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I Love Bicycling

I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.

Cat Riding a Bike

September 18, 2014 by Lee Agur

Cat Riding a Bike

Meet Rudi and Mary Jane. Riding with you cat. cat riding a bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides. cat riding a bike.

youtube.com

MJ has been accompanying Rudi on his cycling trips since she was a two-month old kitten.

MJ has been accompanying Rudi on his cycling trips since she was a two-month old kitten. cat riding a bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, riding with your cat. cat riding a bike.

youtube.com

They live together in Philadelphia, where they turn heads as they buzz around the streets with MJ riding on Rudi’s shoulders.

cat rides bike, cat cyclist.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, cycling cat. cat riding a bike.

youtube.com

Rudi made his first video of their adventure to prove to his mom that his kitty really was riding along.

cat wants to ride a bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, Cat loves riding bikes.

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Rudi says MJ loves going on trips with him.

cat rides on shoulders while man pedals

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, cat cyclist. cat riding a bike.

youtube.com

“She enjoys seeing everything and having the wind blow in her ears, especially being an indoors cat.”

riding with your cat, cycling cat, cat cyclist, cat on a bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, riding with your cat, cycling cat

youtube.com

“On the shoulder, she loves it.”

Cat riding on shoulders, owner rides bike. Cat loves riding bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, riding with your cat.

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“She’s in total zen mode.”

cat rides a fixie, cats love riding bicycles, riding with your cat.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, riding with your cat

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So if you’re ever in Philly, look for these two best friends.

riding with your cat, cat has a good time on a bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides. Riding with your cat is easy.

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If you can figure out which one is more adorable, let us know!

If you can figure out which one is more adorable, let us know! Riding with your cat. Cat cyclist. Cat Tricks. cat riding a bike.

Matt Rourke / AP
Cyclist Brings His Cat Along For The Rides, riding with your cat, cat cyclist, cat tricks, cats are awesome.
Article by: buzzfeed

Why Every Cyclist Should Own an E-Bike

June 6, 2014 by Lee Agur

Why Every Cyclist Should Own an E-Bike

why every cyclist should own and e-bikeOK Ok… before you come back with a snide comment and disown me for good… All I have to ask you is… have you tried one? If not, then you don’t have an opinion, you are just speculating… I am a pretty intense cyclist that cycles for the exercise, but after riding an e-bike I was a pretty big fan and will likely be picking one up next year! Read on to learn how I got converted…

First of all I rode an awesome PEDAL ASSIST e-bike, the Cube Stereo Hybrid 120 Pro 29 (not available in North America yet… coming soon) riding a quality e-bike undoubtedly made a big difference. But honestly here is why I particularly enjoyed it:

Fun

This bike has 250 watts of extra power, I went up a 7% grade at 25km/h for over 20 minutes. That means that if Nairo Quintana (or any amazing climber from the Pro Tour) were there I would give them a nice little wave as I passed them.

Not only does it climb very quickly, but I found the descents surprisingly fun, with 50 lbs to throw around I thought that it was going to feel extremely heavy and bulky, but it was not a major factor. The geometry lead to a smooth stable ride with lots of stopping power.

Ideal for Recovery Days

why every cyclist should own and e-bike
The Cube Stereo Hybrid I rode – no one even knew it was an e-bike on the trail.

This bike has 5 settings: turbo, sport, tour, economy and off so you are able to adjust it to how much work you want to do. So, if it is a recovery day but you still want to go for an epic ride, summit some massive mountain or go long distance or more importantly be able to keep up with your friends/family you are able to with as little OR as much effort as you desire.

I actually went out for a recovery ride up one of my favourite mountains and came up on 30 cyclists from one of the local bike shops, as I approached them zig zagging up the steep trail they politely got off the to let me pass, but I said “don’t worry about it.” I pointed the e-bike straight up the hill and powered past all of them (off trail) while they wondered what the hell was going on (they didn’t even know it was an e-bike). I knew quite a few of them and they yelled out to me “you are cheating,” not because they thought I was on an e-bike but because I was off route while passing them. A week later I told them what really had happened.

