Rest Week, MSG Round 2: Cobham 21/04/13 and Training Phase 2.

I've been training my body to be able to exercise on consecutive days recently. After training on both Sunday and Monday, it was safe to say I was definitely experiencing muscle fatigue and decided to take the rest of the week off in preparation for Sunday's race. All of a sudden, I had a little time on my hands. So I decided to use it "constructively" to play FIFA Ultimate Team. Scroll down now to the bit about cycling if you have no interest in computer games! After selling all of my players, I had around 30,000 coins to build a team. Not a lot when you consider that Wayne Rooney is about 80,000 coins. I opted to build a Brazil pace team. The only stats I cared about were pace (cheesy I know) and work rate. This is what I came up with.

Not a bad way to spend 30,000 coins hey?

I did originally have Fulipe Luis in the LB position but my mate Andy was kind enough to buy me a Marcelo. To date, I'm 32wins, 0 draws and 0 loses and am on the way to a second devision one title. I've played all sorts of teams along the way including a couple of teams with team of the year players and better versions of my teams (with Neymar etc). I'm not doing anything special, just playing defensively with counter attack with the odd Tesco goal! Pace abuse works like a charm.

Jay has repeatedly complained that I mentioned in my blog a few posts ago that he was riding around Asia that on a mopped. He isn't riding around Asia on a mopped, he is in fact riding around Asia on a "mans bike" (motor bike). Not only has he complained that I made the initial mistake, he isn't happy that I haven't corrected it. So now I'm making a point out of it complete with photographic evidence just to shut him up!

Here's a photo of Jay with his "Mans Bike" that is absolutely not a mopped

Now onto cycling. Had a very eventful race today. I really wanted to push for a top ten finish and for the first half of the first lap. It was on the cards. I had a really good start and was flying! Unfortunately half way up one of the switch back climbs, someone went into the back of me at knocked me off. For once my pedals didn't unclip and I was basically laying in the middle of the track hoping no one hit me. Eventually I got back up, only for someone else repeat the trick trying to overtake me, I was able to hold on to it this time (just). Very frustrating. The rest of the lap was a write off for me. My confidence was shot, and I was riding badly. On top of that, my stomach felt awful after consuming half a bottle of Nuun, half a bottle of High5, a Torq Sun-Dried Banana energy bar and a Torq Blackcherry Yoghurt gel. Needless to say, I need to work on my pre-race nutrition.

The calm before there storm..

Mid way through the second lap I managed to get my head back into the game, even after having to stop when my Oakleys fell out of my back pocket half way up a climb. On the last lap I had a little micro-battle with a lad who I was eventually able to drop. I was then able to gain another place when a rider crashed in front of me (sustained pressure me thinks). In the end finished 28th out of around 80 riders. My team mate Tony finished 20th, which was a great result. I felt if things had gone my way, I would of been right up there with him. I was disappointed with the way things had panned out, but felt I'd made the best of a bad situation. There would always be other races.

Brining it home

Will had a much better race, he won his race by over 9 minutes! He was lapping at around 20 minutes a lap, which is fast. I've got a lot to do before I catch him. Ollie was absent as he was road racing, he had an awful race after his team mate crashed in front of him causing a bit of a pile up. Should of stuck to your MTB mate. Would have been interesting to see him and Will going at it.

Will was enjoying a quite Sunday afternoon ride with nothing but his thoughts

Round three is coming up in around four weeks or so. I've decided to knuckle down a bit. I'm going to be following a structured training plan and really clamping down on my diet. 100% solid healthy eating for the next month. This isn't going to be easy. Let's see if it helps me break into the top 20 in Thetford! It will be interesting to see Will vs Ollie in the Junior category, both of them are on great form at the moment and will be racing for the Eastern Champion title. Game on!

And now to blog about something other than cycling.... JK! (just kidding)

So I did say that I would be blogging about a variety of subjects, and thus far it's all been all about bikes. So though I'd post an overview as to where I am. But first... Bikes!

