Jamesq

I’ve just about recovered from last weekend’s Adventure Race, still got some decent bruising on my right ankle and blister on my left foot. Weekend was superb and team Rockhopper did far better than expected and landed 2nd place overall.

I’ve embedded some pics of the events from team Rockhopper below.

Got out with JK for a loop out on the mountain bike around Injebreck. This is a cool loop door to door and great for a quick ride out. Got a good max speed too but still not broken the 40mph mark.

To carry on our training we met up tonight for a hill run in Peel. Nick joined us on his bike and John and I ran from Fenella Beach up over Peel Hill and Corrins Folly and round the coast to Glen Maye. It was an awesome night and the views from the top of Corrins Folly were superb. The sea was flat calm and in between struggling for breath made for an impressive sight down towards Niarbyl. From Glen Maye we ran the road back to the Raggatt before joining the old Railway line back to Peel. Another great night out and pushing the miles up again.

Took a ride out last night with Nick, Matt and Hutchy as a final training ride before the Adventure Race in a couple of weeks. Matt wanted a special mention for feeling is eye balls roll round in his head from pushing it up the hills.

Was a good loop round, managed to pick up my second puncture on the track down to pipeline.

Forgot to start the Garmin at the car park in South Barrule so the route below starts out towards the bottom of the whiskey run.

To up the game a little in our training for the Adventure Race at the end of the month John suggested we stretch ourselves and take on Surby to Sloc. I was mega apprehensive about this as the run out of Ballafesson up through Surby is long and steep, certainly the hardest thing I’ve faced so far in my training by quite a long way. The route is also nearly twice as far as I’ve done up until this point so was always going to be a challenge.

Nick joined us on the bike as well which was good for support and motivation to keep running. He also nipped home ahead of us and put the pasta on so an extremely valuable team member on the day.

The weather was perfect and the views from up on top of Surby Hill were awesome. Makes you really appreciate the Isle of Man when 30 minutes after leaving work you can be in the middle of nowhere overlooking stunning coastline with not a sound beyond an over exercise heart and panting breath. Not only that but it was strange to think that only 15 miles away the world’s greatest motorbike race was taking part.

I think we were both really pleased with the run. We had to walk in a couple of sections where it was really pushing us but hopefully next time we do this we’ll get round without this. Having said that this really was only in a couple of sections and I had anticipated me having to walk much more so was absolutely made up. Still a way to go before the race but a great confidence boost that at least I should make it to the finish line now:)

Picked up a couple of small blisters on the downhill section that have shown themselves a bit more today but nothing too bad. Weekend off and then back on it next week.

Some of John’s pics from the training so far:

Went out for a short loop out from St John’s tonight. Met up with Nick, Mark and Glenn to tackle the Slieau Whallian Hill and enjoy the descent off the back of the hill. Was a good ride out finished with a quick drink in the Tynwald afterwards. This was the first time Nick and I had got together to do any training for the Adventure Race that is happening at the end of the month.

This is a great little Mountain Bike loop, always handy to find little loops like this. The car park opposite the Farmers Arms and the old Mart in St Johns is also a really good place to meet up and get set up for the ride.

Managed to get out for a run tonight to try and increase (start again) the training for this months adventure challenge. Was a tough run with some good hills in and managed to add a km on to the distances I was doing a couple of weeks ago. Need to do a lot more than this though, pace was very slow and legs were pretty shattered by the end. Beautiful run out through to the Chasms and down through Cregneash. Took the Glen down through to Glendown Farm too which I haven’t done for years.

Took a trip out to South Barrule with Glenn to try out my new GoPro HD camera. Glenn hadn’t done the track at South Barrule either so it was a good excuse to go and play on the Mountain Bike trail through the forest. Also took a ride out to Archallagan before getting a puncture in the middle of the plantation. Did a quick mend job which got me back to the car. Good ride out though and really impressed with the new camera. Video and Garmin Data below.

Had a call from Watty today to see if I was up for a Mountain Bike ride down South. Haven’t been out down South for ages and as I haven’t got out on the bike since 5th May couldn’t wait to get out. Also got to see baby Aailish which was ace.

I’d thought we’d just head out from Watty’s and maybe go up Colby Glen but instead we stuck both bikes in the car and headed up to the turning point at the bottom of the Sloc. After replacing Watty’s inner tube we headed off up the road. Kept a pretty good pace going up the Sloc and still managed to get enough breath to talk so had to be happy with that. We then headed up to the Cairn on top of Cronk-ny-Arrey-Laa which was pretty tough going but well worth it for the views at the top.

From there it was downhill. Didn’t take long to get back to the car, well shaken about by the time we got down. Absolutely awesome run down, loved it. To make the most of our time out on the bikes we then took in another loop South of Sloc along the Carnanes. This took us down to Tom the Dippers before taking the road back to the car.

Well it should have been a short walk if I didn’t take a wrong turning through a gateway!

Didn’t get out for a walk yesterday so we thought we’d make the most of the good weather that was forecast. Thought Scarlett would be a good spot to try and went to retrace the old Castle Rushen Cross Country run but in reverse. Started off out at the car park and walked round the coast past the old coastguard look out tower, now Radio Scarlett. By the time we got round to Pooil Vaaish it was spitting slightly and that is where the error in judgement came in:) Ended up tracking round a few fields before going right back to were it all went wrong and trying a different route. Nothing like a detour, all adds to the adventure. Don didn’t agree at the time but I’m sure looking back she’ll appreciate it….

Without the detour it would have been quite a nice quick loop around of around 3 miles. All flat with some really nice coastline too. They just need to work on their inland signage a little.