OK, that sounds a bit harsh but it’s the general feeling around these parts.

Reading the journal of Mr. Pizzaz, I got to thinking that a diary from the point of view of someone trying to actually get back on the bike, might make an accessible read some out there could relate to. Who knows, it might even inspire one or two of you… or motivate myself. Read the rest of this entry »

So the programme has been going along ok for a few weeks now. Time for a bit of a progress update.

To date I’ve been focusing on two things. Loosing bulk (from me!) and lifting my lactic threshold. So firstly, the easy thing to quantify… the bulk bit. Since changing to a reduced carb diet, so far I’ve lost about 2.8kg in 3 weeks or so. J so this takes me back under 90kg for the first time in about 7 years or so. Putting this in perspective, that’s better than the weight difference I lost when I upgraded from my Prophet to my ASR! Considerably cheaper to do as well… Read the rest of this entry »

Well, its time to get serious… well, sort of serious… ok not as slack as I have been!

I’ve been riding since about 2001 and really started to get into racing in 2005 – my first race was the 2005 NZo 12hr. A mate and I foolishly decided to race as a pair (how hard could it be?) of course he subsequently fell off and broke his hand on his first lap and I decided to continue on as a solo. After a world of pain for the next 9 hours or so I was hooked on this silly sport of endurance racing. Read the rest of this entry »

Based on the feedback I’d gotten about my power output and weight <MP – I can’t find my last post to link to it… >, looks like the thing that I need to work on is improving my power to weight ratio and my lactic acid threshold.

Ok, firstly power to weight… this is the ‘simple’ bit. Two things I can do here, (a) increase power or (b) decrease weight. Now both of these are going to be good but I thought that I’d get serious about tackling the weight thing and see someone about what I should be doing (who’da thunk that learning to eat would be so difficult?). Read the rest of this entry »

‘Welcome to the dark side’ were the thoughts that went through my head as I opened the box and pulled out the road bike. It seems I had turned my back on my mountain bike and bought a road bike, svelte and fast. Evil, pure evil. At the end of the day though, with me riding all but one ride a week on the road it was an inevitable purchase. Read the rest of this entry »