Training....sort of.

[Conor]

I'm heading to Djouce this Saturday for a bit of training etc. Meeting at 10 in the lower car park. I plan to stay out there till mid afternoon if the legs allow. Anyone care to join me?

[diamondG]

sounds good to me!!


don't suppose anyone knows what route the Kcapital will take?

[Cormac]

Should be out there weather permitting

[Richie]

Can't make Saturday, but will be doing something similar on Sunday but starting at 9.30 - drop me a txt or leave a post...

[Conor]

Slight change for tomorow. I wont make it til 10-30, I have to stop off at the Cycle Inn. Go ahead without me if yiz want... I'll catch up!


Also, the M50 will be closed overnight between Lepardstown and Loughlinstown, and wont re open til 11 am on Saturday. Just to let ya know.

[Oisin]

I'm planning to head to Djouce on Sunday too Richie. Might be there a bit later than 9:30 though.

[diamondG]

the spin is off lads


Conor and myself are going to try make it out tomorrow

weather permitting for me though

[Conor]

Sorry about the short notice, but the weather looked doo doo. I'll try and make Richie's spin tomorow, but like Oisin it will be a bit after 9-30.

[Richie]

it'll be about 10 for me now too lads... just went tubeless and expect to see one flat wheel in the morning so will need time to fix it up.

[paddyobrien]

went out to massies this afternoon and got caught in a massive thunderstorm with rain, sleet and hail. Man that hail hurt like hell. Cycled through rivers where i have never befroe seen rivers, and by the time i got home i was colder than i have ever been before. Took a shower and an hour or more in bed before i could feel my arms and hands again.


Lesson .. even if its sunny and warm when you head out don't discard that extra thermal layer!

[Scrivo]

Go up to head out this morning but could just see the weather changing so stayed in bed. Will be around Djouce tomorrow too.

[Oisin]

Waited until the afternoon and the rain passed and the sun came out. Lesson learned - never worth getting out of bed early!


See yous in Djouce tomorrow.

[paddyobrien]

i hear ya oisin .. i waited till the rain had gone as well. Didn;t work as it came back :-(

[mel]

lol - well, I also got up this morning and went on a group road spin and from the start to the end it rained like crazy and I was drenched to the skin in minutes. As we had a guy on his first spin out we couldn't go very fast, meaning what I wore was way too little for going so slow. It was such a horrible weather - the rain drops almost piercing your skin with all that wind! We cut it short and the spin was just about 2 hours.


Just like Paddy this was probably the most cold I had ever been. My hands were so frozen that I had no feeling in them and could not turn the key in the lock - had to use my teeth to turn it! It took ages to warm up again. Anyway, I put my clothes into the drier and my shoes onto the heating and waited for a few hours and went out for a second spin this afternoon - super sunny sunshine and felt great :)

[Scrivo]

"I put my clothes into the drier and my shoes onto the heating and waited for a few hours and went out for a second spin this afternoon " - Wow... Think we can all learn something from this kind of commitment!


On another note, does anybody know where you can rent a road bike? Read a bit about a guy starting road racing today and he seemed very sissy about it all and finished decently. Would love to give it a go. Anybody an idea?

[Oisin]

I know the Belfield Bike shop in UCD rented one to somebody last year. Think it was a Giant OCR and it was good value apparently. If you're thinking of giving the racing a shot I might have a go too cause I've a loan of Cait's road bike at the moment. Now where did I leave my leg razor?

[Arek]

Road racing? I thought about it as well! Have my road bike allready for 4 months and I'd like to try race in a category simmillar to mtb sports, let me know early enough so I can get my legs depilated in a proper beauty clinic!;)

[Richie]

I'd be interested too. I got an cheapo road bike last week, but would be good enough for a sports type category.


On a non-roadie note - super fast, mud-fest spin today in Djouce. Possibly the best one I've had up there. Lots of laps, painful climbs and technical descents - what more do you need?!?!?

[Conor]

Fresh legs?

[diamondG]

sleep?

