*Note - this has been sitting unfinished for a while. Hence the out of dateness :(
I've just tipped up over the 3000 km mark today :) A slight detour (i.e. missing a turn) sent me on a 65 km jaunt across Munich.
Getting slightly lost in a forest on the outskirts gave me a pretty good chance to test my new front light, a Fenix TK11. Verdict; a pretty good light, certainly excellent for the money. It's plenty bright for the cycle paths and for road use. As a rough estimate, it gives off a bit more than a dimmed car headlight. For extended riding, something a bit more powerful would probably be nice, but I can't see myself doing the Race Around Ireland just yet :D
Including two batteries, the charger and two mounts, the full set up was about as cheap as I could get for a decent power light. It'll serve well, and maybe get upgraded to something brighter in a few years. Though that's big money there, well over €250, so a serious investment if I really need it... I've also added two smaller USB chargeable lights to the arsenal. I'm gonna put up some pics of the lights and what they can do once my camera decides to start working again. It's pretty impressive overall :D But I think the rear needs a good powerful one, there's a distinct lack of glow from there...
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Distance = Speed*Time
Looking back through my history from over the Summer I'm noticing something interesting. My current top speed is just over 60 km/hr, which I hit about a month ago. It's not terribly fast, but it's half decent. Last night I went training on my fixie. It was the first time in a while, but the road bike needed some tweaking before being let out. The top speed was 49.3 km/hr. This was done on the flat, in a relatively low gear, and sustained for a few seconds. On a fixie. My descending needs to improve greatly :D
On a similar line, I'm currently north of 3300 km for the yearly distance so far, with a few longer spins planned. I should hit the 4000 km mark with a few weekend spins before it gets too nasty to cycle. I think 5000 is out of the question, but that's not terrible given that I started in March and spent a lot of time finding my legs. Time to start on distance targets for next year, I think :) 10,000 sounds like a nice round number... If I'm living in Munich and commuting out to Garching next year I should top 5000 km in just commuting. Add to that my plans for audax and it's looking pretty decent :)
Numbers from my road bike (I have the Garmin on that, so everything gets recorded);
Total distance (so far) - 820 km (2400 on the fixie makes up most of my distance!)
Total time - 38 hours
Average speed - 21.6 km/hr
Max speed - 60.2 km/hr
Av heart rate - 160 bpm
Max heart rate - 201 bpm
Longest day - 141 km in 6 hours 20 mins
Not a bad first year so far. Next year will be better :)
On a similar line, I'm currently north of 3300 km for the yearly distance so far, with a few longer spins planned. I should hit the 4000 km mark with a few weekend spins before it gets too nasty to cycle. I think 5000 is out of the question, but that's not terrible given that I started in March and spent a lot of time finding my legs. Time to start on distance targets for next year, I think :) 10,000 sounds like a nice round number... If I'm living in Munich and commuting out to Garching next year I should top 5000 km in just commuting. Add to that my plans for audax and it's looking pretty decent :)
Numbers from my road bike (I have the Garmin on that, so everything gets recorded);
Total distance (so far) - 820 km (2400 on the fixie makes up most of my distance!)
Total time - 38 hours
Average speed - 21.6 km/hr
Max speed - 60.2 km/hr
Av heart rate - 160 bpm
Max heart rate - 201 bpm
Longest day - 141 km in 6 hours 20 mins
Not a bad first year so far. Next year will be better :)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Some musing..
..for a change. Typically I've dealt with results here and maybe some vague planning, but never much in the way of thinking about it. However, that's about to change.
I am currently in the situation that I actually know where I'm going to be for the next three years. While this sounds somewhat restricting, for me it is in fact rather liberating. t means that I can plan for longer term things, such as touring, training, holidays, etc. So, the question that I'm currently pondering is what to do with limited time resources to maximise what I can see on my bikes. I'll hopefully deal with shooting in a separate post, so those of you not interesting in cycling can look away now :D
Given my location in the middle of Europe, there are many options available to me. In general, the choices that appeal to me are:
touring; multi-day and long distance. Probably reasonably light, and should allow me to see a lot of different things;
Racing; this would be a lot of fun. However, it requires being a member of a club and learning a lot of etiquette, techniques and generally speaking in German, which isn't the best at the moment...
Audax; similar to touring, but long continuous distances, probably again with some light kit, but without having to think of a tent, sleeping bag etc.
