The TCR

So as promised here are some pics and info about my race bike, the one I am using tomorrow for my 35 mile pointless road race. I will get to why it is pointless in another post but for now well shall concentrate on the TCR.



Sorry to break this one to you ladies it is only the TCR Composite which means it is the cheaper one, unfortunately I cannot justify buying a TCR Advanced just yet as I stick by the rule Race what you can afford to replace! That's something I was taught by one of my best mates...!

When I first bought the bike it came with Shimano 105 and then I bought another frame (the Forme which you have already seen) and put the 105 on that and brand new Ultegra on this.
I will be doing a post on 105 and Ultegra comparison later in the week, so watch out for that!

Here is the front brake calliper with some nasty cheap carbon brake pads in it! Do NOT trust eBay for brake pads! I have failed every time! These things barely stop the wheel and the reason why I keep them in is because they are wearing down quick and it would be a waste of £13, I know I should stop being so tight and buy better ones!

This is the lovely bike its self! As explained already it has Ultegra throughout and FSA wheels with Vittoria Corsa CR Tubs. This is a Schweet bike and really light too at 7.6Kg. I have just realised 

that spacers have not been taken out from the last time I rode it ( I was recovering from a crash and raised the 

stem to suit injuries). Basically I broke my collarbone and couldn't reach down properly to ride, this was ages 

ago so no excuse to still have it like this...!

  

Ooops haven't posted for a while

Hi guys, sorry it has been 9 days since my last post. The weather is still no better by the way! So why has it been 9 days? Well short answer is training basically combined with being pretty tired afterwards, ZOMBIE MODE!

My training load is quite high at the minute so I am probably suffering a little bit with over training seeing as yesterday I had blocked sinuses (start of a cold) etc... This is a big sign of over training for me along with feeling down etc... Seeing as I do feel like over training is the issue here I will cut my training down a little, probably put in a second rest day or something.

So what has happened in 9 days?

Well training, training and you guessed it! More training!!! Obviously I have had to clean my bike quite a lot as well because I live in the middle of nowhere, which basically means in the UK that you live in the middle of a bunch of fields with roads going through them. 

I actually have my first road race tomorrow as well which I am pretty excited about :D Its only 35 miles which means it will be less that 1hr 30. This is great news for me because I am well suited to shorter distances at faster paces. I am not actually that sure about how well I will do in the race seeing as I have been putting all my training time in to endurance and not going quick for short times. However I am naturally suited to explosive efforts so I should do ok I guess.

Above is a photo of some sheep... I don't honestly know why I am adding this but you can see the types of roads I train down. I also learnt down this road that my sheep scaring sound, sounds like a duck quacking!  Yep... I road down this road quacking like a duck to scare the sheep so I didn't hit them! That being said, I find this act far less embarrassing than people asking me "Mike, how did you break your collarbone?" - Response - "Ah, well... Erm, yer!".

Boi OOOOOH Boi Things I missed today

WOW how I missed these bad boys today. For those of you who don't know what these are these are SealSkinz as written on the glove to the right there >

Now these bad boys + hat will keep you warm in disgustingly cold temperatures, I have worn these in -10C and I have been sweating on a gentle ride!!! The key thing they have going for them is they both have Primaloft insulation... I don't know in all fairness what the hell Primaloft is but I know one thing!!! Its is lovely and warm!



Now I left my front door in the UK Lincolnshire today expecting to do a lovely ride (without my lobster gloves)   and still be lovely and warm. What happens! It rains! Now in all fairness a little rain I expected but not as much as I got and also the temp dropped really low too!

As I came up to this corner I got the shock of my life, these Fords are not normally into the grass, they are normally a little pathetic puddle in the middle of the road. When I got to this Ford I was coming towards the camera I did not have this view. Here is how I got to the other side!

Lucky me there is a pathway there :D   The Pathway was great new BUT! what you can't see from here is the OVERSHOE penetrating, sock filling, flooded mess patch of grass you have to walk on before you got to this god send of a pathway, TALK ABOUT ANNOYING! So I took this photo as I thought there is NO WAY IN HELL that I have just filled up my crappy Specialized shoes in FREEZING cold temperatures with 40Miles left to ride without getting a PHOTO and a story for the blog!

These are the gloves I chose to ware and I recommend them to NO ONE!

