cycle of muscle

Been meaning to post this for a while and just been reminded. a chart i saw while at La Beau Velo for a bike fit last year. a nice illustration that all the muscles take there turn expecially the butt muscle, so remember to stretch out the whole of your legs after riding not just the quads.

"for guys like you and me life means riding a bike"

Have been reading about the great rivalry between these two greats, its so heartwarming that while cyclists are racing as individuals there is also this pack bond mentality which extends out to pro life, we saw it to lesser extent last year with wiggins and Nibali hand shake over the line.

Inter-club crit race

Dipping my toe in the world of crit racing with an out-of-season inter club affair at cyclopark in Gravesend. After a spot of coaching from British cycling/sky coach Nathan Hazledene – we went on to the main show/smash fest which is crit racing. The course is a beautiful 2.9km circuit with one especially tricky fast 180° corner and a lovely descending quick right follow by sharper left which i loved smashing down in the drops. I was obviously in the scratch starters having never raced before, it wasn't text book by a long shot, couple of soldiers were left taking way too many turns on the front, while most of my efforts were closing gaps at the back of the bunch so was out of puff when it came to maning up and leading out. Before it started I wanted to make a Voeckler style break and chose the peak of slight hill last lap to go for it only to be pulled back to 4th over the line. Super day. Picture by Kate Morton.

Happy New Year

So how about some new year resolution talk. As per the last few years in January i'm off the booze, last year (remember 2012?, i barely can) i stayed off til May, but we'll have to see, and certainly i'll only be drinking red wine if i do crack, apparently choice of pros for its antioxidant properties and good way to relax muscles after a big ride.
2013 will be the year i ride box hill – weirdly i've riden the alps but not box hill, i dont expect it to be that tough and not as bad as its neighbouring chalk pit lane which i have completed a few times, but just wanna tick it off the list along with ditchling beacon.
I'm making the tougher club ride my default choice and seeing if i can kept up with the strength of local hero PoS. The guy is a machine and a good benchmark if nothing else sticking to his wheel will make up for lack of good hills for Marmotte training.
Time to embrace the fluoro.

No bike, I'll run then

Running to supplement cycling, while I'm doing family Xmas duties, I've been doing a morning run, in the rain. Concentrating on good aerobic workouts in short amount of time(40mins). Doing hill intervals. I feel like I've done a good club run on the bike when I return, except running is high impact and using your leg muscles in a different way to cycling. As you're running your muscles are lengthening (eccentric contraction) and opposite is true of cycling (centric contraction). Left me walking down the stairs like a crab. But I'm hoping the aerobic workout will be of benefit as well as burning Xmas calories.

A winter miles half time stop this sunday

Christmas 1979

Has there ever been a more spirited man alive than Billy Childish? Dusted off the 'Archive from 1959' this week – a truly brilliant collection if you're missing some childish in your life. It was like a little walk down memory lane, I used to live next to the dirty water club in Tufnell Park, almost every other friday Childish in some shape or form played. I remember my dear friend Bobby supported them one evening and he was so frightened to touch any of their equipment it being all vintage plastics. Stop taking in the Christmas gift guides for every budget and take in some Childish.