June 2025
Hello again and it’s time for another update since my last one in April.
Firstly, I have fortunately not had any recurrence of the pancreatic trouble that I had in February and so have continued to be active. I have been doing a fair amount of cycling together with some golf and also recently started a walking programme leading to the Shine Night Walk with Susan which is planned for September. So here is some more detail.
Cycling.
This was my priority for May with the aim of completing the Velo Retro in Ulverston at the end of the month. I had originally entered the 50 mile Grand Fromage which involved over 4000 ft of climbing and so I was forced to confront my less favourite part of cycling – going uphills! And South Shropshire is well equipped with such beasts. So I began to revisit some old rides from when I was training for Ironman length triathlons between 2014 and 2016.
I started with trying the climb from the Bog Centre up to the top of Stiperstones followed by the descent to Bridges and then down the Onny Valley returning up the A488 home. This went well and was only interrupted by a puncture and a mad panic when I thought the CO2 cylinder wouldn’t work and I realised I wasn’t carrying a pump; Fortunately I found my spare CO2 cylinder and limped home.
The next challenge was to include two big hills – from home up over the top of Stiperstones and then up over the Long Mynd through Robin Hood Butts and into Shrewsbury. I managed it but I was very very slow on the hills especially over the top of the Long Mynd. I shall add some video as it includes a red kite being “mobbed” by some crows. I recovered on the descent and made it OK to Greggs in Shrewsbury where I recuperated with a vegan sausage roll before cooling down with a ride around on the cycle paths.
The next challenge was to ride from Minsterley up through Snailbeach and Stiperstones village home. I have not tried this route for a few years and was happy to manage it although it did require me using Claude’s inner chainring – the advantages of having a triple. Again I was very slow – I guess it’s old age!!
I was beginning to feel ready for the Velo Retro but then looked at the forecast for the Sunday which was quite frankly awful with strong winds and thunderstorms. I think I would have found the hills difficult enough on the 50 mile route and so I decided to change down to the shorter Loafuer route of 30 miles. It turned out to be a good decision! The actual event deserves a post of its own and I hope to do that shortly together with a video. Enough to say is was wild, windy, needed the triple but was a really enjoyable event.
Having completed that ride, my next target is a 100 mile to Birmingham which I am hoping to complete over the weekend. I have been practicing with longer rides on Shirley including an exploratory ride that clashed with the Cosford air show and I ended up overtaking huge queues of cars (all with their engines running) waiting to get into the event.
Golf
I have played less frequently than I had hoped at the start of the year and once again I shall not be using the value from a full membership. Also, my usual partner Roger has had a knee problem and so we have only played once. I have had a couple of rounds on my own and decided after listening to Angus and a couple of the seniors to invest in some new clubs. So as of last week I am the proud owner of a new 5 hybrid and 7 new Ping irons. I have played with them twice including a completely disastrous day yesterday in a senior competition where I managed to lose 3 balls in 4 holes and having failed to play a provisional ball was forced to be a spectator. But it has made more determined to practice with the aim of breaking 100 at least twice in the summer. I am hoping to play two or three times around my birthday where we are having a couple of days away at the Macdonald Hill Valley hotel at Whitchurch. I also have a new app (ARCOSS) and some sensors so I can track my shots and so have decided to set up a new dedicated golf page on this site for my experiences. This includes a 40ft putt on the 11th at Arscott the other day!!
Shine Walk
The Velo Retro weekend marked the countdown to the Shine walk with Susan and I starting a 16 week training programme leading to the event. We are now three weeks into the programme and although we have had to amend some days we have managed all the walks so far. There is still a long way to go but the accommodation is booked (Premier Inn, Watford) so hopefully we will be able to take part and raise some funds for Cancer Research.
New Toy
Over the last few months my Apple Watch 7 has been slowly dying and has not lasted the duration of some of my activities such as a round of golf with the Seniors which can take over four hours.
And so I have treated myself to a new Garmin Runner 255. It’s the slightly older model with the more discreet screen. I am very impressed with how it works especially the battery life. I am still learning many of the functions (as George Lawrence from Yeovil would have said – RTFM) but it provides lots of data – much of which I don’t understand!
I shall try and add the Velo Retro video and post done in the next week together with a new golf page and posts. But most importantly, while the weather is reasonable I shall try to keep plodding
AJMB 20th June 2025