I visited Blairadam about a year ago and although it was fun enough a) I knew I'd hardly found any of the half-secret singletrack and b) I wasn't sure just how much there was that was rideable.
So, interested in heading off from home in a new direction, I took the car and parked at Lochore Meadows country park. Over time I hope I can find some tracks and paths that might let me ride most of this off road.
From there I rode across to Kelty and on to Blairadam. I did stick mainly to the tracks and paths but spotted so many side tracks that I'm sure there is tons of stff to do there in future. With this and the link to Lochore it all added up to about 30km; not a lot for me these days but almost all off road except for the big long climb through Kelty.
Blairadam is a bit of a funny place. On one hand it has the potential to be a really great MTB centre in Fife, right beside the North-South motorway. It's big enough, has the right kind of terrain and there has been a lot of good work done already. But it seems to have status that is kinda official, kinda not - yes, the trail building that's going on seems to have Forestry Commission blessing and even support, but there are no waymarkers, no maps etc. They guys who have been building it advertise regular guided rides to ind out what's there - but that isn't ideal for many people.
... and to be honest, it's likely always to have a bit of a problem because it is so close to population.
The path into the forest that is closest to Kelty is a mess - in the tradition of naming MTB trail sections this would have to be either "shit parade" thanks to the vast amount of doggy doo-doo on the path; or "shooting gallery" judging by the number of improvised targets stuck on the branches.
However, the impact of this kind of thing reduces quickly as you get into the forest, and there's a lot of space to expand the MTB trails into in that direction. It's certainly somewhere I will be returning to for longer off road training sessions.
Monday, April 23, 2007
15 April 2007 Foggy Forest Explorations
Started off early morning with the intention of trying to connect some wooded sections with public footpaths, but the fog was so thick I decided I should minimise any time spent on the road.
Instead, I restricted myself to the three closest woods/forest areas in my local loop and worked on exploring anything I saw that looked remotely trail-like. this did reveal some nice little sections of natural singletrack - even if these did often peter out into a wooded bog - which I can use in future to extend my off-road mileage in these areas.
Managed to build this into about 35km of almost all off road.
Instead, I restricted myself to the three closest woods/forest areas in my local loop and worked on exploring anything I saw that looked remotely trail-like. this did reveal some nice little sections of natural singletrack - even if these did often peter out into a wooded bog - which I can use in future to extend my off-road mileage in these areas.
Managed to build this into about 35km of almost all off road.
8 April 2007 Rippin' The Red Run
Return visit to Glentress Red Run with Neal and a couple of MTB newbies from the extended family.
This meant we spent some time in the morning in the skills loop which was quite useful - working up to bigger and bigger things to climb up and fall down. Picnic lunch at the Buzzard's Nest car park then Neal and I took the car down to the bottom to do the Red run.
... and what a grand time we had :)
Firstly, I managed to keep him at least in site until he topped the Buzzard's Nest again as I was at the last bit of climb up to it. Big change from last time when the first climb was a real killer for me. And the whole thing felt pretty do-able, keeping going up the long slow climbs, very few stops and only walking at the stupidly steep switchback climbs.
All of which was reflected in our times; Neal coming in at 1hr 51 min (compared with 2hrs 12 min last time) with me just SIX MINUTES BEHIND!!! at 1hr 57min (compared with 2hrs 22 min last time). It's actually hard to work out just how I managed this, but I'm putting it down to the sprint training on gym bikes, effectively a long warm up in the morning and being highly motivated to catch Neal. And maybe the egg-beater pedals. But cutting 25 minutes off was a big deal - I'm almost afraid to try it again in case it was a complete on-off fluke.
This meant we spent some time in the morning in the skills loop which was quite useful - working up to bigger and bigger things to climb up and fall down. Picnic lunch at the Buzzard's Nest car park then Neal and I took the car down to the bottom to do the Red run.
... and what a grand time we had :)
Firstly, I managed to keep him at least in site until he topped the Buzzard's Nest again as I was at the last bit of climb up to it. Big change from last time when the first climb was a real killer for me. And the whole thing felt pretty do-able, keeping going up the long slow climbs, very few stops and only walking at the stupidly steep switchback climbs.
All of which was reflected in our times; Neal coming in at 1hr 51 min (compared with 2hrs 12 min last time) with me just SIX MINUTES BEHIND!!! at 1hr 57min (compared with 2hrs 22 min last time). It's actually hard to work out just how I managed this, but I'm putting it down to the sprint training on gym bikes, effectively a long warm up in the morning and being highly motivated to catch Neal. And maybe the egg-beater pedals. But cutting 25 minutes off was a big deal - I'm almost afraid to try it again in case it was a complete on-off fluke.
The Great Big All Encompassing Catchup Entry
I'm crap at this blogging business.
It doesn't seem like a big thing at first; I don't blog a ride or something when it happens. Then the next ride is over and I still haven't done the first one, and before I know where I am I'm so far behind that even if I have time to blog something, I don't have the time to do the catchup posts, so it doesn't get done and it just gets worse and worse.
I was going to try and write individual entries to emulate at least what I should have done, but that was getting too complicated, so here I'm going to do a summary of the last couple of months or so - from end of Jan through to early April, then try harder to be better at this.