I normally have an aching lower back from the hard climb, but this time I arrived fresh at the top ready to work on my downhill skills!

Injury

Is an injury keeping you sidelined? Not anymore… We tested out someone with a knee injury that prevented them from biking because of the pressure it took to go uphills! With the “Turbo” setting, it made it easy enough for them to go up 8%+ grades with no pain.

Equalizer

Cycle with whoever you want to! My mother is in her sixties and she is not a cyclist, but guess what? We still had an awesome ride… she would yell “turbo” and speed past me up the hill as I was flat out… I couldn’t keep up… when she was feeling nice she put it in “sport” mode and it was all I had in me to stay with her on the climbs.

I had the bike for nearly a month and if I wasn’t riding it then I would put someone who was slower on it so I could still have a workout and an enjoyable ride. Anyone who rode it could not stop smiling, especially my fiancee and my mother who could not believe they were waiting for me. Than in itself sold the bike for me never mind the rest of the benefits.

Do you ride an e-bike? Would you? Leave a comment in the section below.

If you like downhill riding, here is a quick look at the bike in action:

From Bike Riding to Bike Racing

March 9, 2014 by Aaron Robson

From bike riding to bike racingYou’ve been riding for a couple of years now. The days of struggling up every incline, and falling over at traffic lights because you can’t get your feet out of your pedals is over. You’ve done some epic long rides with friends. Maybe you have started commuting in to work. But now, riding is starting to get a bit stale. The motivation to get out the door on the weekend isn’t quite what it used to be. You are looking for the next thing to add to your bike riding experience. What you are looking for is bike racing.

Bike Racing in a Nutshell

Amateur bike racing works a little differently than running, triathlons, and similar sports. If you were to sign up for your local 5k road race, you would line up with everyone else at the start, the gun would go off, and you would race. Bike racing isn’t like that – due to the differences in skill and bike handling ability, races are broken up into different categories. As a beginning rider, you will start off in the lowest category (usually Cat 5) and work your way up as you gain experience and skill. In most areas, just finishing 5-10 races will be enough to move up from the bottom category, but after that, the only way to move up is to place well in races. Most amateur riders end up in Cat 3 or Cat 4 – Cat 1 and 2 are getting into serious, semi-professional level racing.

Choosing Your First Race

Picking your first race can be daunting. The best place to start looking is the website of your state or provincial bike racing association. They should have a calendar showing all of the upcoming races in your area. There are three main types of races:

  1. Road races are what you typically think of when you think of bike racing – a bunch of people racing in a big bunch from point A to point B.

  2. Time trials are individual efforts over a set distance where you don’t have the advantage of drafting off other riders.

  3. Criteriums are a special, high-octane style of race usually held on a small 1-2 mile loop course, with intermediate sprints, bonuses, and no set race distance.

A road race is a pretty safe choice for your first race. Time trials don’t really give you a proper bike racing experience, and criteriums require a higher level of bike handling skill and fitness. Pick a race at least one or two months away – you need enough time to get yourself ready!

Training & Preparation

With your goal race in mind, it’s time to get down to training. Yes, you can show up to a race without having done anything different and survive, but you will get a lot more out of it with a bit of race-specific preparation. This centers around two things:

  1. Bike-handling: you will spend most of the race with other riders just a couple of feet ahead, beside and behind you. It takes some getting used to. Try to find a local group ride that you can join – the more people the better. Usually, the more experienced riders are pretty good about helping out newer riders. The most important thing to remember is don’t make any sudden, unexpected moves.

  2. Fitness: racing is far more intense than any recreational ride you have been on. It won’t be 100%  intensity from start to finish, but when the pace heats up, you’d better be ready, otherwise you will get dropped and have to finish the rest of the race solo. Some groups rides can get pretty intense, and if you can find one of these great – you get bike handling and fitness training all in one. If not, intervals are your best friend. Find a traffic-free circuit that you can ride without interruptions, and do sets of 30 second, 1 minute and 2 minute hard efforts with 1-3 minutes of recovery between each effort. Aim for at least 10 minutes of hard effort time; 20 is better.

