Been out for a while

Compliments to all for the new season and trust that everyone is doing well.

I am ashamed to admit that I have been out of the cycling scene for the better part of a year now. I have been hindered by the overwhelming pressure at work and the occasional illness. To make it more interesting the work started affecting my personal life and the cycling had to go on a back burner for a bit.

These are some of the challenges we face in a world driven by money and success. I take my hat of to some people, that have a 7 to 5 job and still have the time for weekend sports and family. On the other end of the scale you have people that work 8 to 4 and even have time for a cycle after work, I on the other hand, missed that job interview. Needless to say we have to make time for exercise or blowing off steam in our busy lives.

A good friend of mine is a avid mountain biker, this guy will cycle before work and after work, if he was afforded the opportunity(with his new 29er), but as with many of us, he has to sacrifice some of his love for cycling, to family time and work.I can see the disappointment in his eyes, when he talks about it. I am sure many of you face the same dilemma.

We have to find a balance and I seem to have lost my ability to balance work, play and sleep. The guy who said that you must have 8 hours work, 8 hours play, 8 hours sleep, needs to be kicked in the teeth, because he obviously has not experienced the real world. I am not so good at maths, but on average(and this is me thumb sucking) per day, a person in Johannesburg spends 9 hours at work and 2 hours in traffic, which leaves 13 hours for family,sleep and play. I know I need at least 8 hours sleep to get me through the next day, which leaves me with 5 hours for exercise and family time. It sounds like allot, but break it down to cooking, bathing, conversation with spouses and the odd task around the house, you are not left with allot of time for yourself.

The point I am getting at is, that I only have weekends to really get in good training. I have to force myself to work less weekends and spend more time on the bike(note that this does not go down well with bosses). I have gone for three 50km rides in the last month and I am enjoying it again. I am trying to get the balance going again and making so "me time", everyone needs some "me time". The Ride for Sight cycle race is coming up next weekend, I am not as prepared as I was last year, but I am hoping for a decent time. I am also hoping that I can keep the momentum going trough the year, as I am going for a decent time at the Momentum 94.7 cycle challenge. I enjoy recreational cycling and I know that many of you share my sentiment. I hope that many of you have found your balance and I would like to hear how you have sustained it. I just hope that I can find the balance and sustain it when I start having kids(which is not going to start soon).

My next challenge is to join the mountain biking scene, but that's a whole new can of beans, that will be opened another time.

See you on the roads.

Bike service

Just got my bike from a good old major service. It is really amazing what a difference it makes just to realign the whole group set, grease a few bearings and have a clean bike to ride with. It is so smooth and quite, it just makes me want to get on it and go for a good long ride.

I am just wondering how often people service their bikes. The way I look at it, one should get the bike serviced every 200km or so. As I have seen that after about 200km the chain gets sticky and noisy from all the gunk stuck to it. The gear change are getting jerky and just doesn't feel as smooth in general. But there is a catch to this, my service wasn't exactly cheap. It cost me R800 for a major service and replacement of a cable housing, so servicing your bike every 200km or so can become expensive.

Only thing to do then is do some minor service checks by yourself. Try and clean the chain, cassette and crank set from gunk and re lube, always lube up. This way it might extend the service intervals.

Remember a clean bike is a fast and smooth bike.

Ride for sight

I went for a charity ride yesterday, called RIDE FOR SIGHT. All proceeds go towards research for treatment of retinal blindness.  Although I was feeling a little under the weather from having the flu for the past two weeks, I bit the bullet and went for it. I haven't done allot of exercise due to being ill for some time so obviously I wasn't expecting to have a very good race. I followed just a few of the light training programs for a few days, four days split up between the two weeks to be exact. It was remarkable to see from the little training I have done to how good my pace was yesterday. Although I only did a 40 mile race I still finished in 1 hour 50 minutes. I can just imagine how my pace would have been if I stuck to the full program.

I really fellt great apart from my chest burning a little but thats obviously the flu. I am pretty sure if I was 100% my finish time would have been much better.

Glad the race turned out well, was very well organised and thanks to all the marshall and race organisers for a very good race day. There was alot of people supporting the cause as well.

Cant wait for next years race I will then do the 75 mile race/ride.

Start Cycling Today



At the finish of my first major race.



                                                                   

      

We all know exercise can be tedious and un-exiting, whether you are an active sports person or like me, just a recreational sports person. I myself find it difficult to go to gym or even jogging around the block, because there is never enough time for full on training programs in our busy lives. I don’t like it purely because it’s not fun, there’s no scenery and people do not really strike up a conversation with each other, when exercising.   

A work colleague introduced me to the world of cycling, I thought to myself that this will be another endless money pit and then I will outgrow it quickly, but I was in for a surprise.

I borrowed a bicycle from someone to go for a few rides on weekends and to my surprise I kind of enjoyed it. It was not as tiring as running, not as boring as a gym full of sweaty people trying to get fit and it was easy, really easy. I noticed scenery that I never noticed before. Needles to say I now am an avid cyclist, doing cycle races every other weekend.

I am by no means very competitive, I do it to push myself to new boundaries. So I started looking into the cycling world and found many articles of self helps to improve your cycling times, what to eat, how to set up your bicycle and what bicycle to buy. All this got me confused and frustrated because all differed in some way.

I started trying a lot advice I got from e-books I purchased, some worked and some didn’t, some even made riding my bicycle very uncomfortable. After quite a few hits and misses, I came across a new way of thinking about cycling. It is not all about what bicycle you have, what diet you are on and how much you cycle. Sure all of that can play a part in making you a better rider but the best way I found was to RIDE SMARTER not more.  My cycling performance increased dramatically when I started to understand that on bike training, is just as important as off the bike training.

So I went from just doing it to stay fit, to having fun and being not half bad at it. All this because of  easy to follow cycling training programs that has changed the way I cycle completely. I am not the only one that discovered these great programs:

These programs have produced:

•Selection for two Olympic Games

•Three Commonwealth Games (3 medals)

•Selection for Eight World Championships

•Winners of 8 National titles

•Holders of 18 National Records

•24 National Championship Medals

•Competition in 24 World Cup Events

•15 years of Professional Racing

•Coaching of the Australian National Team

I tried it because there is no risk. I felt like these programs were designed specifically for my busy lifestyle and needs. I am confident that it will do the same for you. Click here to see what I am on about and start riding smarter and faster.

If that is too hard core, you are a recreational cyclist and want to stay one, have a look at these as well. These training programs will make it an even more pleasurable experience, without the extensive training hours.  It worked for me, it will definitely work for you.

See you on the road.