Stupidly decided to do 3 out of 4 of the sessions on consecutive evenings of the hottest days of the year here in Germany
Mountain Bike (first time for me)
Exactly like I remember mountain bike racing from the 90s, the insane sprint at the start, the closeness of the riders, the logjams at the bottlenecks, never having time to drink due to either breathing too hard uphill or trying not to crash downhill
Not like the 90s: the buzz of the drones, everyone on full suspension bikes
Nice choice to do 1 lap with each rider, great quality footage, and amazing to ārideā this course, nice easter egg at the end
In a word: Brutal
BMX (also first time)
Fun, fun, fun
āin excess of 3500 wattsā
Suggestion: make it āSTANDā at least till the first corner
In a word: Fun
Omnium
Not fun
Just as hard as I remember, the pursuit was the hardest for me, but at the same time awe-inspiring how Ganna pulls victory out of the hat
Love the variety
In a word: (looks in the thesaurus for other ways of saying brutal) Barbarous
I rode the MTB ride today. Iād almost forgotten how fun it is with the KICKR Climb. Though, when it goes to 20%, I feel like Iām gonna fall off the back of my saddle! Itās great to have a rocker plate too, making me feel like Iām really able to lean in to the downhill corners
Great! I was a bit hesitant about the combination, but Velocity Rockers, the brand of rocker plate I chose, said it would be fine, and it seems they were correct. Iāve been using it since late March or early April, including my Knighthood Challenge, and itās worked fine. I did choose to strap the Climb to the plate with velcro straps for additional security, as shown in this photo. There are slots in the board for the strap, so itās very secure.
I used to have occasional saddle sore problems with long trainer rides, and I think the rocker plate was essential to me getting through Knighthood without any hint of sores.
Iām with you! I always end up doing these things the last minute. 2 down, 2 to go. Since I have been off my bike for months due to caregiving duties, it has been difficult to find the motivation - but the August Challenge is inspiring me!
That is crazy! I did the mountain bike today to wrap the challenge. I learned two things:
1. Do not underestimate the power of the mind
I donāt have wahoo climb, nor the fancy wahoo fan, just a regular kickr v5 and a nice block for the front wheel. But on the steep ups and downs, I swear I could feel in my butt as if my bike was being pulled down. Very weird feeling. My guess is has to do with the sudden drop in power due to ERG mode.
2. Never do mountain biking races
Thinking about that race, I would have killed myself doing something like this. Some turns looked pretty tight after a decent, I would have just gone straight into the abyss. Also I am pretty sure I saw a large tree root sticking out in the middle of the path, I can see the front wheel of my bike getting stuck and getting catapulted forward into ground.
I am really appreciating the safety of my road bike attached to my kickr within the confines of my safe house, where the worst than can happen is just falling of the bike to the side (has not happened yet).
@sandman The view you get from the camera on the bike is different than what you would actually see during the race. Also your tires will be partially inflated and larger diameter and will move over those roots fairly easily. Further, you generally will be moving your weight back for the descents so the camera view is even more distorted from the seated or standing position on the trainer.
That said it is a pretty good workout. Generally the XC races that I do are full on heart in your throat type stuff for about 45 minutes. The intervals in this workout definitely do a good job of simulating the experience.
I had a similarly immersive experience with the mountain bike course, even on my compact 13" laptop screen, feeling the plummet over the drops in my stomach. This definitely contributed to the enjoyment for me
Having done mountain bike races 30 years ago, the course in the video is waaaay more technical than anything I raced, but then the bikes are better too. And they did mention that even by todayās standards, the one in the video is technically challenging.
WHEW! Tough month. Had UCI MTB to finish this week, then my CX plan hit me w TinT before race day #2 Sunday.
So signing on to race the New England CX season this fall was my Mt Sufferlandria post-retirement. First race was last weekend. Where I didnāt die. Have to say, an unexpected side benefit has been like a built-in mental strength program. For both UCI MTB and TinT this week, whenever it really got to be a grind and I felt like hitting a wall, I could tell myself āyou literally just redlined a CX race for 45 minutes last weekend. A hard downhill/8min MAP slog is NOT that big of a deal!ā
Suddenly (at least temporarily) I have no fear. As if my Real Pagne and SUF holy water reserves have all been stocked up.
As usual, thanks for the awesome energy around monthly challenges! Congrats to everyone who earned their striped with the UCI this month and earned their
(I managed to earn mine today too making it 10/10 since the first of these last November)
So as an added bonus, got my self another shiny badgeā¦
@Rupert For those who came a bit late to the challenges party, would there be a way in the future to get the old badges? I started doing challenges in April, so I missed the first ones.
Would be great to do a ācatch upā promo.
BTW, UCI Road is a hell of a workoutā¦ I have only tasted blood twice in Suff workouts, this one and Ventoux.
fair