What I eat in a day...

When your training hard it is just amazing the amount of food that you eat and yet you are still pretty constantly hungry. The worst is the recovery ride day. On that spin you may only burn 500 calories but due to the previous days work your still starving all day...

Anyway, this is me for today.

Breakfast:
Oats (with raisons, cinnamon, banana and a small yogurt) I eat this almost every day
Bagel with Jam (when I have a longer spin...)
Coffee

On the ride:
A TorQ bar
2 Nutri-grain bars
2 Bottles of TorQ Energy

Mel and I try to eat as much of this as possible

Straight after the ride:
100 grams of TorQ Recovery (tasty stuff, a bit like chocolate milk – make sure you mix it well!)

15 minutes after that
A large Ciabatta with a chicken and pineapple salad.
Coffee

now the rest is all spread out
A large yogurt and an apple
Some rice cakes with honey (don't usually eat rice cakes)
Some Oats with Jam
A Pear and a Plum
A Cereal Bar

Still to eat...
Dinner – Brown Rice with tomato based Thai Chicken Curry
Dessert – Fresh chopped fruit salad
and then probably some more snacky stuff before bed... I'm guessing 4,500 calories...

Man I eat a lot...

2008 Irish NPS Round 1 - Ballinastoe

This weekend saw the start of the Irish NPS series hosted by Sorrento. Having just ended the K-Capital series and have raced 9 times in the last 9 weeks I was going to give this one a miss to get some long training spins in – but in the end, it was so close and rumors of a good elite field meant that I couldn't not take part - so Mel and I headed over on Sunday to race it. The course was a little bit over 6km long and had 175 meters of climb per lap. Elites were going to be doing 6 laps. The course started up a steep hill that turned into some new twisty single track, a short fireroad sprint and onto more foresty singletrack. You then joined onto a fireroad with a bit of a brag up to the first 'man made' single track section – basically, the new all weather trails... After that, another climb followed by a huge amount of very fast single track all the way back to the start.

Course Profile

At 1:30 the whistle blew and we were off up the hill for another 2 hours of pain. Joe McCall and a couple of others went for it over the first 100 meters but as the hill got steeper I moved into first to grab first entry into the singletrack, which I didn't relinquish. I took the first few sections of single track pretty carefully – I was in first and didn't want to make a silly mistake and let others through – there was no room for passing at all :) As we hit some of the climbs I upped my own pace a bit to make sure anyone that wanted to stay on my wheel had to work but the elastic broke pretty quickly and I rode the first lap alone. On one of the sections of singletrack midway around the second lap, Peter Buggle, closely followed by Liam McCreavy bridged up to me. They were riding the singletrack well but were a little off my pace when climbing so for the next four laps I rode pretty steady on the climbs (a little harder then they were going) and took the single track pretty easy, basically recovering, learning the fastest line, making sure I didn't do anything silly like puncture and getting some practice in racing under pressure. My plan was to attack hard on the last lap on the last big climb and then actually ride the single track fast seeing as I spent a few laps scouting the trail.

One of the very fast singletrack sections - Yeah, for warm weather :)

The final lap bell went and we rode with me leading, then Peter, then Liam. Two sections of single track into the lap and at the start of the second last climb I noticed that there was a bit of a gap back to the guys, it was a bit earlier then I planned but I felt good so I decided to go for it then. By the time I entered the next section of single track I couldn't see them and that was that for the rest of the lap. Fortunately, I was able to ride over the line about 50 seconds up on Peter without having to do a sprint finish.

Must practice my victory salute ;)

When I did my warm up lap (no preride this time) I didn't know what the track would be like for racing on – but as soon as you started to race it really was a lot of fun. A course that really favoured close racing and I had a lot of fine riding with the two other guys.

One down, five more rounds to go, although I'm pretty sure I'll be missing some races due to other race commitments. My title defense has started :)

Results are available here, and some photos here and here.

Nutters...

Found this on a forum. Seen this type of thing before but this is a particularly good video of it.

I don't think my health insurance would cover it - would be funny to ask :)

I think I need this...

I think I need this for the bike room :)

Apparently, of the 30 million people in Tokyo there are 15 million registered bikes and no room to park them... I wonder how cost effective this is...

2008 K-Capital Cup Round 4 - Castlewellan

700 days ago, I arrived at Castlewellan for my first ever mountain bike race. (Well, actually, I did the Sea Otter classic two weeks earlier but I wont mention that for now...) Dry, sunny, warm and a 12th place in Expert. I still remember being nervous before hand – wondering if I should have done sport but then really enjoying the course and race (I think about 35 people took part in expert that year). So, after 700 (ish) days I returned as an Elite for the final of the 2008 K-Capital Series.

The weekend, as usual, started with the preride on the Saturday. I expected the course to be pretty dry (it has not rained much lately, but it has been cold and windy) and it didn't disappoint. In fact, there were sections that were so dusty and loose that I was hoping for a little rain over night (which actually happened). The course was a couple of minute steady fireroad climb followed by lots of single track climbing and descending with a very stiff (18% loose) fireroad climb in the middle. There was 170 meters (or so) of climb per lap and the Elites were doing 7 laps. As I rode my first practice lap, I noticed the huge smile on my face – the course is truly amazing and has everything. A steady climb, lots of kicker climbs, twisty flowy singletrack, rock gardens, fast singletrack... the list goes on. It really is a world class venue.

