Stepping it up to National Level

[downhillingdemon]

The bring and share was a total success!! Lots of people and lots and lots of tasty treats So simple, yet such a great social event!

Monday - nightride

Tuesday - squat day, plodding on with 5x5 - wrist was fine with 47.5 kg - interested to see how far I can get this time round, another three weeks would be spectacularly pleasing as it would give me a good base to build on again

[downhillingdemon]

Wednesday - rest

Thursday - bench at gym....had to go with a spotter with bar-touching tendencies....thought I'd just go with it because I was struggling a bit with the weight, but actually I think it was harder work than on my own as, although even the lightest touch on the bar makes so much difference, it totally threw my rhythm! Still, did some work. Back to 5x5 from next week.

Friday - rest

Saturday - Uplift at Cwmcarn. Brutally fast as always.

Sunday - 3 hours of well-paced blasting around the hills. No beginners/easy paced riders turned up, again, so it was a craziwayne-pace uphill with walker-avoiding speeds downhill. TBH, it was good to have a proper blast and the three of us were feeling it by the end, in a great way

Here's some footage from the OH's chestcam

[Mr. Cleetus]

awesome. Those walkers must love you!

[downhillingdemon]

Heh, some of them I'm sure do......

I'm mostly not in a happy place with training right now. I feel tired all the time from work and I just don't have the motivation or strength to really train properly. I'm fucked off with constantly having to fight every uphill on the bike even though I ride regularly, I have to work sooooo hard just to keep up. *is fed up*

[wannalift]

Always enjoy seeing your pics and videos. Hang in there, at least you are riding now (unlike me). How much of an elevation are your climbs normally and how long does it take to get to the top? Also, what is the ratio of an average climb/descent time? Keep it up!

[Orkje]

Great riding! Loving the wintry feel of the whole thing...

[downhillingdemon]

Thanks Orkje

Thursday - bench day - restarted 5x5

Friday - rest

Weekend of DH in Devon

Was awesome. Here's some pics n a few videos.

Went to yettington for some local DH in the freezing rain and on icy trails. Took a long time to feel relaxed on the bike, but once warmed up it was a pretty good few hours.

Had a practice with the superduper slow speed footage on the camera. It's kind of cool to watch it back and see what is happening. I even managed to hip a little, which is something I want to work on a lot more this year

Slow-motion hip


Slow motion step-down




Then Sunday was some jumpy fun at Chipshop. Spent all day playing on fun stuff. Really need to get back and ride some of the more technical stuff, although only when I have a new i-pod. Totally missed my music to get me in the zone at the weekend!

Here's a few pics..
Ian at the top of opentrack


Rock garden


Middle gorse jump - my big plan for the year is to hit the big one of these....but it really is HUGE so I need to be 100% confident I'm not going to freeze and dead sailor in the air!

Here's a bit of video from the day with a mix of slower speed footage and normal.


Monday - rest

Tuesday - squat day. Back to 5x5 with 52.5 kg (pretty much bodyweight atm). Not bad, not bad. Would be magic to get a few more weeks out of 5x5. But I'd settle for 55 kg next week to make me happy

Wednesday - 'easy' paced nightride that saw me tag onto two guys until my legs just said "don't be stupid, you're tired, you've not eaten, and we are bluddy sore from yesterday"

Always enjoy seeing your pics and videos. Hang in there, at least you are riding now (unlike me). How much of an elevation are your climbs normally and how long does it take to get to the top? Also, what is the ratio of an average climb/descent time? Keep it up!

Yeah, at least I am on the bike and I am still enjoying the DH. I've not been monitoring my data on rides but may dig the Garmin back out to see if there is any improvement. Problem with chasing fast riders is that you never really feel like you are improving when, in fact, you may be getting fitter, but they are too! Malvern is very steep though (normally around 800 meters climbing in 10 miles), and it is never an easy ride, which is part of the problem I think - these 'easy' rides (to which only faster riders have turned up!) are the day immediately following my 5x5 squat session atm. So I've made a decision tonight to move them to Thursday. I've not really been preparing for nightrides because I keep thinking it will be an easy pootle - which has kicked me royally in the butt for the last two weeks when proper riders have turned up. Then my week will look like this:

Saturday - DH Day
Sunday - 'easy' paced ride, or proper ride if no easy paced riders turn up. 3 hours+
Monday - rest
Tuesday - heavy squats
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 1 hr nightride - easy if easy-paced riders turn up, but if I end up riding solo or with a faster group I will be prepared and well fed beforehand to do so!
Friday - bench session, possibly with 30 mins CV or a run in the morning.

[downhillingdemon]

Thursday - Rest - got really chilled to the bone auditing site for the day (auditing in reality means letting someone else do all the work and just standing around watching) at 0 degrees.....got home to feel like a cold was in the post

Friday - Sure enough, cold came out, although without any real fluey symptoms. Felt ok in myself so headed to the gym and did 30 mins gentle CV to get the circulation going and week 2 of 5x5 with bench. Felt much better for it.

Saturday - The cold has settled on my throat leaving me coughing, but again, feeling pretty good in myself. Went to dig some DH trails at a local spot, but the ground was too frozen solid and thus we were all riding instead. Lethal is an understatement - a minion up front is never going to be a good choice for minus conditions. Still, I managed to stay upright and get a bit of speed right up to the point where I thought 'hmm, need a tighter line over that off-camber bit'..........it was never going to be a good idea in the ice

*nurses sore knee*

I did manage to get a few pics of the OH on the ice

[bob_summers]

. I'm fucked off with constantly having to fight every uphill on the bike even though I ride regularly, I have to work sooooo hard just to keep up. *is fed up*

According to Greg Lemond, it never gets easier. You just go faster

You're looking good over those jumps, dare I ask what a dead sailor is?!