[diamondG]

great spin alright, Djouce is class!!

this is going to be some weekend!!

rumour has it there's alot of new trails, we found one today, and it was cool

[Richie]

Go on outta that, yer probably both still warming down on yer turbo trainers :-)

[ciaran]

Jasus, lads, yiz must have been all over Djouce millions of times. Went for a gentle 15K run on my usual secret training trail from Djouce bottom car park to the waterfall and back - gone from being a Forest Gump idyll to a Terminator Swamp with a million Nobby Nic marks and Maxxis grooves hacking up the turf.


Shoulda gone biking instead.

[Scrivo]

Myself and Oisin had a deadly, slightly later spin. Started from the lower carpark where we took in all the usual stuff before climbing up GC and down Ack. From here we spun along the road to Ballianstoe and climbed the old NPS course to finally come to the sleepers. Thought these would be next to impossible seeing as they are so steep but you can stand out of the saddle and just hammer up them with no fear of losing grip!! Deadly stuff... Nice descent on the sleepers to what would be the start if we had gone the normal way.


Then we descended that usually horrible off camber single track with the slick rocks (nice and sketch as a descent) before descending the huge grassy climb. (WOW... Must've been 7+ mins of solid descending!!) One of the best descents I've done. So so fast and loads of little drop offs that send you flying! This brought us down ACK again before descening XTC and back to the car.


Think this is the way those trails should be ridden. Don't think I'll ever have the will to ride up them again after having that much fun on them....

[ryan]

Going a couple of posts back but... road biking.


First - disclaimer - I'm selling one of my road bikes (I got a new one recently) as soon as I get a chance to put an ad up. It's a size 58, Specialized S-Works E5 full Ultegra (XT for road, except a little closer to XTR then XT) and in great condition.


Anyway - road biking is great as a tool for gaining fitness. On a 3 hour spin, especially if it is not hilly your legs keep pedaling the whole time - no letup. It means when you get back home (your legs at least) have done a lot more work for a given amount of time. I got my first road bike in June 2006 - it made a huge huge difference to my XC racing. I was just so much more fit. For riders who are technically very good (Steve, I'm looking at you), you will find great speed boosts from riding a road bike a couple of times a week.


Next, road racing. I've done about 7-8 road races at this point, so a few things that pops to my mind.

- They are VERY different from XC races. Basically, there are three speeds, tootling (30%), tempo sort of speed (65%) and flat out 110% seeing stars (5%). Being prepared for the flat out times and the surgeyness of it all is pretty tough.

- Your riding with maybe 100 people around you doing 65kph down a hill around a corner - make sure your used to riding in a group fast! It's pretty scary to you get used to it.

- There are no big climbs in Irish Road Races :(

- Sneaky people win - I've been in races where (I think) I'm the strongest person, I have won none. It's ALL about tactics.

- Can be a bit boring in the middle section of races... the 80k where your just putting in the kms...

- I can be a huge amount of fun when your on a attack or a break

- Really good for fitness and power training!


Also, it is something different. I love getting out on the road bike and climbing on Wicklow Gap on a sunny warm day and then descending at 70kph down the other side. It's refreshing.


(Don't worry, I'm not changing to a roadie - I ride my MTB at least 9-10 hours a week too :))

[Richie]

Ryan, sounds like you might need a bunch of domestiques to get that maiden win... I think you have 3 volunteers on this thread :-) ...well maybe 2, I could be the fella that just cycles between the team car and the team members with bottles down his top, up his armpits etc...

[ryan]

Domestiques.... Yeah - that sounds great. Someone I could order to chase down the break away etc... Shield me from the wind :)


Funny you mention bottles - I did the Des Hanlon Memorial (153km race) the other week and as I had no team car following (people do!), I had to use two bottles for the whole race. 1.4l of energy drink for 4 hours of racing... In an XC race, I almost drink that much an hour.


And before you ask, I have not perfected (or even attempted) the peeing off the bike trick...


Bags not getting the armpit bottles...

[Barrydanzig]

ryan the only bottles left after the armpit bottles are the crotch bottles.

[Fergal]

don't think I'll ever ask you to do my bottles again with that thought stuck in my mind Barry.... ok, maybe you wanted to keep the contents warm but.....eeeuuuooowwww!!

[Richie]

Crotch Bottle - genius Barry.

[Barrydanzig]

so i've learned, if you want to be permanently removed from bottling duties all you have to do is say a sentence with the words crotch, bottle, and energy drink.