Pyro's Yard v2.0

The ranks are expanding! The regular Tuesday night Team Dogger (or 'Respectable Cycle Ride', according to the canoe club sweary-filter) Meanwood expeditions have swung up to a massive 7 riders of an evening, which fortunately means I don’t get suspicious looks for wandering around in the dark with a Frenchman any more.   Last Tuesday night was a normal ride. Meanwood was pretty wet, so we figure-eighted the loop to try and avoid some of the soggier patches, with varying degrees of success. One comedy snakebite, a couple of comedy crashes, slips and slides, new boy Charley missing a turn and leading some of the others astray and quite a lot of giggles and muffled swearing. All in all, a bit of fun.   I finally got round to sat-tracking the ride using the rather spiffy Nokia Sport Tracker software on my phone, so there’s a map of the route below. Meanwood has so many little trails and interlinked bits of singletrack there’s a pretty limitless variety of rides you can do, and ea...

Just had a cracking weekend with the crew from Extreme Care , the guys I do Water Safety & Rescue and First Aid work with. With the 2010 event season starting soon with probably our most intense event of the year, the National Student Rodeo , we were keen to get everybody up to date on the latest doctrine in First Aid. Dave was updating his assessors’ qualification as well, so he put on a 3-day First Aid at Work course for us, with both him and us being assessed. Of course, with us working as a rescue team, that means the 'at work' part is generally a riverbank and the level of First Aid we might have to do is a wee bit higher than the normal office based scenarios. So, out with the sticking plasters and ‘there there’ commentary, and in with the drowning victims, C-spine immobilisation and head injuries. Excellent...   We ran the course over two weekends, with plenty of time in between for revision. Well, sort of. Okay, I might have glanced at my notes once in a week. But a...

Disclaimer: Anything contained herewith may be a complete pile of cobblers and may not be the opinion of anyone, even the author. Apologies to whoever does the Shimano Corporation's marketing. "Your will to say 'yes' is only as strong as your ability to say 'no'." I'd love to claim that phrase was a bit of self-professed modern philosophy, or a lightbulb-lighting lightning bolt of raw intellect from some new-found guru of deep-thinking, but it's actually a piece of marketing spiel from Shimano for one of their new disc brakes. Still, I'm sure they paid someone a lot of money to come up with that, and as commercial philosophy goes it isn't bad. Good, original, semi-mystical gibberish is hard to come by these days. I read it once and went "Hmmm. That's interesting" , scrolled down and read about the brakes. They’re very shiny. I scrolled back up the page to read the spiel again, read over it a few times, and went "Wai...

So, as part of Operation Lardarse, we need to establish a routine. I know, routine is boring and saps your life away, “variety is the spice of life" etc etc. But I'm not going to try to living on spices alone, so there has to be some routine somewhere, and it may as well be here. Tuesdays are, and have been for some time, biking night. The good, the bad and the ugly of 'Team Dogger' (see this post for an explanation of that one) head out for a night ride, usually on trails we all know quite well, either the Meanwood loop from Headingley or one of the loops out around Temple Newsam/Kippax/Aberford area from Laurent (the Frenchman)'s house. Usually a couple of hours riding at least, with the odd stop for gossip. Over the winter I've dodged these on the basis of not getting back from work until after the others have set off - well, that's been my excuse anyway. Mainly I've wimped out of them. If I make sure my bike's in the car on a Tu...

So, it's that time of year again, the time for resolutions, 'never agains', maybe a hangover or three, sir? Well, if you don't mind... Ahem. Time to throw out old bad habits and replace them with new bad habits. Time to forget last year's regrets and set out to get yourself some new ones. And lots of time for looking downwards wondering what the large squidgy thing overhanging your jeans and blocking the traditional view of your toes is. The excesses of the festive period have been, well, excessive, which isn't normally a problem, but unfortunately my normal counter-attack on the waistline - the paddling of numerous cold rivers - fell at the first when the rivers were all either empty or frozen. This, as you can imagine, poses a rather insurmountable defense, so we went sledging in the boats instead. I towed my kayak 2km along snowy trails like a pulk. We drank well, ate well, and slid down snow-covered hills in kayaks. Very good fun, but not what you'd ca...

I like winter. I don't mind the cold, as long as I can wrap up against it. I don't mind the wet, as long as I'm warm enough. I especially love those cold, crisp days when your breath steams in the air and the frosty grass crackles under your feet. For a large number of years, I've loved it even more when my breath steamed and the frost crackled as I carried my kayak to the edge of another river, ensconced in thermals, fleece and drysuit, to launch myself into the whirling flow to see what the river and I can cook up between us in the way of fun. But, the last two years I've been preciously short of those days. My confidence went to pot two years ago, after an error of judgement, lazy paddling and poor technique led to a nasty swim. Since then, I've shied off rivers, huddling inside my comfort zone like a sleeping bag. I emerged from it, briefly, for last New Year's Scotland trip, but definitely didn't paddle as much as I could have, or indeed should have...

