My bike finally came and it's a sweet one. It's a 2010 Gary Fisher Superfly 29er. Carbon fiber frame and 29 inch wheels. Well, when I first rode it yesterday, I did notice a big difference because of bigger wheels than a regular 26 inch wheeled bike(my old bike). It was harder to accelerate but it's supposed to ride better on the trails so since there are still snow on the ground here, I haven't really tried it on the trails yet. So hopefully the snow will melt soon so I can try it! Everyone on their 29ers has been telling me that you have to be on a gear or two lower than on a 26er wheel bike but on this bike, it's supposed to be so light that on this one, it doesn't do such thing, so you are still on the same gear and go a little bit faster. The bike is at 21 pounds(now that is light). I guess I read about this gear thing in a bike magazine and I kind of noticed it on the ride yesterday on the climb on the canyon road. I don't know for sure so I have to ride it some more though. My old bike is 26 pounds that is a 5 pound difference, that is a lot though. I love the brakes and the Sram shifters and deraillers. The carbon fiber crankset is full of awesomeness. The bike fits me better than my old bike because Klein bikes make longer top tubes so I am not really leaning forward too much. Well, it's a great bike.
I just got back from a great weekend with the Tony Barlow family at Little Moab. I did a lot of riding during the whole trip and it was great to be riding on the dirt again. The weather was great, not real great but it was awesome jacket weather for February. I did a lot of climbing up some steep hills and everybody else rode their motor bikes and buggies. We all did bb gun shooting, rc racing, potato cannon shooting, hiking, watching movies, etc. Tony and family does have a lot toys so you can never get bored around camp camping with them. It was great. We did go to Nutty Putty Cave one day to see it buried and see the guys grave who got stuck and died in the cave last fall, it was very sad. My condelences to his family and friends. The trip was great and I had a good time.
The Green Valley Raceway is a favorite for most mountain bikers but the ones in the summer in the mountains are still my favorite. But this race is great when there's snow in Ephraim and is 40 degrees. While it's 40-50 degrees here in Ephraim, St. George which is about 3 and a half hours away gets like in the 70s! This trail is also a great technical trail for a XC race. Last year I did the race and I actually died at the top, like twice. Hopefully it won't happen again this year but it probably will because it's so early in the spring and everybody hasn't done any riding because of the brutality of winter unless you had guts to ride out in the snow with 0 degree wind chills, then you'll probably do fine. But most people from north go riding down there a lot during the winter because there has to be somebody with a bad case of biking fever. I like this video I pasted on because it's in riding order of the race course, the dude riding in the video is not me. The dude in the picture above is me riding in the race last year. Looks like I actually died. The race is on March 6!
Galbraith Mountain is near Bellingham, Washington and it has a series of great trails for freeriders and cross country riders alike. It is well known for the Pacific Northwest mountain biking. For the freeride trails, there are many wood bridges, jumps, and trial stuff for the freeriders. For XC trail riding, there is plenty of singletrack riding with climbs and descents in the beautiful Northwest. I served in the Bellingham area for 4 months of my LDS mission and there were maybe two guys who talked into us to go riding with them at Galbraith but I guess it never happened. Now I need to try it! I would do just the XC trails though because I am not crazy like those guys in the video above. Now talk about craziness, those guys are good. Check out the video, it's amazingly well put. There is another video on mountainbikebill.com with Galbraith Mountain and a bunch other trails like in Utah for a more clearer, crisp picture. I need to try this trail next time I go up there! For sure I will take my bike.
A while ago, they did a test of who is a faster rider, a road biker or a mountain biker. They chose Andy Schleck(last year's second place Tour de France winner), and Burry Stander(mountain bike under 23 world champion). The course was in a ski resort in Spain. A 7.4 mile pavement climb and a 5.5 mile singletrack climb(steeper). The riders would race each course individually and their elasped times up both of the climbs would be added together. The rider with the lowest elasped time would be the winner. They each had their own Specialized mountain and road bikes. Weather conditions were less than ideal, with high winds, cold temps and sporadic rainstorms. The winner was the mountain biker. Burry Stander's 36:29.8 road stage time was less than a minute shy of Andy Schleck's winning time of 35:47.8. Burry powered up the off-road climb in 36:39, distancing Andy by almost ten minutes. Andy said he had more fun on the mountain bike than on the road and is planning to get a mountain bike of his own. So, on paper, mountain bikers are in better shape than roadies, in my own opinion, when I am training on the hilly trails, it is higher in intensity and I can get in better shape than I could on the road. On the mountain trails, the pulse is high and you have to use technique to get up.
Winter is the hardest time of the year for my cycling training, especially during the holidays because #1 you can't ride, #2 too much food, and #3 you can't ride! So, it's the cruelest season for a cyclist. To survive it, it's time to spend time to do some cross-training and preparation. Cross-training provides a break from riding a bike while building cardiovascular fitness. Such as hiking, running, xc skiing, snowshoeing, swim, and weights. I always definitely do weight lifting but I should include an aerobic exercise. Strength training means greater endurance by strengthening slow-twitch muscles which may raise the lactate threshold. Also injury prevention is another reason. For a mountain biker, function, not form, is the goal so I do high repetitions with low weight. I especially do the legs by doing squats, step ups, and hamstring curls then do upper body workouts like lateral pulldown, standing row, seated row, and bench presses. Core workouts is a must for a cyclist because that's where you get most of your strength on pedaling a bike. Every year I start lifting weights in November by using really light weight for a month then December and January is reserved for heavier loads. I like to lift for the whole body workout twice a week then ride the indoor trainer once a week and xc ski on the weekend. On the indoor stationary trainer, I really ride because you can't really get as a good workout as you get outside on a real ride. So, I go hard that I constantly sweat hard like sweat pooring like Lance Armstrong climbing on the L'alpe De Huez climb in the Tour de France. To go that hard, I can get my heart rate up to 75-85% of max. During the weekend xc skiing is a lot of fun to get me some aerobic exercise(about 80-85% of max). I try to save all the anerobic exercise(90-95% of max) for the racing season. I spent the last two weeks xc skiing like 4 times a week and took a break from weight lifting. Then in January, I get back on weights for another month, then I will be ready to ride outside on the bike to train for the races in spring. My winter training: Monday: weights
My bike finally came and it's a sweet one. It's a 2010 Gary Fisher Superfly 29er. Carbon fiber frame and 29 inch wheels. Well, when I first rode it yesterday, I did notice a big difference because of bigger wheels than a regular 26 inch wheeled bike(my old bike). It was harder to accelerate but it's supposed to ride better on the trails so since there are still snow on the ground here, I haven't really tried it on the trails yet. So hopefully the snow will melt soon so I can try it! Everyone on their 29ers has been telling me that you have to be on a gear or two lower than on a 26er wheel bike but on this bike, it's supposed to be so light that on this one, it doesn't do such thing, so you are still on the same gear and go a little bit faster. The bike is at 21 pounds(now that is light). I guess I read about this gear thing in a bike magazine and I kind of noticed it on the ride yesterday on the climb on the canyon road. I don't know for sure so I have to ride it some more though. My old bike is 26 pounds that is a 5 pound difference, that is a lot though. I love the brakes and the Sram shifters and deraillers. The carbon fiber crankset is full of awesomeness. The bike fits me better than my old bike because Klein bikes make longer top tubes so I am not really leaning forward too much. Well, it's a great bike.
