The house has needed minimal work this year, mostly painting, and insulating the loft. The garage got re-roofed with corrugated metal sheeting and is now waterproof. L brought the front garden up to scratch and we grew many tomatoes, raspberries and other flowers. It looked smashing when it was in full bloom.
The weather last winter was not conducive to much winter climbing and we only got 6 routes done all winter, none of which were in particularly fantastic condition. Highlight was probably the Aonach Eagach ridge with Vix and Jonny in what turned out to be lovely weather and doing Stag Route Direct with the Puppy - hardest ice pitch I've ever done. I felt slightly traumatised at the top!
The only other climbing trip I've managed so far was the club trip to Wales. This left me slightly traumatised at the bottom and deserves it's own write up some time.
I suffered a knee injury after the Rombalds Stride fell race which put me out of contention again from The Fellsman. Third time of entering and the furthest I've got is 2/3rds of the way round. Once. Next time... I eventually decided that rest wasn't going to cut it for the knee and sought some physio treatment.
The first physio in Saltaire misdiagnosed my injury and gave me the wrong excercises (quads) to do which only made things worse! Then I went to see Katherine at Bodyfix Physio in Silsden who diagnosed knee hyper-extension and weak hamstrings as the issue. After working hard on my exercises and K-taping my knee to relieve the pressure on it I was back cycling and eventually running in time for my first triathlon in October. I'm now back on it with the fell running and also taking my first and second steps into Adventure Racing.
We had an awesome holidays in Iceland with friends. One of the highlights of the trip was swimming in the most amazing pool at Seljavallalaug nestled right underneath the volcano of Mt Eyjafjallajökull - the one that erupted in 2010 and stopped all the flights in Europe.
The arrival of the Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire was definitely one of the highlights of the year. We cycled out from our home in Keighley on both days to see it. Saturday we went up to the Cote du Cray with a group of friends from KCAC. A fantastic day riding on closed roads with bikes and bikes and bikes everywhere. Keith from work snapped us climbing the Cote on our tandem, the photo doesn't capture the vocal encouragement we were getting from the crowd at the time which was quite hair raising!
We got stuck in a bike traffic jam on the way back down so adjourned to the pub for a fortifying ale before the long ride back to the pub and a friends house for chilli and to watch the highlights on TV. Sunday saw us head up to Oxenhope and then back to a friends house for a BBQ. Fab!
We had loads of weddings to go to this year and they were all fab do's for fab people - congrats all.
John and Kate - outdoor wedding in Belfast in April, suprisingly nice weather
Stef and Andy - running friends who had a fancy dress wedding day fell race
Oli and Nicole - lovely church wedding
Nick and Kate - very cool village green wedding in the Peak District
Sher and Jo - a feast in a field
Tim and Carmen - best man for Tim!
I also bought a mountain bike which has been the key to lots of interesting night riding, adventure racing and generally falling off.
Cycling stats for the year, most of which has been regular commuting on Frank The Tank
2014 has been a good year. 2015 promises new challenges for us but I'm sure it will be a good year!
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