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Training
Training ride this Saturday?
With Kowalski classic comming up very soon, this weekend should feature a decent training ride and then taper for two weeks. Is anyone planning to inflict some serious pain upon themselves and wants to a to join forces to make the training extra fast and hard? I can only do saturday and plan to do 70 to 80ks somewhere. NOTE, this is completely non social. No stops, no waiting - just training.
Any one intrested? suggested rides?
Benefits of professional coaching?
Hi Team
There's been a bit of talk here recently about training and coaching which is timely for me given some of the thoughts kicking around in my vacant head. I thought I'd throw open a discussion about the benefits of 'real' coaching as compared to self coaching and at what point would it make sense to assist in achieving your goals.
MTB Skills Vids
I stumbled across an interesting skills vid series by Fabien Barel a few days ago.
Here is the one on cornering. I'm not sure i like the idea of skidding on trails outside organised events, but the approach to "making your shape" on the bike to engage the tyres' side knobs looks like it has some merit... just gotta practice. Might make a trip to Golden Jubilee for an hour on Saturday arvo 
Get a mental edge... participants needed
Most athletes will tell you that performance is all in the mind but the really successful ones don’t just say it, they believe it and they do something about it.
Imagine having:
• Laser sharp concentration
• Unshakeable belief and confidence
• Supreme mental toughness
• Higher levels of motivation
My goal is to change the field of cycle coaching in Australia by not just focusing on physical fitness but working on mental toughness as well. Racing is all about making decisions, there is no point being supremely fit if you don't have the confidence to make use of it.
Maintaining fitness and skills when trails are too wet to ride
What a pain in the backside this wet weather is! With the Mont in less than three weeks, just when I should be getting out and hitting up places like Manly Dam or Ourimbah to up the intensity, refresh the skills and get the brain in the groove, the trails are so sopping wet that rding off-road is impossible without taking weekends away like we did to Queanbeyan last weekend.
I'm planning on hitting up back-to-back intervals spin classes at the gym tomorrow morning, but this doesn't do a lot for bike handling skills - trying to bunny-hop or rail a berm is going to look kinda funny 
dislocated shoulder
hi guys,
had my shoulder dislocated about 10 days ago in a head on collision with a motorbike.
doctor says I might need surgery but won't find out until next week 
has anyone been through this before? just trying to get a handle on how long I'll be off the bike.
the doctors are being very vage about it.
might get a roll trainer in the meantime but I saw there's another post about it already.
also, if anyone would like to recommend a physio or specialist around the eastern suburbs... please do.
the goal is to still do the capital punishment which is in about 8 weeks.
thanks
On Climbing
Interesting opinion piece on pedalling technique when climbing. More relevant to road riding than MTB because of the emphasis on out-of-the-saddle... but we all ride on the road at some stage, and I hear there's usually a bit of fire road in some of those 100km events 
Getting fit, or going soft?
Over the past couple of years I've been increasing the intensity and distance of my rides to try and improve my fitness. I'm far from being a really fast rider, but I did finish the half fling in 3:01 this year, which is about 30 mins better than my time 2 years ago, so my fitness is improving. But here's the thing; in recent months I've found that if I drink more than 2 beers I get a hangover. My brother-in-law, a personal trainer, said he has seen this before with his clients - as they get fitter, their alcohol tolerance declines.
Jason English and Training
For all of us wondering how much training is enough - read this.
http://www.insidesport.com.au/is/index?pg=traini...
I came across this old article of Jason Enlish talking about training with Inside Sport leading unto last years world 24 hour.
500 - 700km per week !!!!!
Getting to peak operating capacity quicker
With all the talk on strategies for the Fling, going out fast, starting slow etc etc I thought I would get some advice on how to get to peak performance, and techniques that can help to improves this.
I find in races, no matter how hard I try the first 20 - 30km hurt / heart rate is up / lots of energy gets spent.