Hang in there Mark!
I ran a timed 10km yesterday morning, placing 206th out of over 3,000 participants. Although not a PB, I was pleased with my 48:22 time :) .
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Hang in there Mark!
I ran a timed 10km yesterday morning, placing 206th out of over 3,000 participants. Although not a PB, I was pleased with my 48:22 time :) .
Well boys and girls I have bought myself a bike but I think its frame is maybe a little small for my own frame. I was maybe a bit optimistic when I bought it... but mostly cheap.... i went for the cheapest bike in the store. I did a 35-40 km ride the first day then spent the following day mostly standing or on my belly. I did came to work on it but over here that's quite an adventure and survival is pretty much what I aim for when I'm out the door. I don't really like to do this as an extreme sport but what can I do?
In the meantime I also did my longest run ever. I don't think I bragged about it in here. I hope not... it would be pretty embarrassing :laugh:. I did a 34km run a few weeks back. I was going through a rough patch on a personal level and did it more like therapy than anything else. It only works when I go beyond 20 km. Up to that point my mind is still doing its thing but beyond that it slowly starts to empty itself. By the time I was done I had nothing in me... I didn't long for anything, didn't miss anything, no ambitions, no targets... I only wanted to lay down somewhere and rest
Yesterday I went to my first trail race. I went just for fun.... to be able to say that I participated at one of these events. I have no ambitions whatsoever to compete at any kind of level. I did the 20k in 2h6m. Not really mind blowing :laugh: but considering I got lost in the forest and that before the race I had thrown up everything I ate (don't eat eggs you don't remember when you bought them! :laugh:) it was ok
I have been very much slacking this year as I have been working in an office quite a distance away and have spent alot of time travelling. Now I'm back working ony 10 minutes from home I am back on the bike (turbo and outside). In a moment of boredom and quite possibly madness I have also signed up to run a half marathon. I have never run further than 10km, dont particually enjoy running and haven't run quite a while so will be starting form a nil base pretty much. Oh well, best stop moaning and get fit instead. :)
What you doing a half marathon for? That's madness ;). Do a full marathon instead, on a bike ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by GridGirl
Even though I've put in some miles on the bike every week I still feel like I've let things go massively, this morning I went out for my first workday ride for 6 weeks and it felt like a struggle, normally when I get back I can feel the burn in my legs, but not this time, I can only figure my heart and lungs are the weak link at the moment! And I'm thinking of doing a 100 mile ride over the tour de france course in a couple of weeks! Hmm.
Last week was an ok week, cycled twice to work, went to the gym, did two one hour walks. This week not so much, i'll be spending five days in Warsaw gettin some SAP tools training, beer and hotel food it is. :(
I'm sorry but I'm not going to let this thread go to the second page :p.
I hope you guys are just too busy running, riding bikes or going to the gym to have time to spend on forums :p
My half marathon training was dealt a blow on Saturday when I paced by 7 year old neice to a 5km PB of 34.30 minutes. Now, dont get me wrong as I can run 5km quicker than that and I was also taking the tougher route to help her to a good time but the damn kid has an awesome kick for a final sprint finish where she left me overtook another woman and finished 5 seconds and two places ahead of me where I was giving it 110% just to keep up with her sprint. There was me thinking i'll let her beat me and she just left me for dead. :laugh:
Have been doing a bit on the bike over the last few weeks but cycing has been put on hold for the next week as the Tour de France is coming to town. As they say, if you cant beat them....watch them. :D
I'm still pondering what to do for the tour! I actually have Leeds Colton travelodge booked but I doubt I'm going to use it. I might park somewhere around Barnard Castle and cycle over to Reeth or something; but none of my normal cycling friends are interested.Quote:
Originally Posted by GridGirl
What have you got planned?
I've really been slacking recently despite all the good weather I've not been out much, too busy at work although playing tennis a couple of evenings a week. Have the next 4 weekends free so aiming to get out on the bike a bit more, got a new tyre but not even got around to fitting it.
