Robert Lofthouse

Damn double posting ... not sure how that happened!!kingcompass2009-11-18 06:15:26

Does anyone have any links to resources which explain the theory, benefits, structures, concepts, etc of proper heart rate based training. For instance, I'm looking for information on 1) Accurately determining your zones. 2) What each zone means (eg, aerobic is where your body can efficiently metabolise energy for long periods of time based on oxygen intake, anaerobic is where your cardio-vascular system can no longer produce your body's energy requirement based on oxygen intake, at which point you start utilising more rapid burning fuel reserves, and so on) 2) What your body does in each of these zones 3) Why it's necessary to train in these respective zones 4) How does training in X zone enhance Y aspect of my cycling experience. I'm a bit of a pedantic prat sometimes, which means I like to find out a lot about things that I'm busy with. Normally out of idle curiosity, just to know why I'm doing something (like intervals), but sometimes (like this time) I like to be educated and understand because I can make better use of training techniques by knowing the WHY. Heck, if you have no links, but can directly answer me, then go ahead ... I'm not picky on that issue

First one in 2001, so 9 for me, although in 2006 I did it without a timing chip, and last year I did the MTB race instead. So, you draw your own conclusions as to whether I deserve the claim to all 9 or not.

Het die kat jou pantoffels OOK natgepis jou stoepit ienglieshmen....... of sukkel jy ook soos vuil ryer om iengliesh te lees. ? En ou dom coenie klap alweer sy handjies!!!!!!!!! There's a difference between reading a sentence and taking it at face value, and reading the same sentence in context and understanding the intended tone of the post. You seem to be the only one to take what was being said in a literal sense. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed to be able to read and understand the post in the manner and for the purpose it was intended. There was a group of riders riding together, they had stopped at a traffic light, a driver stopped at the same light and decided the cyclist were impeding his progress by also stopping. He acted like a big fat wally and hurt someone in the process. Now tell me BigH, I think some clarity is required here. You seem to be of the opinion that what the driver did was perfectly understandable. Is it your openly stated standpoint that what the driver did was justified and the blame should be laid upon the cyclist's shoulders? A simple yes or no will suffice here.

I've figured it out - BigH is really ... Julius Malema. Every time he opens his mouth, he spews forth something more idiotic and thoughtless than the time before. This time, some poor lady is knocked off her bicycle due to the bad behavior of a motorist, and the conclusion - it's the cyclist's fault. Amazing logic there Hennie, well done, you've surpassed yourself.

There's Johnson Cycles on the corner of 2nd Street and 8th Avenue (or is that 2nd and 7th, I forget). And then there's Tony Impey's in Bedford centre - not quite edenvale, but close enough.

I dunno FF, if the ride is "advertised" as 25 and they ride 30, and don't bother waiting for anyone who falls behind, that's bad form. The author doesn't mention anything about the speed of being mentioned, so I guess we can't say much from that perspective. I had an almost identical experience a few years back. I met the crowd that ride from VA in Bedfordview one Saturday morning. They said they'd be doing about 90kms at around 30km/h. Well, after doing 72kms in the first 2 hours (that's not 30km/h), I started falling behind on a gradual climb. I swear one of the group even looked back and saw me do this, but that was the last time I saw them. I was somewhere out past Bredel on the way to Irene, an area I knew very little about. I made my way back home, absolutely shattered (physically and emotionally, just like the writer of the article). I eventually did 114km, and after 36kph for the first 2 hours, I took another 3 hours to do the next 40kms. I learned afterwards that the group I was riding with (one of them had one of those Colnago Ferrari bikes) was notorious for not being very accommodating to outsiders. Oh well, live and learn. Lesson learned - ride with people you know, or know of. Unless, of course, you have the skill/ability to handle anything that gets dished out to you.

