Strava, mountain bike training rides and meteors

Admiring the view on Drewerstone whilst getting a great shot of my flare clothing jersey for the website

Its getting to that time in the year where training for for the enduro season is getting serious!

I've sat and written my training plan, worked out how many base miles I need to do, when to begin  weights and the dreaded intervals.

Currently in the plan I'm working on increasing my road and mtb base miles. As somebody who gets bored easily I've taken it as a time to do some exploring. Where I live I have so much access to trail centres like Haldon, Cardinham and my local woods Cann but I am also lucky to live on the edge of Dartmoor national park. 

I've only explored Dartmoor once and it was miserable and depressing on a cold winter day when I didn't know how to hike a bike so nearly knocked myself out every time, was lacking in food so got hangry and ill prepared for how unfit I was! Optimistic to give it another chance I decided I would turn to strava as my guide. 

Picking my way through the rocks on the rocks on the pipeline descent trusting the Rocky mountain Altitude will get me down safely

The great thing about Strava is you can get a sense of distance, descent and climb gradient and see who rides which segments that enjoy similar riding to yourself. 

Browsing Strava I have always seen the pipeline decent around Shaugh Prior. Determined to find it I headed out having screen shot the route on my phone so I had something to follow and match my GPS image too. This works surprisingly well!

The route has some interesting segments which really live up to their name such as "too rocky to ride up?" which so far has remained just that but i'm certain I will conquer it one dry day in the summer. "Climb for the views" which speaks for it's self and is not wrong at all!

Carrying my bike up a section just after too rocky too ride up

Sometimes it's hard to get the motivation to go out and ride on your own on a winters day but with the training plan in mind I force myself out the door . I always find or see something inspiring or new, sometimes even just meet a stranger who you have a great chat with riding the cycle path. 

Yesterday I got lucky tho, I was on the most exposed part of the ride up on the moors and I saw this weird really big bright orange light in the skyline, I was just starring at it because it was so odd, I had all the usual thoughts, a helicopter light, the sun, the moon but it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before. All of a sudden this trail of dark smoke started coming out of it and the it just disintegrated! I tried to get my phone to film it but I just could stop staring at it! It was definitely a meteor!

It's days like that I wonder how many moments I would have missed if I was sat at home staring at my phone or the TV and not out there seeing the world. Although the training plan can feel like a burden in reality it's a great motivation to explore where I live. I've never come back from a training ride and thought I really wish I hadn't done that, so next time your lacking in motivation get out there and you never know what you might find!

Heading out onto the moors from drewerstone

Rocky Mountain Ambassador Ride

Rocky mountain ambassador ride - Man sands beach, Brixham

Laura Griffiths Rocky Mountain ambassador

I was invited to the very first Rocky mountain ambassador ride last weekend. The idea of the ride is to connect fellow rocky riders and take out the demo fleet so anyone can try out the latest rockies.

With the full spectrum available to demo including altitudes and instincts through to the XC race slaying vertex we undoubtedly had a mix of riders and abilities.

Berry head, Brixham Rocky Mountain demo day

The ride started from Brixham in sunny Devon and took us via coastal path, woodland trail, bridal paths and a bit of urban stair riding for good measure. Our guide made sure we took in the best views of the English Riviera. The weather was so beautiful and the calm aqua harbours were so stunning at times our ride felt more south of France than balmy England. For me the climbs were a challenge as my competitive side came out and I didn't want to be last but by the end of the day had dropped back to enjoy some fine conversation. It was great to see everyone helping each other and inspiring confidence and support.

Treated to bacon sandwiches mid way w

Rocky mountain Thunderbolt MSL 799

e had a good chance to mix with our fellow riders for the day. With over 20 riders taking part it was wonderful to meet such a variety of people all stoked on cycling. Which ever discipline, age or experience, cycling truly does have a power to unite all walks of life. Being able to share tips on clothing and equipment conversation was flowing.  One thing I have noticed about these events is a good mix of disciplines brings a genuine respect for each other. Bacon sarnies and a well deserved rest over we headed on for the rest of the ride.