Training
Has been going quite well, generally can be sumarised as mid week hotel gyms, weekend long rides.
Much of Feb and March was spent in hotels up to 4 nights per week, so I tried to get a couple of sessions a week on a machine, concentrating on things like sprints and high cadence sessions and using my heart rate monitor. I think I did later see the benefit of these and they were easier to do than long grinds in hotel gyms.
Long weekend rides grew gradually to be 50km, mainly or all on tarmac, taking up to 4 hours if especially hilly and windy. Then, last few weeks I have started to do much more off-road on these rides while keeping the distances fairly high. This has to be forest roads and tracks rather than anything especially technical, but goodness knows there's a big difference between that and tarmac.
Places
Two recent trips to Glentress with Neal but only the first one I'll record here - sometime mid March I think. Did the Red run, from the bottom car park, agreeing to ride separately. Neal got back in 2 hrs 12min, and I was very pleased to be only 10 minutes behind him in 2hrs 22 min. Still felt a lot like hard work in the first half especially. See later blogging for the second trip :)
Also around the same time took my bike with me on a trip and managed to get an early morning look at Hamsterley Forest. With a business meeting looming and by myself I only followed a blue route, repeating a section of it as I got back fairly quickly. It was good to be out - and somewhere new, but I don't think I experienced the real appeal of this forest judging by what I've read.
Events
We're both booked up now to do the 50km Merida Marathon at Penrith on 13th May, and I'm booked to do the 65km which is part of the Outsider festival in Aviemore in June. Mixture of trepidation and excitement at both, with the added concern that the Outsider is being promoted much more as a music festival rather than an outdoors event so not especially looking forward to the night before that.
Gear
Neal has been loving his new Viper frame. Ended up with an even better "carbon lite" frame that has carbon fibre seatstays for weight saving and a bit of "give". Don't think he's fallen off it since he got it :)
I have bitten the bullet and am working hard at living with SPDs again - trying Crank Brothers egg-beater style this time round. Chose the Smarty version as they have a small but useful platform. So far, so mediocre ... I have fallen a few times through not disengaging quickly enough, but this is getting better and I think I do see a difference when riding. That's certainly true on the flat, and I am staying clipped in more on downhills and technical bits.
Weight
Have been down as far as 12st 6lb, 12st 7lb seems to be the real sticking point. Would like to be closer to 12st for Penrith, watch this space ...
It doesn't seem like a big thing at first; I don't blog a ride or something when it happens. Then the next ride is over and I still haven't done the first one, and before I know where I am I'm so far behind that even if I have time to blog something, I don't have the time to do the catchup posts, so it doesn't get done and it just gets worse and worse.
I was going to try and write individual entries to emulate at least what I should have done, but that was getting too complicated, so here I'm going to do a summary of the last couple of months or so - from end of Jan through to early April, then try harder to be better at this.
Training
Has been going quite well, generally can be sumarised as mid week hotel gyms, weekend long rides.
Much of Feb and March was spent in hotels up to 4 nights per week, so I tried to get a couple of sessions a week on a machine, concentrating on things like sprints and high cadence sessions and using my heart rate monitor. I think I did later see the benefit of these and they were easier to do than long grinds in hotel gyms.
Long weekend rides grew gradually to be 50km, mainly or all on tarmac, taking up to 4 hours if especially hilly and windy. Then, last few weeks I have started to do much more off-road on these rides while keeping the distances fairly high. This has to be forest roads and tracks rather than anything especially technical, but goodness knows there's a big difference between that and tarmac.
Places
Two recent trips to Glentress with Neal but only the first one I'll record here - sometime mid March I think. Did the Red run, from the bottom car park, agreeing to ride separately. Neal got back in 2 hrs 12min, and I was very pleased to be only 10 minutes behind him in 2hrs 22 min. Still felt a lot like hard work in the first half especially. See later blogging for the second trip :)
Also around the same time took my bike with me on a trip and managed to get an early morning look at Hamsterley Forest. With a business meeting looming and by myself I only followed a blue route, repeating a section of it as I got back fairly quickly. It was good to be out - and somewhere new, but I don't think I experienced the real appeal of this forest judging by what I've read.
Events
We're both booked up now to do the 50km Merida Marathon at Penrith on 13th May, and I'm booked to do the 65km which is part of the Outsider festival in Aviemore in June. Mixture of trepidation and excitement at both, with the added concern that the Outsider is being promoted much more as a music festival rather than an outdoors event so not especially looking forward to the night before that.
Gear
Neal has been loving his new Viper frame. Ended up with an even better "carbon lite" frame that has carbon fibre seatstays for weight saving and a bit of "give". Don't think he's fallen off it since he got it :)
I have bitten the bullet and am working hard at living with SPDs again - trying Crank Brothers egg-beater style this time round. Chose the Smarty version as they have a small but useful platform. So far, so mediocre ... I have fallen a few times through not disengaging quickly enough, but this is getting better and I think I do see a difference when riding. That's certainly true on the flat, and I am staying clipped in more on downhills and technical bits.
Weight
Have been down as far as 12st 6lb, 12st 7lb seems to be the real sticking point. Would like to be closer to 12st for Penrith, watch this space ...
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