Three Weeks left til NPS2

This week has not been too productive training-wise unfortunately. This has been mainly due to the problems I have been experiencing with my lower back and the fact that I am still in full-time work. Fair play to guys who can do a full days manual labour and still have the energy for training when they come home!

Got on the turbo trainer for an hour and a bit on Wednesday. These weeks are all about improving my lactate threshold. If I understand it right, this will allow me to go longer at hard pace (which equtes to about 165bpm in my case). This is definitely something I will need for NPS2 in Ballinastoe on April 19th. From what I have read from last years race, the course is based mainly on the Coillte built trails. This means plenty of 5min fire road climbs followed by a few minutes of singletrack descending and repeat. This could suit me better to last weeks race as you can really push it on the descents.

Today I took the road bike out for a spin. Headed from Castleknock-Porterstown-Maynooth-Naas-Newcastle-Rathcoole-Tallaght-Crumlin-Phoenix Park and home. Speedo clocked it at 88km. I actually quite enjoyed the spin. Would be a lot more enjoyable with someone I'm sure but still not so bad! Can definitely see how doing plenty of those pre season would get you well set up for racing mtb.

My five friends and I have started seriously thinking about what to do for summer this week. This is the main reason I have been working my two weeks off. I think the plan is going to be- fly from Dublin to San Francisso. From here, we're going to check out west coast USA for a few days before renting a car and taking a few days to road trip up to Vancouver. Here we plan to get a couple of weeks of biking in Whistler in before travelling around Canada a bit. Fairly loose plans at the moment but I reckon we'll be gone for a month- six weeks. Maybe longer if we can afford it! We've decided not to buy a working visa as they cost 650euro. The way I see it, by the time we found a job (pretty unlikely) and worked for the month, we probably wouldn't even make the 650euro back again!

That's all for now. My plan was to race the Des Hanlon memorial road race tomorrow but after today, I don't fancy the drive to Carlow to get hammered by roadies and wind. Think I'm gonna dust off Jim (my freeride bike) and do the classic Balliastoe to Djouce over the boardwalks. Sounds like a good crowd is out for it so should be a lotta fun!

NPS Round 1 Roundup

The first round of the NPS was held by Killarney CC in low and behold, Killarney! Myself and Fergal took the trusty van down very early on Saturday morning. We left Dublin at 8:00 and arrived at the track with tools and a plan to extend the course singletrack. After about an hour of scoping the track out, we found a couple of places where it could be improved. The work was actually fine and after a few hours, myself and the three lads had almost doubled the existing singletrack!

With this over, I got changed and went for a quick practice lap with Oisin. The course consisted of a long muddy climb, a fire road sprint, another long climb and then a mixture of singletrack/fireroad descending to the start. Although the track didn't really suit me (I prefer the more techincal ones as my fitness is never up to much) I was looking forward to a good race. We packed up our gear and headed into Killarney town to watch Ireland win the Grand Slam! Whata match!! Got some food in a local resuturaunt before heading back to the hostel for some much needed sleep. We were greeted to some great weather the next morning. Felt great to be able sit around in shorts and a jersey and be warm! Big change from the last few races last year where I was wearing jackets and thermal tights!

The race started at 1.30 at a decent pace. I got myself into first place after passing one of the lads who hammered off at the start. I quickly went about passing as many people from masters as I could. Think this was one of my mistakes- went too hard too early. I stayed in first until my chain jumped into the spokes in a singletrack section near the end of the lap. I got it sorted and contiuned on. This put me third place I think. The next couple of laps went without incident and I was feeling fairly strong. My chain went into my spokes a couple of times but it was never that big of a deal. On the climb of the 4th lap I began to 'hit the wall' Just had absolutely no power in my legs, started cramping and lower back pain started getting to me. I nearly collapsed going up the climb on lap 5 (the last one) and lost a couple of places here.

So in the end I rolled to the finish in 6th place. Not a complete disaster but off where I wanted to be. So what can I take away from the first race of the season?

Good points:
My tech ability is good I think. Will do ok in a tech race
I had good power for the first few laps, if I can keep this up I will do better
The new bike is PERFECT!