I used to float six inches off the ground, I was too weightless to ever be hurt. And I never knew the truth about untrue until I saw you in his shirt. It's always small things that break you open, they're the only things sharp enough The soft goodbye brush of your hand upon my face, your world exploding touch" (Fat Lady Sings - World Exploding Touch) Why chase the past? It hurts too much when you do. Looking up the people you cared about so long ago, finding they've all moved on. But you've moved on too, so why does it still give you that weird, melancholy, "jesus, if things had been different..." feeling. And the stupid part is that you know it's going to hurt, so why do it?! Why does that loose thread of past, that "I wonder what happened to so-and-so...", that "maybe she's still around..." pick at the back of your mind from time-to-time, to the point where you just have to go looking. It's all to easy to look these days,...

...New tricks? A couple of interesting bits going on this week. One, I turned 29. Not astounding in itself, birthdays happen every year, but anyway. This year marks my 20th year of kayaking, believe it or not. Definitely an Old Dog, then, in paddling terms. So for some new tricks! Monday night at the LUUCC session, Jon Fuller (King of the Wave) was teaching me - or trying to, anyway - to cartwheel. A lifetime of big boats with no pronounced edges has made me quite lazy with my edge control and 'body english' when I'm boating, so the idea is that some playboating, as much as I profess to hate it, will work on that propriaception and skill set, and hopefully improve my paddling. I realise some time ago that I've got some bad habits that get me into trouble every now and again, so I'm looking at this year as a chance to work on them. And hey, if all else fails, at least I'll provide some amusement for everyone else as I gurn around and fall over a lot. Cheers! Pyro

Opportunity waved my way again, briefly, and I'm out in Portugal right now for the Adventure Race World Championships, with Team Cruachan . I'll be providing various reportage for them, including (possibly) a new blog site. I'll let you know though! Cheers Pyro

Jeez, why do I only blog when things are a bit weird? Ach well... WHy the title? Well, It's true. It's a song lyric as well, which sticks to something I'm comfortable with. Things haven't been good recently. Most people won't have noticed this, because it's not something I've let on too much. But there's been a couple of pretty stressful moments, and they've had more of an impact than even I thought they would. The first issue was my car, the wonderful Fifty Quid Toyota, being delivered a sad verdict when it went in for servicing and MOT. Too much work to do, and too little time and money to do it meant it was officially and End Of Life Vehicle, and time to get rid. A shame, because it was a great car. So, Pyro went looking for something within his budget, which frankly wasn't very much, and came out with a decent little motor. Or so he thought... A seemingly endless sequence of electrical issue later indicated that it wasn't quite the barg...

A few new pics over at the Photoblog (the link's on the right of the screen there!) Go have a look. Pyro

Hey up. A little snowed under with work at the moment - although thankfully it isn't all 9-to-5 grind! Went out to Spain for the Bimbache again - thanks to Antonio and Rob for that one - and it was great to see a bunch of people again, Anne-Marie and Fred in particular. Also grand to meet a whole bunch of new people - Geoff, Jacques and Elo - to form the so-called 'International bunch'. A few beers, a lot of bad humour and a great time, thanks guys. Anyway, I put a few feelers out when I got back, and a couple of them have paid off, so watch out for articles and photography by Carrick 'Pyro' Armer appearing in sports magazines in the not-too-distant future! I won't jinx myself by saying which just yet, in case they don't go out, but I'll put a blog up when they do! Cheers, take it easy Pyro

So - a hysterical attempt at trying to get fit again. At trying to run more. At trying to meet people to race with. Anyway... Ran the Deerstalker earlier in the year - no blog about it because I'm lame - and ran a whole load better than I thought I was going to: 2:31 including a bit of standing about waiting for Elise and Jon (ha ha ha...). That's 8 minutes faster than previously, and it could have been 12. Had I done more training over the winter that would have been even more. But I didn't, so that's a moot point. So, a conversation first on SleepMonsters and then by email about doing some racing over summer and therefore a bit of motivation to do some training and some informal races over the early season. So I thought I'd start with the Jack Bloor, a 5 mile fell race starting from Ilkley Hmmm. Not the best of ideas! The picture above shows the route. Little bit steep. And I'm not in a good state. But, that said, I got round. It wasn't fast or pretty, bu...

"Well I will be your roof, your shelter from the storm, your footing against the wind. And I'll mend for you my dear them holes that have been torn, and I hope our paths will cross again" Okay, that isn't supposed to be as depressing as it sounds. I'm sat in the kitchen, in my PJs, with a large mug of strong black coffee and some blues/country music on the stereo - If you don't know him already, look up a guy called William Elliott Whitmore. A young man with the voice, lyrics and style of a 60-year old bluesman. Evidently had a hard paper round, but he's pretty amazing. - Anyway, it's Valentine's day. St Valentine, who has absolutely nothing to do with love and romance at all. Maybe I should say it's Lupercalia, the ancient Roman festival of fertility, rather than celebrating the feast of a very confusing and possibly fictional saint who, thanks to Chaucer, now is the patron saint of Hallmark tat (as well as beekeepers and epileptics. Go figure...

