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yeah nice read,
makes me feel extremely normal.
Think thats why Tri dosent really do it for me,
life becomes, train, sleep, eat, train, sleep, eat,

impressive stuff in the interview but its a totally unbalanced life.

Aye definitely an unbalanced life, Chrissie says it herself and certainly very difficult balance in my case. When I'm training properly I average between 10 and 12 hours a week and peak at about 18 hours. That goes up when you factor in all the additional stuff like getting to and from the workout, showering etc etc. An hour in the pool takes more like 2 hours of my life. Balancing that with being affective at work (ie. not sleeping on my computer) and trying to have a social life (Ha... I wish!) is the biggest challenge for most people. For me the goal is simply to go as fast as I can within the constraints of the rest of my life.

your suggestion opens up all sorts of questions,
sportsperson-- an individual racing against others, and singularly pushing themselves to absolute extremes,
or
sportsperson -a team captain winning titles for years on end through superb leadership and example,
youre choice.

I thought that as soon as I wrote it. Personally I'd gravitate towards the former, firstly because I think individual successes are more noticeable in individual sports, and secondly because I think it is harder for a single team player (no matter how good) to exert that much influence on a game since their performance is buffered by that of their team.

In Chrissie's case I think that there are very few athletes who have completely changed the expectations of their sport in the way that she has. Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele both seem almost unbeatable to me and so would be contenders. Both Federer and Woods would also have been up there but recently both have seemed a little shaky.

A couple of envelope calculations that I thought were interesting (assuming my maths is OK):

Usain Bolt was 1.3% and 2.0% faster than his second placed opponent at the Beijing Olympics and 2009 Berlin World Champs respectively.
Chrisssie Wellington was 3.6% faster than her nearest opposition at the 2009 Ironman World Championships.

Usain Bolt's current WR time of 9.58 is 1.6% faster than the previous incumbent's WR time of 9.74 (2007 Asafa Powell).
Chrissie Wellington's WR time of 08:19:13 is 5.0% faster than the previous incumbent's WR time of 08:45:48 (2008 Yvonne van Vlerken).

The fastest time ever recorded by someone other than Usain Bolt is 9:69 (Tyson Gay 2009). Usain Bolt's WR is 1.1% faster than this.
The fastest time ever recorded by someone other than Chrissie Wellington is 08:39:24 (Rebekah Keat 2009). Chrissie's WR is 3.8% faster than this.

None of this proves that Chrissie is better athlete than Bolt, there are obviously far to many factors, many of which are impossible to quantify (saturation of competition etc.). But, given the hype about how Bolt changed the world of sprinting it is interesting to see that Chrissie is almost twice as far ahead of her field as Bolt is ahead of his.

Chrissie Wellington interview . To my mind probably the best sports person on the planet.

Aye, I had 4 laps for a race in Zurich - every lap you had to run past the finishing chute and then out again for another c. 10km!

I know a coach who is always trying to get me to do my long rides on a short loop - passing my front door every 40 minutes of a 6 or 7 hour ride is one of the most soul destroying training sessions I've done.

mine looks like:

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/61008850

countryside roads look a little different to your city roads but pretty similar.

For me, I find that really concentrating on the rhythm of my breathing helps with stitches - I would really think about getting oxygen into my lungs and concentrate on sending the oxygenated blood to the painful area. Obviously this is nonsense, I'm not convinced that its possible to direct blood flow consciously, but it worked for me. Now I only get them the first run back after a break from exercising.

Re. the heart rate - I believe that having different heart rates for different sports is a reasonably well known phenomenon in Triathlon. Swimming HR is usually lower than cycling which is lower than running for the same RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) - similarly I find my HR on the rowing machine is higher still. So yes, having a slightly higher HR when running is normal - when you get used to it you'll work out what your target HR is for each sport.

???

Right on the nose of the saddle. Also used in the context of riding hard.

I just posted a position/set up question in the TT thread, but thought mentioning it in this thread as well might reach some people who don't check that thread regularly.

Question is here: http://www.lfgss.com/post1854848-1466.html

Any advice appreciated, apologies for cross posting.

Right, when it comes to cycling, I’m mainly a triathlete – I race TTs but to be honest it’s really just as a hard training session. My current bike stable includes my TT bike (which I use exclusively for racing) and a road bike, which I do most of my training on. At the moment my road bike is set up in a conventional road position (with a set of tribars) so that I could use it comfortably on group rides, but the reality is that I seem to be doing all my training alone at the moment. I’ve therefore been considering whether I should set my road bike up to replicate my TT position. I know lots of triathletes do this but I’m not sure whether it is a good idea or not.

The way I’d do it is to set it up keeping as many parts as possible, that means it would just be a road bike (with Tri bars), just with a very aggressive position.

My first question is what are the pros and cons of this and is it worth it? On the positive side it strikes me as a good thing to train in the position I will race in. I know that getting my back/shoulders acclimatised to spending long hours in my race position is a good thing, but I’m not sure whether or not training in a TT position is significantly better than training in a road position (I guess it can’t do any harm). On the negative side I guess that the handling might be really weird with a TT position on a road bike.

Secondly, assuming it is worth it, how do I go about it? What are the main components of bike fit that I need to consider? BB-saddle height, BB-saddle set back [UCI rules not relevant], Saddle-Aero pads reach, saddle-aero pad drop… have I missed any?