Right now, the most appealing is the audax. Touring requires a large time investment for the same distance, though would be a lot easier to do. Audax, while challenging in terms of being on the bike for 22 hours in a given day, would be much more rewarding in terms of distance covered and where I could go. There are some places that are quite close, such as Salzberg (130 km), which are easy to get to. There are also some slightly further away places, such as Prague (350 km) and then there are some quite far away places such as Berlin (630 km). This is something that I think I would quite enjoy as it would allow me to leave after work on a Thursday or something and arrive at a city sometime on the Friday to enjoy it that night and the Saturday and then take a leisurely train home on the Sunday.
Right now, Salzberg should be pretty easy to do. I think nothing of heading out on a Sunday morning for a 120 km spin at a decent pace, with climbing involved, so if my only concern was getting there, I'd have no issues. When I introduce time constraints, and the possibility of cycling back the next day, it becomes a different story, but should still be quite doable.
The last issue which arises is what kind of training to do over the Winter. Each of the above situations will require slightly different approaches, apparently, so I'll have to start deciding now on what to do. Unfortunately, I know nothing. This shall have to be rectified. I also need to learn how to stick to a plan, so we'll see how that goes. This is all dependent on work not leaving me home after dark and half asleep, of course. Hrm.
I am currently in the situation that I actually know where I'm going to be for the next three years. While this sounds somewhat restricting, for me it is in fact rather liberating. t means that I can plan for longer term things, such as touring, training, holidays, etc. So, the question that I'm currently pondering is what to do with limited time resources to maximise what I can see on my bikes. I'll hopefully deal with shooting in a separate post, so those of you not interesting in cycling can look away now :D
Given my location in the middle of Europe, there are many options available to me. In general, the choices that appeal to me are:
touring; multi-day and long distance. Probably reasonably light, and should allow me to see a lot of different things;
Racing; this would be a lot of fun. However, it requires being a member of a club and learning a lot of etiquette, techniques and generally speaking in German, which isn't the best at the moment...
Audax; similar to touring, but long continuous distances, probably again with some light kit, but without having to think of a tent, sleeping bag etc.
Right now, the most appealing is the audax. Touring requires a large time investment for the same distance, though would be a lot easier to do. Audax, while challenging in terms of being on the bike for 22 hours in a given day, would be much more rewarding in terms of distance covered and where I could go. There are some places that are quite close, such as Salzberg (130 km), which are easy to get to. There are also some slightly further away places, such as Prague (350 km) and then there are some quite far away places such as Berlin (630 km). This is something that I think I would quite enjoy as it would allow me to leave after work on a Thursday or something and arrive at a city sometime on the Friday to enjoy it that night and the Saturday and then take a leisurely train home on the Sunday.
Right now, Salzberg should be pretty easy to do. I think nothing of heading out on a Sunday morning for a 120 km spin at a decent pace, with climbing involved, so if my only concern was getting there, I'd have no issues. When I introduce time constraints, and the possibility of cycling back the next day, it becomes a different story, but should still be quite doable.
The last issue which arises is what kind of training to do over the Winter. Each of the above situations will require slightly different approaches, apparently, so I'll have to start deciding now on what to do. Unfortunately, I know nothing. This shall have to be rectified. I also need to learn how to stick to a plan, so we'll see how that goes. This is all dependent on work not leaving me home after dark and half asleep, of course. Hrm.
Fame and fortune!
Well, neither, really. Though DURC did get a nice showing on the new Trinity TV site
The Sports Round-Up Episode 1 from Jessica Pitcher on Vimeo.
There are a few scenes in at the start, then our 10 minute segment starts at about 13.30 or so. I think it looks pretty good. The range looks about as nice as it ever has, which is impressive. This is certainly something that DURC could do with pursuing over the year as matches tend to be a bit more interesting to film than a quick training session.
And no, my name has not been changed to Mike Madigan. Some day Trinity media will get my name right. Maybe. It could help if I was still in said college, of course :P
The Sports Round-Up Episode 1 from Jessica Pitcher on Vimeo.
There are a few scenes in at the start, then our 10 minute segment starts at about 13.30 or so. I think it looks pretty good. The range looks about as nice as it ever has, which is impressive. This is certainly something that DURC could do with pursuing over the year as matches tend to be a bit more interesting to film than a quick training session.
