I had 3 huge bags to show them so it was a driving mission, but this means passing up through North Wales and mountains.

Which also means Cader Idris on the way home. The run is from 300ft to 2854ft and back in 7 miles.

4pm I parked up, hid all my stuff round the car. Put on shorts, shoes and merino, stretched and plodded off to the steps.

The first few hundred feet are steps and stones that need a slow constant warming pace.

By the top of these I am drenched in sweat, breathing to the bottom of my lungs and my legs are burning.

The steps stop, the mountain still climbs on rocks, gravel and grass. The sun is in my eyes, my shades are off as the lenses are already sweat stained. I tap out a constant pace. I pass all the walkers coming off the hill to go home.

I try to thank them for moving aside but my breathing is too hard and I am beginning to descend into that level of concentration you need when pushing beyond.

I reach the lake and decide that today is the day to go right to the top, round and down. But I have bought no water or food.

The climb from the lake really kick. I can run short sections and then others it’s marching pushing on my legs. I pass another set of walkers who look at me with questioning faces.

The trail flattens for a short spell and I calm my breathing and concentrate hard on a smooth pace.

I run, march, run, march up and up feeling the onset of dehydration. When I look back this was the toughest bit. I run a sentence through my head over and over asking the next walkers if I can have some of their water. Will I ask, won’t I ask?  The last people thought I was mad. Who wants to speak to a sweating runner in the wilds.

No one comes along. I see bilberry bushes along the trail that all seem bare. I search harder and find that bushes in the shade of rocks have fruit. I eat every one I find no matter how ripe.  50 berries kick in. Pace rises.

I see the top with a ladder over a fence where I stop and look at the view. 44 minutes.  I look down to the lake and rejoice.

I then look along the ridge and see I still have a decent and another climb. A big climb. To higher than where I am.

I am not at the top.

I am super hot, vision is blurred and my hands feel tight and cramp like. And I am not at the top. I am a long way off and this knocks me.

I have a very long steep decent followed by a sharp climb. People are coming down and I can only just see them. Should I continue. Will going on be harder than going back. I can’t get this far and not do this. Now or never.

Top off, volume up, wipe face and down the slope. It is really steep and loose and I have trouble slowing down. I am worrying about injury and my ability to get round and I am making mistakes.

I meet the walkers at the bottom of the climb. They all smile and say hi and I cannot bring myself to ask for water. Am I embarrassed about being so far out and so unprepared?

I start the last climb. I can’t run, but I maintain my fast march. I look for bilberries but up this high there is nothing but rock. I look for pools of water, but the only ones are peaty.

Then there is the last gully to the trig point. It’s looks like a greek mountain. And then I am up.

I spend 10 minutes at the top. Absolute silence. Birds are on the floor resting. No wind. The Irish sea to the fore and North Wales behind. There is a rock shelter.

It all come back. My legs. My breath. My confidence. I have done it and now I just have to get back.

I hear voices and decide to descend.

The fist section is over grass. Steep and fast. Rocks appear. Picking a line has to be fast and acurate.

I then enter back into rocks and gravel and the perfect hip hip mix enters the head phones. I pick up the pace across the rocks despite the gradient feeling like vertical and relax into the tune. I dance down the boulders. The more I relax the faster I can be.

There is nothing right now but the rhythm and my rhythm.  I am now flying along and I have shoved the fear of falling away.

I join the path I climbed up on and know it’s steps all the way to the car. I pass all the walkers I passed on the climb. I replay the last track and dance the last decent to the car.

On the very last step I stop and whoop.

I am soaked, boiling hot, my knees and ankles are painful, my shoulders and back are stiff but I feel like I won.Further, higher, longer and faster.

And I beat my head.

They have a tent that can fit 100 people.

20 speakers and 80 attendees.

It’s 4 days long.

The location is idyllic and accommodation superbly comfortable.

The lectures inspiring.

The food will be local and made by Anja who worked here and is now writing her own cook book.

The company will leave you with friends and stories for life.

And I will be taking attendees running.

And they have just 4 tickets left

So if you want to spend 4 days washing around in intellectual compost that will  return you to your world ready to make change then buy now.

It is one of the most inspirational things that I have ever done.

