Archive for Off road
April 25, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Cycling, Off road
My time at Broadmoor is rapidly running to an end and I need to exploit this fantastic area before it’s out of my life, forever. With this in mind, Jason drove out today and met me at the Look Out for a blast around Swinley Forest on the mountain bikes.
This is part of our route in the dedicated mtb zone. The fact that the area was labelled Expert Zone should have been all the indication I needed to steer well clear! But did I?
Nope, I skidded and screamed and generally bounced my way down tracks completely out of my league. I actually recall Jae tempting me over a particularly unappealing section known as the “drop off” - thank god for disc brakes. On another descent I remember trying to work out what the trade in value for my swanky mountain bike would be in a swanky road bike shop, then I clonked my head into a low hanging tree and reminded myself to “Pay Attention!”.
I’ve started a new training program that I’ll probably talk about later, but todays session was designed to be fairly tough going, a hills routine maximising my heart rate in zones 4 & 5. I think all my zone 5 entries were fear induced all the photos show a terrified grimace on my face.
Check out that heart rate profile, isn’t mountain biking crazy - a true interval sport. In contrast my running charts are so much steadier, showing a gradual increase from near exhaustion to the death zone.
The elevation is obviously a bit more extreme than my usual running route as well but then it isn’t called mountain biking for nothing.
Swinley Forest is a fantastic spot for mountain biking, it has stunt areas, technical downhill, fast berms and plenty of singletrack and can almost be considered local to London (providing you have a car).
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Tags: Broadmoor
April 14, 2007 at 10:35 pm · Filed under Cycling, Event, Off road, Running
Another successful run today and a whole new pb! I don’t know where they are all coming from but it certainly helps when I’ve got someone to chase or even better when I have someone hot on my heels - I run and squeal like a girl when I get chased.
I was battling it out with one of those pesky run/walkers. I think it was her first time at the Bushy Park Time Trial so she was foxed by the deceptive finish straight. She overtook me at the bend going at a fair old pelt but I nodded sagely to myself - not a chance she’d be able to complete without another walking episode. Sure enough, the finishing km took the better of her and she slowed right up, I sauntered past her and with about 500 m to go I felt I could start my final sprint.
If you check out the heart rate curve above you can see the point at which my pace and heart rate soared in the middle of the final lap. You can also see that I maintained it only for about 150 m before realising that even as a seasoned BPTT’er I also had been foiled by the dreaded k. My pace dropped right back down to my usual shuffle and the pesky run/walker grabbed her chance. She passed me easily but seemed to have lost some of her earlier sprint prowess, my killer instinct snapped and I delved deep for a previously unknown speed and took her on the line.
Now for my time, the watch records an amazing time of 34:04 for the 5km route which matches the time called out by the timer on the finish line BUT the darn official time is recorded as 34:21. It’s still a pb but just not quite as good a pb. It looks like the positions were muddled a bit at the back as my time was swiped by the person two positions ahead. Never mind, it just means I should have room for another pb soon.
**UPDATE** the great guys at BPTT have just contacted to let me know of the position error so my official time is being bumped back up to 34:04 Yay!!!
Kieran has posted his heart rate plot for todays BPTT, also recorded on the RS800SD, he’s taken the time to explain all the features displayed on the polar protrainer chart. It’s interesting to see how my back of the pack performance compares to his 20 min performance. One thing we have in common is a max HR which far exceeds our age predicted max and which also exceed that recorded in maximal testing environments - just shows how gruelling this event can be! As expected Kieran runs with a cadence slightly faster than mine and a stride length at least 50% greater than mine. Mmmmm….. now what is one supposed to do with all this amazing info?
Straight after the run I met up with Jason for another blast around Richmond Park on the mountain bikes. I’m sitting at home now absolutely shot to bits. Jae is considerably faster than me at the best of times but he was out on his swanky new bike with waver thin tyres (waver thin by mtb standards) and it nearly killed me trying to keep up with him. It was fun skidding around the dust and trying to avoid trees that kept jumping out in front of me.
There are some pretty monstrous hills in RP and I kind of expect to be overtaken by runners as I bob up them in my granny gear but today there was some superman trail runner on the track and he actually overtook me on the up hills and down hills! He was flippin amazing in a totally irritating fashion.
Here’s a snap of Jae and myself in the park, if you look carefully you can probably see superman passing us again on his second lap. 
Popularity: 32% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, polar, RS800SD
March 11, 2007 at 7:32 pm · Filed under Cycling, Event, Off road, Running
I really enjoyed the run this week at Bushy Park, I bumped into Rodiogirl and her daughter, who was preparing for her first assault on the time trial, and joined them both for the event. It was quite a novelty to run around the park with someone else, and the converstaion really helped to keep my mind off the the fact that I don’t like running!
It felt like a slowish pace, very comfortable, which usually means walking, and yet on the final straight it looked like I wasn’t far off last weeks pb time. I would like to wax lyrical about the speedy properties of the enell contraption but now that I’m losing my anonymity and keep meeting people who know me from the blog, I really think its time to stop discussing my underwear habits.
Final result: 5km in 35:42
Thanks Rodiogirl and congratulations on a great run Kathryn
Straight after the run I met up with fellow blogger Jason for blast around Richmond Park on the mountain bikes.
