I’ve just done a First Aid for Sport course, only £15 run by the council up here in Newcastle. Covered all the basics, CPR, assessment, prirorities, chocking, etc, only 6 hours. To gain a British Cycling Mountain Bike leaders qualification you need to do a 2 day outdoor first aid course.

Keep any eye on Ebay/Gumtree. I set alerts up. That’s how I got my bike back. Good luck,

I have to say the Northumberland Police in Newcastle were great when my bike was stolen last month. After I noticed a similar bike go up for sale 3 days later on Gumtree they sent in undercover officers to collect the bike. Result: I got my bike back and they made three arrests.

Keep any eye on Gumtree. I set alerts up. That’s how I got my bike back. Good luck,

Do you race?

Yes – keep the bikes
No – Sell

(Consider a road bike for trainng though)

The latest research I’ve read now suggests a couple of things:-

1) Eating a high fat/protein diet promotes high levels of HDL cholesterol (the good stuff).
2) Eating saturated fat does indeed create LDL cholesterol which does get into your blood stream.
3) Eating a high carb diet also creates high levels of LDL cholesterol
4) The LDL cholesterol created by fat and carbs is different. LDL particles created by fat are larger in size and have been found not to stick the side of arterial walls (it’s just too big to do so) but LDL created by eating carbs is smaller in size and stick to the side of arterial walls, once it sticks the plaques form and your arteries narrow.
5) Triglycerides are the highest risk factor in terms of having a heart attack (more so than high cholesterol), what causes high triglycerides numbers, carbs not fat.

Other observations:-
1) Since low fat diets and restricted calories diets were advocated in the 70’s by our governments several things have happened, cases of obesity, diabetes and heart attacks have all increased. If the advice was working you’d have expected a reduction?
2) Communities that have low carb diets (think tribal areas) have all consistently shown better cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings than Western communities. Inuit tribes who live almost entirely live of Seal fat apparently have some of the lowest levels of cholesterol recorded.

I’m not here to preach just to suggest a different perspective. If you’re of a scientific mind then go read ‘Good calories, Bad Calories’ but if not check out ‘Why we get fat’ and make your own mind up. Since I started eating a ‘high’ fat diet my body fat has reduced to 6.5%! I’ll get my cholesterol tested in 6 months time (had it done at the start of the year so know my readings) to see how things have changed. I’ll soon know then what affect my new diet is having.

Watch this for more info:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo

WHO abstract ‘In September 2009 the WHO published a reassessment of the data on dietary fat and heart disease. This is what they said ” The available evidence from [observational studies] and randomised controlled trials,” the report stated “is unsatisfactory and unreliable to make a judgement about and substantiate the effects of dietary fat on risk of CHD (CORONARY HEART DISEASE].”

@kimbers

“the overwhelming bulk of scientific evidence indicates that a high sat fat diet increases the risk of heart disease in most people”

This is simply not true, even the World Heath Organisation has come out and said the research does not back up the claims made for the last 20 years. There is a sea change coming and what we’ve been told is all about to be turned on it’s head. For example, eating a full fat yogurt will make you loose weight faster than eating a low fat yoghurt. Read the book.

Good but not as good as raceshape.com

Read ‘Why we get fat’. Explains a lot about cholesterol and its impact on your health. In summary carbs not fat increase your risk to arterial clogging (or plaque formation). Sugar is far worse than saturated fat in this respect. Only £4.50 off Amazon. An essential read.

£5 off on orders over £30. Use this ‘one time’ code. 020DF00048D

I think the weight of a bike has a lot to do with how well it goes uphill. My full sus is 2 min slower up one of the climbs I do (isn’t Strava great) compared to my hard tail which is 10Ibs lighter. The lower rolling resistance of 29ers should also result in more forward propulsion compared with 26’s that don’t roll as well over the small bumps.

15 lessons learnt (full list:-

15 Lessons learnt from this weeks stolen bike incident:-

1) The bike was only 2 months old. My son (who was visiting at the time) had not made a note of the serial number. We’ve made a note now and taken a photograph! Also record the number in the manual that came with the bike.

2) The bike was not marked, you can have your bike chipped or etched by the police.. Even a roll of paper in the seat tube, inside tyre or handlebar tube with your details would be better than nothing to the help Police return a stolen item. http://www.immobilise.com/index.php

3) The bike was left unlocked and unattended for no more than 5 minutes, never leave a bike anywhere unlocked, even your own home!

4) If your bike is stolen set up alerts on E-bay and Gumtree. I kept the search generic and simple as possible to get the best chance of a match, our region and the bike manufacturer.

5) if you buy an ‘obscure’ brand you’ll probably have a better chance of recovery. Far too many Trek, Giants and Speciliaized out there for the Police to go hunting after on eBay/Gumtree.

