mountainmorgy

So I was listening to the regular podcast at  http://prowomenscycling.com/  which the brilliantly passionate Sarah and Dan do, my regular Friday night bathtime generally consists of me listening to these two giggle, rant and generally liven up an already fruitful women's pro scene. And (YEAH I'm starting this year with a sentence beginning with and...what are you gonna do about it?) it got me thinking.... Anna - courtesy of Huw Williams It got me thinking about our domestic scene here in the UK, and more to the point, some of the absolutely stunning racing that goes on around the women's local circuits. Big leagues like CDNW women's league, the SERRL and London Women's leagues to name but a few, all showcase riders at the pinnacle of the domestic scale. So, as a Manx bird going into a big bad world of "proper" racing this season, I thought it only right to celebrate the talent this Island has to show... and more to the point, let the rest of the w...

LAST POST LAST POST LAST POST! I've not got time to post anything interesting so here's what I've popped on Facebook this evening; Well everyone else is sharing theirs so as a final post for 2013 here's my ROUGH bike stats for the year (some stuff has been missed!); c.6700 miles ridden, c. 500 hours spent in the saddle, elevation gain of around 221,000 feet in about 340 rides in total. This has probably been the best year of my life, thanks to everyone who's contributed to that.  Live long and prosper. Especially big thank you to the Ride Captains at HotChillee, Jamie at RPC Cyclecoach and my awesome boyfriend David.  Have a great one all! See you on the flip! Oh, and most recent highlight to leave you with.... ;) (c) Rob Quine

...is gold. As a newcomer it's hard to quantify what you actually want from a sport because you know so little, really, about what is actually achievable. It's equally hard to express to your peers what it is your goals entail, especially when they have been riding for a considerable amount of time in comparison to you. Race face. For most who race at club level their achievements are ingrained, whether they're successful in their respective categories, always do well in the bunch sprint on the Wednesday night races or manage respectable times consistently in their local timetrial. They have achieved success, and equally loss. There is an air of normality around results. An attitude of "take it or leave it". Riding their bike is just something they do, they do it well, and that is that. Life goes on. In turn, there is a general degree of respect gained by those who are consistent. Whether it be consistent in pulling the pack on a Weekend ride, or keeping ...

Good evening! I'm back! Great news, had a holiday (we went to watch the WRC in Wales) and now the legs are performing well. The rest seems to have done me the world of good as I've come back into it feeling smoother, more resilient and for some reason I'm now climbing like a boss. So back to it, time to knuckle down. It's the season to be raking in the miles and building on your fitness ready for the new season. There's just one thing getting in our way. It's just so damn cold!! So what are we going to do about it? This time last year I was entering my first winter as a cyclist. It was also my first winter in some time under 65kg... and in turn my first winter in a LONG time with less bodyfat than brains (and that's saying something). It's safe to admit that, last winter, I wasn't prepared. It was bitterly cold in London and being the tough boot from the Isle of Man that I was, I reckoned to surviving on my feeble stock of jerseys, arm warmers a...

It's winter, at least it feels like it, so I'm going to try and post a little more often. Firstly, sorry about last weeks rant, it needed to come out. Hopefully it didn't stir from the main point which is to just ride, screw everything else! I did say I was going to do some geeky winter gear posts which are on their way, not this week, though. This week I want to roughly revisit an old subject. Some of you may remember me going on about the need to rest. Now, this post isn't more nagging because I'm sure you all know as well as I do how important the easy days are. This post is more a vent of frustration (I'm getting good at these aren't I), not over the fact that I'm tired, or that I need to rest - I've been doing both rather successfully. I'll start from the top; During August, while both racing and riding in sportives and the like, I noticed a change. The weeks surrounding the London to Paris were some of the best weeks in terms of fi...

Howdy all! So it's been another big gap, I know, I'm pretty awful. I can't even use "training too much" as an excuse now as it's October and I've had a total of two (albeit erratic days off between days of feeling a bit crap) weeks off. Lots of fun stuff has happened, which I will in time enlighten you all about. However, after a fairly unanimous twitter vote (if you don't already have me on there feel free to follow @mooleur - it's a bit sweary, as you can imagine) it has been decided that tonight's blog post will be a big huge shouty rant. The other option for tonights blog, other than a big rant, was a geek post about winter riding and gear, which I will definitely be posting about in the near future, as it's getting very cold and extremely wet. So you have that to look forward to if you don't quite enjoy my incessant moaning! So let's get on to it. Today's rant, I've been sat about today wondering what exactly I *sh...

Well that's it. My first season done. Six months of intense learning. This year alone I've done somewhere around 400 hours of training, circa 10,000kms of road covered, just over 50kms of vertical climbing, 15 races, 5 time trials and a 500km ride to Paris later. It's no lie... I. Am. Knackered. I've been told by Jamie, my coach, to take a week off the bike. Incidentally a week is the longest amount of time I've spent out of the saddle since I first started cycling last March. Jamie originally advised me to take two weeks, because he's sensible and knows what he's doing. Unlike me, the ever zealous newbie, who demanded I attempt to squeeze in one last race after the National Championships. Oh yeah, you're probably wondering how that went aren't you... Well, it was good fun. The trip was a nice relaxing bit of time out for my partner and I (who also raced alongside a scutch of other lads from the Isle of Man). It was great to get away with other ...