Training Weekend - Day 1: Passed without a 'hitch'

So the dust has settled after our training weekend in the Lake District, and it's about time I got you up to date.  I think we both felt that generally the weekend went really well, and we learned a few useful lessons relating to kit, navigation, planning and riding as a pair.

Day 1 started with a drive down the road to Oxenholme station on the edge of Kendal, where I met Malc off the train.  After we'd agreed on a route for the day and fuelled up at Greggs (God knows how we'll cope without them in the deep South) we set off towards Lake Windemere.  Almost immediately we were cursing ourselves for picking one of the hilliest regions in the country as the location for this trip!  But the sun was shining and it felt good to finally be on the road.


We made good time down the side of Lake Windemere, but faced a pretty gruesome climb across Kirkby Moor that warranted a breather at the top.  Luckily for us we lost all the altitude we had gained almost immediately, and we were rewarded with an epic 2 mile descent that saw us reach eye-watering speeds (Malc hit 48 mph, while the best I could manage was a lowly 44 mph) that left us buzzing!  The fun came to an abrupt halt when we turned North at Broughton-in-Furness, and began a long slog over to Coniston Water.  The wind had been ferocious at points throughout the day, and we climbed up to the more exposed areas it really dented out progress. Not appreciated!  But by the time we made it down to Coniston we were nearing the finish line, and we coasted in to picturesque Ambleside at the back of 6pm.

We found the Youth Hostel in Ambleside to be ideally located, well equipped and the staff were friendly and helpful enough.  Admittedly we do have limited experience of hostels in the UK, having spent most of our hostelling days in Eastern Europe, so any comparison was perhaps bound to be favourable.  After a much-needed shower and a stretch, we headed out for some pub grub and a medicinal pint.  We decided a 2 pint limit was probably sensible given the next day we had planned, but it took some will power to resist the array of ales on show.


Here's the stats for the day. Stand-outs include max speed and the total ascent for the day, which is nearly double that of my previous best effort (even with the 500 ft glitch at the 15 mile mark, as shown in the elevation profile)