Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Less training and more speed

We have just completed a successful experiment and proved to ourselves that with less training you can go faster. Sound too good to be true? Well you better believe it, its true.

But there is a catch, you have to train harder. It is just a piece of the training puzzle, but a very valuable piece. It is not a new concept and has been covered by many coaches including guru Joe Friel in his book The Mountain bikers training bible. Bottom line is that if you want to race hard and go fast then you must train hard and train fast. But it must be high intensity, when it feels like torture then you will know that you are doing it right. This is where the less comes in, because you do such high intensity you need to do fewer hours, to allow for recovery and then be able to put in the hard work when you need to. Training is the art of knowing your body mixed with the science of sound training principles. Learn the principles from a decent coach or read some mtb training books. The art will come from experience.

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Monday, May 23, 2011

Sani2c chilly but dry

Sani2c has all the ingredients for awesome mountain biking. It is always
going to be good, but when the sun is shining and all you can see is blue
sky then you can't beat it.

The riders come for the singletrack but they get so much more. Cool
clothing, tons of food and drink, great hospitality and if you own a Subaru
you can get even more. Thanks to all the farmers and organisers involved -
great job!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Joberg2C and Sani2C - its all happening in May

The mountain bike racing feast carries on and KZN continues to catch the mountain biking spotlight. Its all about getting to the sea on your bike down those pristine singletracks that Farmer Glen and his crew have organised. It has to be one of the coolest riding experiences in South Africa, in fact in May its probably going to be a bit of a freezing experience. The Underberg supermarkets must be coining it with all these hungry travelers passing through their sleepy hollow. 

The MTBOnline crew will be riding again as team Snackwells BATSEAL. We will be powered by Snackwells Chips, who are also an official supplier to Subaru Sani2C this year, so look out for those crisps to refuel your tired body. Then of course the tubeless wheels will be filled with BATSEAL tire sealant, our only choice for puncture protection. Bikes will be a full suspension Morewood Zula and a GT Zaskar 29er, both bikes fitted with Shimano groupsets and Ritchey components.

If you are riding Sani2C then good luck and see you on the trail, if not then check out this sani2c video of Day 2 and see what you will be missing out on. 

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Thursday, May 05, 2011

Downhill finals video from UCI World Cup

The UCI World Cup in Pietermaritzburg has come and gone. Here is our final update on this event. It is a video of the downhill finals that went down to the wire with Greg Minnaar doing us proud. The video features snippets all the way down the track of most of the woman's and men's finalists, including several up and coming South Africans and all the big names including Peat, Atherton, Garcia, Minnaar and Neetling. Greg missed the top step by less than a quarter of a second to USA rider Aaron Gwin. The vibe and crowd noise on Greg's final run was something special. If you want to get exercise and watch sport at the same time then get out and support downhill MTB races, even the qualifying rounds, its the most fun you will have off your bike.

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