Speaking of kellys, when Shane Kelly pulled his foot at the olympics would he have got a restart if he'd laid the bike over straight away?

ok Expat, Shaw and I will be up to meet you and jock at the 'red dot' on Croudace St at 7am tomorrow (yawn).

Interesting....

The strictest interpretation would be that there was no mechanical failure (after the commissaires inspect his bike, toe-clips etc), so he shouldn't have a re-start.

But I reckon I've seen champs where riders who hit the deck at warp speed are given another run (if they can stand up)....so who knows? Calling Daniel Morelon, Martin Barras, Gib Hatton......

Are you familiar with the area? It's where the bike path meets the road. Anyone heard from Kotter?

Nope, I'll send him a PM to see if he's alive

Croudace St I know so it can't be too far down from the light, we'll just find a parking spot when we see the bike path.

The path is pretty much next to the school. I think the cross street is Howe, which T's at Croudace, and runs down to Wests. You can probably just park on Howe.

righto.

Apalogies!
I didnt think you were keen..? & yes catain bonk was present last night.

On the plus side, legs and back are starting to feel a bit better/stronger.
Misising out on a sub 10min by 4 seconds was not fun!

Do you trackies do a lot of stretching? Because besides intervals and varied training, it seems that the one thing I hear over and over is that you need to stretch a lot and be as flexible as possible. The lower back seems to be an overlooked area. Calves and hamstrings are important, and they all tie into the lower back. Of course, you need to balance that with strong abs. You may not need the ab strength for cycling, but you need to balance your torso front to back.

Jock will back me up on this one - there's value to be gained just listening to any advice Rob has to offer. Perhaps one day I will put it to good use.

I'M ALIVE

edit: I just put a set of toe clips on my bike, havent tried them out because its raining, so I'll be prone to crashing tomorrow

Since starting to ride track, my legs/back have played up!

So non-stop diet of stretching & improving core strength from here on in.

I can feel a difference after only a week!

Rob tells no porkies, keeps nothing secret, except what he's gonna do in a race that is

However, benefits of stretching are even today a little murky. I've never understood the argument behind whole 'flexibility' thang, and prefer to just keep everything in balance. Then again, I don't have any state or national titles on my mantle either.

And as far as stretching and massage goes I just do what my body asks me to do. Same as when you wake up in the morning sometimes and you just have to have a good old full body stretch. Just do what feels right. But everyone has different physical structure, so what works for me might not work as well (or at all) for the next guy. And I think that's where the studies are running into trouble: the methods they use may not be adaptable enough to provide the correct answers. Applying generalisations where specifics are required is never a good thing.

As for core strength, without it you pretty much can't deliver all the power into your back wheel. Abs and lower back need to be in balance, but core strength comes from the lower abdominals, aducters, and so on balancing against the mighty forces generated by the glutes. If everything is in order then your pelvis will remain stable even under heavy load, and legs can provide lotsa drive.

What interesting bits did rob have to say?

stretch? you probably should but I never do. Core strength is hugely important too but I can't be bothered with that either.

Jock can give you some tips if you want to try Look pedals/cleats.

I may be on my way to hell now.

Ouch! That calls for sweet revenge. Perhaps we'll be riding from nobbys to merewether via King Edward Park tomorrow instead of taking Darby Street. MewHAWHAWHAWHAW

[edit] how cool is that: this evil post is number 1666

Climbo - shut up, please. It's a worry that you admit to not even trying to tap your full potential.

Basically, we spend all but about 8 hours of our day upright, and even for those 8, we're not bent over (I hope anyway). So flexibility is very important when it comes to applying power while bent over your bike.

Back when I still rode skinny tires, I was taught by a knowledgeable racer to roll my hips forward a bit, and flatten my back. This is much easier to do when you're young and flexible, and made a huge difference is my speed.

And I can climb all day at 3Km/hour. By the way, it's Friday the 13th too.

Get out into the back yard, hang on to the hills hoist and practice getting into and out of your straps on BOTH sides.

When you're starting out make sure you can pull out of the straps without undoing them, but don't have them so loose that you pull you foot on the first hill you come to. Especially important if you're riding in traffic.

And ignore Expat's snide little comment, he just being... playful.

??
I run look 5.1 & CX6 carbons. never really tried anything else so cant comment.
The cleat is terrible to walk in though

The older cleats have a nothch cut out and came with a set of mini golf club like things which can be put bertwwem the cleat and shoe sole which makes adjustment easy on a traininer etc?

The new cleats with the CX6's didnt come with this..?

Here's something I only found out a coupla weeks back. During the foetal? stages of development we don't have any defined muscles, and what ends up being calves, hammies, back muscles, neck muscles, etc starts out as a single band that runs from the front of your head, down your back, and under your feet. So you can get sore hammies from bad shoes, or tension in your forehead! How weird is nature?

Thanks, I'm trying this to start with, it works pretty well, and im still able to get out them when I have to. and they are tight enough to be of benefit when going up hills. I think Ill leave the clothes line trick until a little later.
I dont mind going up Watt street (Newcastle to Bar beach via king edward park). Mainly because I love the fast descent.

Going back on the back streets, to practice with the toe clips

Try doing pilates and you find out all sorts of weird connections....

I never bought into the whole warmup stretching thing when weightlifting...Check out the stretching & warm ups paper on https://www.mikementzer.com/

For cycling, it appears a different proposition.

I've inherited my dad's bad back. I can't sit for long periods of time, (unrelated to my ADD) which makes 14 hour plane flights really fun. But lots of simple stretching relieves the lower back pain. Basically, I have to stretch the calves and "Hammies" to make my back pain go away. Makes sense that it was once all connected.

My coaches have never recommended pre-exercise stretching, just a warm-up and post-exercise stretches. I'm too frickin lazy to stretch afterwards and I just head for the kitchen immediately after a ride for food and give my jaw muscles some work