The goal for this week was to get over 7 hours on the bikes. This I did. With my 45 minute turbo sessions becoming more routine, a full there and back commute and a couple of local rides at the weekend it felt pretty easy.

Here is the question, was it worth it? According to the magic training load calculations in my SportTracks software possibly not, by the looks of it I was 20% down on last week. I did 4x5min intervals last week, this week I did 3x5min. It looks like the big Sunday ride last week then left me too tired to do a proper session on the Monday, in hindsight perhaps it would have been better to take a rest day.

The plan next week is to try and give each session a goal based on training load, and focus on improvement rather than just doing the time.

First Impressions: RockShox Reverb

After much debating I finally got my uppy downy seat post thing. The first big disappointment, was the remote handle bar lever cabling doesn’t fit the lugs provided on the tallboy, definitely on oversight from the boys at Santa Cruz to assume mechanical rather than hydraulic posts would be used. However once I got the zip ties sorted I was pleased to find the cable routing works well, and some of the negative comments about it catching on the back wheel appear unfounded.

I do find the fact you can’t spin the bike upside down, onto the seat and handlebars to remove wheels, without fear of breaking off the handlebar control rather annoying, but with a bit of care it doesn’t seem to be that bad.

However once out on the bike the infinite control you get with the Reverb is excellent, I’m so glad I didn’t go for fixed height posts, it is the ability to set the seat to the perfect position that makes all the difference.

While I did manually move my seat post around a lot on the Prophet, on the Tallboy, I have rarely even adjusted the height, and without a quick release clamp I never bothered to get a Allen key out to do it manually. So I’m well chuffed with this purchase, as even on the climbs I’m finding the ability to more the seat out the way a little is great for clearing things easier.

The real test will come in March when I return to Spain with Doug @BasqueMTB and do some proper technical riding.