6) We were very tempted to meet without the police and ‘sort it out’ privately but that would have just made things worse. The police were great once I’d fully explained the Gumtree thing and why we thought it was our bike.

7) When making contact with the seller he did not know the frame size, simple questions like that brought a stutter from him. Any legitimate seller would not hesitate to answer. Ask where it was bought, frame size, maintenance, mileage, etc but try not to be too obvious. Tell then you live somewhere other than where the bike was stolen to avoid arising suspicion.

8) Watch for people watching you as you leave/arrive home with bike. Just because you’re paranoid does not mean they are not watching you!

9) Never ever leave your Garmin on your bike when you’re not there. Far to easy to walk off with. Leaving your Garmin on your bike outside a cafe is asking for trouble.

10) Consider using ‘secure’ skewers to protect wheels and seat posts. http://atomic22.com

11) Some thieves really are stupid. Don’t give up hope.

12) Whilst the Police were great we had to phone then up constantly to get action. Calls left weren’t returned, not having a go (they are busy people) but you have to help move the ‘process’ along. It took over 10 calls yesterday to make all the final arrangements with the undercover squad.

13) Check local ‘For Sale’ noticeboards often found in local supermarkets and community centres.

14) Consider placing a ‘Wanted’ add locally or on Gumtree to see if the thief contacts you. You never know you might get lucky. Again tell then you live somewhere other than where the bike was stolen to avoid arising suspicion.

15) Remember that most bike insurance policies (including home insurance policies) won’t pay up if the bike was away from the home and not locked up at the time of the theft!!!

5) if you buy an ‘obscure’ brand you’ll probably have a better chance of recovery. Far too many Trek, Giants and Speciliaized out there for the Police to go hunting after on eBay/Gumtree.
6) We were very tempted to meet without the police and ‘sort it out’ privately but that would have just made things worse. The police were great once I’d fully explained the Gumtree thing and why we thought it was our bike.
7) When making contact with the seller he did not know the frame size, simple questions like that brought a stutter from him. Any legitimate seller would not hesitate to answer.
8) Watch for people watching you as you leave/arrive home with bike,,

4 arrests now!

I live in Gateshead. See my thread here:-

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bike-stolen-but-power-of-the-internet-returned-it

Great post. I love to see creativity like this. Top notch.

/off to research fat bikes now

This will get you £5 off: 07914C6E789. Minimum spend is £30. You get them from the ‘For Goodness Shakes’ milkshake bottles. I have a couple more if anyone wants one. Also worth remembering that if you’re a member of British Cycling you get the full ‘Platinum’ discount level.

I take it. It’s one of the few supplements that is proven to have a real and measurable ergogenic affect (even that Panorama programme reluctantly conceded that). It enhances performance (anywhere from 2%-10% depending on the research) by improving power but most of all delaying delaying feelings of fatigue by effectively blocking the fatigue signals sent from the brain to the muscles. The theory is all good but it’s the practice that counts and in my experience taking caffeine regularly throughout a long race makes a real difference.

WADA took caffeine of the banned substance list in 2003. There is no upper limit (before it was 12mg/l and above in urine concentration)

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/nutrition/caffeine-and-the-endurance-athlete.aspx

Combine with Beetroot for an added endurance boost (Nitrates).

Their advert is in this months Mountain Bike UK.

Have a bike to sell. Will post here on Singletrack first then e-bay I guess.

Aye. Chopwell is a small local Forest. Canny for a couple of hours blast. Otherwise you need to head up to Northumberland or the trail centres at Kielder and Hamsterly. The 7Stanes aren’t far away either.

Check the video link below and also my a YouTube channel for some more ideas:-

Have you calibrated it? You can do this in the settings menu. Get your location elevation from an o/s map and see if that makes a difference. Mine has given consistent readings (within 50ft) on a standard route in all weathers.

This is one of my Northumberland videos (with route). Check my YouTube channel for a few more. Might give you some ideas.

Tim did it in 7:52. Full results here:-
http://results.sportident.co.uk/home/event.html?eventid=c1baae5a-3091-4e36-8552-d6947507aaf1

I tried the 50 and really enjoyed it. Stepping up to the 100 next year.

If you’re using an iPad1 the app you are using will require a video out mode. If you’re using an iPad 2/3 you should just plug and play and be able to mirror the desktop.. If you have an Apple TV you can mirror the display without a cable. Some apps, such as Sky Go, have mirroring disabled.

I stayed there at the weekend. My first trip to Wales mountain biking, excellent. Had a great time climbing Snowdon and the slate mines. Check out my video here-:

I was going to add that it’s only the 3G version that comes with ‘real’ GPS but seeing as that’s the one you for you’ve now go that by default. Very handy should anyone steal your new iPad as you can show its position on Google Maps. The assisted GPS in the non 3G version is not very accurate, uses crowd sourced Wifi locations to determine approximate location so not nearly as accurate as GPS especially if your ever out in the middle of nowwhere.