Course Profile

I awoke Sunday to rainy weather – I was staying in Monaghan, checked the rain radar and it looked like Castlewellan got some rain, but none now – perfect. Mel and I arrived to the usual buzz with the Sport race having just started. After Mel freaked out a little about a slightly worn brake pad (in these conditions it would last 100s of km) we both warmed up. Heart rate seemed grand and shortly before 1:30 we all lined up for the start. As the whistle went we all sprinted off up the hill – same as usual except this time I didn't feel any snap in my legs. The lactate acid was built up to a max 30 seconds in. At this point I was probably around 7-8th position. As we exited the first large section of single track and climbed the steep fireroad section I joined into 5th place where I stayed most of the race. I enjoyed riding the singletrack but kept feeling that there was something a little missing (mostly in me?). On the second lap I passed Conor who was having some tire issues (he would later catch me again to claim 4th position). The rest of the race was pretty hard. My max heart rate (set on the second lap!) was 181 – a far cry from the 190 that I should hit while the average for the race was really low... (Not far off what I did for the 4 hours in the UK the week before) After a near bonking moment on the 5th lap (fixed by a gel) I finished feeling okay but once I started eating I felt pretty sick. (Very unusual – I can eat very well even after a hard race or training) I should have been recovered from the UK races but somehow I didn't feel it during the race. Something to have a look at.

Pictures from here

So that was the K-Capital Cup for 2008 – an absolutely amazing series of races which is really doing amazing things for Irish XC racing. (Downhill World Cup star Ben Reid was even seen at two of the races – maybe he will give XC a go – he did win the Expert race by a good margin) A huge thanks has to be given to all the clubs that organised the races but especially to the Seymour family who seem to be at the core of most of the best Irish events – thanks – you made the opening of the season amazing!

Mel had another good race to wrap up the Elite ladies competition - her report will be up shortly on her blog.

Photos are available here, here and here. A report is up here.

2006 Specialized S-Works Road Bike For Sale

I'm selling my Specialized 2006 S-Works E5 Road bike (size 58). It was bought in December 2006.

The bikes components are full Shimano Ultegra (new brake pads, chain, 12-25 cassette, cables, almost new rear derailleur).

The wheelset is the Fulcrum Racing 5 Evolution with brand new Specialized Mondo tyres.

The bike is in perfect condition with only one slight mark on the seat stays where my mudguards rubbed some of the anodizing. (Who would of thought that the plastic would have done that...)

There are some more pictures of it here.It's a really nice high end road bike and I'm selling because a new one arrived a few weeks ago and I need to make space :)

I'm looking €1,250 for it.

**** EDIT ****
The bike has been sold.

British Cycling Whyte Enduro Series 100km - Round 1

Another day, another race report. These double header weekends require lots of writing :)

So, after the disappointment of Saturdays race I was hoping for a better one on Sunday. The Thai meal that we had in The Swan on Friday night was good enough to entice us back again. Another 4 portions of rice between us and we were good to go. (We actually even ate a ton more when we got home before going to bed... Cyclists eat a lot!)

My calf muscle was pretty sore all Saturday evening and sure enough when I woke on Sunday morning it was still sore – I decided to take a quick bath, hoping that would loosen out my legs a bit, when I headed out to the car to pack up the bikes my legs (and body, minus my shoulder) felt amazing. I thought today could be a good day. Magdalen House put on a huge breakfast for us of exactly the right kind of foods and with that digesting we headed to the course.


The course was a little different from the XC course, a little longer, a little less technical with most of the nice features of the XC course remaining.

I warmed up a little (15 minutes) and stood at the start early. Front row for me today – I was not having a repeat of yesterday. The gun went off and we sprinted off, the initial pace was not that high and my legs felt good so I was enjoying it. Duncan Jamieson and William Bjergfelt of Felt Racing started to up the pace about a quarter way around the first lap with Matt Carter and myself following. The Felt guys really picked it up about half way around the first lap and Matt drifted off the pace. Decision time for me, do I follow the Felt guys or ease back hoping they blow. I eased back a little and stayed with Matt but the early pace seemed to have effected him a bit and for the next lap and a half I found myself by myself. Exactly what I didn't want, so I eased back a little more to be joined by Matt (again) and Paul Ashby. We worked together for the next two laps when Paul upped the pace a little on a short single track climb – Matt dropped off so we continued regardless. Enjoying the company, Paul and I decided that we will just work together and ride the race, with 50km to go, it was still a long way and lots of windy fireroad still to cover. Paul got some great pulls in but seemed to tire a little during the 6th lap. (Being a local, he was still hammering the singletrack though – was fun trying to follow his line). For the 7th and 8th laps I pulled through as I still felt really good and fresh. I upped the pace a lot from a third way into the last lap and midway around the Paul let me know that he was going to drop back a little so I rode the final section alone. It was funny, 95km into the race and I still felt great – guess I should have gone after the Felt guys on the first lap.

