I used to ride absolutely any trail I came across. Today, though, I rode a trail which I’ve ridden before but found myself completely out of my depth. My problems started before the ride when I tried to replace the front mech. cable on the Trek 29er. It is routed through the frame and aContinue reading “Out of my depth.”
A Fartlek ride!
One of my brothers often entitles his runs, on the app. Strava, as “Fartlek” runs. Curiosity got the better of me and I Googled the term to find that it is a Swedish word meaning “speed play”. It’s an unstructured form of interval training where you intersperse periods of high effort with more relaxed parts.Continue reading “A Fartlek ride!”
A road ride for training.
The main difference between mountain bike riding and road riding is that the off road terrain constantly makes you change the amount of effort which you apply. Yes, a hill on the road will force you to up the power but off road the differences are more marked. It’s much rarer to be able toContinue reading “A road ride for training.”
Birthday Boy!
Yesterday was my birthday. It wasn’t a significant one. I didn’t change age category on the app. Strava, that’ll be next time. We’re doing a massive garden project at the moment so I didn’t have the time for a long and indulgent ride, which is what I really need. My last ride was a shortContinue reading “Birthday Boy!”
A virtual race.
Late last year I noticed a rider trying desperately hard to set a fastest ever time on the app. Strava. We follow each other’s progress though we have never met and before he managed to grab the King of the Mountains title for a fastest ever lap I had a go at it and accomplishedContinue reading “A virtual race.”
Spring has started early.
Spring has 2 possible start dates. The equinox around the 21st of March used to be considered correct but nowadays it’s probably more common to cite the first of March. The other day I looked at weather.com which predicted 10 days without rain in our area. This is excellent news for every mountain biker soContinue reading “Spring has started early.”
Wind in the willows.
“Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” So says Ratty to Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s classic novel ‘The Wind in the Willows’. I’m building my own boat so in the spring, when I launch it, I’ll be able to confirm orContinue reading “Wind in the willows.”
Training for 2021.
In recent weeks I’ve only ridden twice a week. I don’t think I’ve been training myself well and probably not maintaining the same level of fitness I had last autumn. In many ways it doesn’t matter because I don’t have much to train for apart from 2 challenges which I’ve set for myself to achieveContinue reading “Training for 2021.”
Spring can’t be far away.
It’s easy to enthuse about a winter ride. You can enjoy it for it’s good points but who are we kidding? Riding dry trails is far better. We seem to have had a wet winter after a strange summer. We barely saw a drop of rain in March, April and May then barely a dryContinue reading “Spring can’t be far away.”
The mathematics of a boat.
Did you leave school and think you’d never need mathematics again? I didn’t. I’ve been doing various engineering projects over the years including 5 self designed, self built sportscars, one of which was battery powered. I built a suspension fork for my Proflex mountain bike around 18 months ago. I built a timber framed extensionContinue reading “The mathematics of a boat.”
Mountainbiker 