Pep talk

I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open so I have to write this down before I forget it... and I probably will.

When I was last living in Sheffield and "into" mountain biking I was a 21yr old stoodent.  OK, OK, we all rode hardtails with tiny wheels and smaller handlebars and mostly named our rides, "Collosus" or "the little tank" but me and Dan Loftus, my buddy, used to drive to Edale to do one third of the ride I did today.

Today I chose paths that took me to the top of Win hill, rode down the other side to go to the caf then rode back up again so I could ride to the Mam Tor trail without going all the way there on the road.  Today I followed different trails up because back then they seemed so "far out". Today I followed different trails down because back then I wouldn't have dreamt of riding them. Today I rode them on a 20kg loaded bike with blokes looking-on.

For all that I have not done as much as I would like to have done with training, the HT has changed my outlook on what's possible on my mountain bike and taken me great places at wonderful times of day.  I can rest assured that no one day on the HT is as tough as this, though I know that cumulatively plenty will be.

I am thoroughly looking forwards to finding out what comes out when I try to do this all the time - day in / day out - but most of all I am looking forward to taking Emvee to the Fisherfield forest and all of the other great experiences my legs and that bike will have along the way.