Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Fitness News #76 - Social Fitness

I'm feeling pretty tired on my rest day and my friend Stuart, who is also an RPM instructor suggested we do a Body Balance class later in the week.  Suddenly doing this Balance class is on the agenda, but the question begs, why wasn't it on the agenda before?

Note: major changes in classes, please see below


Social Fitness

 At times I've said the best exercise in the world is the exercise that you enjoy doing, however to use the phrase "the sord has two edges" in the case of exercise one side of the sord is the endorphins that we get from the exercise and the other side is self presevation, the saving of energy for a later date when starvation can occur, even though this never happens anymore.

If we go back to our tribal days, all our exercise was incidental and this is where the social aspect came in, working in groups, the tasks of the tribe were accomplished more effectively and with greater security.  We worked towards a common goal and our body rewarded us for the effort with endorphins.

Modern society has rewarded us with unlimited food and the elimination of most incidental exercise, however our primal need for survival is still in us and our body encourages us to preserve our fat reserverses for the famine that will never come.

What you should do

Look for fun activities you can do with your friends, some examples;
  • Go see  Sculpture by the Sea. The walk along the beaches will happen without your friends realizing.
  • Get your friend to come to the gym with you.  Making a commitment to a friend means that if you bail, then your are letting your friend down, you are more likely to go.
  • Join a social group that does active things, like a cycling or bush walking club.
  • Participate in group fitness.  Even if you don't know the others, having them around will spur you on.

What if you did nothing

  • There are those who prefer to exercise by themselves. If that works for you then stick with it.

 Riding

My knee is on the improve and I have entered some of the NSW summer track series.  Shall see what happens.

 

 Classes

There are big changes in the classes at Fitness First;
  • Top Ryde Wedneday 6.15pm, I am no longer doing.  Carolanne has taken that class.
  • Rockdale Tuesday 6.30pm, I no longer do that one.  Have not been advised who has taken it.
  • Five Dock Monday 5.45pm.  This gym is now owned by FitNFast.  The class continues.

Fit-N-Fast
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM

Note:  Fit-N-Fast uses original music.  Please go to >>  totally les mills << and find the tracks that you want to hear, then send them to me in an email.  

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 

Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30

Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM

Bond St Thu 11.45am RPM
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM 
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM
Stadium Fitness Centre Saturday 6.30am RPM- Covering


Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Fitness News #75 - How not to get fat eating fast food

I once purchased a chicken dinner from a local takeaway.  I was the only customer, yet it took what felt like forever to arrive.  At home I looked up the definition of fast food and its definition is food that can be prepared quickly, so technically my chicken dinner still qualified as fast food.  The definition of fast food doesn't exclude the proposition that fast food could be good for you.

Eat fast food and not get fat

 The Visit to Hungry Jacks

Driving back from Gouldburn I was getting low on fuel, it was 2.30pm and I hadn't had lunch, so I pulled into the servo, refueling the car.  It was also time to refuel myself and next to the servo was Hungry Jacks.  I think I last ate at Hungry Jacks about a year ago.  Anyway the first thing I noticed was that next to each item on the menu was the kilojoules for each item.  I'm a bit behind the times, tending to think in calories, but that didn't matter as it was it was easy to see what the difference was between the options.

You could argue that I should have packed my own lunch rather than buying and you would be correct, but it didn't happen this time.

Comparing the burgers, the grilled chicken burger was a tad under half the calories of the Wooper (or whatever they call their mega burger) and small variations in the product made big differences in the kilojoules.  For example the coated (crumbed?) chicken burger had 50% more kilojoules (calories) than the grilled chicken burger.  Now this caught me by surprise, the chicken salad wrap had about the same kilojoules as the equivalent chicken burger, so the wrap itself had the same kilojoules as the burger bun.  Want less kilojoules than the chicken grill burger, then there was  chicken salad at about half the kilojoules of the low kilojoules chicken burger.  The salad appeared to be the contents of the burger, without the bun.  So in the chicken grill burger, half the kilojoules are in the bun.


Lets add the crime.  Small drink and chips had the same kilojoules as the grilled chicken burger and I would assume close to zero nutritional value.  A large drink and chips was double the kilojoules of the small version, the same as the wooper burger.  Lets not go near the free refill, there was a dude who would of weighed about 160kg taking advantage of that.

Vegetarian.... forget it... The Vegetarian burger had the same kilojoules as the Wooper and your only other option was the drink and chips. 