Call 01239 62 35 84 and tell em we sent you.

Despite Steve getting us up and running on Friday we still only had one line so no e-mail for the shops.

Paul was on site today and spent the morning sending tones from our end down the line to the “pot” and from the exchange to the pot then joining the right wires.

And it worked! We have two lines again.

They widen the hole on our wire side later next week…

Man of the moment.

My favourite bloke today.

Steve from BT.

Repaired the cable in 30 minutes.

We are live live LIVE.

So clear your desktop, file away your files, do a tweet, make a cuppa and prepare to have a browse.

So did next doors.

BT and everyone were no help despite many many phonecalls.

Then going home I saw the new hole in the ground that the construction company dug yesterday full of telephone wires.

So I went to have a look today and met Ray the massive  foreman and we had a look at the wires and I found this.

Despite us not having access to the world he did all the swearing.

Today we cannot download your orders, so if you need stuff give us a ring and we will get your order done over the phone and out.

01239 614122. Emma, Hollie and Ed are waiting.

And our Bristol, Cardigan and London stores are open as usual.

BT man due in 1 hour. Tick tock.

we’ve all pack one home and Pete and Aron are looking for mistakes.

Open a box.

Count its contents.

Seal the box.

Onto the shelves.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

All on top of the orders that keep coming down and need sending out and only the odd cuppa and lunch have stopped them.

They have sped in the new season. Thanks warehouse.

We had a pow wow today with nearly everyone in the office to discuss what we all thought our ticks and crosses have been over the last 14 years.

The people in the pic run the website, design the clothes, buy the clothes, find the factories, shape the words and pictures, land the clothes and check them, print every single one of our tees, pay the bills, service the customer and guard this brand everyday.

It was great to look back, to flick through all the catalogues we have made that usually spend days on our shelves.

And I felt all those good vibrations that photo’s and uttered memories stir up.

And today’s pause was a great reminder of why we are on this journey, what was great and what we left by the roadside.

Go get your company together and listen to it’s voices and remember what you have all achieved. We spend a long time working and it’s getting longer.

howies tyres are the right pressure, the chain is oiled, the sun is shining and everyone is pedalling.

Onwards

I got up super early to run, and was a bit apprehensive about venturing out into the mele. But once out and running the reality of my location unfolded into a nice picture as I hacked out of Brixton into the map I had in my head. I found some peace in the i-pod and a steep hill where I could race bikers to the top.  I found a small park with old trees.

Then the sun rose, the day got hot and I headed back for breakfast and work.

Gotta loose a little weight next time I run that road.

Google maps, 1:25000, 1:50000, those drawn by friends to get you to where you want to go the way they know how to get there.

Looking at old maps that show the change of the landscape over time.

I love to pore over a map after a run or a ride, replaying the reality in my head as I retrace the journey mm by mm ticking off the landmarks.

Maps of flow process, of electrical circuits, migration, national territory, landscape, genetics, weather, floor plans and celestial all perfectly capture and represent the reality.

This one is on the floor in Temple meads railway station to show wheelchair users to the lift. It simply works.

So i have spent the week in london manchester and bristol meeting new shops.

We set up a show room in brixton to show people our spring summer samples, and despite not having done any selling for a while I have had real enjoyed meeting small independent shop owners about their business, their brand, their ideas and their lives.

I am back again next week for a full week again.

Might bring the bike next week.

The van is one of their eco-start fleet which means when they stop the engine turns off until the driver drops the clutch to pull away.

The driver hated it as the radio goes off as well.

Work in progress.

staying in portishead tonight but parents aren’t back till late so gonna try running it.

10 miles or more.

here goes…

huge rain and hot sun came and went as we agreed on shirts, argued over dresses, went round in circles on blue/kermit/khaki, tried on stuff despite bad pants and bra day, scrutinised buttons, big or small stripes, sweated over branding, measured arm holes, laughed at the clangers and planned the theft of the brilliant stuff.

we got sandwiches and coffee delivered and ploughed on and on

great fun tough meeting.

For his year end project at uni he worked on making our white meeting room a place for ideas and fun.

More later.

