few weeks seems to have worked-as this was without a doubt the hardest 84 miles I've done route/terrain wise-but paradoxically probably the easiest in terms of actually riding them. Bodes well eh. Shame there aren't many 5 hour 3rd Cat races.

Just about to descend into Bontgoch.

The reverse view of above: back down towards the sea, Aber off to the left out of view.

So then I went home. Chucked in a sprint or two-I am training after all. Felt good. Lay on my bed for about half an hour afterwards feeling rather empty. Funny how you can feel fine up to the point where you stop riding. Suppose the easy answer is just not to stop! Or not.


So 84 miles in 5 and a half hours. Some of the most remote and quite frankly epic roads I've ever done. This wasn't just a training ride, this was an adventure. 


Vital Statistics and other stuff:

• Food consumed; 1 chocolate spread sandwich, 1 'Honey Stinger' Strawberry Waffle thing-Gorgeous, give them a try, 1 Mars Bar, 1 cup of coffee (that counts right?).
• Kit shortcomings noted: cold ears, numb face, cold wrists, chilly chest in full on wind at times, cold ankles (bizarrely, even though I had shoe covers on).
• Stops: 15 mins in Rhayader bus shelter. 20 mins at Nant-Yr-Arian cafe (10 of those spent in queue ¬_¬), many hours fiddling with my phone to get it to take pictures with numb fingers.
• Suicidal sheep count: 2.
• Insignificance in the Bigger Picture realisation count: 1.
• Lights taken with me:3.
• Lights used:3.
• Time spent writing this piece that could have been better utilised sleeping or eating or something: 1 hour.

And I leave you with this thought: 'It truly is by bicycle that one really understands, experiences and bears witness to a landscape. You cannot intimately know or appreciate the true nature of an area until you have cycled through it'. 

I came up with that believe or not, right then. And with that I'm off to find some more food and sleep.