Hungry Jacks Nutrition Guide

Most of you saw the movie Supersize me, where he puts on a heap of weight in a month eating just at McDonalds.  However did you notice that the guy who had the record for the most burgers eaten wasn't fat.  The mentioned that while he ate the burgers, he rarely ate the chips and drink.

Well, there's a rebuttal to Supersize me called  Fat head, its  >>here<< on youtube .  Now while there's a number of things that I disagree with, such as how the portray vegetables as being boring, but it does show that fast food can be eaten without getting fat.

What you should do

  • Ensure you have good food knowledge, often there is a big difference in the value of food between the options that interest you.
  • Consider taking food with you rather than purchasing.  You have better control over food that you make yourself.
  • Avoid manufactured products, it is difficult to know what is in them.  If its manufactured, how do you know what is in it.
  • Have a preference towards foods that are in the same form as they were when they were grown.  The closer to the farm a product the less chance it has been tampered with.
  • Unless you specifically know the nutritional information, always avoid coated products.
  • Don't assume that the independent takeaway is healthier than the big chain.

What if you did nothing

  • . If you don't gain good food knowledge, then you will have no control on the effect of your food purchasing decisions.

 Riding

My knee still dogs me, but I went to the Australian Road Racing Championships and ended up near the rear of the field in all races

Wednesday 3rd October 2012 - Australian Individual Time Trails Championships

Anyone who saw me on Saturday morning would know that I was quite crook, so I'm pleased just to have to got to the race, the results are incidental.

Pre-race
I've purchased the Orbea off David, so this time it was my bike and not borrowed. However I don't have wheels, so I'm riding on alloy clinchers, so really just a TT frame. I got the handlebars moved back so it meets UCI measurements and it just made the measurements.... just. Just to make life more interesting I suffered calf cramps during the warmup... oh dear..

Race - out
The course was identical to the NSW champs, with didn't mean a lot to me as I didn't race it, but I had read the reports and knew that the way out was slower than the way back. There was a headwind and initially I seem to cut thru it quite well. I chose to run a lower cadence to what I normally run, I knew I wasn't in the best of condition and I wanted to preserve my legs, then in a similar fashion to Kirrijong the speed just disappeared and I played a battle of grinding to a halt and then building back my speed. Start times were a minute apart and I was hoping to make it to halfway without been overtaken, but that wasn't to be as I was overtaken just before the halfway mark.

Race - back
Interestingly the rider that overtook me was slow up a hill and I ended up overtaking him, which was short lived. Knowing that halfway was actually well past halfway, I let my cadence rise and went for it. I was a bit irritated by a couple of things;
- knees hitting elbows. really need to to review my position and see about those extra 5cm allowed in the rules for some situations.
- speedo kept cutting in and out. I tend to race my speedo, but it didn't want to play ball.

Data - this is the first time I've used a Garmin - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/229495747 A little out, but you get the general idea.

Result
Came 13th out of 15 starters, not a good result, but where I expected to turn up. Comparing the data with 2011 championships, I was about 1.5kph slower, when compared with the other riders.

Friday 5th October 2012 - Australian Criterion Championships

Venue: Marulan Driver Training Centre

I put my heart rate monitor on while in the hotel room and it was giving me readings between 90 and 110, depending on what I was doing, not a good sign, still sick. Unlike last year where I was away on a breakaway, this year was about survival and I needed a tactical race, if they went like greyhounds, I was done for.

After warming up sat on the start line for 8 minutes and still started with a heart rate of 140, there was an immediate attack off the line and the field strung out. My speedo was pissing me off, it was reading 25kph downhill...useless. By the end of lap 1 I was on the rear. On lap 2 the rider in front of me blew, I went around him and chased the bunch, went around another rider and just got back on 3/4 lap later, only to be immediately dropped. I chased hard staying in contact for 2 laps but not getting on. Then I cruised for 4 more laps, in case the bunch slowed up, but it didn't and withdrew, 4th to last I think.

Only 9 out of about 19 riders finished. 1st and 2nd were half lap ahead of 3rd and 4th. 5th to 9th was about 3/4 a lap behind.

My speed data is out, it shows an average speed of 25.5kph. I've made an estimate on distant covered at 9k, which gives me a average speed of 38.5, could be wrong.

Cadence shows that I was focusing on preserving myself and not being gun-ho.

Now heart rate, that is a concern, Started at 140, average of 180 and a peak of 191. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230063477

I'm not unhappy with the outcome, it didn't come as a surprise and I expect a similar outcome tomorrow in the road race.