Oh man, you have NO idea how much I enjoyed reading that Windbreaker... well said mate.kingcompass2009-10-23 02:42:36

So this time I decided to wait until I had a few weeks on the bike before announcing that I've ... well, gotten back on the bike. Now it's well and truly fact, I'm cycling again, and LOVING it (can't believe I've been slack for so long). A few things though that I was hoping you helpful bunch would be able to shed some light on. 1) I've developed a little pain in front of my right knee cap. Now, if I remember correctly, this is most likely related to saddle height. What I can't remember is, is my saddle too low or too high. 2) I'm struggling a bit with some chaff on my lilly-white butt and in the groin area. The age of my kit doesn't help that much, but until I can get some new bibs, does anyone have any advise as to what to treat it with. 3) I'm experiencing some nasty ghost-shifting on both my bikes (road and MTB), and changing gears often requires an extra push on the shifter, ie, 2 clicks for one change, and then a click back because now the derailleur is between gears. Now they have stood for quite some time, and my gut feel is that the cables have stretched as a result of the constant tension they've endured for that period of time. Can anyone confirm this, or should I be looking at rather ensuring the pivots and joints are correctly cleaned and lubed (or something similar). That's it for now, chat later. Cheers and Thanks in advance. KC.

Ag Hennie, I understand you haven't progressed past puberty, but we'd all greatly appreciate it if you stopped vomiting all over these forums, it's getting tedious. Grow up, will you! Of course, I fully expect the standard juvenile response from you, but perhaps you could at least try and offer something constructive instead of your childish little rantings!

Yeah, good point Big H ... an off-handed comment about already having run down 2 cyclists is most definitely cold hard fact. </sarcasm> So, who are these 2 that were so brutally run down, does anyone know them ... does anyone OF them ... hell, come to think of it, does anyone know if the claim is indeed true. I reckon the answer is NO to all 3 questions. So, until there is actually any truth to the claim (it seems he was just blowing off steam for one reason or other), it's probably best to not go and assume that everything you read on the internet is true, and not go and stir up all sorts of trouble based on hearsay. Buuut, then again, I guess it's already too late to request such levelheadedness, now is it!? If I take the way the lot of you (a few exceptions, of course) have behaved in this thread, is it so surprising that the residents of the Cradle area are so upset about the way cyclists behave on the roads? I don't think so, reading this thread makes it quite easy to understand the standpoint of those people. Hell, it makes it easy to understand the animosity of the public towards cyclists in general.

Great, thanks - I do vaguely remember being advised to go with Specialized when I was originally looking for shoes, having a broad foot to start with. Perhaps I should have heeded the advice back then, I might be in a better place right now :-P.

Wazzup all, I've been sidelined for an unacceptably long time, due mostly (but not entirely) to multiple, unrelenting attacks of gout in both my feet. It happens in either foot, sometimes in my toe, sometimes in my ankle, sometimes the joints across the top of my foot. Sometimes it happens in all of these at once, and the most recent attack happened in all three of these places ... in both feet. Now for those of you who have been unfortunate enough to suffer from gout at one point or other, you'll understand exactly the ordeal I've had to endure over the last 5 (now nearly 6) weeks of this most recent bout. As a result of these problems (or possibly it's even a cause of some of it, we're not quite sure), I have developed a rather nasty Bunion on my one foot. As the swelling is going down in my foot, it's presence is becoming more and more evident. On Saturday was the first time I was actually pain free for nearly 2 months and decided to spin the legs out around the block for a half an hour or so - that was when I realised the biggest problem yet - I can no longer put my shoe on. Both my MTB and road shoes are Shimanos, which are pretty narrow cut around the toe, and with the swelling my one foot simply doesn't go in (well, not without an intense amount of pain/discomfort). So, the question is - I need to get new shoes, which make should I be looking at which is more generously cut at the toe, as well as slightly higher cut over the instep. I"m not looking at riding super competitive, so super-duper lightweight, carbon what-not's are not what I'm after. Just something reasonably priced and comfortable. Sorry for the loooong (possibly boring) precursor to the question, but I guess I'm using this post as a platform for my question as well as a means to explain to those that know me on this board why I've been so scare. Thanks in advance KC.

