Scooterza

My wife gave me one of those LED Lenser head torches. It has a dimmable beam that can be focused. The torch is SUPER bright. She gave it to me in September and I use it maybe twice a week for 20 minutes or so and the batteries are still solid. Super comfortable to wear. LOVE it. Great present. Makes doing chores outside at night a pleasure. I also have those Energiser head torches (got 3 of them!) and they aren't a patch on the LED LENSER. Using those is like trying to work by the light of 5 firefly's taped to your forehead!

Bloody hell - you wouldn't catch my riding at that kind of speed on a bike that looks like it was welded together by my farsighted granny! But it is inspiring - looks like the kind of guy who swims against the flow and manages to be a game changer because of it!

Kit all laid out and ready to go. Time to hit the sack!

...

Just remember to put your frame on a leash when you take it in. Bwahahahaha

Jacques - I will say this again and again. Do NOT underestimate how long it will take you to get to the start. There are HOBS of people. And there is nothing worse than using up all your glycogen reserves cause your heart is hammering cause you are LATE. Aim to be parked by 7.30am. That way you have time to get out, check your bike, put on sunscreen in a relaxed fashion, double check your Gu's etc and just feel ready. It took me about 3 tries to get this side of things right. The start is near Makro Woodmead and you will either have a red of a black number. Cannot remember which is which but you will start on the left or right hand side of Woodmead Drive depending on what colour your number is. Just get in your group and then move in your batche along the road towards the start. Eventually you are at that start line and it's your turn! When the gun goes off, there are usually 3 groups - those that TEAR away and will often exhaust themselves within 50km, those that ride at a brisk pace and those that dawdle. Decide which group you want to be in. If you ride at a brisk pace (that is not faster than where you can still talk to someone - if you are gasping you are riding too hard and payback time will hit you before the finish), you will finish in a good time. The dawdlers are having fun. They will be in the saddle a long time and probably won't be having fun 6 hours later. This is a great race. But remember a few things. It gets *(&^*^ hot out there. Your ass will be in pain. Your neck and shoulders will be aching. Ride in a bunch if you can but if you are in a bunch, behave yourself. Nothing worse than a reckless cretin when you are riding at 40km/hr. If you cannot stay with your bunch, drop off the back and find a bunch that suits your pace better. Try to avoid riding solo, particularly trying to catch a bunch UNLESS they are JUST ahead of you. You will kill yourself and will pay later.

So there I was riding hard when all of a sudden out shot all this white stuff. Tasted yummy though.

Thanks for the update. Sorry it didn't work out 100%. But you are right to focus on the good stuff. I was knocked off my bike by a taxi a while ago. I escaped 100% unharmed except my ego and the &^*^ just drove off which really pee'd me off! Reported it to the cops - his number plate was fake (surprise!). I really simmered for a while but have totally forgotten about it now. (Until I remember when reading a post like yours of course!) Hopefully the little monkey got a big fright and will think twice before doing something as stupid again!

That also seems wrong. Eg me 210 - (18.5-47.037) 210 -(-28.5378) =238bpm

I keep meaning to determine my max HR but frankly, I am scared! I did it once many years ago and it was horrible! I know - I am being a wuss but there it is!

I watched that Marley and Me movie on the weekend. FFS! That dog! Jeez! I do like dogs but I don't think I would have handled that. I would have lost it when he was destroying everything.

WHAT?!! 400km! Are you on a motorbike?

I was just reading some of the nutrition topics (looking for V12's post) and read a bit about the 32gi. I must check but I think I was drinking the endurance drink (I usually drink Cytomax). I suspect this may have had something to do with it as I see that for high intensity riding (yesterday was pretty intense) you should try their other drink - Accelerate.

You can start later than your group but not earlier. So you can happily start with your wife. Just know that you will be riding with the "riff raff" if you start at that time. I use that in the nicest way and knowing that I was in that group a few years back!

So yesterday I did the Midvaal Challenge and I hit SUCH a wall at 90km! WOW! I have done this a few times before when I first started racing (hit the wall I mean). I thought I was a bit wiser now and know how to pace myself but I went too hard at the start and BAM! Payback time came along. First 90km average was around 31km/h. Last 10km average was 20km/hr odd. Eish! Feeling quite depressed to that I missed 3 hours by 30 minutes as well - not even close! I keep hoping it was just a bad day.