It’s Here – Race Day!

Now that you’ve put in all the hard preparation work, it’s time for the race! Most bike races are in the morning, and it is important to wake up well before race time. 3 hours before is usually my minimum, and 4 is better. You will want to make sure your bike is in tip-top shape the night before – on race day, you shouldn’t have to worry about anything more than a quick top up of your tires. Aim to arrive at least an hour before your race is scheduled to start to give yourself enough time to check in, get your numbers and get everything ready. The race officials will tell you how you need to pin your numbers on. Once you are all kitted up, get on your bike and do some easy cycling to warm up, finished off with a few very short sprints to get your legs accustomed to moving fast. Then it is time to line up! When the race starts, just relax, and enjoy your first race. As the race progresses, you will get more and more comfortable with racing. Before you know it, you will be gasping across the finish line, wondering what happened to the last hour or two of your life, and hopefully eagerly anticipating signing up for the next one!

The Pocket Drone

January 9, 2014 by Lee Agur

The Pocket Drone – Your Personal Flying Robot

Pocket drone

Capture all of your amazing skills with your personal flying pocket drone that can follow you through GPS!

Yet another reason to own a GroPro, instead of strapping it to your helmet, now you can fly the camera in the sky.

This product was just launched on kickstarter and has reached its goal in under 24 hours. Quite amazing. Just make sure you use it in an open space… I don’t think it can see trees. Maybe that is the next generation…

“The world’s first multicopter that’s powerful enough to carry a high quality action camera and folds up smaller than a 7in tablet.

The Pocket Drone is the personal flying robot that enables anyone to capture amazing video and photos from the sky. The year 2014 is going to be the “Year of the Drone.” Personal and professional photography is literally beginning to take off. Everybody can already take great looking photos and videos with their camera phones and share them online, but they have been limited to what could seen from the ground. Now with the Pocket Drone, it’s never been easier to capture spectacular aerial images that open up a whole new perspective and insight that had previously been unseen.” – Kickstarter

Do you want your own flying camera? Go to Kickstarter  to order your very own pocket drone.

Crossfit vs Cycling

December 23, 2013 by Guest Post

Crossfit vs Cycling

what doesnt kill me better start running crossfit vs cyclingBut it’s a GOOD cult!

I hear pretty frequently that Crossfit is a cult. Sure, it’s a “good” cult (is that like being a good witch) but it’s a cult. I can dig that.

What I don’t think these people realize is that Cycling is way more of a cult than Crossfit has figured out how to be yet.

And as someone who does both, let me tell ya, sometimes these cults are in conflict. In Crossfit you drink only gluten free hard cider where as in cycling you drink beer.

In Crossfit you eat steak and kale, in cycling you carbo load with pasta and Gu.

Luckily, both cults share a love of bacon, so I can deal with the rest of the conflicting messages.

As someone who is relatively new to both sports, I’m really lucky that both come with a rule book. In regards to Crossfit, just google “Crossfit House Rules” and you will get thousands of options of boxes around the country and their respective codes of conduct. They’re all similar. Work hard, push your limits, check your ego at the door.

In cycling, there is really only one rule book. Published by the infamous Velominati, the keepers of the cog, new and seasoned cyclists alike can appreciate the 93 rules of riding the road.

Granted, I don’t have a ton of experience with cycling clubs, but speaking for the one I ride with pretty regularly I can tell you, we know our rules.

Not only do we know the rules, but we regularly reference them. In the middle of a windy ride, someone might just yell “Rule 5” (Harden the !@#$ up) as they’re pulling the paceline and hammering away.

When I asked about a tri or racerback tank top to go with our new team kits, I was simply told “Rule 7” (tan lines should be cultivated and kept razor sharp) and it was left at that.

