Tapering..

1 week to go before the MTB Himalaya event and things aren’t quite going to plan. A broken shifter, confusion over what tapering means, a new diet and a freshly discovered appetite for post training rum and coke has me struggling a bit. If I tackle each issue one by one like some sort of confession to you all it might get me back on track.

 

Singalila Ridge Darjeeling

Broken shifter.  50k through the 120km training and the arse fell out of it so reduced to two gears not ideal on 1000m climbs. So either spin like a deranged hamster or grind it out like the kids overtaking me on the single speed clunkers.

 Tapering. Must be too late to get any fitter now and when I do wind things down I tend to get increasingly knackered so no fan of the day off.  Trying to put a bit of effort in to make each ride worthwhile but not drain myself too much. Leaves my neither here or there but in a limbo land of tapering-shapering. (To use the Hindi linguistical tick of adding a nonsense rhyming word to everything)

Appetite. I have not had meat, onion or garlic for 7 days now and I am shrunken man (kamzor in Hindi) Have been staying at my work mate and best pal Pankaj Danu’s house where his mum makes us all an excellent 3 meals a day. I thought everything tasted as usual of onions and was only into day 7 that we started talking about the eternal Indian election winner/loser “onion prices” which have soared due to rapacious hoarding and the secret was revealed. Sadly for the Danu household, onions have been off the ingredients list for the last 4 months due to a death in the family. So no meat, onions or Garlic for a year. I have lost weight=onions make you fat.

Singalila Ridge, Darjeeling.

Rum and Coke. For the past 5 days I have been riding from Khausani a small village on a ridge populated by a few hotels and even fewer guests. Everyday involves a descent down to somewhere and then a big 14km road climb back. The only beer shops in the area are in the village at the bottom of the climb so it means if I want to enjoy my evening tipple I have got to ride back the 50 minutes and near 1000m climb back up the hill with a couple of 660ml glass bottles of the “not above 8% by vol” beer stuffed in Osprey pack. So some days, reaching peaks of previously unknown self-denial I ride back beerless.

 On one such day while reflecting on the folly of my actions a man walked into the hotel with a bottle of rum. An ex-military man with a rum ration selling off his massively discounted supplies to the hoteliers in town at a handy profit. So here I am typing away with lovely rum and coke in the sunshine, while a warm glow flickers over the mighty peaks of the Himalaya in the distance…

Wallet Wallah

We are back in India and it’s the blogging season again so we hope to keep you, my faithful blog readers, updated with the fun stuff that no one else gets to know about.

Tracy Moseley on Pindari Trail

 A week in Delhi is just about enough for me put the time to full uncreative use and pick up were we were last April, in the pursuit of pocket sized rubber happiness, which to those who don’t know, that’s inner tube wallets. We have decimated 50% of Delhi’s sewing capacity with these infernal things which have stuck, twisted and bunged up sewing machines all over the capital. Our wallets have gone to the cobblers, literally and metaphorically, and the street side wallahs should have the market stitched up in no time.

  Back in Nainital and life is good. 4 hour ride today to test the bike and the trails and survey the monsoon damage, so far looks good though we know the trails up to Pindari Glacier have been damaged badly. Uttarakhand had disastrous floods in June and is still recovering from the loss of life and damage so we have no trips planned on the high altitude trails this September/October but hope to run a few guests through the lower level trails which are seriously good fun.

Guess whose appalling white socks these are

 A few pics here from last year which we missed. Tracy Moseley getting a bit of air just in time for Pankaj to click his camera. Pankaj is seen testing out his new Danny Macaskill Five Tens and looks a happy chappy in em.

 Looking forward to the MTB Himalaya race this 28th September I think we have a spot  for that so need to get the miles in for that. October its Darjeeling revisited so can’t wait for that and the trails on the Singalila Ridge.. Kerala in Feb for more singletrack tours and we are doing the coast to coast in February which will be cracking. Anyone keen???????