Saturday 6th October 2012 - Australian Road Racing championships

99.6k

Today finished a chapter in a series of races where I wasn't race fit. I had little expectation going up to the start line, however while my heart rate was high, it wasn't as high as yesterday. Then we sat on the line for 24 minutes as they delayed the start. There was about 45 riders.

The first 4k was neutral and the speed was restricted by the leading car, which took us to the circuit itself.

Lap 1 - 56:08
I was dropped on the very first hill. After a bit of solo riding, I made a decision that I wasn't able to catch the bunch in front of me and I should slow down and pick up the rider behind me and encouraged him to ease up to allow the rider behind us to catch. The 3 of us pressed on, collected another rider and had a go at catching the bunch in front of us, of about 10 riders. By the turn around it was clear that them, they were working hard to catch the main bunch. The return leg gave us more down hill and more importantly a tailwind. We collected another rider and immediately lost another.

Lap 2 - 1:01:38
Turned around and straight into the headwind, it was clear we were gone. One rider was dropped leaving the 3 of us. Then a couple of K later I was dropped and lost about 200mtrs on the other 2 and rode solo for say 10k. Up a long hill, I managed to half the distance, which encouraged me to put a special effort into the next hill, I reeled them in and we are back as 3, not far from the turnaround. Once around the turnaround I was dropped again, leaving me half the race remaining to ride solo. Rode about 5k and got overtaken by another race, then about 5k later they sat up and I reeled them back in. I didn't really want to slow down, so I rode up beside the commissionaires car and asked if it was OK to overtake. As I rode past them I said "I'm not in your race" so they wouldn't see me as an attack in their race. I ended up quite a way in front of them, but as I got closer to the finish line, that race was working hard and I realised they were probably finishing, so I slowed up to let them overtake me.

Lap 3 - 1:08:39
My knee was playing up and I had serious thoughts about not doing the lap, but I decided to press on, but took it easy into the headwind, as can be seen in my data. About halfway into the outward leg a car appeared behind me and I realised that I was the last rider who hadn't DNF'ed, I dubbed the car the swag wagon. This spurred me on a bit and I built speed, the turnaround came and I felt good and found pace, there was also a blown rider about a K in front of me and this gave me something to chase. Then I caught the blown rider, for the wrong reason, he had a flat. The swag wagon stopped for the rider with the flat. I rode on and just before the finish line the swag waggon overtook me with that rider on board, doubly confirming me as the last rider to complete.

I don't know the finish time, but I'm guessing I finished 15 - 20 minutes behind the winner. My average speed was 30.4kph, making it my slowest race, a huge difference between last years championship where I averaged 40.0kph, true this years course is slower. I'm not disappointed, its what I expected recovering from my sickie.

Data;
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230393231 or on strava http://app.strava.com/activities/24131388

 

 Classes

I've got a couple of classed covered at the beginning of the week, so to rest my knee

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM - covered by Carolanne
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM - last class
Top Ryde Wed 6.15pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Bond St Thu 11.45am RPM
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM - covered by Jackqueline 
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM- covered by Jackqueline

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Fitness News #74 - The Pleasure Path

Have you ever wondered why you are attracted to things that are not in your best interest.  Well there's a good reason for it and it dates back to before human civilization, when survival wasn't an automatic taken.

The Pleasure Path

The 2 most important things to a creature is its survival and the passing of its genetics to the next generation.  So that's;
SEX - Well most of us know about this one, but if you don't then Google is your friend, just make sure that safe search is switched on....
FOOD - Your survival is dependent on receiving sufficient calories to allow your body to perform its required functions and it is designed to store the excess calories for times when there is no receipt of calories, ie the men have not returned with  a beast and then woman have not collected any berries etc etc.  So how this works, is your brain rewards you for the calories you consume, however there's another angle to this, your stomach can only contain so much food, before it sends the 'full message' to your brain, so the pleasure reward for high calories food is higher than for lower calorie food.

However there's a third angle to the pleasure path and that is paradoxical, and that is energy expenditure;
EXERCISE -  Sometimes we hate exercising and other times we love it, so why the contradiction.  Well the brain it trying to make you do 2 things;
1. Ensure that you achieve the 2 things above, if the energy expenditure will result in you having sex or acquiring food, then that is energy worthy of expenditure.
2. Conservation.  The less energy we burn, the more successful we are of conserving our energy stores, ie our fat.

What you should do

You need to out smart your genetics, by using strategies that satisfy your brain while dealing with what civilization has given us, ie unlimited food supply and the ability to minimise energy expenditure.  So how can you do this?