I'm really enjoying being apart of VC Revolution, I've made loads of new friends and I know it sounds silly, but I really enjoy wearing the team colours! I've been training really hard for round 2, I can feel myself getting faster and faster. It's funny, a friend of mine said that once I started racing, I'd feel more motivated to train and he was right. I really want to get as close to the top 10 as possible. I think I worked out that I had trained five days out of the last seven, which might be normal for some people, but it's a first for me. A lot of people at work had commented on how much weight I've lost as well, which is really nice, and kinda reassures me that I'm doing something right.

I look pretty fetching in VCR colours don't you think?

I've managed to fix my Egg Beaters which had a horrible amount of play in them, and the one on the drive side was singing like hell. Rather than wasting £20 on a rebuild kit, I just brought two bearings off of ebay for like £5. I'm sooooooo MoneySuperMarket.com, and I know it!

A much happier Egg Beater :)

So, real life goals. I said I wanted to develop as a person and as a man. This is a little bit cheesy, but once you've gotten over that. it's really quite deep. I've been pretty stressed lately, I feel exhausted. Not just because I'm training on the bike a lot, but I seem to be fighting on all fronts at the moment. It's a busy time for me at the moment, but I know if I keep working at it, if I really push myself, I can accomplish my goals.

The first thing I did was send off my provisional driving license to have it updated. Yes, that's right. Provisional. I've also started to study for my theory test which I'm going to book next month. I really need to get my license out of the way, but right now I have slightly more pressing financial commitments.

I've also started to really try and push my career forward. I've spent the last week completely re-writing my CV (thanks to those of you who've helped) that I haven't updated since I joined Monitise nearly three years ago! People always say you should keep it up to date, and always keep your options open, but I've never felt the need to look for another job. I seem to be one of those weird people that actually enjoy their job. That said, I do want to progress my career, so I've applied for the Infrastructure PM role at Monitise. I'm not likely to get it, but I want to show my intent and put my name out there. I'm hearing you say "You shouldn't be blogging about this" I've got nothing to hide, it's no secret that I want to progress. But I want to do it the right way. I do not believe it stabbing people in the back and treading on other peoples corpses to get where you want to be. That might be very naive of me, but I'd rather fail and do things the right way, than be really successful and do things the wrong way. When writing my CV I had to decide whether to put links to my blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts. In the end I thought, why the hell not? Everyone seems to know everyone nowadays, so you might as well be open about who you are. At least people/employers know what they're getting. I'm an avid cyclist who likes to play with Lego, and what? I think I might have just done my first rant...

Diet. My diet is ever improving. I still have the odd wobble from time to time. Easter hasn't helped. My fridge is full of chocolate which me and my misses are slowly working our way through, we have given a lot of it away also. Other than that though, oh and the Dominoes I had last weekend; I've been eating pretty well. Like I said above, a lot of people have commented on how much weight I've lost. That's gotta count for something.

Get better with money. This I think I am doing. Or should I say we? (me and Kirsty). For example, in the old days, I would have just brought new pedals. Instead, I stripped them down, worked out what was wrong and then brought the relevant part and saved myself a bit of money!

Where's my brother? (Jay) The answer is; riding around Vietnam on a mopped. On the day his iPhone was stolen, his Nexus 7 tablet bricked it self for no apparent reason. I asked the Android developers at work if there was anything that could be done, and they all concluded that he would need to perform a full recovery, losing all the data in the process. This is why I hate Android, because it's rubbish and does this! Can't remember the last time my iPad bricked it self, or even crashed for that matter. If only Google would just concentrate on finishing one version of their OS rather than rushing it and moving on to the so called "latest and greatest" one! The lesson you can all take away from this is, if you buy Apple - it will probably get stolen. If you buy Android - it will probably brick it self. So buy a Lumia. On a serious note though, I really am missing my broski, can't wait for him to come home. I just hope I've got something to show for the last 5 months when he does get back. Won't be long before we're geeking off playing games and stuffing our faces with junk food, much more interesting than wasting time running around Asia huh? The good life!