Had a Garmin 310XT but just switched to a Polar RCX5 which has the advantage of measuring HR while in the water. However, the RCX5 has an external GPS pod. £250 from Lemon Digital.

@njee20

I don’t think any of this is an exact science, what works for one person may not work for another. I have to say I was always skeptical of the zone 2 theor, i always did most of my traning in zone 3 or 4. However, from my experience when I did train in those zones for months at a time fatigue caught up with me and I suffered from overtraining. When I switched down to easier zone 2 traning mixed with intervals and active recovery days I started to smash my personal bests. There was one hill I could only average a 9mph average up, now I can average 14mph which is a massive improvement for me.

Agree with you HR monitors next to useless for zone 5 traning because of the lag. You just have to go flat out as long as you can!

If you are traning at such a high intensity be carefully, it may not be sustainable over the months ahead. Illness, injury and chronic fatigue are highly likkey. I have a friend who is on the Swedish Olympic ski team. She has had to take a year out due to the effects of training at high intensity over a long period of time. It’s a common trap many athletes fall into. Overtranng signs to look ou for include:-

1. Declne in performance
2. Heavy lifeless feeling in legs
3. Raised resting heart rate (5bpm higher, slightly unrested, 10bpm higher very fatigued)
4. Swollen lymph nodes
5. Frequent illness
6. Slow healing
7. Disturbed sleep
8. Bad mood
9. Clumsiness
10. Irritable
11. Loss of motivation
12. Loss of concentration

I’ve read a few books about training zones over the last few months including Joe Frills, Guy Andrwes and John Metcalfe’s. This is what i’ve learnt:

Zone 1 (50-60%)- Great for active recovery. These sessions (no more than 30mins long) get the blood pumping to your legs that which aids repair and recovery following hard training sessions. Target HR should be 55%. Can actually be more beneficial than complete rest.

Zone 2 (60-70%) – Good for building an endurance base. Encourages your body to use fat as primary fuel for energy. As you body get’s more efficient you will find you ride faster for the same level of effort. The training impact of this zone is relatively low so you can do more of them. The efficiency gains also make you faster when training in the higher zones. Feels slow to train in this zone to begin with but you WILL get faster. In terms of hours spent training, the majority will be in this zone.

Zone 3 (70-80%) – No mans land. Some training in this zone is beneficial but you are riding too fast to build your aerobic base but too slow to develop your V02MAX and lactate threshold. The result of spending too much time in this zone is that you’ll get home feeling tired but not have really improved your fitness. You will deplete your glycogen stores making it much harder to train in harder zones on following days. Useful during periodisation in a macro training cycle.

Zone 4 (80-90%). Hard training zone where you will really start to push what you are capable of to realise training adaptions. It is here where you will be training at or about your Lactic Acid threshold. Training just above your LT will mean you can go harder to longer as your performance improves as your tolerance to the accumulation of LT will increase. Much of this will be achieved via use of intervals although this will be considered average race pace for many (but perhaps not for marathons where that level would be unsustainable). The training impact of this zone is very high and rest or active recovery is essential to avoid over-trainng.

Zone 5 (90-100%) Maximal effort. Can only be sustained for very short periods of time (for most of us). Perhaps up to 5 mins max. Good level to aim for when doing sprint intervals say 30seconds to one minute. Training at this level of intensity should be done infrequently or as part of a meso-cycler prior to racing season transition.

A word on Zones.
There does seem to be a lot of debate on the zones to train in. I’ve used those recommended by Polar but both the British Cycling (developed by Peter Keen) and Australian Cycling federation recommend slightly different zones (see below). Note these are all based on MaxHR and do not factor in your resting HR (e.g. Karvonen method).

British
Z1 60-65%
Z2 65-75%
Z3 75-62%
Z4 82-89%
Z5 89-94%
Z6 94-100%

Australian
Z1 60-65%
Z2 65-75%
Z3 75-84%
Z4 85-91%
Z5 91-100%

What they all seem to agree on is that training routinely between 75-85% is counter productive for the reasons given in the definition of Zone 3 above. The rule seems to be mix low (z1) moderate (Z2) and hard (z4/5) sessions per week. Making sure you get good rest and are eating and hydrating well. Every third or fourth week it essential to schedule an easy week to avoid long term accumulation of fatigue (aka overtraining). At best your performance will plateau but most likely diminish.

Also of benefit is using a system to rate your training load. More advanced Garmin and Sunto HR monitors do this with Training Effect score. Polar has training impact or you can calculate it yourself using the TRIMP methord (Google it). This objectively lets you see how hard your sessions were so you can schedule easier sessions or complete rest days.

