The MTB debut

I am not going to explain much today... I will let the pictures do most of the talking.. But lets set something clear... It was a truly different day on the bike..

My ride for the day?? Que bici use hoy? Gracias/Thanks to Juan from Zurich's bar in Coin..!!

What did the routes look like? Las rutas de hoy??

And there was a river crossing.. Y cruzamos un río..!! I think this is my favorite shot of the day. Mi foto favorita del dia...

And we also went across a tunnel.. Y tambien pasamos por un tunel..

The view heading to the mountain in the back.. La vista camino a la montaña alli atras..

We even saw some farm animals... Y hasta vimos algunos animales en el camino..

And then the serious climbing started.. At least to me was serious Y luego empezaron las subidas serias.. Bueno por lo menos para mi fueron serias..

And now my friends started to leave me behind... Y ahora mis amigos comenzaban a distanciarme.. But always keeping an eye on me... Pero siempre mirando donde estaba..
But as they ride away it creates shots like this... Pero cuando se alejan crean estas fotos..

And the climbs got worst..! Y las subidas se pusieron peor..! At least for me.. Por lo menos para mi..

With some of my companions at the top of El Santo.. Con algunos de los compañeros en El Santo

The view from the top.. La vista desde arriba..

Coming down.. Bajando... I was slower then climbing..! Estube mas lento que subiendo..!

Stairs into a cave.. Escaleras a una cueva..

Coming out of the cave..(barely) Saliendo de la cueva..(apenas)

My friends were doing downhill MTBiking... I was hiking with a bike.. Mis amigos estaba haciendo descensos por la montaña en bici.. Yo estaba descendiendo "con" una bici...

But at least there is a picture of me riding.. Pero por lo menos hay una foto mia en la bici..

I am beat..! Estoy molido..!

STRAVA said we did this.. +Strava dice que hicimos eso.. A different day for sure.. Un dia diferente seguro..!

Thanks for reading and sharing... Gracias por leer y compartir

See you next time... Te veo la proxima vez

Pablo

The Weekend Repor Guy

What about Sunday?

Well last night I went to bed too late and have a few too many slices of pizza and beers… My body asked me to stay in bed longer then usual and I listened to it..

by the time I got up and had breakfast and check the internet it was too late to go for a real ride.. With time limitations and a goal to get to (10.000 Km) I decided to get on the trainer and make the best out of my little time..

The result? in images? This was my vision after the session… Or was it during it?

I did some intervals… Climbing intervals to be more precise.. Zwift – Watopia – The Gorby

After that we had a quick lunch with the family and headed out to the local trail that starts no more then 400 meters from our door steps

Some pics?

The beginning of it..

The water fall walk way

A closer look

Steep stairways 

Jessie checking the tunnel for us

A gravel route with no cars and full of leafs

A selfie?

Moos 

And us, my family

And that is the way you spend a surprisingly warm day in Belfast... I called it "Hiking in the backyard"

Those pictures were taken by me at the Castlereagh hills area, we live right at the foot steps or the area..

Hope to see you at the next post..

Thanks for reading

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Combo Saturday..!

Hello everyone..! Missed me? No? Oh well... Life this time sucks to me and this is why I didn't update before... Don't worry I am fine just can't find a real job in a normal place at normal hours..

But you don't come here to listen to my problems.. You come here to forget yours for a few minutes so let me help you...

Last week(end) was a busy one..! Man I am still tired from it..! i didn't ride a very looong ride but it was the accumulation of rides from all week... Rode like 300 km or so.. (remember I want to get to 10.000 km by Dec 31 Th)

here are some shots from my weekend..

Look at how beautiful Northern Ireland is when the sun shines..

Lakes, fields and a blue sky

If you like dirt routes you can ask local people to point you the right way..