With FOOD the trick is to provide pleasure responses to your brain, without resulting in the survival strategy of excessively stored energy as fat.  If you don't know how to eat smart, then talk to an qualified expert.  A strategy I have taken up, is to send the fill stomach message to my brain, by filling it up with vegetables, which also means you need to find a way to make vegetables appealing and I have achieved this.  Like all of us I am not perfect, but those imperfections are occasional foods and everyday foods are the ones that reward your goals.

With EXERCISE the trick is to ensure you enjoy doing it.  Ultimately if you don't enjoy exercise you won't continue it.  Nowadays exercise is important as our lifestyle has removed what was the incidental exercise we did pre-civilization .

What if you did nothing

If you do not react to the contradictions of our survival instincts and what civilization provides, then our bodies will store huge amounts energy as fat for a period of famine that will never occur and energy conversation will ensure that our bodies will deteriorate due to a lack of activity 

 Riding

 The other weekend I raced in the Kirrajong classic,  a hilly road race, not far from Windsor, in Sydney's west. 

Lap 1
Hill - after rolling towards the front, overtaking plenty of riders at 22kph, my body reminded me that it had been sick and relocated it to 18kph. Riders went past me in drones and I crested the top behind the second bunch.
Chase 1 Formed a group of 4 riders and we chased hard catching the second bunch a couple of K before the left hand turn. My body had been acting strange, sometimes it worked properly and other times it just gave up the ghost.
Chase 2 The bunch was not working well and was a long way behind the front bunch. After a lot of "communication" eventually formed a paceline and then it gained ground hand over fist.

Lap 2
Reunion - As we neared the start finish line, the bunch broke up. About 6 of us went off and jumped the gap, but our effort was unnecessary as the front bunch put on the brakes, meaning that all the dropped riders from our bunch got on.
Hill - Got near the front and felt good, then my body decided to continue its sickie and simply stopped working. At one point I hit 11kph and went over the top as the very last rider.
Ride back - For no apparent reason, suddenly my body felt good and I found good pace, I picked up 2 riders as I went past then the 3 of us worked together and we steadily gathered riders and spat the odd one. One guy hit a pot hole and got a flat and there was a wheel touch, I guy hit my rear wheel but fortunately didn't fall off. We sprinted for the line, but I went a little early and one guy rolled me, so I ended up second in that bunch.

The data shows that I was quite slow on the day, I'm a quicker rider than I was in 2009, but last Sunday's time was much slower
2012 28th 52:07 56:06 -> 1:48:13 (Winning time 1:43:42) - gap 4:29
2011 DNS (Injured in ride for life) (Winning time 1:44:37)
2010 39th 53:10 55:25 -> 1:48:35 (Winning time 1:45:11) - gap 3:24
2009 ??th ??:?? ??:?? -> 1:45:46 (Winning time 1.43.43) - gap 2:03

While the result is not that good, I was rather happy that my knee that had been troubling me didn't play up and for that reason I was happy to have finished.


RPM56

Done and dusted.  Let me know which tracks you liked and didn't like.

Classes

As you know, Monday is a public holiday, normal classes are not on.  For the rest of the week I'm away at the Australian Road Racing Championships.  All classes Tue - Friday are on and are covered by other instructors.

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM 
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 6.15pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Bond St Thu 11.45am RPM
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM 
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Fitness News #73 - Smoking vs Dietary Crimes

In previous blog posts, I've pointed out that more people die from diet related health issues than smoking related health issues.  As I lay in my bed this week with a bout of man flu, I read articles that talked about some analysis in the UK, where they determined that poor diet can do more harm to you than smoking.

Smoking vs Dietary Crimes

Really there's no comparison, this debate is a bit like saying "I eat at McDonald's as the food is less fatty than KFC" but stating that a poor diet is worse than smoking does point out is how significant having a bad diet can be to you.  But food wise, perhaps we are a bit like smoking was in the 50's when the cigaret companies were advertising the benefits of smoking, such as "smoking makes you slim".  Switch on your TV, the smoking adverts have gone, but products make from cheap calorie dense ingredients are constantly marketed at you while fruit and vegetable adverting is virtually non existent.  With Australia deep into a obesity crisis, perhaps its time to start regulating food marketing, along the ways that smoking marketing was initially regulated. 

What you should do

Have a look at the things in your life that are not productive for your future, set a strategy to reduce and remove those.  Set realistic goals, perhaps tackle one issue at a time.;
  1. Smoking and other drugs.  If these are in your life, they must be your first priority to deal with.
  2. Diet.  There is no silver bullet for this one.  Its a complex topic and there are a lot of differing views on this.  For me its been a journey of gradual continuous improvement.  I keep making little improvements, while continuing to enjoy what I eat.
  3. Exercise.  You know this one and what it does for you.

