Bonk-O

Urra Moor in the clag

 Back to Teesside now after a great 'training camp' in the peak district over Christmas - many hilly miles in the bank.
The first weekend of January I was hoping to race at Clay Bank East, but a slight rib injury (after falling over, and aggravated after I was hauled out of the Brown Knoll Bog Monster by the CVFR elite) made me take caution. I took some pictures instead, as the clag rolled on to Urra Moor, turning a nice morning into a canvas of grey by the time the racers reached the high point of the North Yorkshire Moors.

It's time to resurrect my O-stylings. I've done bits and pieces over the back end of 2012, but not much, so I need a few sessions and races to get myself back into the whole nav side of things. First event of the year was a bit of a suffer-fest on Big Moor and The Edges (Froggat and Curbar) down in the peaks on Sunday. The tussocks were rough (and I managed to always pick the most tussocky line) and tired me out for when we went into the detailed slope beneath the edges. The terrain here was also tough courtesy of brashings and bracken. I managed to bonk as well, I was overtaken by an old man on the run-in and had to sit down on the (downhill) plod back to assembly - I must take better care of myself when weekend-warrioring it!

Curbar Edge 'Eliminates' area - including the 'PeaPod' - geograph

Still, you have to take the bad to appreciate the good, and hopefully there'll be a lot of the latter later in the season. The first biggish races of the year are at the beginning of February (Midlands Championships and the British Night Championships (UKCup 1) and another UK cup race) and I've got lots of O planned to hone my 'skills' before the big races of the year (the JK and British champs in all disciplines) at the end of March and through  April. Whilst I mainly O to have fun and catch up with people, it'll be nice if I can improve my nav this year!

Big Moor Quickroute

Onwards and upwards. There's no such word as can't