Most recently, after my epic derailleur fail, I decided it was time to push the new bike conversation husband and I had been having recently a little further. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Allez, but as I bought it nearly 10 years ago now before I knew what I was really looking for in a bike, I had been itching for an upgrade.

Yes, I have a full carbon very fancy tri bike. No, it’s not the same thing.

As it turned out, hubs was more than willing to not only have the conversation, but to buy the bike. So tomorrow I will be getting fit on my brand spankin’ new Specialized Tarmac SL4 Comp Ultegra.

I’m so excited I could pee.

But wouldn’t you know it, not 15 minutes after they called me to tell me that my new bike has come in, I received a second call from the shop telling me that they had figured out how to FIX my Allez! For “only” $180 I could have her good as new and still be able to ride her from time to time if I ever desired.

I’m sure you all see where this is going. Husband didn’t quite understand it. Luckily for me, I was able to reference “the rules” and help him to know the reality of how this works.

According to Rule #12:

“While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.”

Lucky for me, 3 bikes does not equal s-1.

So as of tomorrow I will have my original road bike, my tri bike, and my fancy new bike (yes they all have names), and only one ass to ride them with.

What’s a cyclist to do?

Crossfit vs Cycling was written by Nicole Kurz over at Not the Fat Kid in Gym Class Anymore. For more of her harrowing tales of fitness, cycling and near death experiences visit her blog.

Clara Hughes Motivation

December 14, 2013 by Guest Post

Clara Hughes (Canadian Olympic Champion)

Clara hughesIt’s that time of the year when the snow comes and goes but hasn’t decided to make it’s winter home just yet in the mountains I call home. Lately, that home has been Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. That time of the year when it’s a constant self-inflicted arm-wrestle to get the butt out the door and on the bike or in trail running shoes. I’m honored to share with the network of fellow cycling enthusiasts and soon to be riding companions on July 13th for the Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan what motivation is like in the mind of a former athlete like me. You see, people often comment about the level of commitment and resilience they see with Olympians. Oh, if they only knew the constant war waged in this thick skull of mine to simply keep the wheels turning. I have to admit, it was a little easier when I was training for an Olympics.

Winter or summer, on the blades or bike, there was a sense of responsibility to the ultimate goal of trying to win big races every four years. That, and the team of coaches, trainers, therapists, physiologists, psychologists, and teammates…all waiting to give you a hard time if you’re late, let alone absent. Not training was simply not an option. Now that I’m a recreational athlete, it’s a little different. I’m actually quite lazy at heart (Editor’s note: According to Clara’s Strava© profile, in the last month she has averaged 345 km on the bike per week. If only we could all be that lazy!).

I love sitting inside watching the snow fall with a coffee in hand. Why be frozen and miserable if you don’t have to? Well, because I like even more the feeling of getting out…rain, snow or shine. Exhausting myself on foot, bike, ski or snowshoe, and then sitting with that coffee in hand watching the snowfall is even better. The challenge is that first step out the door. My advice? Set yourself up for something so big – like a Granfondo or a cross-Canada trip on two wheels – and scare yourself with visions of suffering, slobbering and not feeling ready or motivated. It all serves as effective fuel for my motivational fire. The pay off is feeling great not just physically but mentally, as well. There is the satisfaction of the adventure when you do get outside that money cannot buy. Dreaming, not dreading, the summer of cycling ahead is where I’m at. I get creative with what I do. I cross train…a lot. I go with the flow of the forecast and environment I’m in when choosing the mode of exercise. Which brings me to our little get-together next July. I promised Axel and Jodi I’d come and take part in this fantastic event a few years back. The timing is finally right. Can’t wait for the ride!

Clara Hughes

Sign up to race with Clara Hughes in the Grandfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan here.