Yeah, for dry conditions

In the end, the 100km (or so) was covered in 3 hours 55 minutes – I finished strong, didn't bin myself and finished in 3rd place so I was pretty happy. I even gone a slight tan from the race :)

The Mens 100km Podium

A have to say a big thanks to the Torq lads for all there help over the weekend – this year I will be riding under their team colours. It was also the first time that I got to extensively use all their nutritional products and I've been blown away by them. Especially the Torq Gels and Torq Recovery. The gels are the easiest to take I have tried yet, gave great consistent energy throughout and I didn't have stomach cramps afterwards (lots of gels do that to me). The Recovery drink, well, I felt great after the race and the following Monday despite all the racing and traveling - enough said.

There is a report and photos available here. Also, Mel had another great race and you read about it on her blog.

Now my focus has switched back to the K-Capital Series, the final round taking place in Castlewellan this weekend. Probably my favorite race course :) Lets hope it doesn't rain...

Greystones

I had to go to the Physio today to check out my shoulder and I passed by the beach on the way home. It was beautiful.


The marathon report will be up later today.

2008 British National Points Series XC

Last weekend seen me racing abroad for the first time of the 2008 season, indeed, it was Mel's first race abroad ever. We were heading to the first round of the British National Points XC and Marathon series. We packed up on Thursday evening and flew Dublin to Stansted Friday morning hiring a car for the 1.5 hour drive to Thetford. The morning was uneventful apart from us taking a slightly more scenic route to the course.

We arrived to find Robin and the Colnago/Ergon crew already setting up and rain clouds brewing. Bikes were quickly built up and as we finished the heavens opened for a downpour – I really hoped this was not a sign of things to come... (it sucks running for a plane after a marathon race with everything covered in mud). We got two laps of the 10km course in – it was pretty simple, about 5km of flat fireroad and 5km of (almost) flat singletrack. Not really my style of course but by the end of the weekend I really did start to enjoy the swoopy nature of some of the trails.

An overview of the course - really really flat

On Wednesday I had booked ourselves into a B&B close by so after our preride we headed to Magdalen House. On arrival, we got one of the nicest welcomes I have had from any place. Picture it, we arrive mucky from a pre-ride and we are greeted with a bucket of warm soapy water and a hose to wash down our bikes etc... closely followed by tea and coffee. Great :)

A nice Thai meal (not exactly PRO) the night before with a double helping of rice in an English/Thai restaurant, The Swan, had us ready for bed early.

Saturday we woke to find a beautiful morning and the news that it had not rained from yesterday during our preride – this meant the course was going to be super fast. Sure enough, when we arrived we found out that Elite men will be doing 6 laps (that's a little over 60km!) and the Elite ladies will be going for 5. I warmed up well and arrived at the start 10 minutes before the start – the shock when I seen that everyone was already there and gridded. Crap, 7 rows back I'll be starting in last, the WORST thing for a course like this which was basically going to be a road race with the singletrack helping to form groups. The race started and I worked hard to make up places... I passed about 20 riders and had made my way up to around 15th - 20th (I think, could be way off) then disaster struck. On a fireroad section I was hammering along trying to catch more people when the rider in front swerved right and hit me square – attempts at staying upright failed and I went down hard. This section was a bit of a blur but I remember seeing bodies flying over me. I hit my shoulder (that I hurt last week) badly and got a large bruise on my calf – my neck was also very stiff (still is). I was doing around 30-35kph at the time and considering, I actually think I got away reasonably well. My front wheel was a bit out of true and there was various other injuries to my bike but nothing race ending. I eventually got up and started to ride again, winded, annoyed (now I was way back) and pretty sore I knew that it was the end of today's race. I decided to refocus for Sundays marathon but continued for another 2.5 laps just to open up the legs and learn the course a bit. Mel, on the other hand had an amazing race on the Sunday, but I'll let her talk about that one. I have to say a big thank you to the Colnago/Ergon guys for helping me out with my bike – they retrued the wheel back to perfection – thanks a million :) Also, thanks to Eammon McConvey for helping out in the feed zone. And well done to his son Conor, who scored a fine 3rd place!

Picture is from here. More on Torq tomorrow :)

Results can be found here and a report and photos here.

With a downer (for me) for the first day, I was hoping Sunday would be different. It was, but I'll write a post about that tomorrow.

Video from the K-Capital Round 3

The start of the K-Capital race - I need to work on my starts, although I'm not nearly as bad as last year! It was great having the kids screaming and the cow bell :) If I ever see them cheap, I'll buy a ton and hand them out at races...

2008 K-Capital Round 3 UCI C2 – Djouce Woods

This weekend was the third installment of this years K-Capital Series. Summer like temperatures during the week (shorts and short sleeve jersey!) didn't hold for the weekend so it was going to be bitterly cold with showers of hail and sleet! As usual, Saturday was the preride and Mel and I headed out early to have a look. The course was going to be very technical on the descents/traverses but reasonably easy climbs (fire-roads but a couple of steep single track climbs). The course started with a loop around the start field and then into a section of single track that climbs to a fire road that brought us up to mid way down XTC, down it then up a 1 minute fast climb to the start of Off Camber which lead onto a traverse across some open mountain. Down onto a fireroad then up to Gran Canaria (my favorite section). After that, it was a tough single track climb to the top of the Earls Drive and then a long swooping descent to a very very tricky river crossing. Then, it was mostly single track climbing with some fireroad at the end back to the start/finish area. It was a tough 7.5km loop with about 280 meters of climb per lap. Elite had 4 laps.