Iain is streaking ahead of me in the miles challenge so have to do something about that :s
On Saturday we are going to walk or get the bus into town to watch the start in the city center and probably just hang out in town for a bit afterwards. On Sunday we are parking in Huddersfield and will cycle to an as yet undecided destination but probably on the hill out of Elland. On Monday, I have no idea where we are watching it from but it will be central London somewhere as we're eating at Claridge's that night. In other words....I'll just follow Ibby. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Mark
Mind after seeing Froome-dog big ringing it up Holme Moss last month I quite fancy doing that as my next cyling challenge as i've not ridden up there yet. I shall be selecting a much easier gear.
Like others I've been slacking a bit for the last 2 or 3 weeks :erm: .
Did manage to slog through a few muddy trails this morning though :D .
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5074/...00b32d25_k.jpg
(Truck's nice and clean though :erm: )
I've been a major slacker lately.
Last bike ride I got another puncture, and managed to bend up some brake hardware a little bit. Discovered that I no longer had any rubber cement to fix the puncture, and that ended up creating another big gap to repair as I was too busy to go out and find the stuff. I had some patches that required no cement, and they seemed to work fine until about 25 PSI then promptly blew off the tube. :laugh:
I've got the cement now and the puncture is fixed just waiting to put the tube back in the tire and double check things. Couldn't find any more patches locally either so now I'm down to minimal spares. I still need to get an under seat bag to hold a tube or two and some tools so I can take care of basic problems on longer rides. Finally put a pump on, but still need to find room for more water as well. This thing is going to be heavy by the time I'm done!
While the bike was down I did some cleaning, as I'd let the chain and rear gearset get mucked up offroading. I discovered that I had two almost full cans of Liquid Wrench, and the stuff works great for cleaning the affected parts. It's also a lube, and after a proper cleaning it seems to work fine if I put some on the chain only. I'm going to try an approach of not as much lube and see if it helps keep things cleaner.
Sadly on my last ride I discovered that some of the only fun off road areas near me have now been posted as private, due to the people on 4 wheelers rutting things up again. I'm hoping I can catch one of the land owners to see about working around that..... it worked years back.
I bought a replacement track pump after the old one exploded a few months ago, and after I got home last night decided to pump up both tyres as they seemed a bit on the squeeze side. They were around 15psi!! :eek: So pumped up to 40 now, see if that makes a difference. Still using my old (very well worn) tyres, got a pair of new ones waiting to go on but making the most of the old ones in the meantime. Will need to get a better quality pump for carrying with me as my Tesco one just isn't up to much.
Did 21km last night despite stopping when I happened across a gorse fire, first time I've ever had to call 999 :s
Also, as of Saturday I'll have golfed 54 holes in 4 days. Does that count? :mark: :p:
P.s. what's a "gorse"? :cornfused:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UlexQuote:
Originally Posted by schmenke
Particularly common in the UK in late spring/summer.
Did the first mtb ride in a month, I figured all the beer, all the sausages in the previous week and 28c temp would a bit stressfull son I took it short and easy and stayed of the really technical stuff. I also packed light and left the knee pads and heavier helmet home and took the road lid which has much better ventilation. Luckily I didn't crash but did almost vomit on top of a steep singletrack climb. :D
I think my heartrate was above 150bpm most the 60 minutes.
I'm pretty sure I have kept my heart beat in excess of 170bpm for 60 minutes when doing Sufferfest video's on my turbo. Technically I should be dead. hahah Sounds like you took on quite challenging climb so I bet coming down was fun. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by janneppi
There was no real downhill on the other side. Just bare bedrock and a couple of rock gardens which one has to ride down quite carefully. Not the best trail to ride when almost unconscious. :)
Wow low pressures. I usually run 100-110psi and I can really notice when they start to get below about 85-90.Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Depends on the size. I ride on 700x35s around 65 psi. I spent a week in Colorado and tried one of those public bikes that are springing up in many cities in the US. For $8 it was a vile, hateful thing limited to half hour commutes or grocery runs. And I can do both much better with my own bike.
