A note: I have had revision/exams at college these past couple of months and now they are finished plan to update my blog more regularly. I am heading to Megavalanche in 2 weeks so I will post a full blog post about that soon after the event!
When I first took mountain bikes off road it was a good friend who convinced me into it. We went down to the local hill and rode down it as fast as possible, pedalling like mad men before coming to a halt at the bottom. It was amazing. Nowadays there seems to be so many different disciplines; downhill, four cross, all mountain, cross country, trail, enduro, freeride and dirt jump. Each rider is pigeonholed into a certain category, each ride a certain type. Recently this has begun to grind my gears as we see trail riders calling cross country lads the lycra brigade and freeriders berating enduro riders for enjoying climbing! This kind of an attitude is why I've started just riding in the woods. I'll pull on my knee pads, stick an open face helmet and a pair of gloves on, then pull my 150mm travel full sus out the garage and go for a hoon. I don't need to ride a certain set of trails on this ride. After a steady climb to the top of the hill I crank hard and begin to plough my way down Almost Cut My Hair, a flat-out, rooty set of steep(ish) chutes, grinning like someone from the funny farm! I'll then steadily climb back up before picking up the pace down Rad Lane, a long trail full of smooth corners, smaller roots and a few small jumps to keep things interesting! After that I'll feel like something with a really natural feel - a more worn out trail - so I'll ride Evian! After I can climb over to Fly Tipper and Northern Monkey, one a jump fest with the other steep corners into a flat out berm-filled wonder land! As you may have gathered on these rides I ride everything from trails firmly parked in the cross country category, all the way up to proper freeride style trail with 10ft gaps and serious potential for carnage!
But hold on a minute. Did I just ride all of that with the same bike and kit?! Many mountain bike magazines would argue that you couldn't possibly ride all those trails on one bike, surely you would need a whole garage worth of steeds?! The point of this post is essentially to try and blow away the myth that you need a different bike for each type of ride! Sure it's nice, but for the most part, completely unnecessary! To summarize I basically hope for mountain biking to go back to its roots, where one bike did it all and people just having fun on bikes!
Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Motivation
Motivation is something that we all want, yet for the most part (for me at least) is something I find fairly hard to obtain. Certainly in the depths of winter, with pouring rain clattering against the window, the urge to get my bike out from the garage and go for a ride is almost non-existent! Even if the ride itself is enjoyable, the hideous routine of cleaning my bike back to mint condition, only for it to get coated the next weekend is something I battle with on a regular basis. Cleaning my bike is a joy and I love being able to spend a couple of hours making sure every little nook and cranny is mud free and sparkling, yet it is massively demoralizing that within 100m of trail the bike will look exactly as it did before with perhaps slightly more mud.
Perhaps then, it's the current state of the trail network that's putting me off riding. With the torrential rain that's fallen over the recent days and weeks, each slither of dirt winding it's way through the forest has degraded to little more than one big puddle. During summer I live on the trails, drifting turns, boosting jumps and having a blast, but in the winter the speed drops so dramatically that the sections which were once flat out and insanely fun to ride have become slow and uninspiring. So have I stopped riding? Short answer no. Although I spend less time out on the trails over winter on my mountain bike, I still put the miles in, and spend more time on my road bike. This coupled with regular gym sessions to boost cardio and strength mean that once the good weather does eventually turn up I'll be fighting fit to enjoy it!
Overall I think that leaving the bike to a degree over winter is a good thing. It allows me to relax and turn my attention to something else instead of just doing something again and again for the sake of doing it. In my mind, it's better to ride less often, but when you do ride have an absolutely incredible time, than to ride on a regular basis and not particularly enjoy it!
Perhaps then, it's the current state of the trail network that's putting me off riding. With the torrential rain that's fallen over the recent days and weeks, each slither of dirt winding it's way through the forest has degraded to little more than one big puddle. During summer I live on the trails, drifting turns, boosting jumps and having a blast, but in the winter the speed drops so dramatically that the sections which were once flat out and insanely fun to ride have become slow and uninspiring. So have I stopped riding? Short answer no. Although I spend less time out on the trails over winter on my mountain bike, I still put the miles in, and spend more time on my road bike. This coupled with regular gym sessions to boost cardio and strength mean that once the good weather does eventually turn up I'll be fighting fit to enjoy it!
Overall I think that leaving the bike to a degree over winter is a good thing. It allows me to relax and turn my attention to something else instead of just doing something again and again for the sake of doing it. In my mind, it's better to ride less often, but when you do ride have an absolutely incredible time, than to ride on a regular basis and not particularly enjoy it!
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Progress
Although this is only my second week at the gym, the combination of a regular work out and a healthier diet (cutting out the chocolate) seems to be working wonders! When I first started gym work I could do 10 reps of the 80kg leg press, with a goal of just being able to press the 124kg weight (twice my body weight) yet just one week on I accomplished my goal doing 10 reps with the 124, something I was not expecting!
It's not just weights I've been doing at the gym however and cardio work plays an important role as I'll need to be fighting fit for the Megavalanche! As such I've been hitting the treadmills, spin bikes and cross trainer! The cross trainer is a particularly miserable experience, as you sweat gallons of liquid onto the surrounding equipment, silently crying inside. Although not remotely enjoyable it is really good for cardio work outs and improving my general fitness, so the suffering is worth it!
All in all I'm a big fan of the gym, and plan to keep training right up until the Mega, hopefully peaking fitness just before then! Over and out for now.
It's not just weights I've been doing at the gym however and cardio work plays an important role as I'll need to be fighting fit for the Megavalanche! As such I've been hitting the treadmills, spin bikes and cross trainer! The cross trainer is a particularly miserable experience, as you sweat gallons of liquid onto the surrounding equipment, silently crying inside. Although not remotely enjoyable it is really good for cardio work outs and improving my general fitness, so the suffering is worth it!
All in all I'm a big fan of the gym, and plan to keep training right up until the Mega, hopefully peaking fitness just before then! Over and out for now.
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