Dealing with ankle injury...

An injury is never good I'd say, especially not now...And it's even worst when it's not caused be cycling but caused by running...

As part of my normal winter preparation I run normally once or twice a week just to build up general fitness over the winter months. Also like running because it doesn't take so much of my time, so it fits in with our routine with the Little One. Thing went well up until now...

Exactly a week ago I went for my usual running session. It was a 40 minutes session and I managed to cover a bit more than 7 km under this time. So the pace was ok, nothing too fast. After I got back home I went to work and on the same evening I had a feeling something isn't right. And things got bad the next day...I have some proper pain and pressure on the inside of my left ankle and it has fairly limited movement also. Now of course when all this happens? Right in the middle of the Festive Season when no one is working...

Ice can sort things out big time!

Thankfully I got some very useful advice how to make things a bit better until I can visit a physio and get things checked out properly. It has been a week now and luckily it got a little bit better, but it's far from being good. I'm able to ride in and out to work but I definitely had to skip my weekend spin (quiet pissed off about that...) to make sure I'm not making thins worse until tomorrow when I get to see a physio. I will get things checked out tomorrow and finally get some answers what went wrong and what do I need to do in order to get rid of it. I hope it's nothing serious though...

Christmas in my home

It's amazing how fast this year went, seems like last Christmas was just a few months ago. But it's that time of the year again: get the tree dressed, wrap presents and the best part is to have all the lovely meals! :)

But most importantly: this Christmas is very special to us because it's our first Christmas with our little son Rhys, who absolutely lovin' the Festive Season. He likes the tree and all the lights too. This year we are in Dublin again for the Festive Season but of course we miss the family and the nice & cold winter that we normally have in Hungary. 'Cause let's be honest for a second: Christmas is great, Christmas is nice but this year the weather doesn't feel too Christmas like 'cause it sooo mild here in Ireland...

During the last few days I had my camera ready (like I always have) to catch some nice moments from Christmas in my home: 

Rhys is havin' a good time! :)

Rhys & Anett on Christmas eve

Lovely Christmas coffee

The little red bike that always has a place on our tree

Pottery family portrait: Anett, Rhys, myself & of course the bike :)

Super yummy ginger bread treats

Getting the spicy Christmas Punch ready

It's been a lovely couple of days indeed but tomorrow I need to get back to reality and go back to work. Also would love to get back on the bike but I am deeling with some ankle injury, so I need to delay that plan...but that is a whole different story!  There's still a bit of a time left to enjoy, so I keep havin' good time and I wish the same to all of you! :) 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas is only 2 days away so it's really just around the corner. Decoration is up, presents are wrapped and the delicious ginger bread cookies are all on the table. So we are all set for the Festive Season that is gonna be very special in our family this year: it'll be our first Christmas with our little son Rhys and needless to say that how excited we are about his first Christmas. Special & happy time it is indeed!

 

Merry Christmas everyone, have a great time!

Flatout Fridays # 1

Uhh, it was a tough going I need to say...I'm just back from the first week of my Flatout Fridays sessions. Basicly I still don't have too much time that I can spend on the bike so I've decided to head out on Friday afternoons and get an hour intense riding in. So, this is the first one! 

After I finished with all the changing-nappies-and-preparing-babyfood things (that kept me super busy) and my wife Anett got back from work also, I got my gear ready and off I went. 

The route is one of my favourite: 

Milltown - Rathgar - Rathfarnham - Kilmashogue Lane - Threerock - Sandyford - Dundrum - Milltown

Luckily the weather was nice & mild so except the pace it was a very loveable spin. Doing the ride on the cross bike was brilliant, could build up nice speed but I paid the price having a single (38T) ring on the front...

The idea of these spins will be to go for an hour and give as much as I can in this time. So today I was out for 1 hour and covered the distance of 23,6 km with total elevation gain of 456 m and burned 707 calories. 

The best part is that I managed to do a little PR hunting on Strava and scooped up 4 of them! Happy days! 

...details of the ride on strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/33337211

 

This route suits me very well and I'm already targeting the sub 1 hour time limit. Will give that one a go for sure when I'm heading out next time! But until then...

...I'm enjoying my post ride treat: yummy ginger bread cookies

Can't stop watching this!!