 

Biking the Pacific Coast

December 10, 2013 by Guest Post

biking the pacific coast

Biking the Pacific Coast

biking the pacific coastAfter 58 days of biking from Vancouver, Canada to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, my sister and I are by no means experts at biking, nutrition or repairing our bikes. However, our journey opened our eyes to a new meaning of biking and traveling. More importantly, it gave us a glimpse of the U.S. and Mexico that those who R.V. their way down Baja or stay in an all inclusive resort simply do not get.

After several months of people back home telling us we shouldn’t or couldn’t do it, we left with both fear and excitement of the unknown. The U.S. Pacific Coast is one of the most bicycled routes in the world – but Mexico… not so much. There are several well written bicycle tour guide books most follow when biking from Canada to the Mexican border. Of all the cyclists we met on our journey, every person with a book had ‘Bicycling the Pacific Coast’ by Vicky Spring. Apparently this is ‘the book’. It had everything you could want from camping, grocery stores, showers and sights to see, right down to the mile marker. However, we didn’t bring any book and it turned out fine for us. There were enough cyclists we met along the way who were all happy to share any information.

I’m not going to go into too much detail of why one should have biking the West Coast on their bikeit list. The reasons are pretty self explanatory in terms of the natural beauty, safe biking route for almost the entire way, affordable and awesome hiker/biker campsites and the good weather (if you hit it right). We departed Vancouver on September 22nd, so the weather was a bit chillier than we would have liked. It actually rained every single day and night we were in Washington and into Oregon. The scariest part for us was crossing the 4 mile Astoria-Megler Bridge at the Oregon border during a small hurricane. The bridge had no shoulder, heavy traffic, and crazy side winds that would come in giant gusts and push us into the traffic. It was really, really scary. The hurricane lasted three days after we made it to Seaside, OR. We were lucky enough to stay in a very generous man’s home for 3 nights otherwise camping would have been miserable!

The weeks leading up to the Mexican border through California was nerve racking. The roads were very, very bike friendly and the traffic was pretty mellow. Road biking in Southern California is popular and there were cyclists all over the road in both directions. We looked a little out of place with our bikes all loaded up with gear. Most cyclists would slow down as they passed us to have a little chat before accelerating again. Every single conversation went something like this: “Where are you guys coming from and where are you headed?”

“We started in Vancouver and we’re headed to Cabo San Lucas,” one of us would say. The cyclist would reply with a very stern and disproving look, “I would not recommend doing that. I got my car stolen a couple years ago after spending a couple of days in Tijuana. You’re going to get your head chopped off!”

Then they would go on to say that the road was not possible to bike on because it is too narrow and bumpy and if you bike off the road you will plummet to your death. After a countless number of the same conversation, we got pretty nervous about what Mexico was really going to be like.

Of course, after all the hype about the dangers of Mexico, it turned out to be one of the best parts of the journey. We decided to boycott the Tijuana border and instead go 50 miles east to the Tecate crossing. The Tecate crossing is an alternate route for truckers who don’t want to deal with the hustle and bustle of Tijuana. We got across that border no problem and made the decision to take a bus 300 km out of the northern region to avoid any potential dangers. We started biking again in El Rosario. After 10 km into our ride we realized that we were going to be totally fine going through Baja. The road was almost entirely paved, with a few sections that were bumpy or under construction. The road is indeed narrow but there was so little traffic that it wasn’t a problem. Don’t get me wrong, we had to be very aware of traffic at all times, because if two R.V.’s or semi trucks were coming in both directions we needed to have time to get off our bikes and move off the road to give them room.

biking the pacific coastIt is no secret that Mexico has developed a negative image for tourists over the past few years. After traveling three weeks down Baja on bicycles we have seen nothing but generous people. The people in rural Baja live simply, have little, and yet are some of the most friendly and helpful people we have met. Almost every single vehicle who passed us gave us plenty of room and a friendly wave, thumbs up, or words of encouragement. Even though we don’t speak the same language they still invited us into their homes and showed us the happiness simplicity can bring. It’s funny how 95% of people warned us about Baja and yet we experienced the opposite of their warnings. When you combine the language barrier, the remoteness of Baja, the extreme heat and traveling by bicycle, we were forced into situations we would otherwise never have experienced. Going out of our comfort zone ended up being the most memorable of the whole journey!