"She says "it's cold where you brought me..." He says "Darlin', don't you worry You can stay in my arms until the springtime comes" " - Cowboy Junkies, Winter's Song So, winter has hit the north of England with a dull and slightly soggy thud. The entire populace of The North appears to have forgotten that this happens every year and is either grumbling and crashing their cars because in the intervening 10 months of sogginess they've forgotten how to drive in icy conditions, or they're wrapping up warm, driving carefully, and just generally getting on with it. NB: I'm currently stood in the kitchen in a fleece, sipping an industrial strength coffee. You can see which of these options I went for. Last weekend I was shooting down at the Land Rover G4 Challenge UK Selections, which I have to say was fantastic fun. Big thanks to Land Rover and Trimedia for getting me involved, to Jo and Vix in particular, and to the competitors for...

"...I got paid, and I feel alright. So let's go downtown, and I'll buy you a drink: I'll be broke by tomorrow but I'm flush for tonight" (Jeffrey Foucault - Drunk Lullaby) The times they've been a changing. I've started my new job, am loving it quite a lot. It's completely the opposite of what I've been doing for the past 3 years, and is good. I've got a new(ish) car - well, new to me anyway - thanks to PC. Mate, not sure if you've ever read this, but you're a wonderful person. And... well... That's about it really. I've been a few places, caught up with a few people, seen a few things. I'm not massively happy or insanely sad, just caught up in the humdrum head-down of winter, and in need of a swift kick in the jacksy to free things up. That is all Pyro

"Neither success or failure is ever final" However mysterious and cryptic I try to be, word gets around. Recently there's been a few posts on stalkbook and here about things changing, and they genuinely are now. Most of the posts have been purely in the 'optimist' range - I've been hoping that writing things down will make me more likely to actually DO something to influence the way my life's been going: I know I have a tendency to rest on my laurels and try and let change come to me, but a fire under my a*se is something that's been a long time coming. The story so far goes a bit like this: I've been applying for new jobs, both inside and outside of my current company, due to the increasing frustrations I have with the office. I won't go into detail, but I came to a realisation a while back that all the snide, snipey little cracks I made about people, management, location etc were borne out of a real frustration and loss of patience with the p...

"Seasons change, mad thngs re-arrange, but it all stays the same like the Love Doctor Strange" Summer to Autumn to Summer again, this season's been a wierd one. But, out of the strangeness comes a wee touch of joy, and the start of my favourite part of the year - Yes, Summer is good, but I'm an Autumn/Winter person. Crisp cold mornings, thanking Merino sheep, Thermoroubaix lycra and W.L Gore and co as I fire into work, trying not to slide on the rare icy patches along the way. Work's the first joy, bizarrely. Things are working out. I finally got the Business Expert job I've been chasing for the best part of a year. I've got other interviews coming up which I'm still going for, but at least the base situation (in terms of both money and circumstances) has improved. Other work is the second joy: I'm booked up pretty much solidly from now til mid-November. Now, maybe working 7 days a week isn't the best of things but the weekends are going to be ...

Hmmm. I've actually struggled to write this blog entry, maybe because I'm pretty much still wrestling with what went on in my own mind and body during the race. But hey, here we go... A good friend's had a few episodes recently where he's been questioning why we do what we do, and a lot of the stuff I've written in previous entries has been focussed around that: WHY I adventure race, WHY I hurt myself and WHY it makes me what I am. Still, even after the boost to my confidence in surviving Sleepless in the Saddle, I was very very apprehensive coming into Man of Porage last weekend. For those who don't know what Man of Porage is, it's a bit of a cult event in UK AR circles. It's a long bike/run event, ostensibly just for fun, and one for which you cannot buy an entry, you have to be invited. The tales around it's origin are vague and sometimes contradictory but essentially it is this: A bunch of people go for a long ride/run event, from somewhere to...

Sorry, been a while since I last posted anything coherent (although it's debatable whether ANYTHING I post is totally coherent...) so here's a little excuse post. Been a bit busy recently, working for myself, Npower, Detail Events, Extreme Care and even getting some races in. Sleepless in the Saddle was a long time ago, and the weekend after that I did the Man of Porage. A lot of strange things (mentally) happened during Porage and I'm still wrestling with what exactly went on, but there'll be a more comprehensive post when I work it all out. Since then there's been safety and rescue work, watching my Dad abseil off the Tyne Bridge, having some good natters (and some good Cajun food) with some really good friends, and a lot of general fun and games shenanigans. On the employment front, things may be looking up, but I won't say much because nothing's confirmed yet, and I'm DEFINITELY keeping myself busy at the weekends - I'm working for SOMEONE 15 out...