What if you did nothing

Well its up to you what quality you get out of life and how long you live.


 Riding

 Haven't done any racing lately.  I'm entered for a road race next weekend

RPM56

 We have a new release which I will be playing at selected clubs and all RPM classes next week;
 1 Drive By - Train
2 Breathing - Reckless Ozzy
3 Laserlight (DRM Vs. Days Remix) - Electro Driverz
4 Charlie Brown - Coldplay
5 Crush On You - Cavern Buckle
6 Ya Mama "Push The Tempo" - Fatboy Slim Vs. Moguai
7 Apollo Road - ATB & Dash Berlin
8 You Are The Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne
9 93 Million Miles - Jason Mraz      

There's also a bonus track 5, that I will play at a future date;
5 Everybody Talks - Stellar Cosmo

Classes

Last week covering at Newtown

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM - 56 release with Carolanne
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM - 56 release with Vicki
Bond St Thu 11.45am RPM
Newtown Thu 6.40pm Ride - last week
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM - 56 release with Jacquiline
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM - 56

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM - 56 release

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Fitness News #72 - I ate at McDonald's

Fast food is entrenched in our society, it would be difficult to find someone who doesn't occasionally eat fast food.  So what happens to you when you are in 'fast food' land, well that's up to you.  What happened to me, how did I end up at McDonalds and what did I eat?

What Mike at at McDonald's

Before I answer that question, a bit of background on how I ended up at McDonald's.  I was away for the weekend at Mudgee bike racing, having raced 88k on Saturday and 84k on Sunday, the day I visited McDonald's.  With that kinda' energy burn, food requirements are a little different.  Combine that with the need to drive back to Sydney and no familiarity with local options made McDonald's at Lithglow an attractive option.  McDonald's understand the importance of location and are often positioned accordingly.

I walked in with no idea as to what I wanted, I was aware that most of my meals for the weekend consisted of purchased food and regardless of source it is not the same as food you prepare yourself.  Now you know how I poke fun at the concept of 'meal', being the addition of hot chips and soft drink.  Well that was the case, however they are now offering options, you can change the chips for a salad and the soft drink for a coffee and probably water, but I didn't check that one.  So I got a big mac with salad and cappuccino  (if I was perfect it would of been water, but if I was perfect, I'd be perfectly boring).  The salad was a pretty standard green salad and tasted fresh, it came with a choice of dressings, so I picked one, however if you didn't want a dressing, you could leave it off.  I also got to compare the salad with the chips, as the guy I was with ordered the chips and I ate a few, the salad won hands down.  As for the burger, how of earth does it get the word 'big' in the name?

What you should do

There's a simple strategy to follow;
  1. Avoid.  Where possible eat food you have prepared yourself.
  2. Select [1]. Choose to eat at businesses that have food closer to what you would of prepared yourself .
  3. Select [2]. Don't be suckered in by price, ultimately you get what you pay for.
  4. Make your own decision.  Buy what you want, don't be a sheep and buy whatever others are buying, its there problem if they want to eat poor quality food.

What if you did nothing

Do you really want your health to be determined by the retail vendors?  Are they focusing on your health or their profits?

 Riding

 As mentioned above, I raced at Mudgee;

Saturday:  Mudgee 90km Mark Dwyer Handicap - 88k (by my measurement) 
Disaster
Historically I'd never done well at this race and this year was no different, heading into disaster straight away, dropped by my bunch on 3k from the start, I evaluated what the problem was, took an energy gel and did some maths on what I needed to do, which was make it to the top of the upcoming hill at the 14k mark, so I needed to ride 11k at just the right pace to be caught by the next bunch and I did that perfectly.  However about 10k on I lost focus and got dropped by that group.  Up the next hill, I powered up trying to get back on and I was gaining, but once I caught, it wasn't the group but some riders dropped by that group.  We worked together and picked up another rider, we could see the bunch ahead and weren't loosing distance, but we also weren't gaining.  The route turned from North West to South West, straight into a headwind and we were caught by a big group from behind.
Success
The big group was working well and we were gaining of the bunch in front.  We made excellent progress into the head wind  The route turned to South East as we caught that bunch plus another at the same time, resulting in a big bunch.
Solo
Then I made the next mistake of this race, at about 65k the bunch split and I was near the back, I had broken a cardinal rule of handicap racing, that been that when you catch a bunch, you power straight past it, so not to get trapped by slower riders.  I jumped out of my group and powered across the gap to the bunch ahead, but didn't quite make it.  A couple of K's later I tried again up a hill, but to no success.  So with my energy expended, I pretty much soloed the last 20 k home, coming home 101st on handicap and 87th on time in 2h29m (out of 148 finishers). Continuing my ability to do badly at this particular event.


