September

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog entry. First of all I want to say thanks to everyone for all their support over last months race at the Brighton Big Dog, it was a top event and one I want to go back to again next year.
With racing in mind I wanted to add that the team's entry into the Dusk til Dawn race over at Thetford has been accepted so me, my brother Jim and Craig the owner of my local bike shop are set to race through the night, it will be 12 hours of off road racing and being a pretty flat course it should be a lot easier for me to keep a reasonable lap time through the night, but more of this next month.

One thing I left out of my last blog as it was a pretty lengthy entry was that the insurance company had finally approved the replacement of my old D200 and lens and had arranged for the delivery of a brand new Nikon D300s and the Nikon 17-55 f2.8. I have yet to get out and really put this through it's paces and see what it can do but rest assured I will soon.

Sorry about the crappy picture, it was late.

There are a few problems right now though, most notably is that my old copy of Photoshop CS3 no longer works with the OS Lion on my iMac, so right now I am experimenting with Nikon's own Capture NX2 editing software on a 2 month trial before I commit to purchasing, at £135 for the NX it hands down beats CS5 on price but will it allow me to process my raw images as I am used too, we will see, ideally next up is a 10 stop ND filter for the camera and a new bag, never enough money.

Well as the blog title reads, it is now September and already we can feel a slight chill in the air of an evening and I am loving it, I don't care I love winter and this time of year especially. I am really looking forward to getting out with the new camera this Autumn and more importantly getting some night time trail rides done, crisp air and frosty breath....ice in my beard and the sound of leaves crunching under my tires as I ride along the trails illuminated only by my lights, yeah I am seriously excited, I just need to get a bottle of winter warmer for my hip flask.
Actually I am so excited that I treated myself to a new winter hat, a Helly Hansen beanie to keep my head warm now that I shave most of my hair off.

hmmm toasty.

Have I ever mentioned that I love to bake? I think that if you scroll back a bit you will see some of my awesome flapjacks, well sadly I have lost the recipe for them that I tweaked over the years so I have been looking for something else to bake as a treat, so after munching on a muffin bought for me so I thought I would have a go at baking some of my own.
The first batch did not go so well as I forgot to add the egg but the second batch came out pretty well, I think for the race in October I am going to make a nice batch of apple & cinnamon muffins.

I don't like the share idea on Flickr for this photo....I don't want to share them.

Crikey, this entry has gone on a bit. I am going to finish off with my quick review of my #gothedist challenge, last month I fell short of my goal and covered 112 miles of my planed 150, the first week and a bit were awesome and I found the miles piled up and I had a  good routine going, sadly a cold before and subsequently after too really punished my desire to get more in.
For this month I am going to push hard for 250 miles, I am already a day behind but I am tired and cramping still and decided not to get out and ride and instead write this entry and get my mind game in order.

Well that is all for now, I am hoping in my next entry to explore what I am hoping to do this winter for training and a rough idea of my plan through until spring and how I intend of burning off all these muffins I am eating.