It doesn't happen too often since I've stuff to do most of the times, but if I ever have a spare halfen hour in the evening there is no other No.1 than Behind The Barriers with Jeremy Powers. Simply brilliant program that is! 

I just heard about it only a few months back but I'm hooked eversince. I like the behind the scenes type programs like this but the super easy going sense of humor and the way the series has been made (cameras, music & locations) just simply awsome! Not to mention that it's all about cyclocross, so it's even better! :)

I have four of my favourite episodes from Season 3 here, just to get a taste what it's all about. Enjoy! :)

 

Episode 1

 

 Episode 2

 

 Episode 5

                                                                       Episode 6

Taking the cyclocross bike to the mountains

This time I've done a little bit different thing: I decided to mix up some good road cycle with cyclocross action up in the mountains. I finished cyclocross racing for the season but I just simply can't give up on it yet so it seemed like a good idea on this brilliant Sunday morning. Went out with my good friend and cycling buddy Csaba and our destination was the Viewing Point and the trails around that side of the hill.

Why not explore new places today?!

After we left Rathfarnham behind and climbed up on the Military road we have reached the place quiet quickly. Cool trails, let's try them! :)

Checked it out...

...and off we went!

Perfect mixture of singletracks and fire roads we seen but couldn't get too much done since all the trails were either dead end or turned back exactly where we came from. So we did few shorter and longer loops before we decided to get back home. I was working today so was under a bit of a time pressure to open the shop in time! :)

We took some nice shots of the beautiful Wicklow Mountains and came back home near the Johnnie Fox's Pub and the side of Threerock. Loved that the cross bike is a beast on the road and 'cause the roads weren't frosty there was no real reason to pull the brakes too often! Great it was! 

We ended up doing 40 km this morning with 627 m elevation gain just a bit under the 2 hours 30 minutes mark. It was a very relaxed and civilized spin on a fantastic Sunday morning: chatting away about life in general, fatherhood and needless to say but of course about cycling! Exactly the kind of spin that I preferred today! :) 

The next Big Goal is on the list!

Crossmarnock '12 - race report

Yes! Another cyclo-cross race is done & dusted! At the end of the cross season there was a race that I've been looking forward to: the one in Portmarnock with the stylish name. Crossmarnock is the one allright!

Got all the gear sorted and after my lovely breakfast I was on the way on the coast road to the race venue. I was kind of hoping for some savage wintery morning with frost and ice everywhere, but when I was driving along the coast on this nice and mild morning I sad to myself: " Hey, there's nothing to complain about, this is gonna be just fine! "  

After a super smooth registration and a quick practice lap we were on the start line before we knew it. The start was a bit of a mayhem but luckily I managed to shoot out and got to the narrow straight bit with the front of the bunch.  

Typical sight from today's race (photo by Greg May)

I was racing in the 'B race' and our portion of racing today was 8 laps on the 2.3 km long race course. The course was a great mixture of tarmac and grass sectors with one set of double barriers. The place was 100% open without any sort of shelter from the wind so by the time of the end of that race the wind took a fair bit of energy out of me. Also was a bit muddy that provided some real fun in the bends! :) 

In 105% during the first lap... (photo by Colm Gallagher)

Just a painful moment... (photo by Colm Gallagher)

In action close to the end (photo by Colm Gallagher)

After a brutal first lap I managed to settle down a bit and be more "comfortable" in the race. Got warmed up and got the laps done one after another and shortly after an hour racing time I've crossed the finish line in the 15th place (out of 40 riders) and completed my last cross race of the year.

The result of the good old cross conditions :)

Quick last photo on the coast before I left

After the race and the journey through the hectic Sunday traffic and got home just in time for my favourite lunch. Yummy! :)

Great way to celebrate the end of the season :)

About today's race I have many words and thoughts in my head but I just write a few of them: savage, fast, difficult, fun! Just as a good race should be! Do I want to be there again? Hell yeah! I hope this race will be in the calendar next year 'cause I definitely won't miss it! :)

Time to get ready

Crossmarnock // My last cyclo-cross race in the season

Only a couple of days left until this race that I'm really looking forward to. The Crossmarnock will be the last cyclo-cross race that I'm taking part in on the 9th of December. Yeah, there's the National Champs in January, but I decided to skip that one for many reasons...

