The Beastway

Most mountain bikers will have heard of the Beastway Mountain Bike Race Series at some point - it's one of the oldest around having started up some 20 years ago. It's also famous for being held in London. Well, sort of; it was at the Eastway Circuit, twenty minutes from the centre of London.

There was some controversy a few years back when the plans came out for the Olympic Park as they were going to be building over the bit of land and the mtb circuit plans weren't all that clear. Still, I think something got sorted out in the end. But it did mean the series had to move somewhere else.

Luckily the Redbridge Cycling Centre (aka Hog Hill) in Ilford had been built and had some manmade mountain bike trails. So the Beastway series has been homed there for a few years. But all good things must come to and end and the organisers decided in 2012 that enough was enough and that would be their final year.

They asked for further interest in anyone looking to take on the series and obviously I, as SIP Events, showed an interest. Tonight was the first meeting of the group of interested parties and willing volunteers and as no-one else really had any organising experience it sort of fell to us to say whether we wanted to do it or not.

Decisions, decisions. What with the new job and the other events it's a lot to take on. I'll have to have a good look at it but it would be a shame for it to just stop so I'll do whatever I can to keep the series alive.

A Cracking October

The weather so far has been amazing this month and has provided that extra bit of motivation to get out and ride. So much so that I've actually managed to ride 10 out of the last 12 days, and today I went for a 3 mile run whilst I was at work. My only day off was Sunday after the cyclo-cross race - I thought I deserved a break. I think in professional circles they call it a 'Rest Day' or something.

The key has been variety, as is often the case in life: a BMX session, a couple of sessions on the rollers when time was short, a 2 hour exploratory trip playing around on the bridleways of Ashridge Estate and a night ride at Cannock Chase by kind invitation from Matt at CycleShack in Cannock. It's been quite a while since I rode with a group, especially as this was designated the 'Fast Group' so having my legs ripped off for two hours in the dark was quite a shock to my tiring legs. Riding in the dark isn't something I'm used to either, it's probably at least 3 years since my last proper night ride!

Despite my legs feeling like jelly on Friday morning I still managed to cram in 20 minutes on the rollers before work but opted for a lie in this morning and swapped my spds for running shoes. It still hurt, but at least I had an extra 45 minutes in bed.

Six continuous days of quality exercise is a record for me this year with a good five and a half hours of cycle training under my belt this week. And only two glasses of red wine consumed, I could almost start classing myself as 'healthy' at this rate.