Life is good!

The end of January, finally it's over. It is a long and slow month of the year but once it's over it really feels like we are one step closer to the spring and some sweet and long bike rides in the long and bright afternoons and evenings.

Things are going ok lately, nothing special to report at this time of the year. I try to have some real quality training done and hoping to balance it out somehow 'cause I missed out time on bike in the last couple of weeks. But hey, there are other things besides cycling!

Amazing crispy chicken strips with fried noodles cooked by Anett

Avocado & cucumber sushi prepared by the brilliant chef / bike mechanic Tomek from ThinkBike

I'm having good food, rest a lot and try to spend as much time as I can with riding my bike. But the most exciting thing is to spend time with my wife Anett and getting ready to be a dad in June. Honestly I can't wait! :)

So, everything is going great and I am happy with the way the things are at the moment. Will do some racing in the early months of the spring, get some of my own challenges done such as the Wicklow Way and after that I'll have the best and greatest challenge ahead of me: raising my child and teach him how to ride his bike well! :)

Icy & muddy spin around Ballinastoe

Today I've had a real winter spin on the XC bike and I have to say it was absolutely perfect just the way it all happened. Get out to Ballinastoe and have 2 of the long loops done nice & fast, this was the plan for the day. Since the weather was savage and cold (-2°C) I decided to drive instead of ride all the way there. I got up at 7:30 am and after breakfast and coffee I was ready for the first challenge of the morning: get the car deiced! :)

Nice and hard ice on the windscreen, winter is still here

After the short drive I arrived to the place that was busy already.  I got changed quickly and I was all set. Drink in the bottle, timer reset on the Garmin and go! When I went  out for the first lap the temperature was still below 0°C, so besides the cold the other thing that provided fun time on the bike was all the ice everywhere. I got warmed up quickly though but the sketchy trails did not ease up at all for about an hour. Ice everywhere and frozen puddles of course. By the time I got out for the second lap everything started to melt a little bit so the whole thing turned into some savage icy-muddy spray in the face. Was cold but at some level of course I really enjoyed myself on the bike! It was great! :)

Here is a great shot of the Wicklow where the snow just looks amazing.

Besides the regular "skidding-on-frozen-puddles-on-icy-trails-and-get-mud-all-over-me" story the real thing was the short section of the north shore. I can tell, it has been never been this tricky! :) 

Lovely ice coating on the north shore...sketchy

So, as it was planned I got 2 of the long loops done with a nice, quick but steady pace. I managed to have 1 hour lap times during the training so that left me with 2 hours training time on the bike today...check it on Strava.

Today's spin wasn't exactly long but it was some real quality time on the bike in savage weather conditions. It was cool, there is something I like about these cold and muddy winter spins. Can't wait for the next one! :)

Night riding : it's addictive!

If anybody asked me few years ago about night riding my answer would have been: "No way, I don't see anything in that!" Well, this opinion has been changed this winter 'cause I am officially hooked on off-road night ride spins. There is no turning back! :)

There is just something great about being up in the mountains at night and have fun on the trails. We normally go to familiar places 'cause we know what to expect. But even the well known trails could surprise us at night! 

Yeah, the front lights are very bright indeed but still: riding off-road in pitch black forest and hit some sweet downhill sectors over rocks and roots just kicks in the adrenaline for sure! 

The sounds of the forest at night is definitely something that I never really listen to during the day. At the darkest bit we always stop for few minutes and switch the lights off all together. Now, that is the freaky bit! Cool! :)

We took some good photos during last night's spin, here they are:

The view is amazing

Dark enough, let's go!

On my favourite trail up on Threerock

Deep in the dark forest

Little bit of donwhill

A funky shot: the rear light on the back of my bike. Sometimes random photos are the best! :)

Yesterday's night ride spin was possibly one of the best so far. The weather was cold enough but still good and bright. We ended up stoping a couple of times to take some nice photos but we still finished the spin with 2 hours clear riding time. But hey, all these night ride spins are purely for fun I think and we have to say that we've had great time on the bike.

I'd like to say thank you to my friend Csaba for all the nice pictures and for taking all the equipment last night. Good stuff man! :)

About SealSkinz Ultragrip gloves

Toes and fingers...mostly fingers...are always causing trouble for me on the bike. Summer time is ok of course but when it's cold and wet during the winter months I could have extremely hard time during the usual winter training spins.

Now, I've been using SealSkinz socks for  a year now and I couldn't be happier with them. Based on this fact I decided to give them a go and got a pair of their waterproof gloves good few weeks back. I was hoping to get the same "result" from them and I have to say: they are excellent!

They called SealSkinz Ultragrip to be exact and the reason I picked them is they are light enough to be able to use the gears & brakes but they are fully waterproof and warm to get my issue sorted. Also great to have the inside of the palm super gripy to ensure the best possible grip even in very wet conditions.

I use them for about 6 weeks time and I find them very comfy, durable but mainly functional! I got caught in some nasty rain few times and I have to say they are fully waterproof, windproof and the wool lining gives warm feeling in pretty extreme conditions too. The durable and tough outer that stands up to rough useage on the XC bike and repeated washing also. It's amazing how quickly it dries after washing though!