And no, my name has not been changed to Mike Madigan. Some day Trinity media will get my name right. Maybe. It could help if I was still in said college, of course :P
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Long Sunday spin
I'm just back from my first spin out with a group. Well, I say group, but there were three of us. Still, first time going for a spin with people!
The plan was to meet up in town and then head down south towards Bad Tolz and loop back up for a spin, from town, of about 100 km or so. I'd have another 30 added onto that for my return trip to Garching, so it was going to be a long day :D
We started off properly at about 10.15 or so, and made the way south. Glorious weather all the way, for a Sunday in October! Lots of sunshine, not so much wind, not too warm :) It's mostly a really nice flat road surface, dedicated to running and cycling for a good distance, and then giving way to some very...interesting climbs :D The worst was a 12% drag upwards, right after a 12% descent. That involved some very rapid gear changing :D
After going a little off course with a 'diversion' around road works, which required going basically off road through a forest, we started to pick up the pace a little bit on the way back up. I left the lads off in Munich and started to make my way slowly back to Garching, where, upon drinking a half liter of cola and eating a snickers and a twix, it occurred to me that I haven't really done much in the way of distance cycling in quite some time. I'm quite glad that I didn't decide to do any long trips over the last while; I'd have seriously suffered on them! Still though, I made it back in one piece. I just need to work on getting the distance into the legs, which I should hopefully get round to over the winter.
That's about it on the cycling front, I've been trying to get back into things after my holiday, but it's a bit slow going. I'm slightly worried about the running, as it's been two weeks since I've gone out now. We shall have to see :P
The plan was to meet up in town and then head down south towards Bad Tolz and loop back up for a spin, from town, of about 100 km or so. I'd have another 30 added onto that for my return trip to Garching, so it was going to be a long day :D
We started off properly at about 10.15 or so, and made the way south. Glorious weather all the way, for a Sunday in October! Lots of sunshine, not so much wind, not too warm :) It's mostly a really nice flat road surface, dedicated to running and cycling for a good distance, and then giving way to some very...interesting climbs :D The worst was a 12% drag upwards, right after a 12% descent. That involved some very rapid gear changing :D
After going a little off course with a 'diversion' around road works, which required going basically off road through a forest, we started to pick up the pace a little bit on the way back up. I left the lads off in Munich and started to make my way slowly back to Garching, where, upon drinking a half liter of cola and eating a snickers and a twix, it occurred to me that I haven't really done much in the way of distance cycling in quite some time. I'm quite glad that I didn't decide to do any long trips over the last while; I'd have seriously suffered on them! Still though, I made it back in one piece. I just need to work on getting the distance into the legs, which I should hopefully get round to over the winter.
That's about it on the cycling front, I've been trying to get back into things after my holiday, but it's a bit slow going. I'm slightly worried about the running, as it's been two weeks since I've gone out now. We shall have to see :P
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Recent matches :)
It's been quite some time since I've been in any sort of competitive situation. Around nine months, in fact, going back to the Rathdrum Turkey shoot of last year...
Last weekend I was back in Ireland on holidays and, as The Lady would have it, there were two matches on; a 3x20 on the Saturday and a PR60 on Sunday. I decided to do both, along with Aisling and Dave from DURC and the DFST.
Since I hadn't really shot in some time, I was looking forward to getting a few rounds off in practice in the DURC range sometime during the previous week. Unfortunately, due to trinitytv interviews and a shortage of ammo, that didn't end up happening so I went into the matches with about 10 mins of a set up in each position. Some small changes were made during prep and the matches themselves, but nothing major.
Saturday's match started well with the DURC squad arriving at the time the match was due to take place. Fortunately, this works out for us since we were 75% of the detail that day :D I was most wary of the prone match, as this has always been my best discipline and I wasn't sure how I would perform having not shot in three months, and not shot with a decent set up in three times that! It ended up going rather wellish in the end; I didn't embarrass myself and nor did I set any range records. I finished two points down on the leader in that section.
The standing didn't go well at all. I couldn't settle, didn't like the balance of the rifle and was just generally unstable and useless. So nothing much has changed in 9 months then! Much attention will have to be paid to this position in my (eventual) future training.
