So you may have read about the wonderful weight loss remedy ‘Norovirus’ that I caught and lost 4kg.

After eating my way through a few steaks and a few pints of milk, I was back to normal within a few days and ready for the weekend.

Weather reports were good so on Friday 5th April, I had a look on ‘Bing’ and planned a route for Saturday.

SATURDAY 6th APRIL

The FF29 got a make over with some bouncy things up front and a dropper post out back. It was a good decision.

The route went from Staveley, up Kentmere road and then right over and then down into Longsleddale.

From Longsleddale, up Sadgill and down Gatescarth Pass to Haweswater.

There was still a lot of snow on the tops.

From Haweswater the route went over Nan Bield Pass and down past Kentmere Reservoir dropping down to the village.

There’s a chicken out route back to Staveley by following the road 3miles from Kentmere. But who wants to do that?

From Kentmere it was a trip over Garburn Pass, down to Troutbeck and then back over to Staveley via ‘High Borrans’

Total for the day was roughly 42km with 1600meters of ascent. A good ride out! Also got a bit of a tan!

SUNDAY 7th APRIL

I fancied a run.

I decided to go Jacks Rake (not a run).

From the top of Jacks Rake (Pavey Ark) I headed over towards Bow Fell and then dropped down back to the valley floor where I was parked.

A quick stop in Ambleside to get some chips for lunch and then back home to bleed mine and Roz’s brakes!

The following week was filled with a few rides and a quick photoshoot for the inov-8 workbook where you’ll see the morvelo kit and kinesis FF29!

That leads on to this weekend.

SATURDAY 13th APRIL

After going to the metro to sort out a new phone for my Mam at the apple store, me and Roz headed to Kielder to do a ride. Weather was mostly sunny with a few cloudy intervals.

This was Roz’s first proper ride back this year and with some new parts on her bike.

We ended up doing 40km with 700meters ascent. A nice day out!

SUNDAY 14th APRIL

A trip to Dales Bike Centre for the first NESS (North East Single Speed) group ride.

The weather wasn’t quite the same as Saturday and it turned into a very wet ride.

It was still a good few hours spent riding with some awesome people.

Looking into the future…

Next weekend is Nutcracker round 2 at Gandale. I like this course and this will be my first XC race of 2013. I’ll be singlespeed and hopefully fully rigid with some proto Kinesis forks.

My first year as an ‘expert’ … Can’t wait (hopefully I’ll beat someone).