Month: May 2020

Elterwater, Skelwith Force and Colwith Force: Conquered. Bonus: Lambs Oot!

On By AdamIn HikingLeave a comment

This was a stunningly beautiful hike today. It was surprisingly strenuous exercise at times considering there are no peaks, fells or mountains on the trail. The scenery was breathtaking in parts, particularly the views of the Langdale Pikes and the two waterfalls along the route. For anyone wanting to wear out young children whilst also having plenty of opportunities to paddle, skim stones or indulge themselves in plain water fights then this is what we Lancastrians would refer to as a bobby dazzler. There are two cool stretches of forest, Elterwater itself, the aforementioned waterfalls and a few pretty bridges that all make for picturesque scenery. Of course, the beauty of the landscape makes for plenty of photographs, so they are below, along with the data from Strava. Click here for the GPX file and/or map for WikiLoc.

Photography

Langdale Tarn
Langdale Tarn
Lambs Oot!
Lambs Oot!
Dried Out Tree
Dried Out Tree
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes
Skelwith Force
Skelwith Force
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes
Langdale Tarn
Langdale Tarn

Lingmoor Fell, Right

Park Farm, Panorama
Park Farm, Panorama
Distant Lingmoor Fell
Distant Lingmoor Fell
Elterwater
Elterwater
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes
Distant Langdale Pikes

Strava Map

Elevation, Cadence, Pace and Heart Rate

Split Times

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Cognitive Health and Longevity

On By AdamIn Cognitive, Nutrition1 Comment
Lion’s Mane Fungus
Lion’s Mane Fungus

How often do we spend time on physical fitness without ever giving a moment’s thought to what is going on in our heads? I know I have been guilty of this in the past, which is especially heinous for me given that so much of my identity and my pride is tied up in my intellect and my cognitive capabilities.

My current audiobook on the go is Lifespan by David Sinclair. The subject is his quest to cure ageing and I can recommend this remarkable book to all and sundry. Among the many things he discusses, one such is cognitive health, and I have been inspired as a result to research this. This in turn led me to one of my favourite fellow geeks, Paul Stamets. Below he is talking to Joe Rogan about Lion’s Mane mushroom.

I have started taking this supplement as it is proven to stimulate neurogenesis and remylenate neural tissues and nerve fibres. I think that we are on the edge of a revolution in medical therapies for ageing itself and early adoption may work well for me, and anyone else getting in on the action. If you want to live a cognitively healthy existence well into your twilight years, and by god I do, then this looks to be effective.

Beauty of Malham

On By AdamIn HikingLeave a comment

Yesterday’s ‘hike to tire out the kids during lockdown’ features Malham, one of the most picturesque and beautiful parts of the Yorkshire Dales. Especially the cove and the limestone pavement above:

Malham Cove:

The cove always attracts the dreaded sunny day amateur walkers, with their kids all dressed in white (whose parents give you the death stare when your dog cheerfully trots up to them, says hello and gets mud on their whites, which is obviously going to happen in the Dales), portable barbecues and six packs of lager, and who are just generally loud and mildly irritating. Lockdown clearly caused this to be amplified somewhat. It is still well worth the trip though.

It was a slight disappointment in that the two waterfalls there, Gorsdale Scar and Janet’s Foss were running at a trickle, but hey, we had a mild winter and thus far a gorgeous spring. One must not grumble. Here is a previous shot of Janet’s Foss:

I did get a lovely shot of a heron, however:

I wonder if it is the same one that I saw here. They do look very similar…

Strava

The data from this hike is a complete map but incomplete metrics as I lost 1-1.5 miles by forgetting to unpause my watch recording after stopping. For some reason the auto pause is hit and miss at the moment so I have to do it manually.

Summary

Map

Pace, Elevation, Heart Rate and Cadence

Not that it matters too much to have completely recorded the hike or not, but it is probably the best other of six miles. The map is still complete, I am never going to set any speed records, especially with children in tow, and I take a very dim view of the sort of hiker who bounces over ten fells a day with the spandex and sticks, never once stopping to take a look around. If I climb hard enough to earn the view you can bet I am going to take the time to stare.