After all I'm impressed with the SealSkinz gear I have to say, and after the socks these gloves were fantastic choice indeed. They worth the price and I can tell they will serve me on the bike for a long time! :)

100km road spin over the Sally Gap

This morning I turned to the mountains direction for the second time this week ( I went out for a 65 km spin before work on Tuesday morning also) 'cause I wanted to have some nice and long enough road spin. The night was pretty cold, it was -2°C in Milltown. Based on that I got all my proper winter gear ready this morning just to be on the safe side. It turned out to be a mild enough morning though with the lovely enough 4°C but later on I was glad to have the heavy gear on when I crossed the Sally Gap.

After the filling porrage breaky and my morning espresso that was as strong as a horse I was all good to go: Wicklow Mountains bring it on! :)

I went out on my usual route: Dundrum - Stepaside - Enniskerry - Lough Tay - Sally Gap. Since it was Saturday morning I have seen tons of cyclists along the way. 

Lough Tay on the way up to the Sally Gap

Once I passed the Lough Tay the weather started to turn into something else. Strong wind and very damp conditions luckily without rain though. Once I reached the Sally Gap I turned left at the junction and started the most difficult part of my spin as far as the weather concern...it was rough... I really started to feel the cold and the wind wasn't helping me either. My fingers and toes started to get into trouble, so it wasn't fun at that point. But when I got the long downhill done and I got to Laragh everything got back to normal.

The point where the WW crossing the road just before Laragh

So I got to the well known coffe shop in Laragh, got my bottle filled with fresh water and I was on my way again. The place was packed with roadies, but we all know it's usual. It's amazing! Every time I'm up there I meet at least one group of cyclists. Cool! :) 

Haha, the Chistmas Spirit is still present at the side of the road up in the mountains.

On the way home I hit the little more flat road through Annamoe and Roundwood back towards Enniskerry. I like this road 'cause most of the surface is great and I get back to Dublin quickly. After I got back to Enniskerry I countinued my way home on the same road that I picked in the morning. 

By the time I got home I was cold enough so the first thing I wanted was a lovely hot shower and of course something to eat. Luckily my wife Anett cooked some awsome Chinese meal for lunch which was life saver!

Real home made Chinese food: stir-fry noodles with veg and crispy chicken breast pieces, yummy! :)

Today I ended up with 100 km long spin accross the mountains that took me just a little bit longer than 4 hours. I did 1419 m of total elevation gain and burned 2650 calories along the way. 

...here is the Strava link on this spin.  

The spin was great, I loved every bit of it except the cold and rough time on the very top. But hey, after all it's winter time! Isn't it?! :)

I started blogging 1 year ago

It has been a year already since I strated to write this blog and it has been a great year I need to say. I enjoy to write about stuff that I seen, places where I've been and of course mainly about the training / racing progress I made. It is cool to look back and read the old race reports 'cause to me it is like some sort of journal of my life on the bike. Also nice to see that many people are interested to read it, the blog has been visited more than 15.800 times in the first one year.

I'd like to say thank you to everyone for reading the blog and leaving me great feedback from time to time. It means a lot to me! I'll keep writing about my adventures on the bike for sure because I enjoy the whole blogging thing very much! I can only hope I'll have lot's of exciting things ahead of me that I can write about! :)

My plans for the 2012 racing season

Well, the this year's racing season is really just around the corner, it'll start in 6 weeks time. So it is time for me to think through the plan for it and get the last couple of weeks of the winter training right. 

This season will be very special to me 'cause I going to be a daddy! We have a Little One on the way and we are super excited about the fact we are going to have a child! So of course the priorities will change a lot and I just simply have to see how things will go. 

I am planning the majority of my racing season for the first half of the year, so I'm planning to compete before end of May. I'll try to enter as many XC races as possible between February and May and after that I'll miss pretty much the rest of the competions. I might get to race some of the last races in the calendar but if not, it's still all right though. But beside all of this the biggest plan is: I'll change category this year. I am going up from S3 to S2 and compete in a stronger field. The training is going ok and the motivation is there so nothing else left but pushing the pedals harder against the stronger guys! :)

Beside the races and events in the Cycling Ireland calendar of course I have some of my own goals to achieve in 2012. The main one would be the Wicklow Way of course, I still didn't give up the plan to ride the whole route in one day. 

I also would love to see what would be the longest distance I can cover on the road bike in one day, so that'll be my other big plan for the season.

So, this would be my plan for the upcoming racing season. I am motivated and excited about the whole thing, can't wait to line up at the start line again! :)

First spin of the new year, let's hit the coast road!

I hopped on the road bike this morning and went out to get my first spin done in 2012. Since the weather was absolutely fantastic this morning I thought the best place would be to go is the stunning looking coast. I cycled out through the city centre which was pretty hectic but once I hit the coast road the ride was great. 

Nice & quiet road along the coast

I cycled out to Howth but instead of going for the usual ride around the half-island I turned left and headed out towards Portmarnock and Malahide. The road was still quiet enough 'cause it was early. It was nice and mild out there and the view was just incredible! Everytime I ride along the coast there is something special about it: maybe the smell of the sea or just the view itself, I don't know. But I love it for sure!

The map of today's spin

On the way home I stopped by at the St. Anne's Park to say hi to the lads who was there to race the National CX Champs today. What a venue and what a day! I felt a bit jealous 'cause it would have been nice to line up next to my friends and have a go! :) I wanted to stay and cheer them but I really started to cool down and feel the cold so after a little while I kept going until I got back home. 

Today I was on the bike for 2 hours and 20 minutes and covered the distance of 57 km with nearly zero elevation gain along the way. This flat road spin was great for today, I really enjoyed myself. I couldn't pick any better place to cycle for a day like today! :)