durianrider

Want to recharge and reset yourself?

have a month of not doing anything much physically and just sit on the couch and watch empowering doco's and chow down as many sweet fruit calories as you can fit during the day.Bananas, figs, grapes, mangoes, melons, stone fruit, raisins, blended dates.. Heck, if you can fit 10 000cals then do it! You will do your body good by having a month off ANY real exercise. Just get up and start drinking then start eating! Have a month of 'OFF SEASON' and I GUARANTEE you or anyone will be smashing harder than ever before.

We will get enough movement just going shopping or putting out the compost or doing some stretching. Im talking about no running, jogging, cycling, weights etc for a month.

So that is my perscription. EAT, GORGE, FEAST, SLAM IT DOWN! (slowly) and hydrate and rest/sleep up like a champion and reap the rewards over time.

What would we do for a prisoner of war person? would we get em exercising and calorie restricting? No way! What about a chunky chubster? Would be starve em and tell em 'he double but/thunder thighs, you gotta starve a bit to get the weight off fatso!' NO WAY! Rather we would get em BOTH carbed up, hydrated up, rested up etc so their body has the fuel to repair, heal and nourish.

What would we do for a rat that we found caught in a box in the cupboard that was emaciated? We would feed that little bugger till it was at full force and let it do its thing. What did I do with a fat caged pigeon I found once? I just fed it unlimited amounts of the most natural foods it would eat and it dropped weight in days!

Percy Cerutty was one of the greatest athletic coaches ever. He forced his runners to have breaks up in cabins with stacks of quality plant based food and lots of books and no running shoes. He told them that if he caught them sneaking out and training, he would no longer coach them!

Both people with superskinny or supersize need to chow down more fruit than they feel mentally comfortable with. Why? Cos the superskinny are near death and the supersized are eating foods that will cause their death.

By eating jabba the hut sized fruit meals, we help our body rebuild, repair, nourish, hydrate, strengthen itself. We find it easy to stay away from the death food cos we are meeting our bodies physiology rather than thinking we have to become more disciplined or some other crap like that. We will find it easily to be drug free/crackao free, drama free, 'im a victim' free.

Pound in the fruit and make homer simpson be proud of you peeps!

for the last 6 months ive been riding with cycleops powertap pro+. this model had all the features of the more exspensive ones with just a few extra grams and standard bearing rather than ceramic.

why train with power? power shows what we are actually doing and heart rate shows how we are responding..so its like a weight lifter using a heart rate monitor in the gym rather than using the amounts of weight they are actually lifting...

when we use both heart rate and power, we have more objective information of what we are actually doing and how we are responding. if you want more info, go visit www.saris.com or read the articles on other sites about the virtues of training with power. since 2002 each january ive been a 'tour guide' for various pro teams that visit Adelaide South Australia for the Tour Down Under. I have the fitness and road knowledge to take these teams out for anywhere up to 1 day to 10 days. Ive had the chance to train with some household name riders including oscar periero, jonathon vaughters, erik zabel,lance armstrong, igor gonzalez de galdeano etc. Riding with these sort of cyclists lets me see market, dietary, recovery, training trends etc long before they become mainstream cycling knowledge. Over the last 3 years ive seen more and more teams using power meters like powertap and srm cranks. This year 2009 i saw a massive increase in power meter usage and so i decided to make my training more objective and learn more about myself and get a power meter!! :)

WOW! I have found such an improvement in my training time, results and understanding since using a power meter. its been great to see how undereating of fruit saps my power even though my heart rate will remain the same. its so good to see the massive drops in power when your glycogen tanks starts to redline. often in our head we make up how we feel but the power meter doesnt let you bullshite yourself! after riding with it for a month or so and understanding how it works, you know how much workload you should be doing for any given interval, recovery ride etc.