Jay and I back in 2009, I miss my old hair, Kirsty doesn't though!

Also, one final note. I'm aware that both my blog and my Twitter are pretty bare. Am working on some cool designs which I'll hopefully implement soon! I'm also going to add some widgets and stuff also.

Mud, Sweat and Gears Round 1 - 17/03/13

So, following my last race I'd since finished servicing my bike. My mechanic at Thomas' Cycle Revolution was good enough to fit my bike in (to work on it) before he went off on holiday so I could race on the 17th. Winter had well and truly destroyed my bike, but in return it gave me a great foundation to build on for the summer. I've been told that not training during "off season" is like bringing a knife tow gun fight. I made a point of riding in all conditions,, particularly at night in the rain. I've always struggled with night riding, so I've been working really hard to overcome that. Anyways back to the point, over the last couple of months my bike has had; *ehem*

1 replacement Hope Race X2 lever (damaged in the crash)
1 SRAM XX Trigger Shifter Barrel Adjuster (damaged in the crash)
1 ESI bar end (damaged in the crash)
A set of Alligator I-Link cables (Jagwires - damaged in the crash)
Titanium bolts for my Hope Race X2 levers
2 x Swalbe Racing Ralph's
Replacement headset bearings
Replacement Lefty hub bearings
Replacement BB bearings (didn't need these)
Free-hub rebuild
KMC X10SL chain
Alligator Race X2 pads (front and rear)

"What crash?" I hear you ask, I'm going off at a tangent again but it's a funny story. This is before my first race at Gorrick by the way... Whilst on a training ride with Will I decided to hit a kicker at about 20-25mph, this wouldn't usually result in a crash but it was extremely wet, and I landed on the soaking wood decking; the phrase "slippery when wet" comes to mind. Fortunately for me, my brake lever took the brunt of the crash and I was relatively unharmed (not including the huge bruise I had on my right leg). The lever was literally bent at a 90 degree angle. I' amazed that it didn't snap, but thats Hope technology for you! Will (quite rightly) had a good ol' laugh about it, after ensuring I was okay of course. What I hadn't realised at the time was the damage to the right trigger and my Jagwires. All things considered, I still think I got off lightly, as I could have ended up in the River/swamp Colne).

Hope are quite often described as "over engineered" I prefer "well engineered"

Anyways, after spending a small fortune on my bike, it felt the best it's ever felt and was ready for racing, which was more than could be said for me, who was still recovering from food poisoning. I very nearly pulled out, but after my disastrous race at Gorrick, sorry Will's disastrous race at Gorrick. I was determined to enter, and to finish; even if I was last. Unlike Gorrick, I felt relaxed, because I now knew what to expect. I met a guy on the line who told me it was his first race. He then revealed that he hasn't eaten anything since breakfast, so I gave him an energy gel and made a friend in the process.

As soon as the whistle went; I was off. Coming up with some creative lines to gain some places. I started quite far back, so, really had to push on the first lap. I definitely struggled. I realised just how much the food poisoning had taken out of me, but I had to finish. Half way through the second lap I got caught in a little "micro battle" (as Ollie calls them) with a fellow (classic) Cannondale rider which was really good fun. Unfortunately he beat me by a couple of bike lengths, but I wasn't fussed; I was just pleased to finish, plus it was really good fun to ride with him. Will met me at the finish line and took my bike off of me, which was a nice touch, it's always nice to feel the support of your team mates. I was 27th out of 69 riders. Better than half, which was a very positive result for me considering. I know that I can do better, but the result has given me something to build on, and more importantly has definitely motivated me to train harder!

Me coming through at the end of lap two, with my rival me!

I really like the vibe at these events, I found myself chatting away with complete strangers. It's amazing how well people get on when they have something in common. It's almost like a brotherhood, which is something I've missed since I quit skateboarding. Hopefully I made a few friends, we'll see!