Something went a bit awry with the garmin on the return trip, I somehow managed to switch it off as I joined the park at Richmond and didn’t notice until Robin Hood gate. It’s messed the stats up somewhat but piecing all the events of the day together, gives a total of 52km. I was exhausted for the rest of the day, the cycling and running combination seems to knock me for six, imagine the effects of adding swimming into this mix as well.
SportTracks declared a whopping calorie expenditure in excess of 4000 for the mornings activities, which had me planning a mammoth feast until I realised I had left my watch set in running mode. Correcting this saw the calorie calculation plummeting and all my excitement fading away with it.
Popularity: 32% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, Garmin, Sporttracks, Swimming
February 27, 2007 at 12:34 am · Filed under Bikes, Commuting, Cycling, Off road
The bike shop rang unexpectedly today to say that the Stumpjumper was fixed already! Seems the shock failure wasn’t so catastrophic after all, but it did somehow swing around to being all my fault again. Ho hum!
I left the shop with a rejuvenated bike and a swanky new high pressure suspension pump. Apart from that I wasn’t in the slightest bit prepared for my cycle ride today. I didn’t have my spd’s, helmet, lights or a map/gps to help me get from Liverpool Street to Mortlake and I didn’t have a clue how to get home.
By 6pm in February it is way too dark to cycle without lights so I’m afraid I had to “share” pavement space with the peds to save myself a 10 mile walk. I decided to hug the river home as the pavements are wider and there was more chance of finding cycle paths. Also, as I live on the river, provided I picked the right direction I was bound to find my flat eventually.
The embankment is absolutely beautiful at this time of the night so I overloaded my phone with night shots. I think the Samsung D900 handles low light conditions particularly well.
Still trying to avoid both pedestrian and vehicular collisions I took the rash option of the Thames trail from Putney to Hammersmith Bridge. Without lights or even a segment of moon the track was pretty darn scary - my first attempt at night riding.
The path was so waterlogged that at one point I worried that I’d managed to ride off the bank and into the Thames.
There were a peculiar amount of runners choosing this spooky stretch for their evening run, given the choice I would definately opt for the bright lights of the embankment.
Got home eventually, absolutely filthy and determined to eat more carrots.
Stumpy went in the shower and blocked my bath up again so I’m not sure where I’m going to get cleaned up today.
I missed my usual date with the treadmill this evening due to all the excitement so I’ll have to try and pick that up tomorrow if I can ignore the ironing for another day.
Popularity: 47% [?]
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Tags: GPS, stumpjumper, thames
February 8, 2007 at 9:58 pm · Filed under Bikes, Commuting, Cycling, Off road, Running
Big Gurls Bike
Originally uploaded by warriorwomen.
So the weather guys got it right, we did have a smattering of snow this morning. Not a lot but enough to make me reach for the big girls bike with its extra wide tires for commuting stability in the slush.
The bike didn’t feel too comfortable on the way in and I noticed that I was clipping my pedals on the floor as I turned corners. On the way home this evening I nearly found myself under a truck as I hit the tarmac while ducking and diving a bit. Struck me that somehing was clearly amiss, what sort of mountain bike is set so low that the pedals mash the dirt on every bend? On inspection it seems that the rear suspension is shot! You can just about make out in this photo that the suspension triangle is a bit tight. Flippin irritating.
I still have the cold. Tomorrow will mark 2 weeks of infirmity. I have a feeling I might be improving though, I’m not as chesty and I only used half a box of tissues today. This is great news because I’ve booked myself in for a heavy weekend of running. I realise I’m probably being rash but I’m going stir crazy.
On Saturday I plan to try out the Bushy Park 5k Time Trial which looks like a great event, run weekly by volunteers with an amazing website listing everyone’s time and position against previous performances. I’ll provide an update this weekend. On Sunday I’ve signed up for a 5 mile AdiRun organised by The Sweatshop, also centred around Bushy Park.
Popularity: 38% [?]
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Tags: BPTT
July 22, 2006 at 2:17 pm · Filed under Cycling, Off road
Well I’ve had a couple of fun weekends with Stumpy, trying to find reasonable off road routes to go mountain biking in London.
I’ve added a few GPS routes to the main site:
1. Mountain biking in Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common.
2. Long trek: Richmond, Hampton Court, Chessington and Epsom
Here is a MotionBased viewport of the long trek to the North Downs. You can folow the links to see more details of the route.
Popularity: 19% [?]
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Tags: GPS, motionbased
July 3, 2006 at 2:01 pm · Filed under Bikes, Cycling, Equipment, Off road
Can you believe it? It seems that I am so short, that I have to buy a girls bike!
I went in to the bike shop to pick up a men’s Specialized Stumpjumper FSR comp, but even the small is too big for me. The women’s frame is only just ok, but I have to make do with the puffy colours.
I’m not really complaining, its a beautiful bike. I ended up getting the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert, which is just a tad above my current skill level, but it was the only one in stock. What can a girl do?
I pick it up tomorrow, after they have removed most of the seat post length. Can’t wait to have some fun this weekend. Got to get my skill level up quickly, you can’t have a bike like that and then start behaving like a wuss on the trails.
Popularity: 35% [?]
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Tags: stumpjumper
June 28, 2006 at 1:44 pm · Filed under Cycling, Off road
Here is just a collection of endurance style events, I need to pick one to aim for:
The 2-Day Polaris Challenge - I’ve fancied this since I was a kid and saw photos of grimey women crawling knee deep in mud with their bikes.
MTB Orienteering or Trailquests
Popularity: 50% [?]
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Tags: knee, polar