when i first got my powertap, one day i went out riding and bumped into jack bobridge and rohan dennis. these neo pro's are local riders in my area and are regularly seen riding laps up and down the local mountain ranges. so anyways i was sitting on their wheel up this climb and i havent raced for a bit so my fitness is average. after a few minutes i was really struggling to maintain contact. then i remembered i had my power meter so i turned it on and checked to see what i was actually doing. i was ridng at 390-410 watts!!! no wonder i was struggling! lol! my best power output on this 15min climb has been 321watts. so i knew that i was ok when getting dropped at 390watts after a few minutes and it wasnt anything to do with hydration, sleep, glycogen etc rather it was just due to the fact i was riding over my personal best.

ive also learnt that for me to spin easier gears at around 90-110 rpm is better than grinding bigger gears at a lower cadence (rpm) and infact ive even switched to a compact crankset to maintain optimum cadence in my hilly area. now i understand why many pro riders like tyler hamilton, ivan basso, alberto contador etc use compact gears in certain hilly races. i always used to say that compact gears were for whimps! but then i proved my macho ego wrong with power output data!!!

there is to ways to increase power when pedalling. 1. push harder or 2. spin faster. pushing harder creates more pressure on the knees and uses more energy but spinning faster is easier on the knees and the fast momentum of your legs helps save energy for when it really counts like making the break, sprints or more distance etc.

so training with power you can objectively quantify know what you REALLY are doing! training by average speed, heart rate, wind, distance etc is nice but there is too many variables for it to be very accurate. power on the other hand is the most accurate way to train.

power meters are getting better value all the time and the powertap seems to be the most popular due to its accuracy, price, weight and ability to quickly swap between bikes!

yurrebilla 56km ultra trail marathon, adelaide south australia. first time this event has been ran as on official race. first time ive ever ran 56km, so i was excited to see how id go in an ultra marathon despite only running around 260km this year. some runners i talked to at the race registration do that in a fortnight, so after hearing that i hoped my cycling fitness and raw vegan stamina would help me finish my first ultra marathon.

after 15km i was ready to pull the pin, as my right arch and hip flexors were protesting quite intensely. i got to the 20km mark and the first aid crew offered me some nurofen but i told em im better off listening to my body and let my body decide if it wants to continue rather than block out the pain with drugs and risk a real injury.

as i continued to the next check point i slowed right down and asked myself why my legs felt so sore, i guess my lack of running had left my legs more prone to impact fatigue and when the gun went off, i ran with the leaders for the first 10km and we smashed the downhills and in hindsight, i was better off running my own pace and trying to hold a consistent pace for the entire race rather than blowing my legs to bits and crawling to the finish.

freelea said that morning before i cycled to the start to 'have fun'. so i looked at how i could make the rest of the ultra 'fun'. i caught up to the slower runners that had started a few hours before us and had some nice chats with em and got to see the trail at a pace where i could appreciate more details around me.

i finished in 8:55 and ate fruit the whole day. before the run, during the run and after the run. i carried 300g of dates and 1 large banana and this was enough for the entire run as i was fully carbed up from a few days solid eating and drinking prior to race day.

so where can i improve? DO SOME MORE RUNNING! :) that way i will reduce my chance of injury and get to really use my aerobic fitness to full effect.

i highly recommend anyone have a go at an ultra. start off slow and resist temptation to run at 10km race pace when you have another 6hours in front of you!

yesterday rolled out of bed, slapped on the pegasus, gulped 600ml of water and stuffed the mp3 in my pocket and headed out on a 23km circuit of this island in thailand we have been staying at.

after 30 min i started to get in the groove and things felt even more efficient. it was just another reminder that training decisions are often best made on the road. cos its easy to say yes or no when we are sitting down, but its how we feel on the road that really counts.

moral of the morning was : it doesnt matter if you wake up feeling great or not so great, what matters is that you transmutate what ever attitude you are feeling into something you feel proud of..

slap on your shoes, get on your bike or get in your wheelchair and hit the world with your organic athlete love!!!