Kneeling ended up being alright. I had serious vision problems with the target blurring, seeing things swim about and not having the best hold. It closely resembled my air rifle sight picture, so I was pretty comfortable in that regard. Wound up with a 90 and a 93, which also resembles my air rifle scores :D Provisionally, I'm top of the kneeling match, but there are two more people to shooting this weekend, so that will almost certainly change.
I think I ended up on 520 something or other, which isn't great, but not the worst for something that I've never really focussed on in the past. I was second on the day, but that'll probably drop to 4th when the final results are posted.
The prone on Sunday was a slightly different matter. Because it's a full 60 shot match with no enforced breaks, it works to one's advantage to have a nice comfortable position and stay on the ground for the full thing. I did not have a nice comfortable position, so I was up every 20 shots or so :D It started off better than I did on the previous day, but kinda waned a bit after that. I mostly put it down to not having enough rounds down the barrel in the past year to last the time. What is somewhat odd is that the final score equaled my Rathdrum pb! I don't know if that says more about how I trained last year, or about how I haven't lost anything in the 9 months I've not shot...
One new thing I did try was using a yellow filter in my rearsight. I've had the iris for a few years now and never really played with it that much. I figured I had nothing to lose this weekend with it, so I went for it. The result was that my eyes didn't tire so much throughout the match. I suspect that Saturday's shooting might have been better for it. A nice lesson to learn :)
The end result after a poor final on my part was a 3rd place overall, staying (somehow) the same as going in. Aisling, in typical DURC form, won the final with a 102.5, jumping two places in the process. We have a very long and proud history of winning finals and jumping places in DURC. It's probably from the hazing training :D
So that's it. No pics; cameras seem to have died out at matches, and my one is currently awaiting surgery to make the lens move again. If not, it'll be replaced pretty sharpish. Bis spaeter!
Last weekend I was back in Ireland on holidays and, as The Lady would have it, there were two matches on; a 3x20 on the Saturday and a PR60 on Sunday. I decided to do both, along with Aisling and Dave from DURC and the DFST.
Since I hadn't really shot in some time, I was looking forward to getting a few rounds off in practice in the DURC range sometime during the previous week. Unfortunately, due to trinitytv interviews and a shortage of ammo, that didn't end up happening so I went into the matches with about 10 mins of a set up in each position. Some small changes were made during prep and the matches themselves, but nothing major.
Saturday's match started well with the DURC squad arriving at the time the match was due to take place. Fortunately, this works out for us since we were 75% of the detail that day :D I was most wary of the prone match, as this has always been my best discipline and I wasn't sure how I would perform having not shot in three months, and not shot with a decent set up in three times that! It ended up going rather wellish in the end; I didn't embarrass myself and nor did I set any range records. I finished two points down on the leader in that section.
The standing didn't go well at all. I couldn't settle, didn't like the balance of the rifle and was just generally unstable and useless. So nothing much has changed in 9 months then! Much attention will have to be paid to this position in my (eventual) future training.
Kneeling ended up being alright. I had serious vision problems with the target blurring, seeing things swim about and not having the best hold. It closely resembled my air rifle sight picture, so I was pretty comfortable in that regard. Wound up with a 90 and a 93, which also resembles my air rifle scores :D Provisionally, I'm top of the kneeling match, but there are two more people to shooting this weekend, so that will almost certainly change.
I think I ended up on 520 something or other, which isn't great, but not the worst for something that I've never really focussed on in the past. I was second on the day, but that'll probably drop to 4th when the final results are posted.
The prone on Sunday was a slightly different matter. Because it's a full 60 shot match with no enforced breaks, it works to one's advantage to have a nice comfortable position and stay on the ground for the full thing. I did not have a nice comfortable position, so I was up every 20 shots or so :D It started off better than I did on the previous day, but kinda waned a bit after that. I mostly put it down to not having enough rounds down the barrel in the past year to last the time. What is somewhat odd is that the final score equaled my Rathdrum pb! I don't know if that says more about how I trained last year, or about how I haven't lost anything in the 9 months I've not shot...
