Training Notes 1/10/10

Mountain bike training time is hard to come by in January.  You have to wait for the trails to be completely frozen or snow covered.  They can be damaged so easily when wet and mushy.  So this weekend is definitely cold enough, and with the snow cover trail damage is next to impossible.  It wasn’t hard to convince myself that this is a great day to get out and train.  All the competition is home safe and warm, while I’m going out to gain speed and power from riding with 4 inches of snow on the ground and 11 degree temperatures.  Well, speed and power may be too optimistic, but I do go ride, and definitely improved my bike handling skills in the slick conditions. The two hour ride didn’t rack up much mileage but I made some observations about how my tire choices are working out.

A Kenda Nevegal was mounted on the rear.  That tire grabbed so well in the snow it was amazing, around corners, hill climbing and descending.  Confidence built up to the where I didn’t give it a second thought.

A Kenda small block eight on the front wheel had worked out great all summer on the hard dirt and rocky trails, but it did not like the snow, next time I will run Nevegals front and rear.

1/31/10 UPDATE:  Rode the same snow covered trail 2 weeks later with Nevegal's front and rear.  It was great.  These will now be my all-condition go-to tire.  I think the only time I will swap them out will be to small-block eights for the Goomna race, because of the large amount of road riding.

I got a couple of pictures while I was out: A few of the trail, and this really sweet shot of my bike showing off its Kenda tires.   I entered it into a photo contest.  Results aren’t up yet, but I’m expecting an easy win.  Check it out here:

http://singletrack.competitor.com/2010/01/features/the-first-phatty-of-2010_5295