Course Profile

Race day arrived and I actually felt reasonably good – as I'll be racing the next three weekends I took it pretty easy during the week so I felt pretty rested. A good 30 minute warmup went to plan (apart from the hail storm) and we all gathered down at the start area for our 1:30pm start. My ranking in the series so far meant a front row start but some of the riders gridded further back just snuck up anyway (no big white lines on the ground this time to mark the rows). The start was pretty quick and I dropped back a couple of positions before the first singletrack but I didn't worry much as after that there was a bit of a steep climb and I knew I would get by people as needed there. The first lap ran out with lots of little battles. Lee Williams, Micke Haggquist and myself changing positions a lot. The second lap started and the tussles continued – I really enjoyed having a few battles on the course – the course lent itself pretty well to that as I was able to catch people on the technical terrain and people were catching me on the fire-roads (opposite than usual!). At the top of the single track climb I passed Micke and Lee (hopefully for the last time) and started the tricky Earls Drive descent. Unfortunately, towards the bottom I burped my tire (first time with this wheel/tire combo – it was a mistake on my part) and then had to fumble around getting my CO2 (I hate long finger gloves for racing) out of my pocket, two jerseys down and filling the tire. Half way through the operation I watched Micke and Lee pass me by. Damn – had lots of fire in me now to catch them again.

Feed on the first lap - Thanks Sean!

I got going again and caught and passed Micke and headed after Lee up the final fireroad. At some point after this (and I don't know when) Lee disappeared – I didn't think he dropped me but I found out after that he had to pull out for some reason – that was a pity. Third lap was going reasonably well until towards the bottom of the Earl Drive descent I misjudged a corner and hit a tree at about 25kph. Man, I thought I broke something. A quick check of my mobility and I decided that I can continue – pretty shacken up, I rode like a squirrel for the next few minutes. Then, down at the river crossing, Micke passed me again. Damn! Refocused, I headed off into the climbs and caught him a couple of minutes later and put my head down to gap him. That was the last place changing for me for the day.

The last lap was pretty enjoyable despite my shoulder (which at this point was throbbing). With a few minutes left in the lap I got a glimpse of Joey McCall who was having a stormer behind me so I put the head back down and hammered up the last climb finishing a comfortable enough margin ahead of him in 8th position. (I should have been putting my head down like that on all the climbs!)

Overall, the race was pretty good fun – I never seemed to get the Earls Drive descent well but I was happy enough with how I rode aside from that. I lost a few minutes due to various mistakes, but that is racing. Today, I feel perfect (apart from the shoulder which is in bits) so now I'm second guessing and thinking I didn't push enough. Well, there is always next week...

Mel's report is available here. Results can be found here and there are a couple of pictures here.

Me in the winter

From BKW

"Establishing shot: Cyclist shown from shins down walking up stairs. With each step water squeezes from his booties. The brand is unrecognizable thanks to a mellange of mud and sand. As the camera backs up you see the thick tights and jacket covered in sand too. The bike on his shoulder is covered in grime. The cyclist shivers uncontrollably, drops his keys twice before ramming one into the lock on his apartment. He opens the door, sets the bike down and begins to strip: First the neoprene gloves, then the glasses, helmet, struggles with the jacket zipper and as he staggers, naked, from the foyer, we see a wet, dirty spot on the wall where he leaned while he struggled with his socks."


The weather has changed a bit - it was warm yesterday and it looks like being warm today. Finally - apart from when I put on too much clothes I don't think I have sweat (and not had it evaporate off) all winter/spring... Hopefully the weather will stay like this for this weekends race.

2008 Specialized S-Works Epic Race Bike

Like last year, I got another custom built Specialized S-Works Epic. A short supply of the frames this year meant that I had assumed I would be riding my first race on last years bike but the delivery man was very busy (and me very surprised) to see everything I needed arrive on time for the first race (4 packages the day before the first pre-ride). The major issues I would have going straight into a race on a new machine is wheel/tire combinations and any geometry changes. Fortunately, I had my new wheels about a week before hand and as the frame style had not changed, my bike fit would be very very similar.

Just after I finished build - same as I used for the K-Captial Races

Major changes from last year are that I'm running Specialized's new Roval XC Controle Race wheelset (1420grams – a post about them later), Manitou's 2008 R7 MRD fork and I also switched to a SRAM Twist Shift, Hope Mono Mini Pro shifting and braking combination from last years XTR Dual Controls (which I still love).

The Hope brakes are amazing

Overall weight of the bike (mostly due to wheels, tires, drivetrain and pedals) dropped by about 500 grams for a 'standard' racing trim... I.e. Proper tires etc... Total weight is 9.79KG (21.5 pounds for you imperial folk). Changing a few things (I.e. For a hill climb) I could get it down to about 9.4. Pretty light for a full suspension with disc brakes and durable components :)

From the other side

Finally, how it rides – very fast up the climbs (especially rocky, technical stuff) but really plush and confidence inspiring on the downhills. The difference for me on a technical descent speed wise if a few percent over my Carbon Hardtail, BUT, I finish the descent much more relaxed and recovered. Most notable things about the build for me have been the quality of the Hope Mono Mini Pro brakes and the Roval wheelset.

