Enticement

Reading and responding is optional

You're right - the only advice people should pay for is the set-up! BUT that is when you start from the premises that the person has the right bike! I have seen a sales person selling a hard core racing mountain bike HT with a flipped stem the tootie to a 65 year old lady that rides once every fortnight! And that exercise was about R60grand.

Which is better, 26er long travel or 29er 4" travel if I'm a weekend warrior and spend most of my riding time at Groenkloof - and why do you say that? Now, does that only pertain to you is will it be a general recommendation for anyone?

A training program should serve as your guide telling what to do when, how, in what sequence and why! Try a personalized approach - you get great discount as a club member ...

You're missing something! There is VERY little empirical guidance on how to select the right bike. The "I" in "... what bike should I buy ..." refers to the person reading the heading of the post - it requires some creative reading .

I agree, the same with advice from your doctor to keep you healthy and fit, but unfortunately the better the advice the more you pay for it! Why, because that doctor has spent a substantial amount of his time to study to give his patients scientifically validated advice.

"Our sport is a simple one": That is what makes mountain biking such an enjoyable sport - it requires the skillful use of technology that many participants are not even thinking about. Like, apart from the difference in price, what makes a carbon fiber bike different from an aluminium composite one, or is their a reason why one should rather consider a dual suspension than a hard tail? Talking about dual suspension, what differentiate single pivot from 4-bar linkage and when does which one work better? Talking carbon, is it important to understand the difference in the quality of carbon used by manufacturers - why is one frame more expensive than another, and what makes one type better than another. Or do I just trust the sales person and be guided by the price. O ja, then there is 3x9, 3x10, 2x10 and each with different gear ratios, or is internal gearing not better? These are just a few pointers emphasizing that our sport is a simple one ...

Try riding at least 3 times a week - 2x during the week (68-80 min) and a long one over weekend (90-120min) for 4 weeks, making sure you enjoy every minute of it. For the next 4 week period you must up your intensity by going a bit faster. Don't consider doing specific intervals right now. You can PM me for more info/advice.

So many brands, so many designs - where do I start by selecting the right mountain bike for me?

Interesting article in Tread mag of Feb 2011: Wash Rinse Repeat - on page 36 they talk about the costs, the author writes: "Some have been known to spend over R60,000 on a Cape Epic" [that is per individual, my calculations are team based]! When you spend, do it wisely ...

Ja, also doing the pie thing, but more often he is brilliant. I guess with the Stormers his crystal ball's batteries went flat! As for the 10,000 hours, its quite a lengthy document but if someone is interested I can add it.

The academics say you have to race with your training set-up. You have to practice rugby if you want to play rugby, you cannot replace training with tap dancing. However you can replace certain parts of your conditioning with something else - like when you do strength training by pulling a tractor tire you don't have to race with the tire. Interesting empirical research has been done on ROTOR cranks indicating that your brain, your body's ultimate anticipatory regulator, adapts to the cranks within about 30 days and you're back to where you were before you started using them.

You do not loose fitness that quickly as to loose fitness your arteries and capillaries need to "degenerate" to the status you had before you started initially. However, you loose sync between the muscle fibers/cells within the muscle, controlled by the nerve endings that tell these cells to contract when they have to. By implication, if your muscle was conditioned to run on 90% of the cells (your brain always reserve a number of them for emergency), 90% was conditioned to contract EXACTLY at the same time they had to. Now, a few weeks later that 90% don't contract together anymore. So, all you have to do is to reinstate the sync again. And that you can do through a "bridging" period and it will take around 14 days of specific training.

7 months left before the Epic - is that enough time for preparation and where do you start?

How long have you been riding? I suggest that you, at first, start "bonding" with your bike - that means riding, and then riding and then more riding. When you're satisfied that you're getting to grips and want to start performing, only then get a coach to take it to the "next level".

That was a theory which was proven wrong by Ross Tucker as genetics play a vital part - the guy with the better genes gets there quicker that the one without

We are putting together our next route for time trails and will notify you when the route has been sorted, marked and declared "ready for exhilaration"!

Coaching requires much more than writing out training programs! It requires practical application of physiological principals to enable an athlete, with an own value system and mind make-up, to perform at his best potential. Therefore, it requires academical knowledge of the principals but also of the psychological factors regarding performance management, no matter what level of performance. However, academical knowledge, supported by applicable experience works best!

Speedy, its like training for a 100m vs training for a marathon! Your body utilizes different energy systems in the respective mountain bike disciplines - XCO high intensity and bursts of power whereas XCM uses sustained effort over longer periods. A well conditioned XCO rider can easily adapt to XCM competition but not visa versa. So, if you really want to do well in mountain bike races, prepare for XCO. However that requires focused training, not only riding! And it is much more than just "doing intervals" ...

Continuing responding to posts that bore you - that qualifies you (/that person) to be the biggest idiot, deprived of any form of logic or any precursor to it, I have come across! Its is called projection: that is when you (/a person) project(s) his own disposition by trying to degrade another. Read some other posts if you have no understanding of this one ...

Your insight is commendable!

Maybe your'e jersey and should stick to giving milk ...

Yes! Just unfortunately, after that they realized that the alcohol dehydrates you. Otherwise its a perfect "whole-food" that contains a great part of the whole food matrix you need.

Just add lots of body armor for Christmas

Your incredible bio-mechanical machine is not only transport for your brain but an integral part of "being"! It continuously adapts to the demands you set and it is such a creation marvel that the boundaries are undefined (I think I must try politics). However, we must allow it to adapt to the genetic "pace" built into it - that is why a jersey cow will never win the July! That is why conditioning is a sequential process. It takes up to 4-6 years to "make" an Olympic athlete.