Sunday: Mudgee Peter van Gent Graded Scratch Race - 84k (by my measurement)

Not wanting to repeat the problems of yesterday, I was keen to be competitive from the start, dressed warmer and took an energy gel before the start.  The pace going out wasn't as hot as yesterday and I wasn't having any problems and was able to easily respond to any attacks.  30k in I had a minor mishap, as the road seal suddenly narrowed and 3 riders including myself found ourselves on the dirt, the other 2 managed to get straight back on, but I ended heading into the ditch, but held it together and got back on the road, chased and caught the bunch.  At the 70k mark my energy was done and I dropped off the back, riding the 14k solo, to finish 24th out of 29 in 2:22:06, about 3m40s behind the winner.

Classes


Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Newtown Thu 6.40pm Ride
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Fitness News #71 - Why you want to be fat

Watching the Olympic games, there doesn't seem to be a gram of fat that's not required for their sport of expertise.  But walk around your local shopping centre and you see a completely different body image, after all we are the second fattest major country in the world.

Ask these people what they would prefer and most will say they wish they didn't have this excess fat, but is that actually true

Why you want to be fat

Before civilisation the number one survival factor was finding enough food to avoid starvation, when food supplies was lean.  So what our bodies do is store excess food as fat when supplies are good and release that fat where there is insufficient food availability.

The problems of excess fat were not a concern as pre-civilisation, you were really old by 30 and unlikely to see your 40th birthday.  So the potential problems of excess fat were minor compared with the ability to survive starvation.

Nowadays we have unlimited food supplies, but our genetics are still telling us the same story;
  1. Seek out the highest calorie foods
  2. Eat as much as possible, after all you never know what's going to be available tomorrow.
Now the food marketers know our genetics well, we have all heard the slogan "sex sells"  well "survival sells" too and don't they know it, as the constantly market high calorie, low nutritional value products at us.

Last Wednesday evening, I turned up at the class and it was 60% Male 40% Female.  I said isn't there something on tonight.... oh that's right State Of Origin.  One of the guys told me, we worked out we had enough time to do the class and still get to watch the match.

The fact is that busy people find the time to do exercise while others find time to make excuses why they don't exercise.

What you should do

You need to differentiate between the need for your daily nutrition and your primal instinct for survival.  Ask yourself some questions;
  1. Am I actually hungry, or is my body looking for excess calories to store for the future
  2. Has the desire been generated by marketing
  3. What is the nutritional value / calorie ratio.  Yes you need calories, but you want to get that nutrition in.

What if you did nothing

  Not understanding your primal genetic needs and modern day target marketing will expose you to the risk of making poor decisions, as it will be harder to differentiate between desire and actual needs.

 Riding

 Last weekend was a busy one for me;

Saturday:  NSW Club Team Time Trail (TTT) Championships - 40k.  The previous week we had trained together and got a good idea of each riders strengths and challenges.  We struck a strategy, which was for me to do the bulk of the uphill work, but to push the uphill to the limits.  

We finished 10th out of 25 teams, well clear of the medals, but not a performance to be snared at.

Sunday: Nowra Road Race - 90k.  What a horrible day, the roads were wet when we started and light rain came down early into the race, only to get worse as the race progressed.  This race was a handicap race, where we work as a team in our group, chasing the group in front of us, while trying to stop the group behind us catching.

The race was out and back.  As we approached the 45k turnaround, I saw the leaders going the other way and took a reading on my bike computer.  We reached the turnaround after 800mtrs, so I knew the leaders were only 1.6k ahead.  It seemed like no time at all before we caught them and we went straight past.  

Then we went down a big winding hill in the rain.  Many riders were spooked by the not so safe conditions and the result was there was a split with about 12 riders getting off the front, being chased by 6 riders including me.  We were working hard, not gaining on them but also not loosing.  Then the fastest riders in the race caught us, we jumped on the back and got a free tow up to the front group, rolling between 55kph and 65kph with the help of some mild downhill slope and powering over the uphills.

At the front, the pace was cut to 45kph, it was looking like everyone was waiting for a bunch sprint, but as we got closer, we could see a car with flashing lights and then we realised there was a bike behind it.  All of a sudden it was game on again and we screamed towards the final turnaround, cutting his lead from something like a k to about 50mtrs, which mean this poor bloke who had probably ridden by himself for something like 40k would be swallowed buy by the peloton in the last few hundred metres, like what you see in Tour De France.