Whernside: Confessions of a Grumpy Nine Year Old

On By AdamIn LifestyleLeave a comment

I love the Yorkshire Three Peaks and I try to climb them individually each year, with the added bonus of one day hoping to do the Three peaks Challenge again, this time as an adult with my own children, when they are old enough. Right now there is one major spanner in the works: my youngest daughter. She is an absolute fireball of a child. She has inherited the redhead temperament from me which means that I love her attitude, sass and drive, but good god she can be a real little shitbag.

This last week I climbed Whernside and it was the toughest hike that I can recall ever having done. Aside from the fact that it is the hardest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, it was scorching hot and my little girl decided that she was going to strop ALL THE WAY. I would not change her for a nanosecond – that fire in her belly is going to serve her well in life as she kicks ass, but I really would rather have just hiked and not had to drag her every step of the climb. Still, we did it and that was great. Details and photos below.

Strava

Lovely Photos

Lockdown Lifestyle

On By AdamIn Cycling, Diet, Fasting, Hiking, Lifestyle, Walking1 Comment

So, here we are, a family in a semi rural town with time on our hands. Of course I have been hiking and cycling.

Climbing Ingleborough

Strava Data

Map and Splits

Pace, Heart Rate and Cadence

This was a hard slog for whatever reason, but ultimately rewarding. I am definitely not 100% healthy, my immunity is low and I feel a background malaise but still it was great to get out hiking. Isolation from the rest of the world is the thing I love about hiking the most so it is obviously fine in respect to social distancing. I think we saw perhaps three other people, two at the summit and one on his mountain bike ascending after us.

Cycling

As I previously posted, I bought myself a folding bicycle so naturally the thing to do is buy another bike also, which I did – a tourer hybrid. This means that I can now go cycling off road. It’s no good for mountains or whatever but for towpaths and dirt tracks it’s just fine. The Leeds-Liverpool canal is like an artery running through my town, linking it to almost all of the North West of England so it’s useful to be able to access it, not only for my convenience but also because it is much safer for taking the kids cycling. My daughters love it. The oldest is the cautious, cerebral one and we cycle more or less together. All the while her younger sister – the absolute little shitbag – slams the pedals hard and flies off into the distance. I love her bravery and fearlessness as much as I love her sister’s gentle, caring nature. It’s fascinating how different they can be. Anyway, below are data for a couple of rides. I have done more - you can visit my Strava if you really want to see the lot.

May 12th 2020

Bolton Map

This ride was very strange. Firstly I was testing out my tourer over distance. It’s not only a slow ride compared to what I would have done on my racer, but also because the last eight miles were me cycling slowly, hopelessly lost. For some reason, once I arrived near to my destination my Garmin Edge 1000 took me on an eight mile track which was basically an orbit of my actual intended destination. It was the most bizarre navigation error I have ever experienced.

In terms of features the Edge 1000 is streets ahead of the Edge 800 it replaced, but the navigation performance has been very iffy. The 800 was genuinely a fantastic addition to my gear. Every single destination I used to to reach was in there and I arrived literally at the front door every time. The 1000 has taken me on some exceptionally unusual routes. For example, when I was working in Todmorden it took me over an unbelievably difficult and hilly ride because it was around .25 miles shorter than the much flatter, faster alternative. Obviously the hills added a lot of time to the journey, and I can’t believe that the Garmin algorithm did that. Now it has taken me eight miles around my destination for no reason, and when I was plotting the route originally it struggled to find the address. The 800 always accepted the postcode and took me there. For me the jury is out right now on the 1000. I got it because the 800 has no Bluetooth or WiFi and I used to have to boot my computer and plug it in just to upload routes which drove me batty in the wireless era of technology. Right now I would happily go back rather than have the current issues I am facing. I hope that things improve quickly.