Gaining power!
Ending the season early has turned my everyday up and down. Training is held on a minimum, apx 3-4 days on the bike per week. I’ve now started powertraining in the gym, 2-3 times a week I am doing some wheigt lifting, it feels a kind of good to do something else, and it has a great effect on the looks of my body as well! But it is not only for the looks, there is actually a bigger masterplan. It is 2 years since I’ve done wheigtlifting, I stopped doing it to loose some wheigt on my upper body. I have lost a little, but nothing compared to the power I have lost. So now I will try to re-gain some of my musclepower over winter. I have decided not to fight against my body, in the last couple of years I’ve tried to turn my power-rider body into a mountain-gazelle, without luck, so now I am giving in, and giving it all powertraining-stimulation it wants, and then see how I will benefit from it. I am looking forward.
marselisborg mtb marathon, and some party…
Tresist the o make a short story even shorter, I could’nt resist the opportunity to do a small marathonrace, held on some of the most beautifull trails of Denmark. I actually went there to do some good trailriding, but suddenly I found myself alone in the front with “very strong man” Henrik Andersen, this guy is what we call a “diesel engine”, so he did some serious pulling that took its toll on me, so when he suffered from chainproblems I had to go for it, and took victory in a discipline that i normally don’t favour too much. In the evening I wen’t to The Red Baron’s 30 years birthdayparty, it was even harder than racing! People who knows this guy, knows that he is the man for throwing a party, so he did, and basicly everybody from the danish cycling society where there. Now I am really recovering on the couch…
Progress
Riding my bike haven’t been that joyfull the lately, but now there is a sudden but small change. The medicine that I’ve got i starting to work, meaning that breathing comes more easy. So a couple of days ago I decided to try some hard training, and it felt real hard, but in the right way! In training there is good and bad pain. The bad one is when your legs are heavy, acid comes with a mnimum of effort and/or breathing is is difficult. Good pain is when the legs runs like drumsticks, and you are able to continue with a burning feel in the muscles… Well, the last couple of days my muscles where burning.
Even my trainer would have been proud, because I managed not to kill myself in the euphory of good legs. Maybe that is is the benefit of getting older? Another benefit is that I was able to do the same program, with the same feeling the day after. Ok, downside is that I got to realize that I’ve lost apx 10% of my normal poweroutput, but hey, that can’t really put a damper on my joy, cause that’s trainalble…
vicious rumours not true!
It has come to my attention that there are vicious rumours circulating about Pronghorn being in financial trouble and close to bankruptcy. This is absolutely NOT true.
It is true that we have decided to discontinue Team Pronghorn Racing in 2010. This is not a financial decision but a decision made to follow up on our success for 2009, where our expansion into new markets has exceeded all our expectations. Instead of having our own team racing in Denmark and Germany, we have decided to support more teams as a frame sponsor in our main markets such as Germany, UK, USA and Italy.
The fact is that our sales are growing month by month and that we have full support from our investors. Pronghorn Racing will be in the market for many years to come and we’re proud of what we have achieved so far, especially as we have only been in business for 1 year.
Not only will we open new markets for 2010 but also launch new products for 2010 and 2011.
You are more than welcome to contact me or Asger (also a Pronghorn Racing shareholder) if you have any questions.
Kenneth: kd@pronghornracing.com
Asger: at@minerva.dk
br
Kenneth
CEO
Burnout
Burnout is normally something good, that happens in an old car… but after, or rather at, the world championships I felt a physical, and a mental burnout. The worlds was just the culmination of a season plagued by accidents and sickness. I started the race out pretty defensive, and as I started to move forward I suffered survere mechanical problems, and had to abandon the race. I was really at the bottom. I have now decided to end the season now, it dos’nt make sense to continiue on getting frustrated every weekend. I need some time of to clear my mind, and the make some serious training for the 2010 season. I then visited my doctor to get some answers on why I am feeling so damn tired all the time, and why I suffer from heavy legs all the time, it shows that my lunf-infection has turned into astma, so it might not be the worlds biggest wonder that racing on top-level felt a kind of hard. I will get some medicine that should cure the problem be the end of december….
world championship setup
Different course, different setup. Normally I don’t change the setup of my bike very much, maybe changing tyres and some minor tuning on the damping system. This course is very different from other courses, meaning there there is potentially a lot of time to win by making a good setup. I’ve been training on the course here for a couple of days now, and has now feound and chosen the setup I believe in. Tyre pressure was raised by 0,4 bar front and rear to make sure that the tyres stays on the rims in the tight berms and on the jumps. The bigger pressure also gives me some snakebite protection on the very rocky and hard parts of the course. This of course has an negative effect on the rolling performance. The setup on the rear damper is a little slower rebound and a little less air pressure than normal, this makes the frame more forgiving, and makes the steeringangle a little slacker, wich helps me on the steep and rocky sections. The front suspension has a little harter setup than normal, making sure that the fork dos’nt sag too much under hard braking, as well as bottoming out on the jumps. Rebound is made slower as well. I have also mounted a low-rise bar, with some more backsweep, this gives a little more control as well.
Normally I am happy with riding a 2×9 setup (30-42) but this course has a pretty steep part where I need a lower gear ratio, so I have added an extra 24t chainring. The 30t is swopped to a 32 which I will use on the rocky uphill stuff, so for the world champs the ratio is 24-32-42.
Going to Australia
Phew! a race season can soon be over. Right now I am in Canberra Australia for the world champinships. It is my first time in Australia, so I have got a lot of new impressions. The wheather is a lot colder that expected, it is almost winter here. Another thing is the population here, they are really different from other people, the friendlyness and relaxed style of these people are amazing, and I have got the impression that it is not only skin-deep.
First day of training on the course went well, the track is a kind of singletrack heaven, it is really fun to ride, the downside is that it is almost impossible to overtake (or get overtaken) on this track. The nature surrounding the course is amazing as well, mountains, and blue sky (due to the thin ozonlayer here….) is just a romantic background for racing, I even saw a kangaroo-family crossing the course today…
Australia is pretty far from my home in Denmark, and British Airways have’nt managed to get my luggage here, though they had no problem charging us big-time for overwheight! Well, thats life….