A big thank you to Cycleways for setting me up with the frame and wheels!

Motivational Issues?

Next time it is too windy, too cold, too ... watch this video. Amazing dude.

No racing for me this weekend - I need to let the legs recover at some point! I did a nice long MTB spin yesterday and a road one today. Horrible weather yesterday, okay today - I'm still wearing 4-5 layers though! Summer, please come soon!

Next week it is the third K-Captial race, then, Mel and I are off to the UK for the first of their XC and Marathon National Points Series races and then back home for the final leg of the K-Capital series. The Irish NPS series starts the week after that but I'll have to see how my legs are doing.

Awareness Test...

It seems all the cycling websites/forums are promoting this...

South Park for free...

I have gone through stints of loving it (about 7 or 8 years ago), not liking it much (most of the time between) and really liking it - now. But Comedy Network have released all of South Park for free on a new website. Pretty sweet - I'm glad to see a lot of the television networks switching to this type of setup as I have not had a TV in years but still like to watch a couple of series in the evenings on demand. I don't even mind (too much) a couple of ads in it...

Also, Channel 4, MTV, and RTE do similar things.

2008 K-Capital Cup Round 2

They talked of rain. Met Eireann had big snowy clouds sitting over Northern Ireland all week – fortunately, the weekend was dry (but cold) and the racing fast. This was the weekend of the Second Round of the K-Capital Series.

The weekend started with the pre-ride on the Saturday. Mel and I drove the two and a half hours to the course and got three laps in. One slow, one fast, one slow. The course was good. Basically, it felt like 90% singletrack. No big climbs (although there was 150m of climb per lap, it felt like it was mostly from steep kickers) and all that single track didn't really suit me – but it was a lot of fun to ride. There was no letup on the course, there was no section to take it easy and I knew that it was going to be hard on my body – not just my legs.

Course Profile

A birds eye view of the Moneyscalp course

Race morning arrived and we drove back to the race course from Monaghan (a one and a half hour drive). Thankfully, the course remained dry and from watching the sports riders ride by, it looked like it was holding up pretty well. There were a couple of mushy sections around the top of the course but really nothing to write home about. Instead of warming up on the roads, I decided to warm up by a steady lap of the course with a few accelerations – all that went grand.

Just before 1:30 we were called up for the gridding – second row for me so I was pretty happy. The first part of the course was up a steep fireroad then straight into single-track. The field had a little of an International flair with 3 Belgians and 3 riders from Great Britain over for the race. At 1:30 we were off – the start was not too fast but a huge surge right before the single track (which was a pretty technical entry point) meant that already there was a few little gaps formed. Over the course of that single-track section most of the gaps closed again but by the time we hit the fireroad there was a small lead group of 5 slightly ahead. Up the fireroad, I was sitting in 7th. This is were I stayed for most of the race – I could see one of the Belgians ahead of me (Patrick Gaudy) on the straight sections and by the 5th lap I caught and passed him. From that point on I slowly moved away from him eventually finishing up 2:17 later in 6th position.

The race was pretty tough - 6th place is my highest finish in a UCI C2 race but I actually wasn't particularly happy with how I raced. I rode technically pretty well but I didn't feel strong – I didn't feel like I had the legs to push hard – I felt that the maximum I could do was a soft pedal. My max HR was 183 (should be in the 190s...) and average HR was pretty low. That was a bit frustrating but the season is long and the next race is two weeks from now. (No racing for me next week – training and recovery is the name of the game) Another of the positives I guess was that I finished with very little left in the tank. In Kilruddery, I could have kept going for hours at the same pace – not so yesterday.

Mel will have some to say about her race but I'll leave her to talk about it in her blog. Full results of the race can be found here. There are a couple of pictures here and here. There is a report available here.

Selling some monitors

I'm selling two Dell 20 inch 2001FP monitors on Adverts.ie (link). They are 200 euro each - really nice monitors that I used for dual screening (370 for both...). I'm switching to using my MacBookPro for development so I'm going to pick up one 24 inch monitor instead. (My Mac does not support dual screens without the use of an expensive adapter)

Shoes and pedals

With the new season a new shipment of shoes and pedals came in. First off, I'll mention my CrankBrother 4Ti Eggbeaters. Since I started biking I have pretty much only used Eggbeaters and this was the first time that I was going to be using the 4Ti version. They are, as the name suggests an expensive pair of pedals but at 168grams, the lightest available. At the price, and weight, I only use them for races – even prerides will be done on the 'porky' 260gram Eggbeater SLs.

4Ti Eggbeaters

One of the other new bits of equipment that I got recently is the Specialized S-Works Road and Off-road shoes. I am a 44.5 in Sidis but somehow a 44 in the Specialized shoes. The closing mechanism is great and really clamps the shoes onto your feet well with no part seeming to have extra pressure. I've only had one long ride in the road shoes yet (153km Des Hanlon Memorial Road Race) but so far they seem perfect. At 535grams a pair, they also drop 200+ grams over the shoes I used last year on the road.

