I have arrived!

Today I joined the North Wales fellowship of climbers, which basically means I can now be accepted in North Wales as a proper outdoorsy type, instead just being regarded as "that freak who rides bikes".
Completed my intro course at the Beacon Wall, which was all good fun. Then went over to Llanberris with Sue, via the cheeky DPC backdoor and paid a visit to the lovely people at Joe Browns. Tried on about 6 pairs of climbing shoes and Sue bought me the best ones.
Pretty good day.

The last 2 months in summary

Well, even blogging a simple training diary seems to be beyond my ability/organisation/enthusiasm. Must try harder in future. It seems like lots has been going on in recent weeks, hence the lack of blogging, I got busy, lost the impetus.

In no particular order then:
SSUK at Drumlanrig - brilliant! Fell out of love with my Karate Monkey, got well beaten up trying to work it around the trails and trying to keep up with Biff. I lost. Made up with the Monkey the day after though.

Paddy Buckley recces: no, I'm not doing it, but I did a couple of days in the hills with Phil from Tod who's aiming to do the round later in the year. Interesting to see how doable 20 miles is when you walk the climbs!

Anglesey century: took advantage of a rare weather window a couple of weeks back and churned out 100 miles on the surprisingly hilly Anglesey. Out for 8 hours, averaged 15 mph while riding, 1800+m ascent, all good.

1000m Peaks recce: did the Aber - Ogwen section with Emlyn & Justin in a leaisurely 3 and a bit hours. good visibility, handy iawn.

Snowdon bike: hiked up the miners track, pinned it down the Llanberis path. The best descent in the UK? I should coco.

Promise to be more regular in future.

Easter weekend

Saturday - the hour loop at Beddgelert forest.
Sunday - did a mini audax with Sue down Lon Eifion cycle path, with plans to go to Porthmadog. Innevitably set off too late and ended up turning back well before Porthmadog, stopped at Inigo Jones for scrambled eggs (yum!). Got hailed on and snowed on coming back through Rosgadfan.

Monday - Went for a run from Y Fron down to Nantlle and Talysarn, 73 mins.

Breakfast run & the Youth Hostel

Yesterday I took Pippa for a 20 min run before breakfast, then after work we went over to Llanberis YHA for a 66 minute loop.

Went for a couple of dog walks today and did some yoga positions in the loft while fitting a switch for the boiler. Is that a rest day then?

Drum by Bike

Rode up Drum on Wednesday night with James, Phil & Tim. Left my battery at the office so made do with the petzl tikka, though that wasn't really needed for the ascent. A climbers route really, the descent is fast and long, we took it all the way down to Llanfairfechan for a pint in the Virginia - proper old skool pub :)

Breakfast run

20 mins with Pippa before work. Felt a bit tired from yesterday, more so as the day wore on.

Paddy Buckley recce - Elidir Fach - Foel-goch

Started from Llanberis, up to Dinorwig Bus Stop, up through the quarries, picked up the incline pretty quickly and took that to the winding shed at the top, then up another incline to the gate on the access road from Marcelyn. Followed a faint trod path from there to Elidir Fach, which had a chill northerly sweeping across it. There has a much clearer trod path from there up to Elidir Fawr, but the summit ridge was a boulder field akin to Tryfan. The path crosses from west to east of the ridge around the summit and is pretty clear dropping down to the saddle below Mynydd Perfydd. I skipped this peak for the more interesting looking Foel Goch. Then down to Nant Peris and back along the road. Pippa took it all in her stride. 10m, 1000m ascent, 2h45 mins.