Double Tyres

It’s week 3 of a three week block. Today is your big day with a few hard sets and then you’re all done. After slogging around in the rain for three hours, your intervals are done and the cold has finally worked its way through your many layers of clothing. Now you just need to get home and out of the rain……PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTT. FLAT!
A friend of mine showed me about the “Double Tire” solution a few years ago as a result I have enjoyed a lot fewer flats on those long wet and cold days, when the last thing you want to do is stop moving, never mind stop to fix a flat.
Take an old used tire, cut the bead off both sides and place it underneath your current tire. This way, you’ll have an extra layer between the road grime and your precious tube of air. Every couple of weeks, deflate the tire and pick the glass and rocks out of the cuts with a screwdriver or tweezers.
Be aware that this will make your bike heavier and increase the fiction on the road so you might be traveling a little slower. But hell, it’s winter so let’s try to cut the windchill as much as possible eh!
You can also make some boots with old tires in case of tires slashes. Cut those to about 2 inches long by 1 inch wide.
Ready for another gravel adventure back in dubydubya (autumn ’08)
 
Stay afloat out there!

Routine? Ayurveda!

Over the past 12 months as a self-coached professional, I’ve focused the majority of my free time to learning different methods of training. I read a vast array of medical/physiological testing studies and memorized the lessons of such popular coaches as Friel & Carmichael (who have quite different perspectives). But as my off-season continued to develop and I learned more about bike training, I started to investigate the other 20 hours of my day with questions about body clocks, ancient medicine and the body’s natural desire for routine. This meshed in with my teammate Sam Johnson’s suggestion when I signed with Team Exergy in Oct.’10: “The riding is easy, the hardest part is not going crazy…you need to find balance…find a passion”.


So that is what I did. I dove into on the bike training and the off-the-bike lifestyle. One very fascinating lifestyle I discovered in my studies is the ancient East Indian practice of Ayurveda. Through a series of questions assessing your lifestyle and body type, you are slotted into 1 of 3 ‘types’ (a mix between 2 types or all 3 types is also possible). These types provide insight into when you will perform the three fundamental tasks best throughout the year; these tasks include 1) physical strength, 2) digestion & recovery and 3) brain function. These tasks are also are used to break up the day.
Physical Strength: 6am-10am
Digestion: 10am-2pm
Brain Function: 2pm-6pm
Physical Strength: 6pm-10pm
Brain Function: 10pm-2am
Digestion & Recovery: 2am-6am
Have you ever worked past 10pm and then can’t go to sleep for hours? Do you enjoy working out in the morning…what about that post-work group ride? Maybe you don’t think well in the afternoon’s, Ayurveda accuses a poor diet as the reason, suggesting you eat 80% of your daily calories in the middle of the day, followed by a 15 lie down on your left side (stomach on the left), then a 15-25 minute brisk walk.
Although I cannot really abide by these rules since I am training full time, they do offer an interesting insight into the importance of respecting and listening to our body clocks.
Learn more about Ayurveda here. In Sanskrit: Ayurveda literally means ‘science of life and longevity’.
Thanks Tove!