Training/leisure ride to Bolton Abbey

I won't be blogging about training rides in general but as this was my first Century (all be it metric) ride of the year I've succumbed to the temptation.

Panaromic view of Ogden Moor

The plan was for cake in Skipton going vis Ogden Moor, Oxenhope and Keighley. As you can see the weather was beautifully clear but very frosty. The frost on the roads on the tops was a bit scary but it turned out that it wasn't slippery at all.

Stanbury with Top Withens to the left of the village

Warley Moor Resevoir

When I got to Skipton for the compulsory cake stop at the 3 Sheep Cafe I realised that I had done 42km and with a bit of route stretching I could manage 100km so instead of turning straight around I carried on to Bolton Abbey and came back via Addingham. I thought that would be enough but when I got to Crossroads I found that I would need to do Cock Hill and come back up the Calder Valley.

I was tired by this point but I carried on and ihe ride was worth it, my first 100kmer of the year!

Garmin Trace

Parkrun Tourism - Horton Park

Horton Park in Bradford is a 19th Century municipal park to the Southwest of Bradford city centre and last Saturday became first Parkrun Tourism destination since I started my blog. The parkrun is relatively new and was started to take some of the pressure of the main Bradford event at Lister park whose numbers are getting quite strong.

Setting up on the Park's central avenue.

By contrast to the Bradford and Huddersfield editions the run at Horton is very small usually around 50. This leads to a very different atmosphere when running. At Huddersfield there is always someone within a metre or so but here at Horton it can get very stretched out fortunately, though, there was quite a bunch of us that finished within about 15 seconds of each other which meant we didn't back off at the end when we were tired.

The day itself was cold with a brisk and as the race started we got a few flakes of snow which held off for the 3 and half laps of the park. In the small field I found myself very near the front as I went down the hill for the first of four times (Four downs and three ups we were told at the briefing although they forgot to mention how steep it was). A quick count up revealed I was in seventh position and I set my sights on taking the next couple of guys in front of me.