A day of sunshine in the middle of a week of sorrow and mourning. And an opportunity to spend some time on my own and come to terms with all that has happened in the last 10 days. Sometimes there can be a lot of comfort in the solitude of pushing a longboard a long distance with only your own thoughts and the ambient sounds of the surrroundings to keep you company. And that was what happened today. You'll be missed and loved always Margaret.
Todays Set-Up:
LANDYACHTZ 'Switchblade' deck
BEAR 'Grizzly' 180 trucks
ORANGATANG 'Durian' wheels 76mm 83A
BEAR 'Grizzly' 180 trucks
ORANGATANG 'Durian' wheels 76mm 83A
BEAR Abec 7 bearings
My training days are too far apart at the moment really, but that's got more to do with the weather and work more than anything else. But, it made switching back to try the LANDYACHTZ 'Switchblade' again a bit of a hairy experience at first today. Not because of the deck itself, but more because of the hyper sensitive BEAR 'Grizzly' trucks. My first few pushes felt 'twitchy' as hell, after the slow, smooth response of the RED STAR trucks I used on the SECTOR 9 last time out. I still had the SECTOR 9 in the car, and thought about turning back at first, but then looked back and realised I'd already gone nearly a 1/4 of a mile, so I decided to stick with it. And of course, later on I felt the benefits of sticking with my first choice.
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| Starting point at the beginning of Sector 3 |
You can see the route of todays sectors on the map at the bottom of this post. Another push further along the cycle path alongside the A59 towards Preston. The A59 is the main road from Southport to Preston, cutting through the agricultural area that covers the land between the two towns. It was a nice day. Not as cold as previous training days, with only a slight breeze. The cycle path still had a lot of tree debris from winters shedding of leaves and branches, plus the usual cow pats and horse manure roundabouts to negotiate. (I have to keep my eyes on the path!) I had a few scary "Never underestimate the power of a pebble" moments too! When my wheels ground to a sudden halt but I didn't! Scary because the traffic on the road passes pretty quckly and the path is very narow at times. Last thing I wanted to see is my board rolling backwards under the wheels of a passing truck! That WOULD be a bad day at the office! After getting used to the Grizzly's again after the first mile or so, the benefits showed when I found I was still able to pump uphill at some points on this ride. To be fair though, it was probably only about 60/40 pushing /pumping on the way out. The ORANGATANG 'Durian' wheels and the Bear Abec 7 bearing combination however is a surefire winner. So far this is the winning combination and first choice for wheels for the full ride. Really smooth over most surfaces so far and really fast rolling. Hugely impressed with that wheel set up.
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| Preston...ahead! |
Again though, because this was another solo effort, with no buddy to film my progress there is no video footage of the day. Just a couple of photos. I wanted to try and keep moving as much as I could today, to get an idea of timings for the sectors. But as and when I get some video sorted I'll re-insert it into the relevant blog posts. I'm bound to be doing these sectors again in the training build up over the coming months.
Still, I got to the end of the 3.3 miles that make up Sector 3 (I made a mistake on Facebook and said todays sectors were 4&5, but it was 3&4! Doh!) at Langs at Longton. Thought about stopping for an ice cream at the ice cream parlour next door which was beckoning to me, but, seeing as my body is a temple and I'm an athlete now ( Ahem! No sniggering at the back there!) I resisted and just reset Runkeeper on my phone to start again to record my progress for Sector 4. Bit of uphill on this sector, but nothing too hard. Not long after I was at the end of this sector, just another 2.5 miles further down the road, at Hutton, where Lancasire Constabulary (Police) have their headquarters. Stopped and sent the Runkeeper info to Facebook/Twitter and sat down here for a buttee and a drink for a few mins.
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| End of Sector 4. Next stop Penwortham! |
Even with the two sectors combined this had been the shortest of my training rides yet, and in a way, that's fine, because I know I need to vary my training, especiallly while the days are so far apart. But, I also had to get over the 10 miles in a day landmark. Until now the furthest I'd gone in a day was a little over 8 miles. So, I decided to ride back too. And on the way back, with a slight tail wind the split was pretty much 50/50 pushing/pumping, so it didn't feel too bad at all. Started to get a slight bit of pain in the sole of my (left) pushing foot about half way back. Hopefully, a nice shoe sponsor will come through with something ideal to avoid this on the ride itself ;o) And remember I said the pavements were a bit narrow in places? My 'Grizzly's got their first grind today as a result of this, when I lost a rear wheel over the side of the kerb to a resounding 'SCHRALP' sound while pumping round a layby. Lived to tell the tale though, and the Grizzly's bear the scar to prove it.
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| 'SCHRALP!' And those luvverly Durian wheels |
And finally... Last month I was hoping to get to 100 'likes' for the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Long-Push-2012-Longboarding-for-Autism-Awareness/303916856296557 by the end of January. Today we hit 160 likes! So...200 seems to be the logical target to aim for by March 1st. So please help me out folks. If you haven't 'liked' The Long Push Facebook page yet, please go click 'like' on it. And when you have, please share it with others. I will no doubt spam a few Facebook walls myself this week in an attempt to make that 200 figure. All helps raising awareness folks, and I appreciate the support.
Have a great week everyone, and I hope to be able to post another blog real soon,
Chris
View The Long Push - Sectors 3&4 in a larger map
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