by hattenburrow | Feb 25, 2016 | Film & Photo, Training
Today was sprints day these all out efforts for a minute are exhausting but they help build my explosive power and fast twitch muscle fibres, otherwise known as type 2a and type 2b muscle fibres.
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My sprints today were really hard work! But I am noticing that I go further during my sprint which is great as it means I am getting faster.
Although heart rate can be effected my sleep, hydration and temperature when I do my sprints I am looking to work in my threshold and vo2 max zones.
I have a rest day tomorrow and then on Saturday my first race of the season. A sportive in West Sussex, I am looking forward to racing my new era and putting all the hard work over the winter to the test.
Check back on Sunday for my race report.
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by hattenburrow | Feb 22, 2016 | Kit Reviews
Last week I tested the Bird Zero. The first thing you notice about this bike is it’s knockout fluorescent yellow paint work with bright pink logo which makes the bike stands out from the crowd around trail centres with its colourful personality.
Once riding the bike it handles brilliantly cutting into the trails and holding its ground on tight twisty single track. The handling is light and responsive, you can push the bike around which for a light rider like me (58kg) is great for a larger wheeled bike.
As a cross country racer, it’s important that a bike performs as well going up as it does coming down. I found the Bird Zero rolled well up hills and I rarely used all my gears even on steep hills. The 650b tyres roll more efficiently than 26″ over rocks and the 130mm of travel made popping over tree roots a lot easier, although, having more travel than my usual cross country bike and without a pop lock meant I did lose momentum going up-hill.
The bike changes gear smoothly from most transitions, however when trying to change quickly uphill it sometimes ran into difficulties and was quite noisy, this was, down to pressure through the chain I believe.
Having 130mm of travel gave the bike a comfy confidence boosting downhill ride as it maintained speed over rough ground and tracked the ground quickly.
This is an all-round fantastic trail machine, it’s 130mm travel soaks up the bumps of the trail and ensure good contact with the track, which gives confidence for fast descents. It’s light alloy frame paired with its fat 650b tyres make this an excellent single track warrior, which would be comfy enough to ride all day exploring.
As a girl it is sometimes hard to find a saddle that fits well, I didn’t notice the saddle on this bike at all, I was too focused on having fun on the bike which I think is a great sign.
The 15″ frame felt comfortable for me but at 5’6 I would have probably gone for the 17″ if I brought the bike due to liking a little bit more length in the frame.
I was really happy with the way the bike performed and feel this would be a great bike for any budding mountain biker to progress on.
Star Rating:
Appearance: 5/5
Frame : 4/5
Forks: 3/5
Feel: 5/5
Handling: 4/5
Fun factor: 4/5
by hattenburrow | Feb 22, 2016 | Kit Reviews
For my 2014/2015 racing season I rode a relatively new brand to the UK called silverback. The bike was the Syncra 2 which was carbon with 130mm travel. (I soon learnt this was far too much for an XC race bike)
I was really impressed with the Silverback design the frame looks sleek in matt black with green highlights and the spec of the bike was high compared to the reasonable price.
This was my first 650b bike, I had decided that his wheel size suited me because it was easier to handle, to be honest I never really gave 29ers a chance only briefly riding a friends and deciding it wasn’t for me.
The Silverback Syncra 2 came with Shimano XT group set (2×10) which was a good option cheaper than sram it meant replacing parts was cheaper on my wallet!
The bike weighed 11.2kg which was pretty light and performed brilliantly on trails both up and down hill.
The 130mm fork was far too much in hind sight for XC racing it made the front end of the bike heavy and I was never using the shock to its full extent because I didn’t really do that type of trail riding or racing. I did find it confidence boosting sometimes in technical situations because I felt like the bike could handle more rough stuff, whether this is true or not I’m not sure! The main gripe with this fork was the terrible pop lock which broke not once, but three times each time costing me around £50 for the small plastic trigger, personally this is a rip off especially when the damn thing would brake a month or so later!
The SLX brakes on this bike are great so responsive, you just need a tiny tap to feel them working.
My frame was a medium which is correct for my height but the set up of the bike was a bit too outstretched I turned the stem round so it was slammed and added a giant carbon bar which I had from when I was a real rider this helped my positioning.
Overall his was a great bike to ride and race, I would have been interested to try the 100mm travel option and see how much lighter it was and who knows his could of helped my racing performance.
Star Rating:
Appearance: 5/5
Frame: 4/5
Forks: 3/5
Handling: 4/4
Fun factor: 4/5
I hope you enjoyed his review stay tuned for the next!
by hattenburrow | Feb 17, 2016 | Training
This week I have been having a rest. After a few weeks hard training my body needed a well earned break from training for a few days. Last week I had low energy levels and found my concentration was all over the place.
It’s important to remember that while your resting your muscles are recovering and growing. This is something I struggle with as I’m not very good at chilling out, I am on the go most of the time, even on rest days I like to go on walks and stay active. So when my coach said I should have a rest week I couldn’t quite get my head around the idea of a week of no exercise. After my long ride on Saturday, when I had felt very tired, I decided to listen to my body and planned to take three days off to recover.
Since Sunday I have been concentrating on building my core strength doing Pilates, foam rolling and stretching this has been really energising and I feel like my body feels better for having a rest and a stretch.
Tomorrow is my first test of the year! An all out effort loop as flat our as I can for an hour, this is going to be fun (and by fun I mean tiring and painful).
I’ll let you know how it goes! 🙂
by hattenburrow | Feb 15, 2016 | Nutrition
Some times a sweet treat is needed! This apricot and pistachio cake is made using semolina which contains selenium in combination with other nutrients, including vitamin E — as an antioxidant. This means that it prevents harmful oxidation of your cell membranes and DNA, which would otherwise contribute to diseases, including heart disease. Getting enough selenium in your diet also strengthens your immune system to prevent infection. Semolina also boosts your intake of several B-complex vitamins, especially folate and thiamin. Collectively, B-complex vitamins support your metabolism and ensure that you can convert food into useable energy.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 100g apricots
- 1 large orange
- 170g butter
- 170g sugar / Struvia
- 225g semolina
- 4 eggs
- 150g ground almonds
- 100g pistachios
- 300g greek yoghurtSyrup:
- 150g honey
- 2tsp lemon juice
- 100ml orange juice
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 190°C. Now line a 20cm circle tin
2. Put apricots, squeezed orange and peel into a bowl and soak for 6 / 12 hours. Transfer the apricots and juice to a food processor and blend
3. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together. Add egg yolks one by one and fold in
3. Add the semolina and ground almonds and mix well together, fold in apricot puree
4. Whisk egg whites until stiff, put the mixture in a tin and into the oven for 40/45 minutes
5. Make the syrup put the honey, orange juice and lemon juice into a saucepan and boil for 2-3 minutes then set aside
6. Once out and cooled pour the syrup over the top and serve with a dollop of greek yoghurt and a sprinkle of pistachios!
Let me know what you think 🙂