What can I say? I'm havin' a blast on the cross bike and based on what I've seen in the Fixx Supercross Cup this year I really have high hopes for this race also. As a little bonus I'm hoping to see a real wintery race with frost and perhaps some snow as well. Yes, I want mud and snow!! Am I pushing it too far? Ah well, all I'm saying is: it would be sooooo cool! :)

We'll see but until then I have some preparation to do: some running, some cycling and some proper bike maintenace as well. Also need to calm down a bit 'cause I'm getting too excited about this now! :) 

 http://www.crossmarnock.eu/

   http://www.facebook.com/Crossmarnock?ref=ts&fref=ts

Bushy Park - Phoenix Park - Coast // Awsome cross spin

Today I've decided to visit 3 different places on the cross bike. They are all in the city and since I got the perfect weather as well I just went for it. 

I started in the Bushy Park nice and early before the usual "rush hour" starts with all the runners and dogs out there. After 2 laps around the park on the muddy trails and wet fields I turned the front wheel towards my next destination. 

Some serious puddles out there on this lovely morning

The Phoenix Park was much better with the long trails and the super wet places! I went around the Glen Pond lake to set some nice lap time around the loop there. Managed to get what I went for, so did a little bit more in the park and after that I started to head out to the coast. 

The coast trails I know are very short but I think they are nice to ride and since it was a brilliant morning the view was simply amazing. 

Nice, isn't it?!

I went out all the way to the light house. The best bit was the surface: felt a bit like Paris - Roubaix with all the cobble stones! :)

Rusty old crane, cool

 

This was the third and the last place that was planned for today. I was out there for 2 hours and 38 minutes and covered the distance of 55 km. I had great time on the bike and felt good too. Loved the off-road bits and really enjoyed the pace on the tarmac too. Cool!

Life saver Jelly Babies after the spin! Yummy stuff! :)

Bontrager Jones CXR cyclocross tyre // The All-rounder

The Bontrager Jones CXR - 700 x 34C cyclo-cross tyres are the only ones I ever tested and used, so I can't compare them to any other models out there but I think the more than 2 months time that I've been using them is enough to say: they are brilliant tyres! 

Since I have them I got to test them out on every surface in pretty much all sorts of conditions: dry, muddy, frozen, gravel, grass, singletrack, tarmac, etc... 

Ready to roll

 

 

The folding design provides super easy & quick installation, so it's very easy to work with even if there's a puncture on a cold winter spin. 

 

The traction is excellent so as the mud-shedding ability thanks to the pattern. They have great grip in the corners and the rolling resistance is low, so they are very fast as well. 

 

The puncture resistance is good, I managed to have a puncture-free run since I got them. Happy days! :)

I usually run them on 29 PSI (2 bars) pressure. This seems to be working out perfectly with my bodyweight in every conditions, so I will stick to this setup in the future.

Mudfest it is

Real winter testing

So, my own experience about these tyres is simply great. They never left me in trouble, I find them very reliable. Good traction, good weight (unfortunatelly I don't have any weight data, but they are light I'd say). What else I could ask for? I'm happy with them and will stick to them in the future! :)

Time to run again!

The "missing" running shoes are back

Yep, it's that time of the year again, so there's no other option but do some running sessions again. After some searching I managed to dig out my running shoes that I haven't seen for a loooong time! :)

Today, as a first running session I've picked a nice and short route. I also included a set of stairs (next to the Dropping Well Pub) to have a nice and intense segment within today's running session. Since it was my first day back running again I've done intervals on those stairs only 5 times in a row, but planning lot more in the near future! :) 

Great place to do some specific intervals

After I finished my planned time here I kept carry on towards the Sandford Road and came back home along the Dodder. I have been running only for 25 minutes this evening. This was enough to cover just a bit more than 4 km. Since I haven't been running for a very long time I have to say it was a little bit of a shock to the system but will get better in a short time I think. From now on I'm planning to run regularly just as I always do every winter. Will need to get used to it again though...  

Frosty spin in the park // Winter CX is great!

I thought I might go a bit arty this time, so I've decided to upload some nice B&W photos from today's frosty cyclo-cross spin.