That was my Saturday morning.. group ride where I collapsed at the end and ended up riding by myself after a wrong turn and my riding buddies went on.. it was fine.. I was already close to home.. I finished the day with some 89 km and 800 + meters of climbing.  I you want to see more details of the rides follow the LINK (Strava)

Afternoon? A completely different story but as exciting as the morning in different ways, look:

That is my riding partner.. My little friend.. My son.. He just learned how to ride his bike and he is all over it..! The weather was nice so we went to a close by park to explore and verify what some locals told us...

We found this at the park..

I never rode on a track before... And I couldn't do it really this day either since a "futbol" match was going on in the middle of it.. Spectators were watching from the side with little kids and I didn't want to get into any accidents.

We still managed a lap at a very slow pace and either Felix or me like the banks that much..

Our first experience at the track wasn't great but we said that we are going to come back and use it a bit more another time.. 

We had a great Saturday and after all the activities outdoor we came home and had a family dinner and watch some TV before heading to bed and rest for another day out the next day...

Hope you enjoyed as much as we did reading this little story of our weekend..

See you Sunday..

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Steady is the key..?

Yes is that time of the week where you see this on +Twitter about this guy living in Northern Ireland trying to get back in shape... What guy?

This one..!!! Remember?

If you are not all that familiar with the story and want to catch up look between the previous posts is some related (each week an update) about how I am trying to lose some weight and most important to keep it off..!!

So today was the day I picked to step on the scale and see how the last couple of days were reflecting on my weight... Here is a report in the way of a picture to show whats going on..:

Can you see the progress? Last week I was at 96.2 kilos and this week?? 95.4 kilos..!!! Exciting isn't it? If you are not a person that has struggle with weight for most of your adult life you won't get it.. But thanks for reading any ways...

NOTE: you see this is one more reason to use +MyFitnessPal for tracking your progress or going the other way... Pictures and reports help you visualize where you are and where you want to be.

So this is a lost of 800 grams from last week to this one..!!! Almost double what my weekly goal is..!! I am happy with this new number on the scale..! It brings me closer to my goal..
What my goal is? originally I was thinking of 80 kilos but giving it a second thought... I might split it.. and stop at 85 kilos... A day at the time is what is going to work best.. Either way I am closer now then a month and a half ago when this "fight" started..

How did I manage this drop of weight? Here it goes:

- Discipline keep my portions at normal size and write everyone down, no diet, just control.

- Options I could drive Felix to school, I am walking with him every morning.. (45 to 60 minutes) and the dog loves it as well..

- Water at some point last week I started drinking a large glass of water every time I went pee, 2 reason for this behavior. 1 wasn't drinking enough to begin with. 2 helps me understand is not hunger but appetite what I constantly have. I can eat 24/7 no issues.

- Exercise sorry there is no other way, no magic spell.. It demands you getting up and moving.. I really enjoy riding my bicycle as you can see on the rest of my blog. last week I rode somewhere around 200 km in 7:30 hours over the 7 days. You can check my profile at +Strava add to this that lots of this cycling is done indoors using #gozwift.

And as you can see I am doing something that everyone can do.. it is a matter of options and will to chose the right path..

Now what way are you going to go? 

Is up to you. And you only..!

Thanks for reading and see you at the next post or update.

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy

Set back or more muscle?

Today after a week or so was time to weight myself and see if there was any improvements on my battle against the extra kilos... And to my surprise the numbers on the evil machine said something I didn't like.. 97 kilos..!? 

Is not all that much of a set back but still.. I wanted to be closer to 96 even this week and no the next number up..

But why this happened? I know if I have a week off where we fall out of track we all going to understand the weight gain, but I didn't..!!

I exercised... I watched what I ate every day... I made sure everything was wrote down to not have any excuses to actually gain any extra weight and even lose another 1/2 a kilo like I been doing..

Look at how many calories I took in:

 OK 2 days I forgot to write everything down but still I kept it around my intake.. Oh you are focusing on the red line and see I went over my normal.. Yes true.. But..

How many calories we burned?

So you can see the days I went over I also burned a lot..! The balance indicates that I kept ahead of the game every day..

So If this is correct.... Why an increase of the weight? Why a stop at dropping the weight? 