Bad points:
My endurance is next to non extistant
After going to an osteopath, I have been told that my left hamstring is much shorter than my right which is twisting my pelvis. This is causing the bad lower back pain in races. Will have to get this sorted...
I'm still cramping up too easily. Think I'll start taking deoralite the night before racing or something

Congratulations to Killarney CC for putting on a great event. The drive was rough though. Only thing keeping myself and Fergal going was Ciara and her horn pipe on Mid FM!

Lazy Bike Week

Had a complete week off the bike due to exam and to be honest, a bit of laziness. Had a good business exam on Monday, decent economics exam on Tuesday and decentish stats exam on Thursday. Tomorrow is the Djouce Challenge which I am really looking forward to. This has been set as a 'fun type event' but from experience from last year, most still bate off the front hoping for a win! I know most of the trails that will be on the 20km course which should work favourably for me. One of them, which has named 'The Secret Trail' (it wont be so secret after the race!) has to be one of the most technical and enjoyable trails I have ever ridden. Can't wait to ride it in race mode! Will be all or nothing I reckon...

After the last couple of weeks of poor/non existant training, I'm hoping just to have a steady race. Not expecting a decent result whatsoever but if I can get down Ecstacy and Benchcut well, it could set me up well for the rest of the course.

So the good news- two full weeks off college! I've secured a job in my Dad's work moving old parts from the old premesis to the new one. Gonna be a lonely, boring job but I should be able to flexible with my time so I can get out and practice starts and do some serious intervals on Monday, Wednesday and maybe something different on Thursday depending on how tired I feel. Little bit aprehensive about NPS1 next weekend as I don't think my endurance is up to much. Tomorrow will give me a better idea of what is needed to make the rest of the season more successful or for however long I'll be around for!

New Bike Review

Well after giving the new race bike a good few rides, I reckon I can write a proper review of it. It's a Rocky Mountain Vertex 70 in custom black and white colours. The spec list is:

Frame: 2008 RM Vertex 70
Groupset: Shimano XTR
Brakes: Shimano XTR
Bar and post: Raceface Next Carbon SL
Wheels: Stans No Tubes Olympic Rim, DT Swiss spokes and blue Hope Pro II hubs with ti skewers
Saddle: WTB Silverado Team
Fork: Fox F100RLC
Weight: 21.6lb

Absolutely delighted with how it rides. The fox fork performs exceptionally well. A huge improvement on the F80 I had on the old bike. The frame is very rigid and racey with the low front end. The top tube is a little longer with a higher BB than the old XTC which makes for a much better climbing position. This combined with the extra 20mm of travel up front combines for the best bike I've ever ridden! Surprised how much of a difference the low speed compression adjuster makes to setting up the fork. Definitely feels better than the old F80s through the entire stroke.

Week Round Up

Another slow start to the week. I really have to get out of the habit of having lazy starts and trying to make it up towards the end! Did the usual spinning class with Alan, the gym instructor on Wednesday. Extremely tough as always... Did the usual bis/tris combo that day too. Took Thursday off as I was too busy with college and did another spinning class on Friday. Same sort of thing except I was feeling much better. Really pushed out all of the intervals and never let up. Picked up my Trinity Cycling kit off Tom before the class so got to test ride it too. It's very nice kit. Has the red and black TCD colours with a load of sponsors. The jersey is mostly lycra which is kinda weird. Gonna have to work on the core before race season starts proper! On Saturday I got out to do a race pace lap of Ballinastoe. Took the descents as quick as I could and the climbs at a steady pace to finish in 50minutes. Seem to have the speed for racing, its just my endurance and core strength I have to work on. Kinda got my training arse ways in that regard but nothing I can do about that now! Had to study and go to watch Belvo lose to Blackrock today. Huge pity but they did better that I thought they would.

Plan for this week is to stay at home and study for exams that are next week. Not looking forward to a couple of them one bit! Hopefully will get some steady rides in between studying. I've scheduled another college ride this Saturday to Djouce. Reckon I will put the 'beginners' through their paces on some proper trails after their easy time in Kindelstown and Ballinastoe. Might lose my 'no beginners dead' record in the process though! That will be a really good chance to have a sneaky look at the course for 'The Djouce Challenge' which is being run on Sunday. After an awful ride at it last year, I'll be hoping to rectify things on my new steed. Will post a review of her and some pics when I get a chance.