It was at this turnaround that I made my biggest mistake of the race, being too far back, as the turnaround caused a split.  I tried to ride across the gap, but ended up finishing the race in no mans land.  Though it was great result, coming in 14th out of 99 entrants, only 19 seconds behind the winner who took $1,000 for the effort.  I also came 4th in my age category, 5 seconds behind the winner.

Classes


Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Bond St Fri 11.45am cover
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Fitness News #70 - Dedication


 My office is set in a semi bush location and has large outdoor areas.  From the windows near my desk I can see a small area devoted to smoking, there's a table and chairs under a garden umbrella.  To get to this area you need to walk down a path from the building in the open.

One day it was absolutely bucketing down, any sane person would of given their cigaret break a miss, but that wasn't the case, the smokers were huddled under the umbrella having their break.

Now that's Dedication  

Dedication

 OK smoking may not be what we want to be dedicated to, but exercise is, I struck this example of dedication, which is more like what we want;

Last Wednesday evening, I turned up at the class and it was 60% Male 40% Female.  I said isn't there something on tonight.... oh that's right State Of Origin.  One of the guys told me, we worked out we had enough time to do the class and still get to watch the match.

The fact is that busy people find the time to do exercise while others find time to make excuses why they don't exercise.

What you should do

Reevaluate what you do with your time and work out where it is being used effectively or not effectively.   Set your priorities to what you want to be dedicated to.

What if you did nothing

  At the end of the day, letting obstacles get in the way of your exercise goals will only defeat you.

 Riding

 We drove down to Kangaroo Valley and rode over to Norwa, then out of town to the NSW TTT course where we trained on the course, in preparation for next Saturday's championship, then back to Kangaroo Valley 

Classes

Have you tried the new format Ride30 at Pitt st, Monday 1.10pm

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Pitt st Thu 12.20pm RPM (covering for Stuart)
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Fitness News #69 - Tour de France diet


Last year when I raced in Australia's toughest one day road race - Grafton to Inverall, the calorie calculation worked out at 7,700 calories.

In the Tour de France, massive calorie burns happen day after day and without optimised nutrition, we would see riders collapsing on route.

The Tour de France Diet

 Switch the TV to SBS tonight and you will be confronted with some mouth watering French cooking, put together by Gabriel Gaté, followed by extremely fit lean cyclists riding at break neck speed.

So these cyclists must have really good diets, to be so lean.  Well its not quite that simple, their diets are carefully worked out, to provide the needs of their special situation.  Lets call this optimised dieting.

So what do they need?
  1.  Energy delivery
  2. Recovery
  3. Whatever is needed for normal living
There's another twist, that's the ability of the body to absorb and process the energy.  So the focus thru the day is for food types that release its energy straight into the blood stream and easily delivered to the muscles.  Hence during the race the food consumed has a high sugar content, which will spike the blood sugar levels, just like when you drink a soft drink.

Post race the diet continues to contain a generous dosage of simple carbohydrates, such as pasta, as the riders take the opportunity to replenish their depleted glycogen reserves. 

What you should do

Unless you need 6,000+ calories a day, then you shouldn't be following the Tour de France diet, without their calorie burn, you won't end up lean like them, in fact you will end up the opposite, as the body converts the spare energy into fat.

What you need to do is create your own optimised diet, which meets your needs.  An optimised diet will mean that your goals will be easier and quicker to meet.

What if you did nothing

 In one way or another, you goals will not come as easily as they could, or even slip further away, simply because what you are doing is not what you need to do to achieve your goals.

 Riding

 Cough cough

Took this weekend off as a sickie, starting with missing track racing Friday night and then cancelling the weekend training rides, which I was suppose to be ride leader for.

Never mind, next week I'm planning to ride the NSW TTT course with 2 of my 3 team mates

Classes

Have you tried the new format Ride30 at Pitt st, Monday 1.10pm

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Pitt st Thu 12.20pm RPM (covering for Stuart)
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Fitness News #68 - Obesity in Argentina


I've written many times about how, healthy eating is cheaper than junk food.   But what about in a country where vegetables expense and low income earners earn less than Australia.

Two television programs tackled the topic of the obesity of impoverished Argentina's.  Surprisingly they both ended up with the same solution, despite one been done by a british expert and the other being done by 2 obese brits with no nutrition training.

