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OPINION

Starting from Scratch - Week One

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by Stu Kerton
Mon, Apr 04, 2016 22:47
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Starting from Scratch - Week OneStu Mason.jpg
Stu's a week in & feeling good!

Last week I wrote about ‘Starting from Scratch’ and how the fact that even though you get to ride a bike for a living it doesn’t mean you can take being fit and lean for granted – especially when the routine of a commute is no longer there.

I’m now a week in and feeling good, still a bit on the heavy side but good none the less. The speed is coming back and above all I’m motivated and actually feeling quite a bit fitter.

Highlight of the week was the 101 mile jaunt on Wednesday which took in the best part of 1900 metres of climbing – a typical sportive event shall we say to test where I am ready for the Tour of Wessex in May.

I had a delivery to make twenty-five miles away so thought I’d take a bit of detour. After all the sun was out and the mother-in-law had the kids so why not make the most of it.

 

What did I learn?

 

Well I can ride the distance at a pretty decent lick, a nudge over six hours in fact but I really need to concentrate on nutrition. A cup of coffee before I left, a couple more on route, a can of Red Bull and a couple of slices of cheese on toast probably isn’t the most sustainable of diets.

I’m not one for drinking on the bike see, I don’t even own a bottle cage and even though I’ve tested loads of energy products over the years and got on with them they aren’t something I use religiously. They’re something I’m going to need to embrace though especially for recovery, there was no way I could ride the same distance the next day.

Other than that though things have been pretty good. I rode 203 miles from Tuesday to Sunday over twelve hours and have lost a kilogram. Impressive considering that the nutrition/training program has failed to be delivered so it has come down to good old fashioned self-discipline. Basically that means I’ve still been drinking Stella plus there was a massive amount of Easter eggs on offer.

Motivation is good though, I even went out for two hours today with the rain hammering down, I didn’t even have any wet weather kit to test.

It’s good to be back!

 

Stu Kerton

Since writing his first bike review for road.cc back in early 2009 senior product reviewer Stu has tested more than a thousand pieces of kit, and hundreds of bikes.

With an HND in mechanical engineering and previous roles as a CNC programmer/machinist, draughtsman and development engineer (working in new product design) Stu understands what it takes to bring a product to market. A mix of that knowledge combined with his love of road and gravel cycling puts him in the ideal position to put the latest kit through its paces.

He first made the switch to road cycling in 1999, primarily for fitness, but it didn’t take long for his competitive side to take over which led to around ten years as a time triallist and some pretty decent results. These days though riding is more about escapism, keeping the weight off and just enjoying the fact that he gets to ride the latest technology as part of his day job.

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8 comments

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fukawitribe | 8 years ago
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These are the landing pages I use aside from the ODZ one

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZwiftRacers/  (more competitive bent)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/zwiftriders/ (slightly more general chatter these days)
 

Events on the pin tabs and on the shared calendars linked there, e.g.

http://zwiftcalendar.com/

 

ODZ will ask you to fill out a wee survey - takes less than a minute - useful to help the seed/grade you for the events (via Strava link) apart from anything else. They're a cracking bunch, think some of their rides might suit you too, worth a visit.

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Stu Kerton | 8 years ago
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Thanks, I'll take a look.

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fukawitribe | 8 years ago
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Yeah Richmond can get dull even when racing, slightly better now you can choose a 'hilly', 'flat' or original Championship course. Highly recommend the actual race events and training rides ,as well as structured training, though - the ZTR EB races are extremely competitive if that's your bent, plenty of others too and particular shout out to Zwift ODZ boys who do some cracking good, hard but light hearted stuff

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ZwiftODZ

Cat and Mouse with them is excellent fun and bloody hard work.

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Stu Kerton | 8 years ago
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I've got Zwift as a back up @fukawitribe after buying an Elite Digital turbo trainer a couple of months back and yeah, I really like it - not something I ever expected as in the past anything longer than twenty minutes on the turbo drove me insane.

I've done a couple of the interval sessions which give plenty of focus although I must admit I'm not too much of a fan of the Richmond course though.

 

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fukawitribe | 8 years ago
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You may have already looked and rejected but might it be worth looking at some of the stuff on Zwift ? Competitive spirit, time-constrained, plethora of little 'helpers'... sounds familiar,  and it actually got me finally into racing after realising Zwift wasn't really about pootling about a fake island on your own staring at the wall - and it seems to be having a knock-on effect on the kids, middle daughter in particular absolutely desperate to get on and start racing herself 1 There's some good crews on there too and various levels of event throughout the day and night, seems more immediate to me than others e.g. Tacx. YMMV obviously, I know some hate the idea. Good luck with everything, your new job sounds good to me 1

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davecochrane | 8 years ago
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Good effort Stu, looking forward to reading about your progress!

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iUpham | 8 years ago
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Kudos to you sir

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Stu Kerton replied to iUpham | 8 years ago
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iUpham wrote:

Kudos to you sir

Thanks Ian blush

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