Start in the wildlife park at the gate, round the board walk, cross the road, onto the squirrel trail, down to the teifi, along the teifi, swim across the river and back, up the 100 steps, upto fforest, down the squirrel trail and back round the board walk.

35 minutes 26 seconds.

Today6th run. Spiked trainers. Same route, the boardwalk was like running on ice. It was hard to even get propulsion in some places. No swim as the river raged, ruben on my heels 31 minutes 50 seconds. Near best time.

Legs numb from stingers and barmbles.

Coffee at fforest as a reward.

It went under the front wheel, was flicked up onto my right foot which due to the fixie kept on pedalling.
It tried to jump across to my left foot but slipped and went under the rear wheel, got up and ran up a tree.

Rock hard little thing.

It was the usual Fforest route, but a stitch stopped me in my tracks. For the first time I had to walk.

Three times actually.

Breathing was forced and painful. I wondered could it be my heart.

Tried? Dehydrated? Ill? Old?

And I have to ride home via Eglwyswrw which is up hill all the way, into a head wind on a fixed.

Oh well.

Not a look that I am going to rock anywhere other than from the changing room to the running shoes. Lunch today will be a whizz round the wildlife park.
The race on October the 3rd is starting to require an increase in training.

We have had sparky Mark in all day testing everything we have electrical in the building to see if it’s safe.

He has spent the day under desks, crawling round the printshop, in cupboards, behind the fridge and washing machine and he found a suspect extension lead with a cracked case and a radiator that went bang and sparked when he plugged it in. They have left for the recycle yard.

You have to make sure your people are safe.

This week Scott from the Cardigan shop, Ruben our web manager, Nathan in Finance and old me signed up to compete in a Survival of the Fittest event on the 3rd of October.

It started as an e-mail challenge from Nathan and has now developed into some quite strong office bravado.

And we are four distinct active humans.

Nathan does both gym work for strength and runs in the real world. He looks lean and has great motivation. He trains regularly

Scott is a strong paddler (check out his blog!), runner, coastering very lean outdoor boy. He’s always doing something.

Ruben is a runner and biker who is running good distance weekly and riding the trails at the weekend.

And then there is me. The oldest. (This week I really really thought I was still 37 and I am actually 39) Adhoc biker first and runner. Always covered distance.

So we are pitting ourselves slightly against each other on a 10km run with challenges along the route like walls, steps, swims etc.

So in my preparation I started running again today. The usual 6 miles round fforest but with a swim in the surprisingly warm Teifi along the way and despite 2 months off the pins was only a few minutes off my best. (I’ve just climbed out in the pic).

My training is going to be real. Bike, legs, trails, river, sea, logs, lifting, scrambling.

And to have a goal, a test, a challenge and a focus is a real zing. I find myself waking up in the night thinking of pace, stride, breathing and getting into that amazing place of pain and focus.

We have entered to leave in the last Wave 12.

Will you race with us? Will you race against us? Enter now.

the tide is going to be on the turn so we’ve planned a 7.00am start in llechryd.

when we went to collect a loan canoe, Kevin who makes the birch creeks offered us his personal boat to use.

two beautiful canoes to use is quite a result.

early night tonight.

Then the reviews were more than great but I could not make the Westend to see it.

As a kid I would stay up late with mum and dad watching the Morcambe and Wise show. When I look back in my mind of memories, there it sits glowing happy gold in the childhood section.

So when I found it was coming to Cardigan I bought mum and dad tickets and we went to see it last night.

Everything good that everyone good has written about it is true . It was an older audience (I was a youngster in the crowd) and they responded as though it was Eric.

And a couple of time, as  I sat their in the big chairs surrounded by parents it could have been the 70′s for me to.

If you live near Rhyl, Monmouth,Greenock, Dundee, Inverness, Dunfermline, Arbroath, Omagh, Sligo, Navan, Dublin, Carlow, Thurles, Tralee, Wimborne, Welwyn Gdn City or Edmonton get some tickets and see a great man’s life in 2 hours.

I bet he gets a standing ovation there to.

The pace on Saturday was true slow summer.

A sweltering  day at the urdd eisteddfod with a picnic lunch watching performances.

Back into Aberaeron in the evening for great fish and chips in a seaside town.

