My bike just earned its name.. "the tank"
 

Today my bike got a new name. "The Tank" on my successful sub 6 hour 160km run I met the largest nastiest dog you ever did see who wanted me for breakfast. In my attempts to avoid said Dog I ran right into a pile of steel tubing sending me and the bike into the pavement. Amazingly the ONLY thing that was damaged was... the placement of the controls on the handlebars! I just had to stop, rearrange them and off I went. I'm sure the Rockshox took a direct hit but those things are so solid all they sustained was a paint chip. :)

Oh yes... and I broke my personal record for 100 miles. 5 hours and 44 minutes :) So... Dog or no crash or no I still did it. :) 8 months of training was worth it. You can ride a sub six hour century ona 16kg mtb - it just takes a lot of training. On to next week and an attempt at 5:35 for the same.

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/lPSJI6OzeuY
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/sI1W77uHVl0

Congrads on a GREAT run!

That was pretty flat. Next week I need to commute 35km, Do another century twice as steep, then commute home again. Me thinks the averages won't be nearly as pretty.

Wow, a 15+ minute drop in time. You did well. Really well. Maybe the adrenalin rush from the crash was a contributor :D

I hope our discussions elsewhere helped.

I was also thinking during the week... do you do a warm up before starting these rides, or do you do what most of us do, start the clock at the first pedal stroke? A warm-up might be an effective way of putting the average speed up near you want right from the start.

But, of course, that thought is now redundant...

Now the next question -- what could you do right now on a road bike with drops and the bars four inches below the seat and 23C tyres????

A true record (IMHO) shows your sad slow starts as well. I push the go button on a 20 second timer and it starts at whatever speed I've reached in 20 seconds.

Upset my wife with another n+1?
Get a back ache?

I see the function of roadbikes, they are faster for sure. But, I can't ride a roadbike on the trail I just passed, the brakes don't work as well in the wet, it would probably be all bent if I crashed like today. I like my mtbs better. :) I think I'm just getting a little old to enjoy them. Oh yes.. the next time I see that dog get in my way it gets boot in the head. My body is stiff and sore all over thanks to it. Fortunately the bike took little damage. The brake caliper got a little misaligned when I checked, but a quick adjustment has set that to rights.

My bicycle name is F16 :)