I know from previous experience that these gloves FAIL to work below 3C which is rubbish I bought them to replace my old BBB thick winter gloves and they were great (I have no photos but they were great). The temperature today was 4-5C maybe 6C I think and some light showers were expected but nothing serious. So I thought I would give the Lobster bad boys a miss and trust these bringers of cold! The temperature started well then started to drop a little, then the heavens opened and I froze to death for the remainder of the ride! OH CHIBA Gloves, is it time for the bin with you?!

Testing Microsoft Word Blog Post Up loader

Ok so I just found a cool feature of Ms Word 2007 which of course is the fact that it can upload to your blog...


So here goes – To see if it can :D


YEAAAAAAA!!!!! It WORKS!!! WOW like that feature V-much, so there you go you just have to create a new document and select blog post when given the option put in your BLOGGER passwords and user info JOBS A Frozen Monkey Pancake :D - OOOPS some weirdness spilled out there but I don't really care ha!

Size Matters

Ok so size matters, and not just the parts of the human body ;D

Why does size matter? What happens if I buy a bike too big or small? - If you have found yourself going for a bike with looks over practicality you are in good company! Loads of people do this and yes it is YOUR fault along with the person who SOLD you the bike, whether you like it or not that's the facts!

However if you are doing some research before buying a bike CONGRATULATIONS you are already smarter than most of the people you will be racing or commuting or sportive riding with!

If you buy a bike too BIG then you will need a shorter stem which will make the steering more twitchy and the pedals a bit if a stretch!

If you buy a bike too SMALL! Then you will need a longer stem which will take feeling and control away from the steering in the sharp corners! You will also need to jack the saddle so high you will look like you are riding a childs bike!



THE RIGHT SIZE! - If you buy a bike the right size you should;

1. Still be able to see the logo on the seat post
2. Have a stem between 100-110mm (General guidelines)
3. Where the saddle connect to the seat post it should be clamped in the middle
4. The bike should feel comfortable and put a tiny arch in your back when riding
5. Make sure you get the right crank lengths so that you can achieve optimal cadence and sustain it! Please use this website of guidelines - http://www.cptips.com/crnklth.htm

That is all I have for now I may come back and add to this but feel free to come to my blog and ask me questions on this in the comments.

I have also posted this at - http://followingthechainline.blogspot.co.uk/p/forum.html Here you will find topics and all sorts of cool things to talk about an ask questions about! I believe this forum has only just started but it looks really good already and has a lot of interesting topics for you guys to discuss.

Back to the Weight Thing - RANT

So as you may have read in the post previous to this one I think I am slightly light and at the same time I don't think I am light enough. I had a nasty reminder yesterday about my weight on a training run which is what prompted me to talk about my weight in yesterdays post. I BONKED/HIT THE WALL/ALMOST BLACKED OUT... What was even more worrying was it was not even a particularly long training ride or intensive to say the least!!!

There has to be a time in a racing cyclists life where they say AM I TOO LIGHT? If you ask your self this question then the answer is probably yes... The clue is the fact you asked your self a leading question!

3KG in one ride!

I can loose 3KG in weight in one ride... This is fine natural and normal. What isn't fine natural and normal is that I don't seem to be able to put the weight back on again! BIG PROBLEM! If you don't put the weight back on before your next session GUESS WHAT! YOUR BODY SHUTS DOWN! Unfortunately for me this happened on a relatively small training ride, but! I am experienced enough to know what happened and where I went wrong. Lots of you others aren't!!!

MY ADVICE - EAT MORE!!! GUESS WHAT MY ADVICE IS TO ME!??! - YOU GOT IT - EAT MORE!!!

What happens if I over-eat? - EAT LESS, get on those scales every morning and weigh your self. Get an idea of what weight is...! If you don't see your self going up and down in those pounds everyday then you will have no idea how much to EAT!!! COMMON MISTAKE!!!


OK so having successfully turned my weight issues into a RANT/Self help load! I think I will call it a night...

1. Told you I was weird!
2. Stay away from the cheeseburgers!
3.  Cycle and BE FREE!!!                 < "what a weirdo" "who says that on a blog!"

As Promised More about Me and Cycling

OK so on my bike I spend a huge amount of time in my head thinking about various things such as what my goals are in life and what my goals are with cycling...