S-Works road and MTB shoes

Like the road shoes, the off-road shoes have been perfect. They have had a lot more use so far and again, I've not had a single issue. Comfortable, stiff and yet I can still walk/run in them reasonably well. Two very well put together products.

Thanks to 2Pure and Cycleways for helping out with the equipment.

2008 Des Hanlon Memorial Road Race

Yesterday saw me take part in my second road race, third race of, the year. As I said in an earlier post, I was treating this as purely training. But still, with any 150km+ race, a little preparation was needed. On Friday I picked up my new S-Works Road Shoes from Cycleways (Thanks!). White and very PRO looking – they also drop about 220 grams over my now relegated to training shoes. On Saturday, I had planned on riding off road for 2-3 hours but consistent rain (and a bit of a mechanical) meant that I was home, freezing after 1.5 hours. Well – the next day was going to be long so I was not too annoyed.

Sunday arrived to a bright and sunny day – I was not relishing the prospect of a race in conditions similar to last year. I arrived with enough time to sign on and get ready but not enough for a reasonable warmup – the first few km was going to be neutralised so that was fine, besides, all I wanted to do was sit in the draft all day.

A map of the course

Course Profile with speed

Race was going to plan. 30 minutes in, I had done nothing but stay out of the wind. We were on a bit of a climb and I seen a break of about 12 get away – they were a bit ahead and I seen a few try to bridge so I decided I may as well give it a go. For about 5 minutes a few of us worked to catch them in vain. Then another couple of people joined us and soon the peleton was with us again. Ahh well, it's probably best – I was supposed to only be sitting in. For the next few hours I sat in out of the wind most of the time – watching as people were slowly shelled off the back (sometimes in clumps). It wasn't always easy but I never really pushed anything. The course was basically a leg out to the start of a lap, 3 laps (4 reasonable climbs per lap) and then a fast ride into the finish. On the last climb of the second last lap I was chatting to another guy (sorry, I forgot your name – riding an S-Works Tarmac) that if we both have good legs at this point in the last lap we will hammer off the front. So, we rode the next lap and when that point came along both of us, joined by 3 others broke up the main chase group (we were about 30-40 riders from an original 100+) and 5 of us got away. 3 more joined us on the descent to the finish and we hammered along for what was a sprint finish in the end. I came in in 11th position overall in the S1 (probably equivalent to Pro/1/2 in the US) race – if I had stayed an S2 (as I was last year) I would have come second. For someone who took it (reasonably) easy all day, I was very happy with that. This race is known as been an Irish 'classic' and one of the toughest of the year.

Me on a climb - one of the few times in the wind :) (pics from Peter Purfield)

Coming in for 11th - it was a hard push down the hill

Saint Patrick's day for me is about resting, eating well (my PowerTap reports that I used about 4,000 calories in the race), going on a recovery ride and possibly heading into the city later to see some of the festivities.

Exercise Bike...

I rather being outside - even if it is raining. Pretty cool though.

2008 Specialized Tarmac – New Road Machine

About two weeks ago my new road bike arrived in a big box. I had been thinking about switching to a full carbon road bike for a long time as it would (should) be a bit more compliant on bumpy Irish roads when your riding 120k... The S-Works E5 has been amazing but also, a change is as good as a rest. New Tech is always cool :)

The big box :)

In all its glory

It came with full Ultegra SL and a DuraAce rear dérailleur. The rest of the finishing kit was Specialized gear – a few bits I might change as the year goes by to make it a little lighter. The wheels that were stock, I sold as I already had a set of them as my training wheels and I would be racing with my PowerTap SL wheel and a more aero front wheel. The front wheel I picked up was a Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL Premium – it is pretty heavy at 800grams but is very quick (aero) once it is up to speed. It also makes that nice carbon on road sound when your hammering along (Physcological boosts help too!). Anyone want to give me an aero PT rear wheel to complete the look of the bike? ;)

Mmmm - Dura Ace

The swooping top tube looks cool

First impressions are amazing – the bike seems to be a little stiffer then the E5, most noticeable when putting out 500 Watts+ out of the saddle, but yet a lot more smooth on the road. The constant vibrations seem to be numbed a lot. The groupset is working as I would expect it too – very similar to the Ultegra on my other bike – what can I say, it shifts when it should and breaking is good :)

I must say a huge thanks to Cycleways who helped set me up with the bike.

Videos from the K-Capital Cup

Here are a couple of videos from the K-Capital Cup...

Link 1


I'm coming through at 6:20 in the above video for my final lap.

Link 3

In the end, over 250 people took part in one of the cats on Sunday - amazing. Is it the most ever for a non nationals XC competition in Ireland? Just stands to the reputation that the K-Capital Cup has generated in this, only its second year. If you are on the fense about racing (or traveling here to race one of the other rounds) one of the rounds - do come, you wont be disappointed!

Today I got good intense training in - the DOMS that appeared last week after the road race have not shown their face again this week (damn, I knew I didn't go hard enough in the race). I can't wait for the next round :)

2008 K-Capital Cup - Round 1 UCI C2

Yeeeah – for race season. Yesterday was my first cross country race of the new season – a UCI C2 event which was the first round of the K-Capital Cup Series. The race was being held in the amazing Kilruddery Estate like last year on a course that was pretty similar to last years but a little shorter. The course was basically a big climb followed by a very technical rocky descent (about 2-3 minutes) then a flat fireroad over to another 3-4 minute climb. Next was an amazingly long fast single track section through the woods that goes on for hours (well, not quite, I wish). Another few minutes of climbing and then a chunk more singletrack that eventually takes you back to the start/finish area – about 8km long.

