Showing posts with label crashes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crashes. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

All sorts of Training

Training over the past couple weeks has bee going pretty good for me.
I think i have been hitting my 100 miles a week possibly more but i havent actually counted yet.
Im not going to go into much detail at all about any of my routes, but i will post the links to my garmin recorder rides just so you can see what sort of distances i have done and if you live in the area, what sort of routes you can take if you want to try some new routes. or try and beat my times..

Just a simple, easy ride, mainly downhill.

Smashed out a big 82 mile ride. Was pretty difficult but kept a 15.5mph avg. Also a high top speed that was very scary!

fairly fast shortish blast.

went out with the yogi cycling club to spin my legs in prep for the time trial.

Warm up ride to get to the time trial event. was further away than i was remembered which was a bit annoying. Felt like it was too long.

and again my TT race.

I have missed some rides out here as they were before i got the Garmin edge200 gps. so not much i can do as i cant remember.

I have tried to make sure that i keep things intersting by mixing things up. On the days that i havent done any rode cycling, i have been riding my cyclocross course ( will put up images and map of that soon), practicing cyclocross riding technique i.e bunnyhoping logs, doing turns on grass as fast as i can untill i fall off to find the limits, running with the bike, mounting and dismounts and steep decents. This again i  might post some videos of me doing it or something if i can find someone bored enough to come with me and film/photo it. Just so it gives you guys a better feel of this bike handleing training.  
Talking of finding my limits, i definitely found it last Friday night. I was practising my cyclocross course, hit a concrete wet corner at a good speed, forgetting it gets slippery when wet and greasy. Went to sprint out and the rear wheel-span, lost the front wheel at hit the floor whilst spanking the floor with my hand and slid across on my front into the muddy bank on the side. I thought it was quite funny at the time because it came out of nowhere. Only realised it wasn't so funny when i saw that my new bar tape had ripped...dam it. I then decided that this could be a fun corner so I went back did it a couple times getting a big DH style drift through the corner. didn't fall this time. : )

I have also been doing some circuit training with my friends. This is a good bit of fun and is a good test for fitness. We did it a couple of time on the beach which has proved to be the hardest for sure. doing Shuttles/ sprints on sand is just straight up ridiculous. This is the circuit:
- 1mile high intensity cycling   or  10 sprint shuttles
- 8 chin ups
- 30 crunches
- 15 burpees
- 15 press ups
- 30 squats
- 1 mile ride   or  10 sprint shuttles
- 10 chest press'
- 20 sit-ups
- 10 feet elevated press ups
- 15 lunges each leg
- 15 tricep dips
- 1 mile ride or  10 sprints
we try to have about at least a 20 sec rest in-between each thing and do the circuit 2-3 times with a minute or two rest between each circuit.
Cant remember how long this takes all together. But, i think im allergic to it as i get really warm, sweaty, short of breath and have aches and pains over my body... Sometimes i question why anyone works out..

So this has pretty much what i have been upto since i last blogged.
Ill get my course map and images up soon.
catch you peoples then..

also, Sorry for the lack of images, i know they make it more interesting, but i have none. The next post will be full of them which will keep you all happy!


Thursday, 19 July 2012

The weird and crazy world of Cyclocross


Iv realised whilst speaking to people lately that they have absolutely no idea what cyclocross is. I try to explain that its like road riding, but off road, fast pace and a fair bit of running with the bike. I can understand  that it might be difficult to imagine it if you haven't seen it before so here it is.. I made sure there were bails in the video because I think its hilarious. Some pretty sweet looking courses in the videos with awesome features. I especially like the bmx/ dirt jump looking sections.enjoy!













Saturday, 14 July 2012

The Ride (bike #1)

Redline CX

Here it is! This is my cross bike #1. I have two cross bikes, i will take a pic of the other one at a later date.
this is my favourite of the two mainly because its lighter and rides better, but also because it has the better components on it. I was lucky enough to have been given this bike from my Bro out in California as it was his old bike and didn't need it any more. Cheers Mark!

Many people will think that this is just a road bike. If you look closer, you will notice a few differences. Cross bikes are to be ridden mainly off road so, this requires a few subtle differences over a road bike.
The first and most visual thing that sets it apart is the brakes. This has canti-lever brakes whereas road bikes have smaller more aerodynamic calliper brakes. The only reason for having these bigger brakes is to allow for  better mud clearance. i.e. stop mud gathering at the brakes making it almost impossible for the wheels to turn.
   Another difference is the frame strength, due to the off-road demands, the frame is overbuilt, mainly around the head tube on this frame, just to stop it from snapping or bending.
The frame seat and chain stays are also a little wider to also allow for better mud clearance.

My bike currently has a road setup, with road slick tyres and a bigger chainring. this is purely to achieve higher speeds and make it a bit easier. For the cross season i will put a smaller chain ring on and put on some nobbly off road tyres. I'll go into that more a bit nearer the time.

This is a pic i took today but it is not how it will stay. I have a few upgrades planned which should come fairly shortly. I will post pictures of each new thing. It weighs about 21.5lbs at the moment and i will be looking to get rid of some of that weight.
Heres a list of the bike and components:
 - Redline CX Frame and fork
 - Alex hubs on Alex AT450 rims (soon to be replaced, and stored as spare wheels)
 - Dura Ace 7700 Groupset ( Rear Mech currently not on it but will put that on soon)
 - Shimano LX brakes
 - Time Atac pedals i think. ( i use these on road but will change to crank bros 'egg beaters' for off road)
 - Profile Design stem and bar
 - Easton EC70 seat post
 - Selle italia Flite saddle

and thats pretty much it. I dont know what tyres, cant see anything written on them from the sofa and im not moving. 
Hopefully you'll stick around and follow my progress and find out how much bike weight i can drop, if at all. and also at what cost! Also i will post some pics of bike #2 very soon which i want to get rid of some weight at little cost.
You Stay Classy readers....