Saturday, 19 May 2018

Questars Adventure Race

Love doing this event.

Run Bike Kayak whilst orienteering. 

The person/team to collect the most points wins, much more enjoyable than a flat out race around a track.

This is the second time I have done this event at Pershore, was kinda expecting the checkpoints to be in the same areas and the kayaking from the same spot - nope! (darn!)

Last time myself and Lorraine did it as a team, this time we were racing against each other... but we ended up sticking together anyway. 😀

The run and kayaking transition were 10km from HQ this time.

As we were given the last time slot for kayaking our order of the day was Bike Run Kayak. I would have preferred kayaking first but getting the last time slot was second best.

I was thinking of riding up Bredon Hill when we started but then quickly decided better to not knacker myself out so early on, navigating around it was the better option. We got 4 checkpoints on the mountain bikes and then headed to run transition.

After going around in circles a bit we eventually found run transition! 😃

As it were so warm (over 25 deg) we decided we were going to walk the running part and soon plotted a route around the river to end up at kayaking transition.

It were a lovely walk down by the river through fields etc, half way around we started seeing other participants on the kayaks so we were able to clock where the checkpoints were. (ha!)

We arrived at Kayaking transition 30 minutes early, luckily some boats were coming in and the marshals let us on early. We were glad of that as we pretty much had the river to ourselves which meant no argy-bargy at the checkpoints. Even though there was very little in the way of wind I found the kayaking knackering on my shoulders although at that point it must have been 28 degrees too so the heat probably had something to do with it. We got three checkpoints and then turned around, on our way back the rest of the participants were paddling down all looking serious with game faces on.

Nice walk back to run transition to pick the bikes back up, was pretty tired riding 10km back to HQ, plenty of others riding back so followed the flow.

We covered around 25 miles altogether, I was recording with gps but it malfunctioned half way around tut!

Brill day out with a happy knackered feeling at the end.


Video:






Sunday, 13 May 2018

Stratford Armouries

Another new cafe to try out, Buttercups Tearooms recently announced they were taking over the cafe at the Stratford Armouries which is about 5 miles north of Stratford-Upon-Avon. This new cafe is open on Sundays whereas Buttercups Tearooms isn't.

The Tearoom is called Timeless Delights and is situated inside the Stratford Armouries, a museum type of place with historic antiques and also boasts a lifesize model of Churchill sitting at his desk, in the room next to Churchill is wreckage from a Wellington Bomber which crashed in 1940 and a lifesize mannequin of a pilot.

As we are big fans of the cake at wotsit tearooms we were sure the cake at Timeless Delights would be equally as good.

As it was a nice sunny day we decided to sit on the benches outside which backs onto a large field, every now and then a glider would take off in the field in the distance and fly straight over us. The gliders were attached to a winch which would pull the glider at speed and then release.

Tea with ample slices of Chocolate Cake was served which tasted excellent.

We also stopped for ice creams at the Yew Tree.

Bob & Paul also had a second ice cream at Earlswood.

50 miles total in sunshine! ☺️


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Thursday, 10 May 2018

Kinver Edge

Nice sunny day is forcast at a high of 14 degrees. I decided to wear tights which in hindsight was a mistake as it turned out to be shorts weather d'oh!

Decided to head on over to Kinver Edge with Bob to test out our climbing legs and also reacquaint ourselves with the Kinver Farm Shop & Cafe to see if it had improved, the last time we went there which was quite a few years ago we were served creaamless teas!!! I believe it has new owners now though.

The ride down was easy and pleasant, a few leg sapping hills on approach to the farm shop but once again nothing serious.

Upon arrival we ordered tea and cake, I chose Lemon Drizzle and Bob chose Fruit Cake. We were served ample slices which was proper homemade and tasted delicious! a full 10/10! :)

Whilst riding the lovely contry lanes through Kinver Edge we decided our ice cream stop would be at Wolverly Tearooms. There was no ice cream at the tearooms, the owners said they said they had recently taken over the business and won't have any ice cream until June, they did however inform us we could find ice cream for sale at the Old Smithy Tearooms about half a mile down the road, which happened to be on our route anyway.

We arrived at the Old Smithy Tearooms which turned out to be was a really nice place, picnic benches in a wee garden. We had 2 scoop cornets, I chose toffee as scoop number 1 and blackberry as scoop number 2. Very generous portions which tasted delicious!

Wolverly Tearooms may have lost our custom in future in favour of this new place.

The route back took us up many leg sapping hills, the amount of ice cream I had consumed had a detrimental effect on my stomach for part of the way which lead to a temporary dip in my energy levels however, I soon started picking up again phew!

Half way back I also discovered that I had managed to pause my bike computer at the cake stop, knocked about 14 miles off the total miles recorded altogether doh!

Legs were tired at the end but as Bob remarked "happy tired" :)

 A grand and enjoyable ride out in different scenery compared to our rides of late. 

Todays Fuel:
Special K (pre ride brekkie)
4 x fig rolls
Banana maltloaf
Ample slice of Lemon Drizzle Cake
Delicious huge blackcurrant and toffee ice cream cornet concoction (yum!)
Salted cashew nuts

50 miles total in sunshine :)


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