RYMLMTRF!

No, I did not learn to speak Welsh...  I just came up with an acronym to describe the past week.  RYMLMTRF!: Racing, York, Manchester, London, Manchester, Training, Racing, Fun!

Last week I made it to the track for Monday night ACT Track League and again for Tuesday night Manchester Regional Track League.

On Monday night we raced the normal program of events; 3-km scratch race, miss-n-out, 12-lap Courses Des Primes (point-a-lap for us Yanks), and a 50-lap points race.  Many of the riders in the Monday night field are juniors, and are quite quick in the shorter races.  In the 50-lap points race, it came down to a battle between one of the other older (not-junior) riders and me.  He ended up winning it, with me a close 2nd on the final sprint and 3rd overall.

Tuesday night, the Great Britain national academy riders were back out in force, and the racing was as fast as any I've done.  I was a bit worked over from a Monday WOD at Crossfit Central Manchester, but hung in and finished all four of the races.  In the 10-mile scratch race, I bridged up into an early breakaway and rode half the race with one of the national academy riders before we were swept up by the field just after the halfway point.  I was quite gassed at that point, and ended up losing a lap, but then rejoined the field and finished out the race one lap down with eyes crossed and tongue hanging to the ground.  That's what I came to the UK for, so all was good!

On Wednesday, I caught the train to York, a city about 70 miles north east of Manchester.

The train station exit welcomed me to the city.

As I learned at the Jorvik Viking Centre, York has been a significant settlement since Roman times, about 2000 years ago.  In the meantime, they have been a major center of Viking settlement, trade, and other Viking activities.

On the way from the train station to the hostel where I stayed, I passed through a medieval gateway, shown below:

This medieval gateway was located around the corner from the train station and on the walk to where I stayed in York.

On Thursday, I set out to explore York by foot.  It was cold, drizzly, and generally unpleasant, but I brought my heavy coat and maintained a brisk pace to remain comfortable.  The castle museum was closed, as was the old castle tower (shown below), but I enjoyed walking around them and taking a few pictures.

The castle tower in York sits upon a hill overlooking the Castle Museum.

I continued my walk through the city, checking out the Shambles area and poking my head into the Barley Hall museum before ending up by the Minster.  The Minster was closed to visitors that day due to a university graduation (Darn!  I guess I'll have to come back...) but even the outside was quite impressive.  There was quite a lot of stone restoration work happening on the very intricate stonework of the exterior.

After checking out the Minster, I made my way over to the National Railway Museum before catching a train to Knaresborough to see the castle ruins and railway bridge located there.  Knaresborough is located about 15 miles west of York, and has some very scenic views around the castle area.

The Knaresborough Castle has seen better days and is probably a little drafty for sleeping.

The castle overlooks a creek gorge, where there is a rather impressive 19th century railway bridge shown below.

A picture of this scene is what motivated me to take the train trip out to Knaresborough.

After returning to York, I took another walk through the National Railway Museum, and checked out an exhibit on the Japanese bullet train.  Did you know the train cars on the Japanese bullet train have sleeves covering the gaps between cars to improve the aerodynamics of the train and reduce noise pollution in crowded metropolitan areas?

Thursday evening, I headed back to Manchester for a one-night layover before taking the train south to London.  There was one must-see area on my list for London: Lombard Street.  Last year I read the 1873 book Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market by Walter Bagehot.  Most of the book is about the interactions between the privately held banks and the Bank of England which acts as the banking reserve (federal reserve for us Americans).  I found it a fascinating book, and wanted to visit Lombard Street, which was the banking center of the world in the mid-19th century.

I made it!  As dorky as it sounds, I thought this was really cool.

After checking out the financial district of London (where almost every business is closed on Saturdays), I walked by the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and along the river.  Eventually, I made my way to the London Eye, where I took a self portrait doing a handstand (pictured below).  Time delay shots on the camera are fun.

A short time delay on the camera allows for interesting self portraits.  I just have to remember to empty my pockets first...

After visiting the Eye, I made my way over to Piccadilly Circus, and then walked to Trafalgar Square, where there was a big anti-war rally going on.  While the US state department advises against going near rallys, demonstrations, or protests, I figured that an anti-war rally would probably not turn violent (and if it did, I would be sadly disappointed to have missed out on that kind of irony) so went and watched.

As the V-dressed citizens did in V for Vendetta, we walked from Trafalgar square down Whitehall Street towards Parliament.  Unlike V for Vendetta, there were no explosions and no loud music when we arrived at Parliament Square, just some people waving signs, a couple people pounding on drums, and some police watching from a distance (mostly on the opposite side of the street).  All in all, it appeared to me a good, peaceful demonstration, indicating a healthy free society here in the UK.

After checking out the government centers in London, I made my way to the Victoria tube station to meet up with a former SOLO Swim Club and M-A swim team teammate who has been living in London for a few years.  We met up and went for a beer at Filthy McNasty's (a pub that has come under new management and fortunately no longer lives up to its name).

On Sunday, it was back to Manchester, back to the hostel, and then over to the velodrome for the Sunday evening structured training session.  We did another exercise simulating a Madison where 7 riders take to the sprinters lane at a fast pace, with all the remaining riders in the workout circling the track well above the blue line.  After one lap at the front of the bunch, the lead rider of the 7 pulls off and the next relief rider who is passed dives down the track and drops into the slipstream of the bunch, making it seven riders again.  This was a really fun exercise that is a good workout and a good introduction to the awareness necessary for Madison riding, without forcing anyone to do handslings that they're not necessarily comfortable with yet.

Yesterday (Monday) I made my way to the velodrome in the evening for the ACT league racing again.  We did the normal line-up of events, with a Madison at the end.  I was paired up with another Karl.  What are the chances?!?  We rode pretty well and made it a fairly hard race, but didn't quite click on the sprint laps, so I think we ended up in 4th place.  All in all, it was a good night of racing.  Some of those juniors are going really fast now that we're in the closing weeks of the season!

Tonight, it's back to the track for MRTL Premier Division; woohoo!