It's all a matter of size vs pressure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregor-y
If I ran my mountain bike fatties at 55 PSI it's just spine jarring hard, even on the rear. On a smooth road it would fly, but even the average road around here would beat you to death.
I haven't ridden in a while. I used up all my patches and need to pick up a couple tube and more patches. I hate flats!
I run my mtb tyres, 2,35" wide just under 3bar(43psi), Current road bike tyres, which are 35mm wide are about 4 bar 60psi. I probably could run the mtb tyres at 2.5 bar to get more traction, but I'm a bit lazy and don't want to fix punctures, mind you I'm quite heavy. If I weight aroind 80kg, I'sd propably run below 2 bar pressures.
Was quite tired last weekend after doing 80 flat miles so doing 85 crazy hilly miles probably wasn't my best idea. Shattered now!
Yes I can confirm this, they were far too high and was actually really unpleasant, so will have to reduce them and try to find out what works best.Quote:
Originally Posted by airshifter
I've not had that many punctures, and luckily always been at home so never had to repair when I'm out and about, just a matter of time though I guess.
I've reached a point where I've had so many punctures that I don't like to get more than 4-5 miles from home until I get a good bag to hold some basic tools and a spare tube or two. My luck just hasn't been great. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
I've got about 1200-1500 miles on my knobbies, and there isn't much left of the center tread. I might see if I can find something that is a better compromise for the road riding. There really aren't hardly any places to ride off road around here any more.
What kind of punctures are you getting?
I haven't used anything but puncture protected tyres for years now when riding on the road. As you pondered yourself, maybe you could do with a switch to tyres intended more towards road use.
For example I think my brother uses these for his commuter bike. I don't remember him complaining about punctures much
http://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_ti...big_apple_plus
So far I've had a variety of punctures, but to be honest most probably wouldn't be overcome by better tires, unless they were super tough. I had a finish nail on one, a few from big thorns when off the road, one that I never determined, and one blew out a crease on the tube which seemed to exist due to one of the previous flats.Quote:
Originally Posted by janneppi
I am going to have to get tires soon regardless, and would like something tougher than I have now. Great link, and I'm going to look for something like that, but probably with a bit more off road bite on the tread. Being it's an old crap mountain bike I don't mind loosing some speed/ride when on the road, as I'm not going that quick. But when I can get off the road we often have a lot of slick stuff, so something with a little more tread would probably keep it from being too treacherous.
So I've finally caved in and ordered a road bike, which I'll hopefully pick up tomorrow after work.
After spending about two weeks trying to change to a single chainring on the mountain bike, finally took it into a shop in town to get sorted out. Wish I'd got them to do it in the first place!! :(
Gutted that I've not been able to get out this weekend, perfect weather for it!
Sounds like a lot of work J4MIE :sQuote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Wouldn’t both derailleurs and shifters have to be swapped out as well?
What size chain ring are you installing?
How many sprockets in the rear?
Why are you doing this? :p:
Got a new rear derailleur, front derailleur and front shifter got removed as it's no longer needed!
Fitted a dropper seat post so now have a button to press when I want to change the seat height, saves stopping and getting off and resizing every time I want to chicken out of throwing myself off a big drop, then putting it back up again :s
New front ring is 32t, same as previous middle one, but is a "narrow-wide" so I hear the chain is far less likely to come off when I'm pushing the bike along rough sections :s
Ten gears at the back still, but the 17t is substituted for a 40t so that it's a bit easier to get up the hills. Will have to try it out when I get it back and see how it goes.
In other news, went to pick the new road bike up today but it wasn't ready, was told to go back after 12pm tomorrow. Not pleased as I tried phoning them several times before travelling there but nobody picked up. Was not pleased at all!!