I even got complements from others asking me if I lost weight and how much was it..

Why the scale plays with out feelings like that? 

The possible answer?

Muscle gain?!

Is this the true behind the problem with the evil device? Or just a bunch of made up excuses that "professionals" give us when we can't get to our goals?

it sure is confusing and it also makes some sense that if you are eating right for most of the time... Working out and doing your homework the way it should this could not happen..!

According to +Strava I rode my bike for over 220 km last week... 

+MyFitnessPal said that I ate what I should 5 out of 7 days... (had 2 cheat days, also 100 km day on the bike the same day)

People that I know and see me says that I look better..

So can you tell me....

Why the scale stopped going down?

Pablo

The Canberra Report - West Kowen Forest

Mike from bike.sipols.com here with another Canberra Report. This time we are hitting the dirt in West Kowen Forest.

Two things hit me whenever I ride West Kowen:

1. I'm sure it wasn't this hilly last time!
2. I really should ride here more often.

West Kowen offers quite a different style of riding to its sibling East Kowen. East Kowen is a renowned singletrack racing mecca, which hosts the Mont and Kowalski Classic. West Kowen certainly can't compete for flowy singletrack. But what West Kowen has, is space. Its a great place to go exploring on the fire trails and is dotted with old singletracks from back before East Kowen existed. So today I went exploring up to the ACT Fire Observation Tower.

The easiest access point from Queanbeyan is through the Molonglo Gorge entry road. After hopping past the gate (no unauthorised motor vehicles or motor bikes allowed, but cyclists are free to go where they wish), you are presented with a steep paved climb, as a challenge to keep out the unworthy. This one peaks out at about 18%.


After that warmup, I followed my nose north, following fire trails through the pine forest.



It involved climbs so steep that at times I had to dismount and push, but the views from the top were worth it.



On the way back I rode some of the old beaten up singletrack and spotted a chance for some stumpsurfing. Hang ten!



The fire trails around here really give you a physical challenge. The forest skirts the northern end of the Tinderry range, and the fire trails have been built with no regard for gradient. Towards the end there were a few kangaroos around, particularly in the grassier areas around the old homestead.



Much like in East Kowen, I saw whole flocks of yellow-tailed black cockatoos enjoying the pine forest.



So in the end it was 840m of climbing for 37kms - see what I meant about climby rides earlier!

For more details and photos on West Kowen plus some archival singletrack, check out Canberra Bike Rides.

Gravel routes at Divis Mountain with the family

I had an awesome day outdoors with the family that started something like this:

Did you notice anything different on that picture? There is 2 bikes on the rack...!

Here is a pic of my riding partner and me... You can read and +Google Chrome the name of the place for our adventures for the day.
By the way Felix is learning how to ride.. (or was?)

I hit every available gravel route I could find up there... While Felix stayed on the pavement with the rest of the family..

Most of the routes head up from this point... They look something like this:

I was heading to the highest point of the ride.. Can you see the antenna?

Some trails lead to no where.. I had no choice but to turn around and take the views with me:

Believe it or not somewhere there was a trail....

Some of the local fauna came out to say hi... This little guy didn't want to move..

After a detour here and there I caught up with the family and Felix decided that the middle of the route was as good as anywhere else to take a break...

After talking to them for a few minutes I made a left turn and headed for the highest point of the ride.. You can look in +Strava  at the segment or the are in general... Cat 2 climb out of Belfast.

A mandatory picture at the top..

One thing that hit me when I was taking this pic of the little man was that most kids learn how to ride at the park, around the block or some quiet area.. My son? Naaahhhh...! On a hiking trail..! Muchos kudos to Katja for her patience (mommy)

Look at how happy he looks..! Awesome job little dude..!

Belfast back, down there...

And at the end climbing out of the park after like 3 hours of hiking, pushing walking and riding..

It was a great day out with the family..!

If you like this sort of report put this in your favorites and check it like once a week for updates with rides like this and all sort of stuff that I might come up with.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Pablo

The Weekend Report Guy