rudi-h

That's a lot of training, it will take 3 to 6 months for your body to get used to that volume depending on what base you started from. I upped my training quite a bit earlier this year (April) and i've had the most successful training streak ever without any injuries, excessive fatigue or illness of late and my fitness is close to personal best levels with both running and cycling. I bought a garmin fenix watch and now train religiously with a HRM and also have a powermeter on my road bike. Because I have the HR and/or power data for every ride or run, I use Stravastix to track my fitness and form (Similar to what you get from Trainingpeaks - Stravastix is just free). I try to always stay in the "optimal zone" and I must say that helps a lot in terms of telling you how hard and long to train as well as when to rest, irrespective if it's running or cycling that you're doing.

I have the fenix 3 with the plastic / rubber strap. Terrible corrugated roads where I live and if set tight enough there's no issues wearing it even after many hours of very bumpy riding. I've been to Navworld (Strijdom Park) the other day to buy a footpod and they have an entire shelf with straps and accessories. Didn't check what it costs, but sure you'll find something there.

So this is quite long... excuse me I'm quite an analytic person and an engineer by profession, so my first priority in life is understanding stuff. My personality, interests and skill set also tends to make me sceptical of gimmicks or anything else that salespeople throw at me until such time that I can justify on a solid technical argument that there really is some tangible benefit. I'm also not into gadgets. Early in my sporting life (2005) I tried to understand a bit more about training. At the time I thought it essential to train with HR, so I bought and religiously trained with a HR monitor, did blood lactate and VO2 max tests and tried to understand the basics of nutrition, physiology and almost every other aspect of training. I got to a point where I thought I understood enough of all of that stuff that for the last ~5 years (after I lost my HR monitor while moving) I haven't bothered to even get as much as a speed sensor on my bike. I trained for and competed in almost all events imaginable from ironman races, 70.3's, xterra's, road races, MTB marathons, MTB & road stage races, enduro's and cycling the col's in the alps without even tracking my time or distance in any of these events, nevermind the nice-to-knows such as cadence, power, HR and all that other stuff. My reasoning was that after many years of learning my body and knowing my limits, I believed that I had learned the art of pacing myself in training and racing based on how I feel rather than what the numbers say. This belief that "I know it all" was further bolstered every time that I didn't do too bad in races compared to friends that often did way more training hours. and then... Two years ago I moved away from all my riding mates, so I bought a Wahoo Kickr; The reason wasn't primarily with power training in mind, but rather to "spice up" my indoor workouts, riding online against mates etc. I never got the connection to Zwift or Virtual Training working (my laptop doesn't support the correct type of bluetooth and I never bothered to buy an ANT+ or Bluetooth dongle), and Kinomap was quite a let-down, so I ended up just riding self-made intervals while listening to music on the odd occasion that I used the indoor trainer. End of last year, I really wondered how I was doing compared to past years as I prepped for 94.7. I built up quite a number of mini "tests" over the years to see how I go, i.e. ride a timed run of the Suikerbosrand loop a few weeks prior to the race which would give me an idea of my form etc., but now living somewhere distant I didn't have any reference anymore. That got me curious... What are my power numbers, what intervals do I need to push to simulate the hard efforts along the M1, Jan Smuts, Witkoppen or Cedar road? In my mind there was only one solution to this problem. Get a PM and ride / race for a while without looking at the numbers, just download the files and use it for reference later. I would then at least be able to measure my performance year-on-year so that I can compare the efforts I need to simulate during my Kickr workouts. However, I could not justify to myself spending the ~R20k on a power meter and a gamin without the need to do some homework, hence I bought the bought the book that many folks have suggested in this thread: "training and racing with a power meter", and for someone who claimed to know something about structured and scientific training, I was quite surprised about what you can learn when looking at your power numbers and how to make those numbers work for you. Essentially training has now become one big game of experiments and challenges rather than just the 4 - 8 mostly pleasurable hours that I routinely spent on my bike or in running shoes almost every week for the last 10 years. Solo training rides are no longer just boring hours in the saddle and I can hardly wait to get home to check the numbers. I'm no longer disappointed if I have a poor average speed on a windy day and the last 20km of my ride I'm already getting curious about my TSS scores, chronic training load and all those other nerdy stats that wait for me when I get home. On the practical side, I used to hate riding into the wind, however now the treacherous drag back home against a head-wind became a game against the numbers and I'm almost excited to hit this stretch of road fighting to keep the power higher than last time. Knowing my TSS scores for the week makes me feel good about going into a well-deserved rest day, where previously I used to feel guilty for slacking off... Anyway, decide for yourself whether it is worthwhile because a PM is a lot of money no matter how you look at it or which model you buy, but at least try and read the book (even if you don't intend to buy a PM). For someone that enjoys the nerdy side of life, the PM really makes a difference in my world and I have a revived excitement about the sport in general. I'll check in at the end of the year to give an idea of how much the PM has improved my cycling. My best pre-powermeter 94.7 was 2h47 from D, so let's see how 2017 goes!