Course profile (it was actually 8km long)

How it looks

Preparation all started on the Saturday with the preride. Having just finished building up my new race bike (more on it later) the day before it was going to be its first ride. Like last year, it was an S-Works Epic so the geometry was exactly the same and fortunately I had been using my new wheels for a few rides so I had no qualms about racing on such a new bike (I've built up enough bikes at this point that I'm confident in my mechanical abilities...). The day started with heavy showers so by the time I was out on the course it really was very sketchy in places. 85% was bone dry, 15% was very wet – I heard that there was a rush to the bike shops after the pre-ride to get mud tires! Anyway, the pre-ride went fine and I was looking forward to the race.

I woke up on Sunday to beautiful sunny skies (and the "why am I about to put myself through this" feeling) and the hope that we might actually have a dry race. By the time I got to the course I got to see a few of the sports riders riding around during their race and they were not covered from head to toe in mud so it looked like conditions had dried out a lot since yesterday – sure enough, after further inspection of the course, it had, and the blue skies around me gave me the real hope of a fully dry race.

The Elite Men were off at 1:30 and as I knew the gridding was based on last years world ranking I arrived about 4 minutes before the start to my second row position (last year I started at the back – would not have been so bad this year though as there was no single track for a long time, just a big climb to get warmed up on). The race started and the pace was not too bad. I stuck with the leaders up the climb and down the slab descent. A few little gaps then formed and unfortunately I was a little back from the next person up (Ross Creber) so I didn't get any drafting on the flat section. The next two hours was basically me pushing myself to get around as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, apart from chasing Ross for a while I was not racing with anyone until I started to lap people on the 3rd of the 5 laps. I finished up 2:23 after the start to come in in 10th position (3rd Irishman). I really enjoyed the race and the singletrack was simply amazing – it is possibly my favourite course to ride but probably not one that suits me the most. The quality of the riders that came over for the race was great too – it had the feel of one of the big UK races! I knew it was early days in the race season for me as when I finished the race I still had legs for another 2-3 laps at the same pace (need to push harder). Also, my average heart rate for the race was very low – about 7-8 bpm lower then it would usually be for a race of that length so I have a few things to work on before the next cross country race (the second round of the K-Captial Series) in Tullymore in two weeks.

A short descent that dropped us down to the start/finish area - pic from here

Before then, there is a road race on on Sunday that I'm contemplating doing – it's pretty long at 150km but I did it last year and enjoyed it. If I do do it though, I'm doing it for training and not to race – I'm going to have a big sticker on my handlebars saying “Thou shalt not attack”. Nothing like a good 4 hour peleton pacing session.

Results for the race can be found here.

Sore legs...

Yesterday I was out riding the mountain bike and today was supposed to be high intensity intervals off road but I think my legs have a bit of a case of DOMS. I was pretty good on Monday but yesterday and today my legs just don't have any getup and go. I'm going to switch around the steady road ride scheduled for Thursday with todays intervals. I know tomorrow I'll be able to get the intensity right.

I do like this explanation of DOMs on Wikipedia though:
"Some research claims that DOMS is not caused by the pain from damaged muscle cells, but from the reinforcement process. The muscle responds to training by reinforcing itself up to and above its previous strength by increasing the size of muscle fibers (muscle hypertrophy). This reinforcement process causes the cells to swell in their compartment and put pressure on nerves and arteries producing pain."

I guess the first race of the season really did shock my legs!

Cycleways Cup - First Race of the Season

Sunday saw me take part in my first race of the 2008 season - The Cycleways Cup - which was also my first as an S1 (I was an S2 last year). It was a 123km road race held around Navan. The course was basically an out, then three laps of a 39km loop and then back to a different finishing location. Unfortunately, there wasn't much climbing involved (about 900m in total over the whole race) but there was a constant wind to keep the difficulty up. Last year I rode the race with a 12-25 on the back (the only cassette I had), on Saturday, I thankfully picked up an 11-23 as I spun it out a few times too...

A map of the course

The profile for the day (and speed)

Anyway, I rolled off at the start a little apprehensive as it had been a while since I rode in such a large group (about 100 riders) but after a few minutes it felt like normal again. There was no serious cornering etc... so most of the riding was pretty simple. As I had taken part in a race on this course last year, I knew that the attacks would start from the first 'climb' about 5km into the race. I stayed around the front for that trying not to make my mistake from last year and not make the winning break (last year, a break of about 15-20 stayed away for the complete race). I rode around the front and bridged up a few times but wasn't really doing anything except giving myself a good workout. No large groups got away so I ended up moving back and resting in the peleton for much of the next hour or so. With about an hour to go a group of about 12 got off the front, which I missed but a while later I decided that it really was now or never for bridging up to the group. The distance looked to be about 40 seconds so I gave it everything.

