Get on your Hoss and ride...

Got myself a mountain bike the other week and have been fiddling around with it getting ready to ride. I picked it up second hand and have tried to spend the minimum possible on getting it (and me) ready to go on the road - or rather, off the road.

Fiona's face yesterday when I mentioned I 'needed' a new Cervelo road bike indicated to me that I'd done the right thing in limiting my financial exposure to the MTB side of things.

Anyway, finally, I decided to go out on the thing for real, with my far more experienced Team MK mates. I was a little 'trepidatious' (as our US cousins might say), having visions of them on their super lightweight carbon MTBs hurling themselves along roller coaster like dirt tracks followed by me plodding along on my Kona Hoss (so called because it's something of a Clydesdale MTB - built for the heavier rider). But you know what... I needn't have worried. I had a great time. We were out for two and a half hours on the Woburn Estate, crashing around and the Hoss was fantastic... and the amount of pummeling that it took indicated to me that I did the right thing buying a heavier frame.

The MTB discipline is amazingly different to road biking with a real focus on pedaling technique, gearing and handling. The hills are a completely different experience with the low gearing allowing you to grind up fearsome looking, slippery hills, but only at huge debt to your heartrate. My Garmin (heart rate, sat nav monitor) told me that I'd reached 99% of my Maximum Heart Rate on one climb - something I've never done on a road bike.

Afterwards we went for a short half hour run in the woods but I turned my ankle slightly which went to show that it's not completely healed yet. No serious damage though and great fun. I'm looking forward to being able to off road on a regular basis over the winter.

The week that was looked like this:

Monday - 10km run
Tuesday - 2 hour 'gentle' MTB ride, testing the bike
Weds - 10km run, 45 mins bike
Thurs - 2km pool swim
Fri - 27 holes golf ! 27 pints of Guinness :-)
Sat - No training
Sun - 2.5 hours MTB, 30 mins gentle run

Thursday, friday and saturday morning saw me in Dublin at the Citywest Hotel and Golf Resort, playing with my mates from Woolton Hall at Manchester Uni. We get together every year for golf, beer and laughter and it never disappoints. The lads fly in from all over the world and this year's event was one of the better ones. It ended with me slinking off to bed at 2.30 am on Saturday morning, ready for my cab to pick me up at 5.45 am.

Tired and emotional probably describes my condition. Still, you've got to let your hair down (figuratively speaking in my case of course) out of Ironman season.

Many of you got last week's quote spoken by MARGE GUNNERSEN played by FRANCES McDORMAND in FARGO.

I've recently changed my signature on my Tri Talk and Team MK forum posts. Needless to say it's a movie quote. See if you can tell me where it's from and who says it:

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?"

I'm about to try and enter what will be my final race of the season, the Bedford Sprint, taking place on next Sunday. I'll be racing against my great mate Colin Bradley who's been having a very strong sprint season.

So, in the meantime... here's to you Mrs Robinson... and, for an extra point... anybody know what the title of that song originally was before Paul Simon was asked to write the music for THE GRADUATE?

See you...