[downhillingdemon]

I got new shoes

Limited edition veggie shoes to match Maggie (the DH bike) and resoled with 5:10 rubber

According to Greg Lemond, it never gets easier. You just go faster

You're looking good over those jumps, dare I ask what a dead sailor is?!

I have no idea who that greg guy is, but he clearly knows what he is talking about

Dead sailor is where you kind of jump passively and stay rigid in the air - like once you are airbourne the gravity and rotation decides where you are coming down and you don't weight-shift to correct. Not sooo much of a problem on small stuff, but if you hit big jumps stiff and freeze in the air then, well, could be bad news!

Sunday
That cold turned to a cough and I spent all night coughing and not sleeping. Called off the 'easy-paced' ride because my lungs were in no fit state to pedal, so we met some friends at Stile Cop for a bit of chilled DH instead. I didn't even have the lungs for many pushes to the top, so ended up playing on the bottom section for a bit. It was such a good day, despite the coughing and tiredness. Realised just how much my riding had come on. The drop at the bottom of the black used to seem huge, (in fact, there was a time not long ago I could only dream of being able to do drops of that size). At the weekend it felt like easy option because I didn't have to pedal! Even the super-muddy and rooty trails didn't faze me and I was loving sliding around on the minion.





Oh yeah, btw...........

I'VE ONLY GONE AND ENTERED ANOTHER DH RACE

OH FECK

[fredrikw]

Oh yeah, btw...........

I'VE ONLY GONE AND ENTERED ANOTHER DH RACE

OH FECK

excellent! be sure to wear your best shoes.

[downhillingdemon]

excellent! be sure to wear your best shoes.

I shall indeed

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - Oh heavens that wee-not-too-bad-cold........turned into a right batterer. I felt proper horrendous to the point where I actually spent most of the time working wrapped up on the sofa or in bed. All the coughing was keeping me awake and I had the worst headaches (I nearly resorted to codeine to knock me out for a bit). Dragged myself out to site late on Wednesday afternoon which I think did me some good. Managed a good night's sleep Wednesday night though, and woke up this morning feeling much better.

Thursday So much better in fact, I went to the gym before work to get my legs moving and shake off the muggy feeling from lying around for three days. Thought I may as well do some light squat work, but realised that my legs were feeling really really good. Must have been all that rest. So I started my numerous warm-ups and thought I'd just see how I'd get on.....only to knock out that 5x5 with 55 kg I was on for this week....awesomes!

That's gotta be close to the end of the 5x5 this time round, although I feel another week could be in there. However, I'm not squatting heavy next week because the race is on the Sunday so I need to be fresh. When I come back I'm gonna see how 57.5 kg feels. If good then I'll go for the 5x5. If not, I'm gonna drop the volume. Was thinking 3 sets of 5, but if I can get 3 sets, I can normally make the 5. So 5 sets of 3 is probably the better option if I am going to continue adding weight for a few more weeks. *ponders*

Went for a brief spin on the bike tonight, not for fitness (my lungs are VERY tight atm), just to get out for a short while. It really was short in the end because my gravity dropper broke and my saddle wouldn't stay up or down. It's quite a catastrophic failure and I'm not sure it's fixable as the metal plate that holds the magnet has detached itself. Still, it could be an excuse to get one of those lovely RS Reverbs.......

[downhillingdemon]

Friday - rest

Saturday - DH day sessioning the most-likely race track for the race next weekend. Gawd blimy I hope it's not that one. Spent all day in the pouring rain sliding around on minions trying to find the fastest line over off-camber roots and actually stay on the trail. Managed (thank goodness!) to do what I had gone to do - successfully committing to a double+step-down combo that had been playing on my mind for ages, which settled me a little. Was pleased I stuck with it and felt like the whole day was very beneficial...nowt like riding in shite conditions to make it feel easy if it dries out. Otherwise, it wasn't the best day's riding ever, it's really pedally in places, and then my small size really suffers and I struggle to keep enough power and momentum.

Back tomorrow - have to try and do some full runs and concentrate for the whole length (I normally stop thinking once I get through the difficult bits haha) and pedal-like-mad-and-commit to the table at the bottom. I've crashed there in the wet before so I need a good dose of WTFU to commit to hitting it flat out.

[downhillingdemon]

Sunday - Another day on the DH trails. Still don't know which one I we are going to race, but had a day messing about on stuff and trying to get things sorted. Good things - I did what I needed to - hit the big jumps full on and know I'll be able to do it full pelt on race day in front of a crowd, if I make it to the bottom

In fact, the stuff that was worrying me has all been done in pieces/sections............I just have to link it up on the day. Easy, right? Erm, well no as the one thing I realised today more than anything is that I have spent so much time jumping and sessioning lately I actually can't concentrate for a whole trail. My actual trail riding was dire today - hitting every root and riding like a right twonk. Still, I know I have the ability for it to come together, I just need a good day, some darned focus and a bit of good luck. This time next week I will know the answer!

I may have to start wearing those knee pads again though.....

[Mr. Cleetus]

Yowch! I hate that concentration thing... gets me every time.