I hear you on the issues re children, even though I never experienced them, but such things can be addressed with stricter rules and the enforcement thereof. Time will tell, I guess. On the Logwood thing, Logwood actually opened before I stopped riding so many moons ago, but I was never able to get out there. You see, for me to get to logwood would have involved a journey easily twice as long as it took me to get to the Bike Park yesterday - I may as well go to Northern Farm, even that's closer. Therein lies another huge bonus, it's accessibility.

No, you're right, I've been a slack, bad boy ;-)

This may or may not be re-hashing an already discussed topic, but seeing as I've only just started trawling theHub again recently, and also only just gotten back on my MTB again (Yesterday being the day), I felt I needed to air a view or 2. Having really been off the scene for a while now (I don't even know what the latest flavour of the month bikes and gear look like, or even which races are coming up), if talk of doing this kind of thing (the Bike Park) has been around for a while, I'll have missed it. As a result, seeing riders trundling down alongside the highway on what appeared to be a purpose built MTB trail a few weeks back, was a shock to the system to say the least. Enquiries around my place of work shed some light on the issue, and my interest was piqued. So, I decided to give the Bike Park a run as my first foray back into the MTB (and cycling as it turns out) scene, and that happened yesterday. I'll sum up my experience first with a single word. Awesome ! Firstly, based on the images from Cultcycling's website, the sheer effort that has gone into cleaning this place up is staggering. Looking at the pics there, and experiencing the result yesterday, it's still hard to believe it's the same place. That somebody would make such an effort just to allow like minded people to ride their bicycles, speaks loud and clear about the commitment to keeping our sport alive and well. Secondly, the route design and layout, I found, was brilliant. Clear and concise - you ride around the perimeter, pick a route you want to take as it comes up, and you enter the "zone". You ride the route, sometimes having to make a "left or right" decision on that route, and exit back onto the perimeter. The clear "one way" format makes it safe and you feel comfortable riding the routes, as you know that what you're riding on has been thought through in a very calculated way. Thirdly, the actual quality of the trails themselves. Save for some deep forest sections in some exotic riding locations far away, this is the best collection of single-track I've come across. Smooth, sweeping lines, bermed corners, sweet dropoffs, river (canal) crossings on plank bridges, etc, etc. I never gave any of the black routes a try, as my bike skills have all but dissappeared after nearly 3 years of absolute sloth, so I can't comment on those, but I did give the green and blue routes a good shake-down (some routes just HAD to be done multiple times due to some forks in the trail mid-route - could let the "other" fork go undiscovered, now could I ). All in all, I had an absolute blast. I only rode for about an hour (all my untrained legs and lungs could handle unfortunately), and never completed all the routes (still had a green route and a blue route that I hadn't done). Unfortunately my fun was cut short by a flat I experienced while riding past the clubhouse, pondering on doing any more - pretty much made my decision for me. Serves me right to ride on tires so old they had actually started perishing I'll be back, having zero qualms about paying the entrance fee asked which, while steepish, is so totally worth it considering : the effort which has gone in to actually clean the place,the thought and effort that has gone into building the trails, and the time and effort which is going to be quite clearly involved in keeping the place going (making sure the trails are ridable, clean, safe, etc).If there is anyone here on the hub who was/is involved with the project, my sincerest congratulations and thanks go to you - you've produced a masterpiece (I firmly believe that).kingcompass2009-04-20 02:59:12

Hmmm ok, what's in the car at the moment Depeche Mode Rammstein (yeah man) Offspring (whoop whoop whoop) Keane Coldplay Queen The "Gladiator" soundtrack (just for a classical twist) The "Return of the King" soundtrack (for a further classical indulgence) DJ Sammy The Cranberries The Cardigans Rob Zombie REM Sheesh, how could I forget Linkin Park

Eish meneer, dis maar 'n mooi fietsie Baie geluk hoor. Now for that sub 2:10 94.7 ;-)