Maybe I'm missing something, but why do you need a front derailleur if you removed the front shifter? You're only running a single front sprocket correct?Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
The comment about the dropper post is funny. Maybe not having to slow down and think about it as much will keep you going and make the drop.
Those big rear rings do seem handy. I was riding with a guy one day on some trails that had some fairly steep short climbs. With that big rear ring he could keep traction much better, as using the "normal" low gear resulted in spinning more often as you had to really torque hard on the downstroke, and it would break the tire loose much easier. With that crawler gear he could stay in the saddle and pedal up most of them without any traction problems.
He didn't "Got a new rear derailleur" "front derailleur and front shifter got removed"
Most bikes I've seen the brake (in the UK the rear brake) is integrated with the shifter, is there now a shifterless brake in place of it?
I can understand going to a single front ring, with flat bar shifters going up to a bigger chainring always takes a lot of effort - on my hybrid I ended up just riding in the middle ring all the time (reducing myself to just 7 gears!) because upshifting chainrings was really difficult, you practically had to stop and do it two handed.
Good luck with the new road bike; meet you 7am Chester-le-Street market place, 82 mile ride into Northumberland. Don't worry I'll let you draft me all the way ;)
Duh, of course. Silly me :crazy:Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Do you know what size sproket your friend had? Mine is a 34T and I rarely use it when in the front granny-gear (i.e. 1st gear), even on the steepest of climbs. I find, as you said, the rear tire just brakes traction and I lose all forward momentum. I'll generally stay in 2nd or 3d gear and try to power up the hill, with my lungs ready to burst :sQuote:
Originally Posted by airshifter
:cornfused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
Doh... completely missed what he was saying for some reason! :laugh:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
I actually prefer the brake lever and shifter to be separate, as you can adjust them better for whatever angles you like. I tend to like my brake levers almost rotated so the lever is down on the bar quite a bit, and that would make shifting tricky at that angle.
As for the front chainrings, it is more effort, but with my shifters really not all that bad. I have twist shifters and they do take more rotation, but the effort isn't all that much.
He was just someone I ran into on the trail, and really have no idea how many teeth the sprocket was. It seemed very large to me, but it's possible he had smaller high gears making it seem that way. I know it was substantially lower than my gearing. Similar to you I was using 2nd or 3rd most of the time and loosing traction as I powered the crank down while out of the saddle. He was spinning a high cadence in the low gear and staying the the saddle, so I think the weight transfer and consistent power allowed him to climb stuff that I would break loose on.Quote:
Originally Posted by schmenke
When we stopped I took a better look at his back tire, and I think mine really had better knobbies for the conditions. Maybe there was more of a trick to it, but he was making it look easy.
Yes sorry my, grammar, could have been a bit, improved there ;)
Yes, the brakes and shifters are separate, so easy just to remove the front shifter. It was never hard to change mine anyway Mark, sounds really strange!
Picked the bike up from the shop today and all sorted out, well nearly, they said the mech hanger is bent slightly so might have been the cause of my previous shifting issues. Luckily I bought a new one to carry as a spare, so will switch them.
Also picked up the new road bike, just getting a bit organised then will practice unclipping a few times before heading out for a short ride :)
On both my hybrid and the MTB I hired they had the same type of Shimano shifter for the chainrings and I found it super stiff to push into the big ring with my thumb sometimes having to push so hard I ended up steering into traffic!
Probably a fault but I got a road bike before I could investigate further.
Did you notice if he had a lockout on the suspension? That helps on the uphills.Quote:
Originally Posted by airshifter
Went out and did about 12km, was quite worried about unclipping as practicing in the house was pretty shocking! Anyway, found it quite easy in the end. Absolutely delighted with the bike, very happy! Can see myself using it more and more, just busy now until next week :( Also need to look at how to carry stuff with me as I feel naked without a bag full of stuff :s