I’d also highly recommend Sage Rounteee books, the Athletes guide to Recovery. Less is indeed more.

You were lucky with the mobile signal, i’m with O2 and didn’t have much of a signal.

No, I missed the cave, where abouts on the route is it? There was certainly lots to see. Really enjoyed the ride.

This is the number I use:
 
Phone:    +44 20 8501 2582

I think they only have one line so it can take a couple of attempts.

There is a guy called Cullen Ward who is very helpful. He’s the one that seems to answer all the emails too.

I bought a copy of Clive Forths Mountain Bike Skills manual, he recommends keeping the pedals in the flat 3 / 9 o’clock position as you approach the corner, try to lean the bike through the corner as opposed to steering it and keep your weight over the middle of the bike.

He argues the dropped pedal through the corner approach comes from road cycling where you are seated through the corner, this does not apply to mountain biking. You will still drop the pedal but timing is crucial, if you drop too soon then you will actually force the bike wide, think about it, if you stand over your bike, and press down on a pedal you make the bike lean that way, if you do that in a corner too soon you’ll shift your weight to the outside and force your bike to drift wide.

You drop the outside pedal to the 6 o’clock position as you hit the apex of the corner and remember slow in and fast out in the correct gear to accelerate away. Also try not to brake in the turn, tires don’t do traction and braking very well at the same time. I know this sounds counter intuitive but i’ve tried this recently and noticed it really works, i’ve been ‘gapping’ some of my mates where i never was able to in the past.

He also suggests rolling your foot inside your shoe to help shift weight thereby increasing grip further, just like a skier would roll the inside of a ski on a turn.

Clives book is very good and well worth a read. I’ve been riding for years and picked up quite a few useful tips from it.

Aye, it was a canny ride, no doubt I’ll be heading back up soon. Spotted a couple of ‘diversions’ that can be taken in Kidland Forest and out the other side.

DaveB, that is a downer but there is a new version of Basecamp out soon. Fingers crossed.

Tinribz, the South shore is the best option, it’s 17 miles long and there quite a few car parks along the way which are all good bailout options. If you do the full route there is also a 4 mile short cut near Leaplish that cuts out one of the peninsulars.

Parking was still £3 when I was there.

I’ve now fixed the Garmin link.

Cheers

My speed and endurance noticeably improved when I started training with a heart rate monitor, I train in different heart rate zones each day alternating between easy (zone 1), medium (zone 2 & 3), and hard (zones 4 & 5). I’ll have one or two days a week when I won’t be on the bike but may go to the gym to do some core strength training. The heart rate monitor really helps to motivate yourself, you can see when you need to try harder and when to back off. It’s even more effective when used with a cadence monitor which helps to train your leg speed high.

My zone 1 days are recovery days, normally upto an hour. Zone 2 and 3 will be longer rides (2-3 hours) and Zone 4 and 5 will be shorter interval / fartlek training sessions. Every 4 weeks I’ll have a rest week with only zone 1 rides. I’ll always try to fit in an epic ride with mates on a Sunday.

For zones to be effective you have to know both your resting and maximum heart rate. I’ve found all the max heart rate calculations to be a waste of time. You’ll only find your out by getting out there and pushing yourself to the limit after a good 30 minute warm up. This is only advised if you have already been exercising for some time.

I use the Heart Rate Reseve method to calculate my zones which I find far more effective than the max heart rate alternative.

In regard to nutrition, I find for best results eat a high carb meal 1-2 hours before a ride, on a ride water is ok up to an hour but an energy drink is better for longer rides. Post ride a carb/protein meal (ratio 4:1) or recovery drink (e.g. For goodness shakes) works best for recovery. Through the week following a high nutrient diet diet helps lots as does eating 6 smaller meals per day. Think breakfast – snack – lunch – snack – dinner – snack.

Lastly, all your hard work will be for nothing if you do not get adequate rest and recovery. This is where all the gains come from, if you do not allow enough time to recover you will end up overtraining and will find you’ll make yourself il and slower. 8 hours sleep a night is highly recommended.

I’ve recently picked up a Canyon AL 9.0 SL and can honestly says it’s the best bike I’ve ever owned. It’s ridiculously fast. Love it more than my Zesty and that’s saying something. Checkout their website, the service I received was excellent.

Easily Stoke, devoid of character, beauty or any form of architecture.

I use the BaseCamp software and 1:50k O/S map to plan routes then follow them when I’m out riding off-road. I find there good enough for the job (i.e. I don’t get lost when I’m using them). For me, it also keeps the cost down, don’t want to buy any more maps. I use the tracks option (not routes) in Basecamp to plan my rides and download them to the 800.

neilb67 / cnud

What do you not like about the 1:50k maps?

The new version of Basecamp will be out soon (beta available now from the Garmin site), hopefully that will address some of Basecamp’s quirks.