Anyone?

Thanks for teh responses. I have entered the Midvaal race. There is something about the intensity of riding in a race that riding on your own (eg at Suikerbosrand) won't give you. (or that's my experience).

Hey there guys and gals. I have just seen that it is 86km to Midvaal from my home to race in the midvaal cycle challenge this weekend! I live in Randburg (Randpark). Anyone keen to either catch a lift with me and share petrol costs (got a double cab so can pop up to 3 bikes (maybe 4) bikes in the back plus have a rack that will take another 4 bikes at a squeeze). Alternatively happy to catch a ride with someone and contribute to fuel. ONLY thing is I have to be back by 12.15pm LATEST as I have to be somewhere by 1pm! Anyone keen to help/be helped?

Something I have done a few times is to have the cable that controls the tension just lightly touching the rear wheel - result = burning rubber/plastic smell. Just ensure that your tensioning cable is placed so that it doesn't touch your rear wheel at all.

Hey - can anyone recommend any good road rides (or even MTB rides) to do before 94.7? Want to get in at least one more good road ride before the event and time is running out!

Another few pointers. Make sure you prepare early - ie not at 11.45pm the night before the race. Get out your racing kit, your sunblock, your bottles, your spare tubes, your cleats (if using), sunglasses etc. Check and DOUBLE check you have all you need (HELMET!!). Then pack what you will wear on race day out somewhere convenient for easy dressing in the morning. Ideally lay it out in the order you will dress (more or less). Put the rest in a kit bag. Do NOT have 15 things lying around that you will need to remember at 4.45am on race day. Get out your breakfast and have it ready. Put your bike in/on the car. Treble the amount of time you think it might take you to get to the start. There is nothing worse than FREAKING yourself out as you sit in traffic and the start time is 3 minutes away. But if you do miss your start time, relax - you can start later. On the race, as someone already said, TRY not to push too hard particularly those first 50km. You will SUFFER later if you do that. Hold a bit back. And try to find a bunch that is riding at a comfortable pace to ride with - if you can do that on your first ride you will find it MUCH easier. Finally, you still have a few weeks - see if you cannot do at least 1 race beforehand. Nothing like a race to iron out the gremlins in your race plan! Good luck!

Firstly, that's not great to hear. Whilst it doesn't excuse this, perhaps the fact that you are NOT in a remote spot makes people think that they don't need to worry to help as much because you are within walking distance of the tar road and theoretically, a lift from "someone" else. Another thing is people have no time, so if you have scheduled a 2 hour ride, to take 20 minutes sorting out someone else is an appreciable chunk of your ride time. Again, not saying it's cool but that's my 2c.

I had a kinda similar experience yesterday Riding my MTB home and on the LHS on a tar (regular) road. There was some rocks etc right next to the road that made it impossible for me to go "off piste" and a runner was coming down the hill towards me. He didn't move off the road at all. So I just stayed on the LHS and it was one of those "chicken" moments. I kept thinking that he would run on the side over the rocks (not that hard - I would have done that if I was running) but on my bike, it would have required me to ride over some rocks about 20cm high - not possible. He ended up moving out further into the road at the last moment and then he gave me this LOOK like I was the devil! I was laughing a bit to myself about that!

I think you are 100% right. Which is why it is very unfair that eg Contador had his title stripped and it was awarded to Schleck when there is a very high likelihood that Schleck ALSO doped. Fact is that it seems that in order to be competitive, you HAVE to dope and there was that article recently which showed that the performance of athletes has dropped in the last few years - almost certainly due to more stringent anti-doping efforts. But it also shows that ALL the top riders are riding faster for longer and that is highly unlikely due only to improved training, nutrition etc as why would performance now be dropping? The thing is though - the top guy gets the most attention. That's how it always goes. So LA gets a lot of heat because: He was top of the (TdF) pile for a long time He vehemently and indignantly denied being a doper He has an abrasive personality that has rubbed many up the wrong way But I agree - he is NOT alone.

Where are the wheels?