An amble round the harbour to get an ice cream.

We went to The Hive on the Quay who have been selling sell renowned honey ice cream for 40 years . We were served by Sannan who turned out to be a true howies fan and a truely nice bloke.

We sat on the harbour wall and watched the sun over the Irish sea.

Roll off Autumn.

They are having a 10% sale off all paddling gear like boats, paddles, spray decks and buoyancy aids. They have sit on’s, sit ins, river and sea boats and great coffee. And you can try before you buy.

If you need to check before you travel call them on 01239 615286.

Weather down here for the weekend is paddling weather.

David’s On One single speed has been making a clunking noise when pedalling the past week. He thought it was the freewheel, so bought a shiney new DX.

I rode it to the shops and thought it felt a little more that the chain was moving sideways than the freewheel slipping.

Turns out that the end of one links snapped off.

We are both lucky to have our balls.

Aron’s brother Hefin for his end of year design project is going to make our meeting room a better place to be.

This is his first draft model.

No coffee machine though…

We have a web advert out at the moment where you can vote for your favourite retro howies tee, so the window displays will be a patchwork blanket of old designs.

Aron has been cutting out cardboard shapes and sewing  (quite beautifully) tee designs to them.

Should be in store in the next few days.

He also does dress alterations and bespoke wedding dresses.

(This last bit is not true)

I have only ever seen the railings from the road, but never entered the park to see our concrete velodrome.

When I rode up the side and met this sight I could not believe my eyes. 405meters of smooth concrete built in 1899 still here and just about to get a make over as part of the £323k project to spruce up the park. It was so big I couldn’t get it all in the picture.

So I cruised a few laps and then hoofed a few and ran out of gears even on a 48×15. The BBC website have some great pictures of it full right up in it’s hayday.

Then it was time for the long ride home and the hills nearly killed me. Huge up. Huge down. Repeat all the way home with no place to sit and spin.

This hill was so steep I had to stop and crank  tight all the fixings on my shoes to get more pull on the pedals. At times I thought I was going to tear the soles from the uppers.

At the top I was mauled and stopped to eat peanut butter cliff bars and sip cool water in the hot sun looking over this field. Some days one gets the good jobs.

After the sample sale on Saturday we got out at 6.30 to go on a bigger city hack. Super Ted Poppy from Cooler Magazine and her brother Will (who could really coaster wheelie), Nick who we have been chatting to for years at sample sales and have never ridden with. Barney and me. We headed out into the City to Smithfield Market. Then up into Camden where the traffic was heavy and a real buzz. Then a huge climb upto Hampstead Heath where we found The Spaniard pub where we had proper cider that tastes like apple juice and kicks like Tequila.

Then we bombed back down hill through the Holloway road into a hot city and a great vegan fest in SAF off  Old Street.

It’s nice to have a city buzz when you live in the sticks.

This is what Will did 70% of the ride.

Wheelie to the sun through Camden

The climb to the heath. It just went up and up and up. I have always liked up.

This was the cider. After a big climb the road flattened for half a mile and then it pasted tightly between two buildings which Ted declared the place for a cool cask ale. The queue in the Spaniard was huge. The food, booze perfect and the  beer garden was a tranquil buzz.

Balmy summer nights have been a long time coming.

Jon Matthews who was an early howies investor and still invests in us with writing, ideas, advice and belief. We owe Jon big time.

While I was up at the sample sale he showed me round the W+K Hanbury street offices. Despite being a much bigger creative engine than us, there was still the same creative things we have here.

Walls of post-its. Scrap books. Idea trails. Scamps. Artwork and inspirations.

And on the very top floor they have a garden that is full of beer and wine and people.

I wish Pete had come.

He both agreed to take us out for  ride tonight and to show us where he turns raw tube into raw bike frames. And the workshop was every bit as functional as the frames. Lathe, presses, jigs, welding gear and swarf.

We got treated to the full story of school to bike builder and a look at the latest ideas made real. He is at the place where you do what you love for a long time just for the love and then the money slowly begins to follow. He is truly living his dream and living bike.

Thanks for the tour man.

A chain stay being shaped.

One rule.

Man at work.

Exactly set to exactly make the chainstay exactly shaped.

