Copyright

All photo's are Copyright of Scott Swalling or the tagged Photographer. (Background photo Scott Swalling Photography).

About Me:

24Hr MTBike racer and general bike rider, climber and mountaineer. Good coffee drinker and cake eater (any cake, seriously, don't leave your cake laying around). Also, I like to try new things that challenge me.

Monday 6 February 2012

Cold Training

As winter seems to finally have hit the UK, ironically after I return from an ice climbing and skiing trip in France, the training takes on a new dimension.  It's cold, burning air on the night rides as you gulp that big breath at the top of each climb and now some soggy snow to make the going hard for the next few days, and the probability of icy patches on the trails.

So what to do? Well ride of course, it builds character, strength, determination and is bloody good fun (this being the important part).  With the road bikes shelved the MTB will being seeing normal use, but now the CX will be seeing more k's, more mud, maybe more snow and probably a few little offs like yesterday when I dived into a small gap between Clive and a fallen tree, the gap DID exist, so did the log on the ground, oh well!  If you're not crashing you aren't trying hard enough.

So the cold weather has seen some subzero night rides and Baltic morning starts, and one snow day, so far (fingers crossed for more).  Riding in the cold is as much fun as riding in the 30 degree heat on the dusty trails of the Adelaide Hills, even if they are extremes.

You don't need a turbo trainer in this weather, just a MTB or CX and motivation. :)

S

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