Towards the end of the day we were all starting to spread out and break off into different groups. Enjoying my time at the back of the pack I really had enjoyed all 20 miles of riding. Although I enjoyed the end pub stop equally as much! My altitude despite being the longest travel bike there didn't hinder my ability to climb at all and I sure did appreciate it's smooth ride on some of the more challenging descents. Seeing some of the other rocky models on the ride did give me green eyed envy though! Particularly the 2016 thunderbolt 799 MSL. That truly is a gorgeous paint job and I'm sure the performance matches it's beauty!



To try out any of the Rocky mountain range of demo bike and meet some fine people join us on our next demo ride at Skipton 2nd July.

The demo bikes will also be available to try at all rounds of the UK Enduro series. 

just good old xc riding

I haven't posted for a long time! But I've still been riding 3 days a week. I've just not had the time to take interesting photos or do some video but I had a day off so thought I would treat myself to some video time!

Bontrager TwentyFour 12

A couple of weeks ago myself and my team of 5 took part in Newnham parks Bontrager twentyfour 12.

I got the idea to do it as a challenge to raise money for hospiscare, Exeter universities campus services charity of the year.

As my last cross country race experience was some what terrifying I was pretty apprehensive about what I'd signed us up too. 24 hours of relay cycling night and day.

On arriving I realised how huge the event was. It was amazing to see so many tents and vans and how big the event arena was. The vibe was really relaxed and it didn't feel like a serious athletic event. obviously no beer or shots but lots of people milling around staying up late and enjoying the live music. 

The next day I tried to keep my nerves in check knowing it was going to be a long night and day but it felt different knowing it wasn't once chance all out and your one run counts. In fact with the fun atmosphere of the kids race and relaxed approach of the past racers it was chilled but exciting. 

Sue started us off and when it was my turn I was excited to know what the course was like. We didn't pre ride it seen as we were gonna do it about 5 times anyway! The course was awesome it had long slow climbs and short sharp get out the saddle climbs with loose rocky descents but mainly rooty technical single track descents. It sounds like a nightmare for passing but it was really well thought out and everyone was really considerate calling ahead to pass. With all my training I actually was keeping up a good pace every lap and did more over taking than being over taken which really surprised and pleased me!

My first night ride went really good and I was loving it, so much smoother lines that I choose in the dark and it was cooler and the perfect temperature. Just amazing although so different to the day. People were silent but riding in big groups together, almost earie. But the places where the track ran along side the campsite were amazing. So many people cheering and playing music. plenty of banging saucepans!

The second night ride at about 4 am was totally different, by then it was a cold start and there were a lot less people on the track and no one to cheer you on. My lights were both on red so I was nervous I would get stranded in the dark and then my light cleat came loose so I couldn't see in front of me on both lights. I fell off on the fireroad in a stupid place and honestly for the first time thought that it was hard, but I kept going and knew that it would get better when the sun came up. 

On my next run it chucked it down on the most exposed part of the course and I got soaked and pedalling was hard going, I'd also only had two hours sleep and was really tired so when I finished I genuinely hoped I would not have to go out again but it looked like I was going to do the last run.

When it got to five past eleven and was chaining over from Emma to do my last run I felt elated and so glad to have a final run, The best I had felt after about 2 am was whenever I was on the bike and I got to finish on high tho I had to race round to get one last person round to count another lap on our total but I did it. I gave it everything I got and pedalled my heart out. When I came back into the area it was ten too and I had five minutes to get Jim out. I over took everyone sprinting through. 

It was an amazing feeling to finish. We came 10/19 teams in our category and did 6 laps each. Although you have to dig deep when it gets hard and I'm still tired now! I would definitely do it again. It was a great event  and so much fun.