I met one of my girlfriend's work colleagues; Charles who I'd previously spoken to however briefly before hand. It was really nice to finally put a face to the name, and more importantly I beat him. That's what you get for making fun of my Lefty! Granted he's a lot older than me - but still! Charles, if you're reading this, next race I'll beat you by 10 places!

Shortly after my race, Ollie, Paul and Tony arrived and we promptly got the team gazebo up. Before we knew it, it was 14:00 and time for them to race. Paul was in the masters, Ollie and Will were in the Junior, and Tony was in the Sport categories. 20 minutes went by and what can only be described as "The VC Revolution Train" came blasting through! However come lap two the VC Revolution Train was no more. Ollie came steaming past, with no sign of Will or Paul. Eventually Paul came past and a few minutes later, Will. I spent the rest of the race waiting for Tony to come past who was struggling, the same way I had. Like me, he didn't give up and finished the race.

Ollie was absolutely flying! He won by an impressive 9 minutes!

Ollie won by a landslide, Will came in a respectable 3rd and Paul was 4th in the masters. I met each of my team mates on the line and checked they we okay in the same way Will had for me. Will was disappointed with the result, but he'll bounce back, with a vengeance. Paul and Tony were hurtin', it was just as well I was there to take their bikes in the end, Tony could barely walk haha! After the race he went off to grab a bacon and egg roll, he came back to the gazebo with a roll almost as big as the ear to ear grin on his face. He'd definitely earnt it!

It was a great day out, I really enjoyed everything about it and feel more motivated than ever. I particularly liked hanging out with the team. Round two is in Braintree and a little over a month away. It's on! I'm aiming for a top 10 finish this time!

Food Poisoning!

I went to lunch with my colleague Will Manders on Tuesday. We'd worked hard (one day in a row) so decided to treat ourselves to a Nandos. Big mistake! By five o'clock that day I was ill; very very ill. Needless to say, it was an interesting train journey. I had something similar (from Pizza Hutt) about a week before, but not on this scale. I haven't been this ill in a very, very long time. I spent Wednesday huddled up on the sofa under a blanket re-learning how to play Final Fantasy XIII-2 and eating dry toast. This was of course the last thing I needed before my race  on Sunday.

A colleague at work said that losing weight makes you more susceptible to stuff like this and because I had cleaned up my diet, when I eat junk food my body simply rejects it. Looks like Nandos and Pizza Hutt are off of the menu then, which will ultimately, only be a good thing. 

My first MTB Race - Gorrick Skedaddle Spring Series - 03 March 2013

I hate writing retrospectively. Whilst I acknowledge that almost all blogs are in fact written retrospectively, I like to write whilst it's all still fresh in my head, not a week later, sorry guys!

Although there isn't much to talk about, I still think it's important that my first race is documented. I finally took the plunge and signed up to a race. I travelled down with my friend and team-mate Will Kearse, his dad Paul, and his girlfriend Nikki. I'd spent all week talking to sportsman and woman from all difference sports looking for advice. The one piece of advise I kept hearing, was to just relax, enjoy it, and do my best. Being my first race, it didn't overly matter that much. It wasn't even part of our local series (Mud Sweat and Gears East). I got some good advice from my manager at work who used to be a racing driver for Dodge. He told me to relax and not let the adrenaline get the better of me. We were competing in the Mens open race, open is a really interesting category because it's made of cyclist all of abilities. It's a great way to benchmark yourself. Which was exactly what I was looking to do.

We had done our practise lap and were ready to go. The course was relatively technical, but nothing I couldn't handle. Whilst I'd felt pretty confident in the build up all of a sudden things became very real, once you're all lined up on the grid, there's no turning back. The tension was high, everything I had done (on a bike) had effectively built up to this moment! I was on the second row, just behind Will and a guy I met called Andrew who rode for Team Wiggle. He offered last-minute advice on the line, which really helped, I also learnt a few new stretches to help my every troublesome back. Paul (Kearse) also gave me one of his famous pep talks.

