The dawn of Autumn

With the autumn chill beginning to blow through the cracks in the windows of an evening my time has been consumed with finishing the work in the garden and training for the final Mud, Sweat and Gears race. Between this and both my jobs, time for the Blog has been sparse and for that I must apologise. I find myself sitting here with some free time and a head swimming of thoughts from my last short ride on Sunday. The last four weeks have been filled with riding hard three times a week, the gym session pyramid interval training didn't materialize as I couldn't find my membership card so instead I have just been cramming in the riding. Next week I'm on holiday so I shall use this time for recovery then the weekend I get back it's time to get my race face on. After the last race I'll hopefully squeeze in some time on the dirt jumps with the Blender before the winter sets in proper, untill then I have a high intensity ride on Tuesday and then three more rides before the big race.

(One of these rides is going to be on the Dalby xc world cup course - more on that another time)

So riding last week and some familiar feelings crept up on me prompted by familiar sights for this time of year. First up is the build up to the DH World Champs which always reminds me that summer is almost over, with Danny Hart wiping the floor with the competition it feels like summer is saying bye on a high for us brits. The other clues are all around us. It starts in the magazine adverts gradually appearing for the latest super mega lumen powered lights for super silly mega money tying in nicely with the nights drawing in. It's about 2mins less light per day at the moment, that's a hell of a pace to be loosing daylight by anyone's count. On top of this the fields we all ride round, near, and through have all been filled with tractors of late taking in the harvest before it's too late. Then there is the chill, we've been blessed with a few gorgeous days this week but as the sun goes down the chill is there whispering on the wind "Here I come". I'll miss the dusty trails but then autumn has it's own charms, the beautiful changing colours as everything turns golden brown,  the cooler but not freezing riding conditions and with any luck trails that are still ride-able at pace. Winter also has it's charms, less dog walkers on your favorite sections, less punctures due to hedges being trimmed all over the place and not having tingly shins from the constant slapping of stinging nettles. But by far my favorite bit is getting to dig out the lights for some winter madness, not only is it incredible fun it'll keep you fresh for next summer and is also more affordable than you may think (if you're willing to take a risk on the far east) not sure how risky it is as my MagicShine is onto it's third year with no issues. On top of this, if like me you get kitted up and ride from work in the evening people will think your even more eccentric and nuts than before when you come out all leg and arm warmed up with a buff round your head and neck and what appears to the untrained eye to be a car headlight strapped to your bike. So lets try and keep riding hard in the autumn and winter and hopefully I'll see you out there on the trails. Muddy, frozen, soaked but grinning like a loon, with all the gear you can buy to make riding in adverse conditions more comfortable the only thing stopping you from pushing through to the other side is.............You.