Lost With Life

Dont cycle into tree’s it hurts….

Last night we headed up into three rock to ride some trails, its been a week or so since I last went out on the single speed so headed up feeling tired but pretty good. The climb up the road to the Ariel’s was good and I only had to stop once which was what I kind of expected. There were big plans to head up to three rock but the weather was pretty bad so we settled for the normal trails, on the drop in to the first drop my suspension bottomed out and nearly sent me into a tree which was the story for the rest of the evening. I enjoyed the riding but I just cant seem to set the suspension up correctly on the forks I have got on my single speed.

Alas this morning I was looking at new forks on CRC and found a set of Rock Shock Recon for half price so decided to get them as they have lockout which should make climbing on the single speed a lot easier. They still seem to have some left if any one is interested:- Link to rock shocks

Stats for the ride were:-

• Start Time: 2008-11-11 19:22:57
• Total Time Seconds: 4620.88 (~77 minuites)
• Distance Meters: 11762.39
• Average Speed: 9.16

• Start Time: 2008-11-11 21:02:21
• Total Time Seconds: 548.9 (~9 minuites)
• Distance Meters: 3768.18
• Average Speed: 24.71

My Training Plan (Week 1)

I always used to love swimming as a kid and as such have always had a love for the water which I think comes from my canoeing days. It is also a very good way to keep fit when you dont have a large amount of time, so a couple of weeks ago I found a pool down the road from work and started going swimming a couple of times a week.

At about the same time I started think that maybe it would be nice to have some one to tell me the best way to train. Also to keep me on the straight and narrow so I dont over train or end up like a couch potato. Trio very kinly stepped to do this role and this week I had my first proper training session in the pool which was very different to just swimming up and down for thirty minuites like I would normally do.

The training session was quite easy compared to pushing your self hard for thirty minuites doing lengths up and down the pool but felt a lot more specific so actually felt more rewarding at the end. I have to do this routine once more this week which I am looking forward to.

Thank you Trio for helping…

Today was windy… infact very windy but I headed out from work and got blown up one side of the park and back down the other a few times and then headed home. 45km in total and have been working on my new site at http://tribeguru.appspot.com/upload so I have some better stats…

• Start Time: 2008-11-10 18:17:22
• Total Time Seconds: 1339.25
• Distance Meters: 9437.180664
• Total Ascent: 212.450561
• Total Descent: 163.903931
• Height Difference: 164.866211
• Average Speed: 25.3678181

• Start Time: 2008-11-10 18:39:41
• Total Time Seconds: 1399.8
• Distance Meters: 9480.688477
• Total Ascent: 123.529788
• Total Descent: 99.496829
• Height Difference: 59.601684
• Average Speed: 24.3823964261

• Start Time: 2008-11-10 19:03:01
• Total Time Seconds: 1335.53
• Distance Meters: 9494.498047
• Total Ascent: 116.799684
• Total Descent: 109.589845
• Height Difference: 48.065918
• Average Speed: 25.5929802919

• Start Time: 2008-11-10 19:25:18
• Total Time Seconds: 519.48
• Distance Meters: 4109.392578
• Total Ascent: 59.602297
• Total Descent: 18.746217
• Height Difference: 41.336792
• Average Speed: 28.4781190437

• Start Time: 2008-11-10 19:33:58
• Total Time Seconds: 2523.32
• Distance Meters: 12188.451172
• Total Ascent: 161.02173
• Total Descent: 227.352663
• Height Difference: 93.248047
• Average Speed: 17.3891635699

3 laps of the park (~30km) on the road with the night lights and then 15 km road home. Reminder to self… eat more at lunch unless you want to bonk a few km’s home. These are good winter base miles so will build these up over the winter as they don’t take long and I can do it straight from work.

Its been a while since I have been out on a bike and even longer since I have been out on the full suspension but I decided that I might as well today as the single speed is not very good in the lead mines. I cycled over with some people from the club and did a fair bit of faffing, two laps of the epic club course and then cycled home again.

30.05 Km
171.6 Mins
10.50 Kmph

As I said lots of faffing and my Garmin was on continuous timing mode.

Snow on three rock

You can tell the winter is here when you get to the top of the trail and there is snow for the whole length of it. Looks like its going to be a case of wrapping up warm and night lights for the next six months.

The original spec for bike I brought about a year ago was http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=22022 but has been upgraded a large amount to make it a more comfortable and enjoyable ride. The spec is as follows…

FRAME SIZE: Medium
REAR SHOCK: Specialized Fox Brain Fade
FORKS: Fox F100 RL (100mm of Travel)
HANDLE BARS: Race Face Carbon Next SL Riser XC
GRIPS: Ergon GX1 (http://www.ergon-bike.com/en/grips/gx1.html)
BRAKES FRONT / REAR: Avid Juice 7 160mm rotors
FRONT DERALIER: Shimano M581 LX
REAR DERAILLEUR: SRAM X.0, 9-speed, long cage
SHIFT LEVERS: SRAM X-9, aluminum trigger 9-speed
CASSETTE: SRAM PG950
CHAIN: Wippermann 920 Teflon 9sp
CRANKSET: Shimano XT Chainset HollowTech II M770
PEDALS: Shimano M-520 SPD
WHEELS: Fulcrum Metal 1 UST
TYRES: Maxxis Cross Mark UST
SEAT POST: Race Face Next XL Seat Post
SADDLE: Specialized BG Phenom

Looking for 1650 ono and I am selling because I want to get a hard tail for next year. I will post some pictures at the weekend when there is some light in the day. But here is one from a few months ago (Minus the mud guard)

Email: oliver.castle@tribeguru.com
Tel: 0862255391

Prizes and Number Boards

Well I have been off the bike all week with a stupid cold but life must go on and I have been busy organizing the single speed national championships all week. As you can see in the picture the prizes are more then just trophy’s following the scheme of single speeding and I decided to make the number boards a little more interesting than the normal ones you get at events .

Should be a good event so check out http://www.singlespeedireland.com/ for more information.

The tea pot of wine

Cause and effect are a funny thing, it started off with a few glasses of wine and then the idea that maybe wine served from the tea pot might be nice. This then followed with some wobbly cycling as my friend called it and then a leaving party and lots of whiskey….

The effect was a two day hang over and a stupid cold that will probably keep my of my bike for the rest of the week.

Note to self: Wine from a tea pot is never a good idea…