THEY BOTH SEEM TO BE THE SAME THING... My life basically is cycling and I have only really realised this in the past year or so. Everything I do weather it is work, eating, sleeping or thinking dreaming etc, is all towards cycling. I don't even bother reading non cycling magazines or books anymore. EVERYTHING IS CYCLING, and CYCLING IS EVERYTHING TO ME!!! Take it away and there isn't much in the world.

OK so you have the view now that I have a pretty strong attraction/obsession towards the cycling life/sport, and obviously you are 100% correct. You are also probably thinking 'Damn why doesn't this dude get a girlfriend'. Well there is a simple answer to that as well, GIRLS DO NOT INTEREST ME! NO I AM NOT GAY! (I don't care about sexuality in others I just to care to be judged before I am known)

 At this point in my life I see girls as a 100% distraction from my sport, to the point where I CANNOT talk to a girl without thinking that if I asked her out on a date it would develop and distract me from cycling and I will miss my window to becoming something that I want to be - PRO.

I AM NOT A PRO CYCLIST yet, I don't think that I could be TOUR DE FRANCE good but I do think that I could be PRO based on what I have seen in racing so far. The trouble is with being Tour De France good is that it really does require that massive edge which I most definitely have physically (there is NO SHADOW OF A DOUBT in my mind about that). What I don't have is consistency to train, without consistency in the PRO cycling world you are and you have NOTHING! This is especially true in the Tour PRO's.


Well I shall stop rambling about training and consistency for now and ramble about something else... If you want to know more about training you will need to pick up a training book or watch some you tube videos and then pick up a book when you realise how useless MOST of the You Tube Vids are.


WHY DID YOU PICK CYCLING?

I picked cycling probably for the same reason many of you reading this blog have picked cycling, IT SET ME FREE.
Cycling literally set me free when I was younger. If my parents were pissing me off I would go hop on my little mountain bike for a blast round the village. If I wanted to go exploring then I would go off on my trusty steel steed (unfortunately I have no photos of me when I was younger or my bikes) but yer cycling did set me free.

Why is cycling so popular?

There are 3 things that I can think of here;

1. Cycling is awesome
2. LANCE ARMSTRONG
3. Childhood memories/buried feelings

There are a lot more than 3 things to be thought of when it comes to that question, and if your answer is "cycling is awesome" then that is awesome enough for me ;D

Me

Hi I am Mikey...

I weigh 57.5Kg and I am 5ft7" and I am a little weird


Me
I don't think I am particularly weird looking as you may get to see (photo maybe - if I feel brave one day) at some point during my posts. I just think that my personality can sometimes be a little off compared to others of my age group.

Weight
Now being a weight of 57kg at my height isn't particularly light for a cyclist if I am honest and if I am even more honest, it is just far to light for me... I need to be around 59Kg otherwise I tend to run out of energy on the longer training rides.

Coaching
So far this year I have not competed at all, I messed up the winter and didn't really train a whole lot and what little training I did do was all in level 1. However over the next 6-7 weeks I am in the process of playing catch up with the rest of my peers. I am already 4weeks into a training program (self prepared) - in other words I am a self coached cyclist. Being a self coached cyclist has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

• Understand the coaching your self
• Cut the risk of burnout
• Seeing as your the coach better communication between you and coach
• Both you and coach understand what you mean when you give an R.P.E figure (Rate of Perceived Exertion)
• If the info you consume is correct better quality of training when used properly

Disadvantages

• Seeing things from a cyclist and a coach point of view at the same time can be confusing
• Reading the coaching materials
• Understanding good and bad training

So obviously there is quite a mix of things there but if you work on the disadvantages and have a clear set of goals in your racing season then its really beneficial to coach your self.


Equipment
So this is my bike...

It has 105 throughout, Ultegra wheels and Schwalbe Blizzard tyres. The bike is by far the best training bike I have had to date or even ridden, and what is even better is I built her my self :D

Doo Notice how I said TRAINING BIKE this bike will not go round corners like my Giant TCR (photos to come) so I leave the Forme as my training bike and the TCR as my race bike.

BYE 4 NOW...

Anyways I am pretty much done talking about Me + Equipment tonight so I am gonna post this and get some sleep and hopefully during the day time tomorrow, post another that continues this post :D