Andrew giving me some top tips! God I love those shoes <3

The whistle went and we were off. There were 60 of us all banging down the first descent and all that was going through my mind is "this.is.nuts, what the hell am I doing!?". I lost a few places on the first climb, I wasn't too bothered though. My plan was to take it easy, and slowly but surely pick people off.

Where it all went wrong: About 10 minutes into the race, going through the second bit of single-track, I noticed a rider down in a bit of a heap clutching his elbow. It wasn't until I saw the bike that I recognised the bike. It was Will! Immediately I put the brakes on and went to assist him. I spent the next few minutes trying to access the damage and calming him down, he was obviously pumped full of adrenaline and in a lot of pain. Before he crashed, he was leading by ten metres or so. I got him up and into an ambulance, who put some ice on it and put it in a sling. He crashed at about 20mph and landed on his right shoulder and elbow. By the time we got back to the start/finish line, the race was over. He later spent five hours in A+E, who confirmed that it wasn't broken, just severely bruised.

It was all a bit of an anti-climax, I remember as I waited with the bikes whilst Will was being treated. I was full of adrenaline, my heart was racing; I was really concerned for my friend, disappointed that I hadn't finished my first race, but at the same time, pleased that I had I'd done the right thing and helped my teammate. There would always be a next time....

Nick

A new dawn...

Everyone I've spoken to about blogging have told me that the hardest thing about writing a blog is starting a blog. I created this blog back in November and it's remained blank until then. The original idea was to use this blog as a tool to monitor my progress over the next 5 months or so, share a few things and of course the odd rant from time to time. The inspiration behind it was my best friend Jay who has done something rather out of character and gone travelling. I thought if he's off seeing the world for the next 5 months, I should really do something substantial with my life too.

This blog isn't really themed as such, I will post about anything and everything I feel like or interests me. This is (as I see it) my little corner of the internet, and I'll post more or less what ever I want. Someone once gave me some good advice "Don't post anything you wouldn't want your mum, or your boss to read". In todays world, you can find out anything about anybody on the internet, before they even thinking about publishing content on a blog. Back one track... There will obviously be certain subjects that trend, but don't be surprised if you get the odd post rabbiting about something completely off topic. This is of course assuming that anyone is actually going to bother to read it. To be quite frank, I don't care if they do. I shall immortalise myself in a dark and probably dusty corner of the internet! Let's hope I don't have to die before people finally recognise my genius - poor Leonardo.

I mentioned that this blog would be used to monitor my progress above, and then didn't say what, I did that on purpose. I either lost you a few minutes ago, or you're simply reading on to find out where I'm actually going with this. I am writing this blog to document the next (integral) phase of my life. My aims over the next six months are to:
- Continue to develop as a person and as man (sounds cheesy, but it's very important)
- Progress in my professional career
- Become a better (faster and smoother) mountain biker (XC) and also a better bike mechanic
- Eat better and ultimately learn to cook (I'll be keeping a food diary)
- Get better with money (everyone probably has this goal)

I also said I'd be sharing a few things also, most of it probably being bike porn. I'm not sure quite what I'll be posting yet, but I'm interested in:
- Macs, the fruity computers not the rain jackets...
- Football, Chelsea
- Gaming, PC and Xbox
- Films, who isn't?
- Reptiles, and pretty much any other cool animals
- Lego! (of the Star Wars variety)
- WarHammer 40k (yes I am a shameless geek)

My style of writing probably isn't the best in the world; I was always told I had a nice style of writing at school, but it's kinda gone down hill the last few years. I don't care though, that's why I'm an IT engineer and not an author. I'll make sure I include lots of colourful pictures along the way for those (like me) who hate reading.

So that's my first post, we'll see where we go from here. This blog will probably be abandoned within a week and fall to the back of the internet.... I'll eventually get around to sticking an 'about me' page up to paint the picture for those that don't know me, although I doubt I'll gain a huge following, if any at all.

That's your lot for now.

- Nick