I have had a quick explore and I think that in order to do this I will need a new seat-post (currently when I reverse my seat-post I can’t get the saddle flat – do reverse seat-posts exist?) and a longer stem (to accommodate moving the saddle forwards). Also my road frame is a size larger than my TT frame so I think I’m going to need a negative angle stem (or an upside down one) in order to get low enough.

SOrry for the long post - any thoughts/advice appreciated.

I did that the first time I got clipless pedals - took me for ever to get them apart again!

A URT TT bike... why?

Maybe for Leeds roads....

what does URT stand for? Also, isn't that one of the "S" road series?

Because of the personal attachment people form with their cats... not many people have pet cows. That said if I was going to wear a cat, I would want it to be a cat I had liked in its lifetime - its odd that I don't feel that way about my shoes. I partly feel the same about food, when I have sunday roast at my parent's house it is almost always one of our own sheep (grown, slaughtered and butchered ourselves). Its always nicer to know where your food comes from, even if it used to have a name.

What on earth is knee cat wrap anyway? Aside from the obvious benefit of a snuggly warm knee, what is it for? Why only one and what is the superstition??

The pelt from the rear legs of some kind of mammal... first guess, some kind of terrier?

A cherished pet?

I have the preserved skin of a stoat in my room at my parent's house - I picked it up as roadkill as a kid, then skinned and preserved it. Great fun! :)

http://www.lfgss.com/post1848787-40412.html

More info on this please. Looks awesome!

What?? You mean that Cadel and Fabian aren't gay??

The win with the old defenders is as much their simplicity as the other stuff. Sure there are more reliable, more comfortable machines with easier to source parts but nothing beats the old Landies for ease of bush maintenance.

A few years ago I was volunteering on a project in Botswana when our accelerator cable disintegrated at dusk and we were several hours outside of radio contact. A few cable ties and old wire coat hangers later and we had a semi-functional hand-throttle. It wasn't ideal but it limped us back to radio contact. On the way back we also managed to put a branch through the radiator meaning we had to stop to cool down for half an hour every 10-15 minutes. That landy was only out of action for one day before being back on full duty. Easy peasy!

Personally my favourite ones are the long wheelbase ones - more space to sleep on the roof. :)

When I was a baby my dad was working out in the Kalahari desert. One of the other research biologists out there (I've forgotten exactly who now) used to have a party trick whereby he would fly at low speed behind cars and try and land on the roof before slowly letting his wheels roll down the windscreen and onto the bonnet before flying off! Apparently it's terrifying to be in the car, especially with your 6 month old son perched on the passenger seat.

Love the colours on the Tinazzi... very cool paint-job. The only thing I don't like about it is the way that the pink stuff stops abruptly at the top of the down-tube... makes it look like stickers.

works for me

*wince

no, you are right... in the diagram pedalling backwards would engage the smaller sprocket. They say they show it this way around "for clarity" presumably so the chain doesn't cross over which may be less clear. If I was riding I would prefer the setup in the photo I posted, but I think both would still work.

p.s. RHB, that chain looks evil... imagine getting your trouser leg stuck in that!!

No, sadly not... I took the photo at the top of the Tourmalet this summer. At the top there is a cafe with loads of cycling memorabilia and a couple of bikes on the wall - lovely place to warm up after an hours climbing in the rain and snow!

Check out a couple of the links at the bottom of the wikipedia article to see how people have converted their "conventional" bikes to a rotary drive system. I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes open for a cheap/abandoned frame that I can try this on! looks awesome!

Awesome... I've been wondering the answer to how this works for ever... Thank you LFGSS!

some good rollers failing

There is a reason I don't film myself on the rollers!

Me...
blah... blah...
Balls.

0800 Light dusting of snow but roads are clear, so good for riding.
0830 meet at rendezvous - starting to snow
0920 30kms out into the countryside, snow falling but beautiful scenery and roads still fine.
0930 snow gets a bit stronger so we take pics and head back.
1045 by the time we are home 7inches of snow has fallen... slippery slippery fun! (my riding partner had a couple of small spills but nothing serious).
1100 riding partner snowed in at my place with no way home
1130 Fried breakfast by the fire
1300 Another 3 or 4 inches of snow so we run to riding partners house, I drop him off and run home.

Awesome day!
Fixed gear snow cycling and running for the WIN.

Me...
*midweek I organised a training ride for early sat morning.
*Friday lunchtime I remember that the indexing on my training bike is waaay out. I've no time to fiddle with it myself so I rush it to the lbs who promise to sort it... Great stuff!
*Friday evening get home from quiet pint and check bike over... Indexing still fucked.
*2300 spend hours trying and failing to fix indexing.
*0115 eventual success... reassemble bike and have quick test ride on turbo
*0130 shift from small chainring to large... CLUNK... Chain snaps and gets wedged in derailleur.
*FUCKSHITARSE... Chaintool is at my parent's.
*0145 move mudguards/bottle cages/SPD pedals etc to fixed gear beater... Pump tyres ready to ride tomorrow.
*0215 bitch on Lfgss

I love tinkering with my bikes (the main reason instarted reading this forum) but I'm evidently not a born mechanic. Normally i figure its good to learn from my mistakes but tomorrow the only thing i'm going to learn is how painfull 100km of corswold hills are with only 1 gear.

Balls.