It's still cold out!

I was having a good few weeks around Chrismas when the weather was
very cold, the trails were dry and I was getting a good ride in most
days. I was working on specific skills at set points along my route
and felt that I had made some real progress.

The steep hills through the forest and around the Peak District were
great for transferring my gym strength to longer muscular endurance
sessions, so I was on track to reach my preparation period goals.

That was until I found myself stuck in the apartment dealing with a
high coaching workload, writing plans and analysing power data. Not
only that I had to sort out the new team bikes, and wait for the mail
man.

On top of all that it's been snowing on and off for quite a few days
now, and the trails have become like a ski piste with deep snow that
makes pedalling real hard work, if you can get any traction at all.

The picture attached is the turn of to Charity Lane at the opposite
end to Forest Chapel. The whole lane is a 6 feet tall drift, I haven't
seen this sort of snow up here since the late eighties.

And as for the new Scalpel, I'm still sorting the steering out to get
the right reach without slowing the steering down too much. Some
aspects of the bike I like are the nibleness with which it climbs and
how well balanced the bike is on those steep climbs. I'm learning
about the lefty set up and may need to change the factory fitted
negative spring as I'm under 80 kg now and the spring fitted to my XL
Scalpel is for an 88 kg + rider. One aspect of the bike that I will
have to change is the 175 cranks, I've been on 180's for years now and
anything less feels like riding a kids bike. It's a shame as I'll have
to take the Cannondale BB30 SI cranks off which are über light, stiff
and look fantastic.