Guest Post by Sandra MacDonald. Get more detail of their Epic Journey here.

Junior Road Racer Off to a Rather Flat Start

December 10, 2013 by Guest Post

Road Racing off to a rather Flat start…

flat start
Not an actual picture of Richard Stripes II

In the mid part of January 2013 my dad finally finished paying for my first Road Racing bike, I had trained most of the winter recovering from a broken collar bone very excited to have the possibility to road race the next season as I have wanted to race road bikes professionally since I was in the 6th grade. I finished out the spin class season feeling awesome about my abilities as a rider. I missed the first month of the season due to complications in getting to the races. Finally in early April, I was able to have the opportunity to go to a race called Vance Creek Road Race, I was told by my teammates that the course would be great to start on and it was relatively flat with one small climb.

I live in Ellensburg WA and most of the races in Washington are on the west side of the mountains, this one included, we drove for 3 hours to get to the race. Upon arrival to the parking lot I was nervous to race for the first time, but i was confident about my ability to ride my bike and the things I learned in my beginner to road racing class earlier in January. I got more and more nervous through my warm up but did my best to stay calm and focused (which was really hard for me since I already have a hard time concentrating on anything) and then I lined up after riding across a smooth gravel area between the start area and parking lot, once I was lined up my nerves eased up a little bit as they normally do when I race, the whistle blew and I calmly started to ride the bike disregarding the fact that it is safer to ride in the front, I decided to hang out in the back. There were only about 25 riders racing but some other juniors got on the front and put the pressure on pretty hard on the downhill section of the course. As I was holding on at the back of the race I remember thinking to myself, “Why are these guys working so hard we are on a flat farm road in the first half of the race?!”. I held on fairly comfortably until the few rolling hills that led up to the short climb to the finish line. I found myself passing half of the field just by using my momentum, when we hit the actual hill the race blew apart and there was one group I saw in front of the group I was in, both groups were about 10 riders. I was willing to work with these guys, so I did, but half way around the second time I decided to make some time by hopping off the front and making them chase but when I got back into the group I felt my tire go soft thinking ” this cant be happening” sure enough I muttered a few choice words and fell back with a very low tire which soon went flat. I walked a good mile then one of the follow cars for another race picked me up and took me back to the parking area.

A few weeks after this happened I got to go to the first Crit of the season, a 2 hour drive, I was very excited. We had one of our buddies with a broken collar bone and another with a torn shoulder going with the two of us that could ride, my shoulder still hadn’t gotten back to strength. Then about 15 min away from the race everyone heard a noise so we stopped the car and sure enough, me involving a bike race what could it be? It was in fact a flat tire on the car, so we had 3 injured people and one other man who was fully capable of changing a tire. We ended up unloading the car, changing the tire, and reloading the car in a super rush to get me there in time to have a chance to race, we drove as fast as we could and I got dressed in the car and we jumped out of the car and I signed a waiver and bam, time to roll out and not 3 min after I got rolled out it was time to start. So here I was cold and not warmed up and in the first lap I got dropped and chased the rest of the race to catch up and take 14th place.

The next race I went to was a beautiful day, I got there and I felt great about it. I did my turn on the front then at the top of a roller on the flat to rolling course I accidentally found myself off the front, upon being sucked back I hit a rock and once again found a flat tire, never could have thought that would happen to me, luckily there was a man just out riding the course and he gave me his wheel seeing that I was very angry because there was no neutral wheels like they told me. I thanked him and road my hardest the rest of the race. Later that day I got my wheel back fixed and the man took his wheel back, to ride the course backwards and watch my buddy Jordan sprint like a pro to the win of his race. They say bad luck comes in three’s, I guess they are correct, except my bad luck continued with other little problems. Moral of this story is, don’t trust your equipment or the tires that come with your bike, don’t worry about the weight you gain by getting flat protection because it may just save you a race.