The Argentina Obesity Crisis

 Both programs attributed the problem to the diet

Beef
The joke I've made about flying Argentina airlines is that the hostess comes up to and says "would you like beef with your beef sir".  Yes the Argentinians love their beef, however the quality of the cut depends on your income, with poor people eating the poorest cuts.

Vegetables
Are expensive, they are pretty much non existent in the diet of the poor.  And not in ready supply in poor areas due to a lack of demand

Soft drinks
A popular product with the poor Argentinians.  Featured heavily in their diet.

The Argentinian Solution

The nutritionist determined that the only place to get the money for the vegetables was to cut out the soft drinks.  She also encouraged them to grow some vegetables, in the modest amount of land they had with some innovative solutions to the land space problem.

However what the 2 obese brits did was more interesting (Fat And Fatter on ABC), they went and brought vegetables and cooked some food for a Argentinian family.  The Argentinian mother said "you spent on vegetables what I spend on soft drinks".  Though she didn't realise it, she answered her own question on how to pay for vegetables and demonstrated that being poor in a country with expensive vegetables doesn't prevent you from eating vegetables.

What you should do

Not be deterred by the price of vegetables, the pricing may refine your selection, but it should never deter you from purchasing them.

What if you did nothing

Hey those couple of dollars you save can buy you more soft drinks and don't those soft drinks make you feel good.

 Riding

First time back on a track bike since January (before my accident).  Raced the opening round of RAW at Dunc Gray Velodrome, where the held the 2000 Olympics.

Warmup race:  Dropped, the pace was high and at least I wasn't the first to be dropped.

Three lap screamer:  Got second wheel of the line, the first guy controlled the pace, keeping it slow, then sprinted with just under 1.5 laps to go.  I wasn't able to hold his well and 2 riders went around me, resulting in 4th, a single point.

Points race:  Was in the thick of it but didn't loose any points.  A team mate sprinted off a got one of the wins (5 points), then rolled off.  What he didn't realise was that if you get lapped, you loose 20 points :)

Combines:  The first few riders went off at typical pace and after they rolled, we ended up with a really slow rider on the front, I had 4th wheel.  1st and 2nd wheel rolled together and 3rd wheel went for it, I went to and got his wheel, he did about a lap and rolled, I went for it.  After 1/2 a lap, with 5 to go, I looked around and there was no one, so I decided to have some fun and kept gunning, pulling the gap out to about 50mtrs.  Crossing the line with 2 laps to go, I only had 20 mtrs, so I knew I was going to be caught on the last lap, so I rolled and retried.

So this first time on the track bike showed me what was in me and what was missing

Classes

Join me on Monday 1.10pm for Ride30 at Pitt st.

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
Pitt st Thu 12.20pm RPM (covering for Stuart)
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat
 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Fitness News #67 - Adders


On the weekend I was at the 2012 Winter Magic Festival and at one of the stalls I brought some food "would you like a soft drink with that sir" I was asked, it was a marketing strategy that major junk food chains have been using for years.  I call this adders.

Commercial Adders

Commercial Adders, is additional items that are added to a food purchase to increase the profit.  Commonly these are chips and/or soft drinks, products that are extremely cheap to produce and market place appealing.  The low production cost enables the seller to entice the consumer to purchase what seems to be a bargain, but we know the true cost is the impact on your health.

 Home Adders

When you make a meal at home, do you add chips and soft drink to it?  Of course not, a home adder is something like a side salad,  cooked vegetables or as per the photo above, fruit with your dessert.

What you should do

This is no brainer, if it isn't a home adder, then don't add it.  Why would you?

What if you did nothing

Are those chips and soft drink so tasty that you are willing to add 1 to 2 gym classes simply to burn off those empty calories?

 Riding

Instead of riding, went for small bush walk

Classes

Second week with the 2 new permanent classes at Fitness First Pitt st.  Join me on Monday for RPM at 11.30am or 1.10pm for the first ever official Ride30 class.

Fitness First 
Rockdale Mon 6.00am Ride 
Pitt st Mon 11.30am RPM
Pitt st Mon 1.10pm Ride30 
Walker St  Tue 12.20pm Cover, this week TBA 
Five Dock Mon 5.45pm RPM
Rockdale Tue 6.30pm RPM
Top Ryde Wed 5.45pm Ride
Walker St Thu 6.00am RPM
 
YMCA
Riverwood Mon 7.30pm RPM - not on public holiday
Riverwood Tue 6.15am RPM

SCG
Stadium Fitness Centre Friday 6.15am RPM

Sleep Ride Eat Repeat