this is like fighting against 29'ers in 2008... like it or not, in 10 years from now there will be e-bikes all over our trails, in the CTCT, marathon races, enduro races and everywhere else you look. I won't ever own one, but it will still be all around us me thinks.. Is it bad? I don't know, more riders on our trails means safer trails and more riders also bring more trails. Just maybe, because e-MTB's are typically plus sized 160mm trail machines, we might even see an increase and gnarly stuff cause the e-bike brigade might be more inclined than the hard core marathoners to ride jumps etc. as they won't be as fixated with Strava KOM's. Let them come. If it's shyte, the e-bike boom will slow down, but who knows it might just get better

let people be... i don't always wear a helmet, cause sometimes on a sunday afternoon cruise i feel like the wind in my hair. Then i don't take risks, ride quiet roads and i leave my enduro pants home. if i ride to train, race or practice tricks then i'd go all the way up to full face depending on what's on the menu. may common sense and freedom of choice prevail (ps common sense seems to be that thing that isn't quite as common as we think)

and my backyard on the limpopo bank... (still motorolla g3) edits and filters with google photo

some panoramic shots from the col's in France (motorolla g3) alpe d'Huez col d'Izoard col d'Izoard col d'Izoard mont ventoux col de la bonette col de la criox de fer

its perfectly safe from a crime point of view on any weekend day, any time of year. from a traffic point of view, I try to avoid the stretch on Beyers Naude as much as possible. Something country, lion park, caves, malibongwe and if you want back up sattelite hill... you can easily stitch anything from 30km to 100km together by staying on those roads.

from my point of view D and E are the best bunches in the entire field for a sub 3. I haven't pulled the stats recently, but these two bunches are massive, normally around 480 riders strong (compared to A, B and C that are <150) and roughly half of the bunch will break 3 hours. This means that the front half of the group will carry you to a sub3. The first hill will be hard, but hang in there its only 5 minutes of effort. Then its smooth sailing until heartbreak hill. hang in there. Kyalami is new, but I suspect it will be hard up the mineshaft. That's only a 2 min effort, so hang in there. At woodmead you'll know whether your bunch is too fast or too slow to last for the next 2h30. Fall back if you need to and re-coup your energy on the M1 up until corlett dr. The hill on the M1 starting at 11th avenue passing the s-bend and the zoo will be hard but hang in there. After that you'll be awarded with a good rest until the bottom of Conrad drive. From witkoppen on things start to get a bit more scattered. Find the wheels that you can match and make sure not to lose contact. You don't want to be isolated on Malibongwe or the stretch going from the lion park down to the bottom of Cedar rd. From cedar rd there's no more structure so stick to your own and just give it horns for those last 3 lil hills.

from E batch a sub 3 is easy, the top guys in the bunch will do 2h40. You'll be better off just riding in the bunch than trying to work at it with a handful of guys that you might meet on the hub. Start at the front 15% of the bunch and stay there.

whaaat???

quite informative... I'll try the lower service every 6 months or so but what about shocks?? How easy is it to pull a shock apart for a DIY service?

Try the little goo bottles or the USN version coming in toothpaste tubes. Both of these have lids / caps, so you can close it up and put it back in your pocket without getting sticky. Gel sachets are the worst design imaginable and the litter of these silly packets are all over every bike path and run route everywhere.

wrong time of year... March is prep time for Flanders

Can't really say whether it makes a difference or not, because I don't have one on the bike. I do train with a kickr, so have a good record of my efforts during training, but I'm not sure if there's a imaginary ceiling that are driven by numbers and perceived effort while riding in your living room... So the reason why I'm thinking of getting a PM on my road bike is to see how my racing efforts compare to training. I am inclined to think that in a race situation you might surprise yourself and increase your watt output with 10-%20%... hoping that if this is the case that it motivates you to hit the same targets in training?

it's always been a harsh route littered with rocks and sand, don't think they ever advertised it to be compacted flowy singletrack with berms and scaffolding bridges over the rough bits.. if you honestly don't like being out there on your bike in the heart of the magaliesberg on a marked route with water points and some company, then i don't think it's the course designers fault...

a rad bike like this deserves flat pedals and 2.3" wheels...

that's why it closed down in the first place... apparently the water supply tender went tits up and they were concerned about running a park without any water. Best way to deal with Suikerbostand it is to take your own water and to not rely on using their toilets as far possible. At best the facilities are a bit siff. One can pretty much just rely on the road being there for now. with zero maintenance the road won't be there in 10 years similar to most other roads in SA, but that's 10 years from now's problem

future life takes 80 seconds and requires an egg beater... want dit maak klonte!

if you just changed the order to instant oats, weetbix and pro-nutro, this would have been my all-time list of worst tasting foods. the Bomb mixture in my books is more like bacon / boerewors / steak, eggs, a crossaint and a good cup of coffee...

i hate pro-nutro, BUT it's the only real 70 second breakfast out there and arguably the fastest possible way to put calories into your stomach when you overslept... - take a box of pro-nutro and a beer mug from the cuboard - 10 seconds - take a box of milk from the fridge - 10 seconds - fill 1/3 of your beer mug (500ml) with pro nutro - 5 seconds - fill the remainder of your beer mug with milk and stir lightly - 10 seconds - down the content, preferrably without trying to taste anything - 5 seconds (that's why it's a beer mug, your varsity practice of boat races should kick in making it possible to down faster than from any other cup or glass! - rinse your cup - 10 seconds - return milk to the fridge - 10 seconds - return pro-nutro box to the cuboard - 10 seconds when you don't need an "emergency breakfast", you can also use it as an "oil spill" kit in your garage when your car develops an oil leak. the packaging is much neater than a bag of sawdust...

so it's an innovation award... cool looking bike, but I wonder what gave it the edge in terms of innovation? materials / geometry, does anybody know?

makes sense to me. there is zero benefit in XTR over XT other than to try and impress people with your cash, however more expensive forks are better than cheaper forks, so IMO it's clever spending of money. As an example, all else being the same, i'll take a SLX bike with a RS Pike over the same bike kitted with XTR and a Fox 32mm / RS revleation fork any day!

not the point and this should never be about the money. one animal dying from a goo packet is one too many. for that matter, seeing one goo gel lying in a field is one too many... there is no excuse or justification for littering, ever.

Did my first ftp test on the kickr today... It's a big-boy workout, couldn't climb the damn steps to my room afterwards. Managed 306 W for 20 mins, which then translates to a 291 W FTP if I got that right. At 87 kgs that gives me 3.3 W/kg