Sidelined

I'm pretty sure that the last post I wrote was a whole pile of moaning about how I've not been comfortable riding the bike. Little did I realise how much more that was to become. I never thought I'd be an athlete, doing those things that athletes do, like stretching, and eating exercise food, drinking protein powder - and I certainly never thought I'd be seeing a sports doctor to get steroid injections to address physical injuries arising from the stress of what I've been putting myself through. Around 300 days ago (not that I'm counting)...

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27 Jul 2016 bike fit , enduro , injuries , physio , progress , resting , sanity , thoughts No comments

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Free your mind

I don't ride with others as often as I would like to think I should. My commute is fairly solitary with the occasional ad hoc bunch forming, although I've noticed that people are generally happy to go their own pace when commuting, probably because they are all going to different places so are burning fuel at different rates. As I am often adding in extra hills on the commute - a grand departure from my original fear of not riding straight to work - it makes it hard to organise anything with anyone. Plus most of my friends are sensible...

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29 May 2016 bunch riding , commute , commuting , hills , Mind Games , sanity , The Rules , thoughts , training No comments

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You just go faster

The challenges I've been facing so far in my preparation for Taupo have been physical and, to a point, intellectual. Hills that never end. Headwinds that suck your soul and then demand more. Fridges that never hold enough food. Things that can be solved by observing our honourable Rule 5. I've also had to research into everything from bike fits, to components, to nutrition; filtering through endless opinions, points of views, advertising and, when it comes to nutrition; pop-science - debunked or otherwise. It's relatively hard gaff, can...

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26 May 2016 bike fit , commuting , enduro , family , Mind Games , personal trainer , progress , Rule 5 , sanity , The Rules , trainers , training No comments

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Bike Fit

Cycling isn't inherently comfortable. There are so many things that can hurt when riding, and as one accumulates years, so one accumulates... 'aches and pains'. But there is pain, and then there is pain. (There is also the other pain - the feeling of parts of your body that have had their structural integrity compromised... but I think our imaginations have this one covered, and I'm going to leave this one out so I don't tempt fate.) There is what I would consider to be fairly normal pain. The post-training-week bruised feeling of thighs that...

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20 Apr 2016 bike fit , cleats , crank , gearing , gears , hills , Kiwivelo , mechanics , Rule 5 , saddle , stem , The Rules , trainers No comments

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Itchy Legs

It's hard being off the bike. At first I felt great, like my legs just got to the weekend and don't have to get up in the morning. Nice and relaxed and, well... lazy. But then my legs start to itch. This week I've been sick. It's just a cold, a tickle at the back of my throat and a snuffly nose. I can't breathe properly and I've been feeling pretty rotten, so that means time off the bike to ensure I don't wear myself out and make it all worse. When you ride 14+ hours a week it takes up a certain amount of time, including the extra time outside...

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11 Apr 2016 commute , maintenance , personal trainer , resting , Scott , thoughts No comments

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No surprises

I went for a mountain bike ride on the weekend. I love my mountain bike. It's a Giant XTC, a bit more cross-country than the full-suspension bikes that my riding buddies are all throwing around, but from my experience it's about the closest thing that you can get to a BMX and still be riding a mountain bike. A sweet, sweet ride. Even though it was technically a training ride I didn't see the problem with inviting a few extra people along, so The Lawyer and I started off with a nice ride down the Hutt River Trail to get warmed up, before heading...

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28 Mar 2016 ECNZ , enduro , family , hills , maintenance , mountain biking , thoughts , time , Wainui , Wainui Trail Project 1 comment

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Keeping it ticking over

It seems to be the month for it! 3000km have come and gone since I purchased my bike and it's time for some scheduled maintenance. I'm relatively happy about this. It's not going to be overly cheap, but apparently this isn't a cheap hobby (although a quick Google for 'expensive hobbies' returns plenty of lists which 'cycling' is not mentioned in. Perhaps I should take up Aviation?) Throughout the rigmarole with the strange noises coming from my bike I've become more conscious about the wear and tear on the bike. The idea of losing brakes,...

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21 Mar 2016 fi'zi:k , Kiwivelo , maintenance , mechanics , noises , Shimano No comments

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Squeaky Noises

In the middle of the country there is very little noise. The wind in the trees, a babbling brook, the occasional farm-related animal sound far in the distance, and the peace only being broken by farming equipment trundling along. Cars occasionally whoosh by, but for the most part it's just the sound of heavy breathing, and rubber on tarmac. I love this landscape of sounds. It's peaceful. It's one of the reasons I am here. The sounds I am not expecting are from something on the bike going 'plink', 'plink'. Creaking noises. rattles. The...

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14 Mar 2016 Capital Cycles , Fulcrum , Kiwivelo , mechanics , noises , sanity , Shimano , wheels , wheelsets , Wheelworks No comments

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264 Days to Go

It's been a hard week. Not because I've actually done much, but what I have done has been hard. Heck, I was away for the weekend at the Otaki Kite Festival, didn't take my bike, and my legs were still hurting when I came back. My Top Secret Personal Trainer has me climbing hills on the way to work most days, and I'm pegged to go out for 2-4 hour rides each day on the weekends. My week-day morning rides conveniently extend my commutes so I can spend time with the family in the evenings. These rides are all about detours; and all of those detours...

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7 Mar 2016 commute , commuting , hills , progress , thoughts , training No comments

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Personal Trainers are Go!

One of the items in my List of Many Things is getting some input from a personal trainer. I wanted to get some input from a person who knew about riding bikes and had some experience in getting ready for races. I also wanted to get fit without becoming poor, so I was willing to prepare my own training plan as long as I had a bit of input from someone who could point me in the right direction. I had a look around the net at the local trainers, quickly realising that I'd have to meet with each before I could make a decision. I read Josh Kench's...

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29 Feb 2016 personal trainer , trainers , training No comments

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Why am I doing this?

The Taupo Challenge is a prestigious event, and I've never ridden a lap. I have many friends who have done it. The stories they tell are of success, failure, pride, fear and grit. A friend of mine bent his dérailleur hanger and walked half the course in his cycling shoes. I remember driving through the steams of cyclists when I was younger, my father cursing gently at the delays, while I was wondering how anyone could actually ride around the whole lake. As I came to understand the distances involved I still couldn't understand 160km at high...

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24 Feb 2016 bunch riding , enduro , Intro , solo , thoughts No comments

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