recently i was in georgetown penang and ducked into a shop and left my calfee bamboo road bike outside and came back out and it was gone! :(

so if anyone sees a calfee bamboo with green chris king headset, hubs and 10spd dura ace... :)

i feel everything in life happens for an empowering meaning. for me losing my bike was a lesson in detachment. i felt anger for a moment and realised that im better off transmutating that emotion into some more positive. so i just stopped being angry and started talking calmly with people that might have seen anything.

not having insurance i focused on how much money i had lost. but then i shifted my focus to how much people have given me in my life. i simply shifted by focus and started feeling grateful when only moments ago i was furious and outraged.

it was a lesson in life that what we focus on determines how we feel...
so if we dont like how we feel, we must simply shift our focus. it doesnt mean we never feel negative emotions but rather we choose not to dwell on them and get stuck in a rut. lets let them serve their purpose as a reminder our focus has shifted in a direction that we dont really want to be going..

now im riding a beat up xc bike that doesnt really fit me, but im having fun cos i refuse to let lack of material things prevent me from the joy of movement.

this lesson has taught me that as a cyclist,happieness is not what bike you ride, but rather happieness is just an emotion we choose to feel in the moment. cos the moment is all we have.. :)

keep on roll'n, regardless of what lessons come your way. :)

i find the bamboo calfee lets me do rides i couldnt do. its always the center piece of conversation and a great medium to get the organic athlete philosophy out to the masses.

im having a ball each time i go riding and answering the same questions daily. i get a sense of contribution each ride.

here is a youtube vid i did that morning riding with lance and team astana.

this aint a post for sympathy, rather its a reminder that life is short, precious and fleeting and we are here to make a positive impact rather than dwelling on negativity and being guilty of a wasted life.

i got the news a few days ago that my dad had lost his battle with radiation therapy and the big pharma poison cocktails that he chose to sign up for. my dad new the natural options but was happy with the doctors orders. just as he always accepted my lifestyle, i accepted his. im not bitter, depressed or angry at my dads choices, preferred state of ignorance or how forceful the doctors were in pushing his immune system to literal death.

sure i had a tear for a minute. but then it occured to me that people can pass thru our hands but never our heart. that i can chose to live by the values instilled by my father or i can do what society says i should do. get depressed, get violent, get abusive, get drunk, eat crap, mope in bed all day, wear black, mourn and walk around with heavy shoulders. just like they show us on tv.

i say no. i say im gonna live how i know my dad would want me to live.by this i mean to continue living the health and fitness based lifestyle that he was proud of. what lifestyle is that? its the one that brings me the greatest joy. its not to be confused by 'living for our parents' but rather living in a way that brings joy for all those that love us, be those people be in our hands or our hearts.

my brothers have decided to use dad's passing as an excuse to lower their standards. an excuse to focus on what they have lost. rather than the peace that dad has gained. an excuse to follow societys list of 'this is how we expect you to act if someone dies'.

so we can see that its not our genetics, its not our upbringing, its not our education, its not our looks,its not our religious beliefs, its not our traditions, rather, its merely a choice in the moment to focus on whats good in our life rather than whats bad..

in the cycle of life, there is death and birth. it would be crazy to not accept this. it would be like crying every time the sun went down each night. rather we should focus on the fact that we are still alive and here to do a job. its called living our life purpose.

my dad said once' you gotta keep on riding no matter what the terrain!' so of course im not gonna sit down by the side of the road cos the hill got steep all of a sudden.. :)

i believe that life is to be celebrated. not mourned.
i believe that its against our loveones wishes to be sitting around dwelling on negativity and using our loved ones passing as an excuse to lower our standards to physical and emotionally abusing ourselves with food, drugs, booze etc.

i believe experiencing emotions of pain and despair are merely signs we are not being grateful enough.

im grateful i have the mental capacity to remember all the good times with my dad.
im grateful i can use this life experience to help others achieve the positive focus they deserve in times of apparent adversity.