Started to feel the speed - morning road spin over the Sally Gap

Another morning means another road spin before I get to work. This time I had about 3 hours window I could work with so that left me with the obvious choice: yep, the Sally Gap, just as always! :)

This morning's ride

The plan was to have a nice and fast paced training spin on one of my favourite training loop, which would be the next: 

Milltown - Stepaside - Enniskerry - Powerscourt - Sally Gap - Lough Tay - Ballinastoe - Djouce - Enniskerry - Stepaside - Milltown

I was really lucky with the weather this morning, no rain, no crazy wind just dry roads and a bit of sunshine along the way. Just as we expect a nice February morning to be! :) Everything was just nice and calm out there with very little traffic and stunning view at some places. 

Who wouldn't live in a place like this, hah?! Absolutely fantastic!

But back to the spin! I started to push it hard straight from the beginning and I felt very good all the way so I decided to have the split times recorded, I thought they could be interesting. Here they are:

             CP1 - Enniskerry @ 32 minutes of riding time

             CP2 - Powerscourt Waterfall @ 46 minutes of riding time

             CP3 - Military Road junction @ 1 hour and 10 minutes of riding time

             CP4 - Sally Gap @ 1 hour and 30 minutes of riding time

             CP5 - Enniskerry @ 2 hours and 15 minutes of riding time

             CP6 - Milltown (home) @ 2 hours and 50 minutes of riding time

I'm happy to get this 73 km long spin done under 2 hours and 50 minutes time with all the climbs along the way.  It was tough enough morning spin with all the 1186 m elevation gain. 

And there is one more thing that I'm happy for: I managed to set a new PB speed record on the was down from the Sally Gap, just next to the Lough Tay. Happy days!

I had great time on the bike today and it was great to have a bit more intense training spin especially 'cause the racing season is coming soon. Legs were turning fine and I felt it for the first time this year that all the training I've done all started to build up. Feels greeeaaaat!

Old bikes = nice memories

I was going through some of my old photos a couple of days ago and I found some interesting stuff again. This time I got shots of nearly all of my XC race bikes from the last 10 years. There is a quiet bit of a change between each of them and they do mean a lot to me cause I had some really memorable racing in the saddle of these bikes. 

So here they are, the evolution of my bikes:

 Magellan Crux (2003) - My second alloy mountain bike, the first XC race specific frame

Magellan Pyxis Team (2004) - nice race geometry with nice parts & Rolf Satellite wheels

Specialized Stumpjumper (2006) - great XC bike with the best fork out there: Rock Shox SID World Cup BlackBox. My heart was broken when this beauty got stolen...

Specialized Epic M5 (2007) - my first and only full suspension XC bike, also first time to have disc brakes. Amazing bike but couldn't keep the weight and the maintenance low enough...

Tomac Taos (2007) - amazing and super stiff frame with some real sweet parts and Mavic CrossMax SL wheels

Giant XTC 1 (2009) - lovely alloy frame with my first Shimano groupset after nearly 10 years of SRAM! Milestone it was indeed! :) 

Look 986 (2010) - my current XC race bike with carbon frame, full Shimano groupset & double chain ring setup.

Will this list getting any longer in the future? Hard to tell...at this point I'm super happy with the bike I have at the moment, it's waaaaaay better than any of other ones. So, I guess the answer is no. 

But we are all cyclists and we all said this before. And all of a sudden there was a new plan for a new bike again! Isn't this true? :)

With or without earphones?! - Listening to music on the bike

The one question that causes "panic attack" in some people and does absolutely nothing to others: "Do you listen to music while riding your bike?" It seems to be a sensitive question lately so I thought it would be an interesting topic for this post. 

All my cyclist friends and team mates know about that I belong to the group that listening to music on the bike. The main reason is I'm on my own most of the time, doing about 95% of all my training alone. It is simply more entertaining to go out for a long spin with some of my favourite tunes in the earphones. It gives more motivation as well and keep me going better if I hear some real music that I love to listen. Well, of course I don't have the earphones with me every time but mainly I do. 

The main thing that freaks people out is the safety aspect of the whole "listening to music on the bike" question. I honestly think that if you are in control on the bike and you visually aware what's happening around you then there is nothing to worry about. 

Well, of course the commuter madness in the city centre is completely different story but if we are talking about a lovely XC spin in the middle of the nowhere, or the quiet country roads accross the Wicklow I do think there is nothing wrong to listen to music while we are out on our training spin. :)

Just couple of my favourite songs that are defo on my playlist when I'm out on the bike! Enjoy! :)

WW // Leadmines // Threerock - MTB spin

The temperature has been very friendly today so I decided to take advantage of it and hopped on the MTB to get a good XC training spin done. Wet and damp morning it was, but still very mild though. 

The plan was to have the first short segment of the Wicklow Way done, then hop over to Leadmines to do the Epic Club Course and do a little bit up on Threerock on the way home. So, there was no time to waste on this lovely Saturday morning!

My route this morning

I started to climb the Kilmashogue Lane as a good warmup. After the short tarmac bit and the longer fire road climb I got up to the top and started to descent towards Glencullen when I've seen something that I really liked!

The "brand new"...I should say repaired section of the WW

The downhill section of the WW between the junction of the WW / Dublin Mountain Way and the Ballybrack tarmac road was very critical for a good while. The erosion was huge and it just got worst every year. But this sector has been repaired now! The massive "V" shaped trail has been filled and they put many water drains into it as well. This way the previously tricky enough trail is nice and quick now. There are good few of these "steps" along the way also which, I have to say certenly fun to ride! :)

On the well maintained sector of the WW

When I hit the tarmac road I kept going towards Leadmines where I amied to have a lap on the Epic Club Course. It was muddy and wet but it was just perfect just the way it was. From Leadmines I started to head back towards Stepaside. I got up to Threerock on the way home to have a go on the Metro Trail before I finish my spin for the day. By the time I got to Threerock the place was pack of course so I didn't spend too much time there. From there nearly the whole way is downhill, so I got back home quickly just in time for lunch.

My training spin was 3 hours long and did get 50 km done with a little more than 1000m elevation gain. 'Cause the weather didn't make me suffer this time it was just pure fun! And the fact I visited 3 of my favourite MTB destinations around Dublin just made the ride even better. Loved it! :)

First interval session of the year + my frozen water bottle

Well, generally it is still too early to do interval training and I normally wouldn't start them until March but this season will be different for me. So here I am, doing interval trainings from the beginning of February. 

I certenly picked a cold day for it though but let's talk about that later. I finished work early and after my short prep I was ready to get out and get the training done in the cold and dark evening. I picked a climb that I know well and I like also. After a nice warmup I got to the starting point wich was the Taylor's Pub carpark near the M50 bridge. The plan was to do short intervals today so I marked the finishing point at the Ticknock Lower carpark.  

The lenght of this climb is 2.10 km and has 145 m of elevation gain. This time I got it done 4 times in a row. I didn't want to get too jumpy so I kept a nice and consistent pace through the whole thing, staying in the saddle for most of the time. It took a bit over 10 minutes each time to climb up to the carpark. The goal was to get it done nice and steady not to break PB on it, so it's all good as it is. :)

Regular dark and cold winter training, normal I can say but still...something happened that I haven't seen for a long time. The valve of my water bottle got frozen! Last time I seen stuff like this was in the proper Hungarian winter many years ago.

First interval training of the year and I think it went well. I felt good and even the freezing evening was lovely. I like to cycle in cold, it has it's own beauty though. I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes on the bike all in and I enjoyed every bit of it. :)