Power/HR when I bridged - I love my PowerTap

It took about 4-5 minutes to bridge across but luckily about 2.5 minutes in another rider (who looked a lot more suited to flat racing then me) joined me and we worked together to bridge up – by the time we made it, I was about to be sick. I was so happy to see him, it really really helped and I don't think I would have made it otherwise. As I got to the lead group, the next few minutes was about recovering. After that, we worked a bit of a paceline to make sure the chasing group didn't get us but no one really wanted to pull. A few tried to get away a couple of times (and I followed) but the group would just chase us down. Tactically, in hindsight I rode the final 20 minutes pretty poorly – I felt strong and repeatedly attacked off the front (as was other people) but I could not seem to get away. Eventually, 4 actually did make in and then another 2 but I didn't make that cut and ended up rolling in with the rest of the lead group a little back. (I must have tried to go about 15 times – talk about interval training!)

The race was pretty good fun – the start was great and the end was exciting (the feeling of, hey wait, I might just be able to win this thing...). The middle dragged a bit – but at least I got some rest.

The purpose of the race for me was to get some racing into my legs before the K-Capital series starts next week – in that regard, the weekend was a success... My normalized power for the final 50 minutes was 350... a new record for having already ridden over two hours at a hard pace. No new power records from the rest of the race for me... Road racing is just so surgey. Some pictures from the race can be found here.

In other news, a ton of new equipment has been arriving – bikes, wheels etc... More on that later.

Fulcrum Racing 5 Road Wheels For Sale

I'm selling a brand new pair of Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels. They are durable, reasonably light, aero and tough enough. I bought a pair in December 06 and have used them as my training wheels for the last year without a single issue (8,000k).

I'm selling for 150euro.

Fulcrum: http://www.fulcrumwheels.com/jspfulcrum/productsdetail.jsp?productid=3&varid=2

EDIT - SOLD

The Dirtworker...

I have had this little piece of kit for about 18 months now and I keep meaning to blog about it but I never get around to it. It is basically a little power hose that is bike safe and contains everything you need to clean your bikes (and yourself) assuming you have a cigarette lighter nearby. I have used it pretty much daily over the last 18 months but usually in a different setting. Like most young people in Dublin, I don't have a house or a proper garden - this little machine though, with an additional adapter I got allows me to clean my bikes on my balcony - it used to be such a pain cleaning up after spins but now, (well, it still is a pain) it is not nearly so bad.


Anyway, what made me think of it was that the trigger mechanism on the water gun started to fall apart - I called the Dirtworker people asking if I could purchase one (I have used this a lot so I thought it was more then reasonable for me to purchase it) and they said that it was still covered under warranty and that I'll have a new trigger within a week. Amazing - thanks Dirtworker!

Brilliant...

Not mountain bike related at all!

Fruit!

This should be just about enough fruit for Mel and I for the week :)

2006 Mountain Bike Marathon Course

Now that I have my MacBook Pro back (keyboard died – warranty replacement) it's back to adding another route that I like. The one I'm adding is one that I've not done many times. It's basically the National Mountain Bike Marathon course from 2006. I might actually head up there soon again as it's a great spin (raced in 4ish hours in very wet conditions – steady/fun paced, probably 6) and Carlingford is a great place for some food afterwards. At just over an hour from Dublin, it's not too far either. The course is about 53km long with around 1,800 meters of climbing.

The profile of the course


View Larger Map

A Video of the Great Weather...

Amazing weather these last few days. It's still really cold but it's been sunny and dry everyday for about a week now. This is a 360 video from the top of Fairy Castle one morning looking out over Dublin and Wicklow.

My MacBook Pro is sick at the moment (keyboard) but once I get it back I'll return to normal posting and add a new MTB route.

Nicest morning ever :)

Out on the bike this morning - it was amazing. Started cold but soon warmed up to an amazing day. I could have kept riding for hours...

A Relaxing Weekend

As it was the weekend of a recovery week, I decided to enjoy the things outside of cycling a bit more. Of course it all started with a road spin with Mel though :) Mel has been getting stonger on the bike and as I wanted to take it easy enough we decided to head out for a 3 hour steady road spin around Wicklow together. When we left the house it was very cold but by the time we got to the mountains proper there was a lot of snow and ice. I have no pictures of it but the descent from Sally Gap home was the sketchiest thing I've done on a bike. Snow, and worst of all ice the whole way down – at times I thought my rear wheel (2.3 – 120psi) was going to pass out my front wheel. Eventually we made it down to the warm confines of the Glencree coffee shop (I don't go for coffee during spins very often so this was a treat) for some Lattes and scones.

The road to Sally Gap

Mel and I in the coffee shop

That night, we headed out 'clubbing' to the Jack in the Box night in the Sub. I was hoping for a bigger, more busy place then it turned out to be. The DJ was pretty poor although the music itself was good. It is around a year since I was last clubbing – nuts for someone who about 3 years ago would have been out every week.

The final treat of the weekend was a trip for Brunch to Odessa – our favourite place to go on a Sunday morning (that isn't the mountains). When we first started dating we went there one morning and I've loved it since. The food was, as usual, amazing except that it ended up sitting in my stomach all day making me feel lethargic (I'm so not used to that much fat in food...) Ahh well, you only live once.