One new thing I did try was using a yellow filter in my rearsight. I've had the iris for a few years now and never really played with it that much. I figured I had nothing to lose this weekend with it, so I went for it. The result was that my eyes didn't tire so much throughout the match. I suspect that Saturday's shooting might have been better for it. A nice lesson to learn :)
The end result after a poor final on my part was a 3rd place overall, staying (somehow) the same as going in. Aisling, in typical DURC form, won the final with a 102.5, jumping two places in the process. We have a very long and proud history of winning finals and jumping places in DURC. It's probably from the hazing training :D
So that's it. No pics; cameras seem to have died out at matches, and my one is currently awaiting surgery to make the lens move again. If not, it'll be replaced pretty sharpish. Bis spaeter!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Checking in
Things have been going quite well over the past few weeks :) Yes, I have stopped my cycling to and from the city, but that has opened up much more of an opportunity to actually do some more structured stuff, such as my weekly TT attempts, which are currently going quite well. I'm possibly holding back a bit too much on these, but I'll leave it for another while to start pushing harder earlier.
One huge knock on effect that I've noticed since my commute is that I'm much more able to recover form a given level of exertion, both when I've finished, and also during a session. This is most noticeable in running. Formerly, I struggled through 7 km and was quite out of breath after it, no matter how slowly I tried to take it. Now, however, I can actually slow down a little bit and my heart rate will correspondingly slow, which I find a fantastic aid to my efforts :D
As such, I'm much more motivated to get out and do some running at the moment. I've been going at least twice a week, which is good going for me, and I've even had to invest in a second pair of shorts! I also completed my longest run yet at the weekend; a paltry 11.5 km, but that's well over the 8.5 that it previously was, set the week before... I reckon at this stage that I would be able for my half marathon goal (to finish, at least) by the end of September, and I might actually have a good time in one, were I to actually run one, by the end of October. Which fits in nicely with The Plan.
I feel like I've cheated on this, however. I mean, I didn't run for months this year, and now I'm actually able to run distances, albeit quite slowly. I'm running 10 km at a lower pace than a lot of people run marathons, which is somewhat disheartening. However, this is where that training thing comes in, so hopefully that'll pick up again.
I mentioned last time (I think) that I've found a new rifle club that looks excellent. If I didn't, well, I have now! I went out to them last night, as it was meant to be their first night back after the Summer break, but they appeared to be still closed :( So, either the calendar was wrong, or they left early and went to the pub. Based on my previous experiences of rifle clubs, either are totally possible. So, back out when I'm back from Ireland and we'll get cracking. Too late for Cardiff, unfortunately, but there's always the British Nationals next Spring, as well as some longer term goals for smallbore.
Also, as you may have guessed from above/heard I'm back around Ireland next week, so if I haven't already been talking to you about it, pint at the weekend? It is a competition weekend with a 3x20 and a prone match, but what the hell :P Later!
One huge knock on effect that I've noticed since my commute is that I'm much more able to recover form a given level of exertion, both when I've finished, and also during a session. This is most noticeable in running. Formerly, I struggled through 7 km and was quite out of breath after it, no matter how slowly I tried to take it. Now, however, I can actually slow down a little bit and my heart rate will correspondingly slow, which I find a fantastic aid to my efforts :D
As such, I'm much more motivated to get out and do some running at the moment. I've been going at least twice a week, which is good going for me, and I've even had to invest in a second pair of shorts! I also completed my longest run yet at the weekend; a paltry 11.5 km, but that's well over the 8.5 that it previously was, set the week before... I reckon at this stage that I would be able for my half marathon goal (to finish, at least) by the end of September, and I might actually have a good time in one, were I to actually run one, by the end of October. Which fits in nicely with The Plan.
I feel like I've cheated on this, however. I mean, I didn't run for months this year, and now I'm actually able to run distances, albeit quite slowly. I'm running 10 km at a lower pace than a lot of people run marathons, which is somewhat disheartening. However, this is where that training thing comes in, so hopefully that'll pick up again.
I mentioned last time (I think) that I've found a new rifle club that looks excellent. If I didn't, well, I have now! I went out to them last night, as it was meant to be their first night back after the Summer break, but they appeared to be still closed :( So, either the calendar was wrong, or they left early and went to the pub. Based on my previous experiences of rifle clubs, either are totally possible. So, back out when I'm back from Ireland and we'll get cracking. Too late for Cardiff, unfortunately, but there's always the British Nationals next Spring, as well as some longer term goals for smallbore.
Also, as you may have guessed from above/heard I'm back around Ireland next week, so if I haven't already been talking to you about it, pint at the weekend? It is a competition weekend with a 3x20 and a prone match, but what the hell :P Later!
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