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Mountain Bike Specific Training: Part 2 – Measuring bumpiness
Mountain Biking is really bumpy. And most riders think the bumpier the gets, the better. I agree. I like my races technical. This creates a problem for those that train with power. Putting down power over bumpy terrain is a different beast than doing so on a smooth road or trainer. Rather than just needing […]
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Mountain Bike Specific Training: Part 1 – Chronic Intensity Load
I’ve been using this off season to think about training smarter. With my coach Dave Schell, I’ve been working on optimising the tools we’re using to measure my training. Most of the online tools we’re currently using have been developed with road cyclists and triathletes in mind. The problem is this: the tools are skewed by using aerobic […]
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What no cross racing?
Enough people have asked why I’m not racing cross to actually write a blog post (yeah, people still do that). Rather than racing cyclocross, I’ve been galavanting through the hills on some amazing mountain bike rides, and also supporting Christa as she’s dived head-on into cross fever, and taking a break from racing. My racing hiatus […]
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Four Passes Loop: Day Three
Cold. Much colder than the night before. The clear skies that put us to bed let the warmth flow upwards, and we woke to frost covered bushes. Much more tea and porridge were needed to get the boots laced. But the packs felt lighter when we pulled them on, and that ache was now familiar […]
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The Four Passes Loop: Day Two
Dawn broke with warmth and clearer skies. Down jackets and porridge. Enough tea to clear the vision and lace the boots. Camp was broken and bags repacked. Achy hips resumed the weight of the packs and strained at the first, hardest, step. But the trail flowed out and down the valley. The trail bisected the […]
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The Four Passes Loop: Day One
There are plenty of warnings about strenuous exercise at altitude. Most of them caution that coming from sea level is a bad idea. To give yourself more time. To relax and enjoy the view. But what’s the fun in that? My parents arrive in Colorado on a regular basis – almost once a year. But […]
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The Vail Outlier Festival // Scott Spark XC race
Who puts a mountain bike race on in September? That’s just not the way Colorado works. That’s cyclocross season. Everyone knows that. But what happens when you go against the grain, you line up in the hills against the glorious burning backdrop of the turning Aspen trees, and race your friends to the treeline and […]
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Riding from Boulder to Winter Park
The ride up and over Rollins Pass is a classic. A proper Colorado high country adventure that takes in the very best of riding in both Boulder county and its western neighbour – Grand Country. After a rainy ride over on day one with the Thorpe Crew, plus Zach White, Eric Porter and Kelly Emmitt, […]
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The Steamboat Stinger 2015 – the best trails ever?
Round five of my unbroken streak of attending the Stinger. I’m still a bit surprised that I’ve managed to attend every year this race has been going. Between moving across the atlantic a few times and plenty of other life changes, it’s rather funny that the Stinger has become such an unmoving fixture. I don’t […]
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The Jackal Hut
For Bryan’s Bachelor Party, We rented an entire hut high in the hills. That’s about all I can tell you, but this is what it looked like.