Guest Post by Richard Stripes II a Junior Road Racer from Ellensburg Washington.

Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned From Cycling

December 8, 2013 by Lee Agur

Your will is stronger than the pain

Your will is stronger than the pain

You never know what is around the corner

You never know what is around the corner

Never Give up

Never Give up

Work Hard for what you want in life

Work Hard for what you want in life

Watch out for the rocks in you path

Watch out for the rocks in you path

Enjoy the ride while you can

Enjoy the ride while you can

You have to push hard to get ahead in life

You have to push hard to get ahead in life

The ride is nothing with out you

The ride is nothing with out you

Spinning in place gets you nowhere

Spinning in place gets you nowhere

Be prepared for the bumps ahead

Be prepared for the bumps ahead

Slow down when you are going too fast

slow down you are going too fast

Enjoy the scenery around you

Enjoy the scenery around you

Work hard and play harder

work harder

The ride is always better with a friend

The ride is always better with a friend

Never underestimate yourself

I operate on another level

You can always push harder

shut up legs

Set your goals high

set your goals high

You can accomplish anything you set your mind to

2013 tour de france final podium

Everything I need to know in life I learned from Cycling

 

Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan

November 19, 2013 by Guest Post

Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan

Granfondo Axel Mercx OkanaganJeff Symonds (2013 Challenge Penticton Champion)

What would you do if you knew you would not fail? Or for the triathletes in the crowd, what would you do if you knew you didn’t have to run afterwards? The Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan (GFAMO) is a great way for triathletes to find the answer to this question. Granfondo events are a great opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and tear down any fears you might have. Whether your fears are related to how hard you can push, or whether or not you can cover the distance, the ‘Fondo will have an answer for you.

Pacing is undeniably critical to triathlon success. We train and develop the ability to sustain that pace for incredible amounts of time. But sometimes it’s tough to mentally and physically breakaway from that pace. The excitement of a 2000+ person Granfondo start-line will provide you with an almost euphoric surge of motivation to push new boundaries. Adding to that motivation is that in an event of this size, there isn’t just one rider to chase, but an entire group. There is an almost endless supply of competitors to push you and encourage you to find a new level of performance.

When I took part in the GFAMO in 2012, I found myself pushing extremely high wattages early on. If I had seen these wattages in a triathlon I would have slowed down and conserved myself for the run. But the beauty of the ‘Fondo is that there is no run. If you go too hard you don’t have to suffer through a 42.2 km death march, you can simply soft-pedal back to town. Because of this I threw caution to the wind and “got ugly out there”! I rode the like a maniac and attacked off the front. After riding hard all day I got to the finish-line expecting to be fully cooked. On the contrary, I felt pretty good. In the process, I found a new level of hurt. Three weeks later I took this knowledge and confidence into the Ironman 70.3 Calgary. I used the new limits that I had found in the ‘Fondo, to finish on the podium on the back of a strong bike and a solid run.

Participating in supported group riding like the ‘Fondo is a great way to practice many elements of long course racing, without having to worry about the long recovery that comes with running. Pre-event jitters, pace, nutrition, hydration, equipment and mental strategies are all crucial elements to triathlon success that can be practiced in the ‘Fondo.

Until next time…Ride Hard and Smile Often. And don‘t forget to Get Ugly Out There!

Granfondo Axel Merckx OkanaganJeff Symonds

Jeff Symonds is a Canadian professional triathlete from Penticton B.C. In 2011, Jeff broke through with a 3rd-place finish at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Last August, he captured the inaugural Challenge Penticton title, averaging more than 38 km/h on the 180 km bike segment. Jeff now lives and trains in Vancouver, B.C.

Article Courtesy of Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan

Side Note: Lee Agur (Founder of this site) will be participating in the 2014 Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan and will buy you a beer if you finish before him. So sign up for the 2014 Granfondo Axel Merckx Okanagan here and earn a free drink and some bragging rights. Get a hold of him through the contact page so he can keep an eye out for you.

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