Acetylene warm the glue.

1.5 ton of metal moved in by hand and scafold tubes.

Ted tells us the tale infront of the jig he made to hold the tubes whilst he welds them together.

Bike dust.

TBC.

If you need a bike mail tedgfldn@gmail.com. But remember not to disturb.

rode out from brick lane down to the tower of london. hacked over tower bridge and had a close shave taking pics on holey roads.

down to the tate. over black friars.

raced as fast as our legs would spin along the river then up into Trafalgar square.

We stopped and read all the signs that the protesters have put on their tents opposite parliament. It’s good that people in this country can raise their voice. But do we do it often enough now we have comfortable lives?

Then we tracked back to Piccadilly and then headed home planning tomorrow mornings ride.

Breakfast at Rapha’s place then itchy feet to see some outdoor stuff. Then work.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be another great day in Greater London.

we have been out hacking the streets on the fixies. we drove down from Wales and then did a midnight run, then today we got up early did the east end, into the city, into Trafalgar square where we got told to dismount, past downing street, met mike forham who was looking at the houses of parliament. (We had left him in cardigan as he’s off on the photo shoot) onto the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, down crazy Piccadilly, Regent Street, Carnaby Street, Oxford Street and then hoofed it back to the east end. All in hot sunshine.

Tonight we ride again.

And tomorrow morning.

And…

There are some swear words in this. I tried not to.

Why are we not getting better at the bad stuff?

We invented the plane and have streamlined systems to fly people all over the world, but cannot get them home when there is ash in the sky.

Leaves stop trains.

We create power from uranium, but have no great plan for it when it’s spent but still highly dangerous.

And when 5000 barrels of oil a day flood onto the oceans it will take another 90 days to drill another well into the oil field to release the gas to stop the flow. So by the time they stop it between 1-5 million barrels will have leaked into a fragile ocean.

And this is the third time in 5 years BP have fucked up like this.  Why should shareholders and the company benefit when the world has paid the price?

Governments, business, people need to make the companies that are making big big money from high risk stuff prove that they are prepared for the big fuck up’s before they start.

Really prove it.

They must stand up in front of a huge room of children who will come up with all those madcap ideas that may happen. And if they can prove they are prepared, the next question from the kids will be “why”?

And if after all this they fuck up, then the company management is  sacked after they have gone out and cleaned up their mess.

When it’s big stuff like this, companies have got to be good at the bad stuff.

who knows this ?

Right out the back or the woods running along the river in the blazing sun it felt right for the first river swim of the year.

I used to skinny dip as a kid in the irrigation ditches round Portishead, and that feeling of jumping into cold water where you can’t see the bottom and your mum would go mad if she knew is still there.

Once I was in the flow took me  feet down river super quick with my feet knowing on sunken trees and it was a fight back to my clothes.

Mum was right, but I wouldn’t let her know that.

Two adventures for lunch.

Super flat and super fast drafting buses and swerving the death pot holes. We met Sinead from howies Carnaby for good food and conversation.

We rode back into town up the Oxford road which gave us some heavy traffic to zag through and then straight into the city centre that was in the full throws of a Saturday night.

Nearly got broadsided by a police van doing a u-turn.

I don’t get to ride city much so I was a buzzing when we got back to the hotel.

Would love to spend a day hacking round this city,

Luckily he left his number and then swung by again.

We have just unpacked and hung 4 boxes of men’s merino, tee shirts, polo’s, shirts and jumpers.

After we finished last night we went out for a 2 hour ride round the centre and then out into the burbs to find the 8th day. We rode canals, underpasses, cobbled streets, tram lines, car parks, waste ground, the northern quarter and then cold and wet back to the hotel. Bikes into the bath and out for food to what was meant to be Manchester’s greatest vegan restaurant, but on arrival the vast array of meat on the menu was a flag to Barney’s mistake.

This morning, Sally who I ran with last year took me out for a 40 minute run looping round the centre. Despite the rain it was really warm.

Tonight we have a 30 minute ride out to the suburbs to eat, and Barney who only bought one pair of shoes is hoping for dry weather to return.

We leave for home at 4pm tomorrow. Bring a bag.