Originally posted on 4th April 2020
As you may have guessed by my previous post, cycling, is a theme of this challenge. Although, is it really a challenge if there is no end date? Anyway, not being content with some weight loss and a general feeling of improved health and wellbeing, I want to test my new healthier lifestyle by monitoring my cycling performance, hoping for major improvements in this area. Some of you may have seen The Game Changers which really promoted the sport performance improvements of a plant based diet. I guess I am trying to take this a step further focusing on the whole food plant based concept but in any case I’m keen to discover if I can be mildly competitive on a bicycle now that I’m not punishing my body with masses of toxic food.
I haven’t really been much of a cyclist but it has been a constant in my life since I was a teenager. Nowadays I’m committed to riding the Tour Down Under Challenge Tour each year with friends from interstate but up until now that’s been about it. I must admit I find cycling alone quite boring and being a very time poor social worker I have just struggled to get into it. This is now changing a bit and my new toy, a Wahoo Kickr18, is helping. I can train for an hour from home whilst listening to a podcast and this is a game changer for me. It’s been quite an expensive investment though.
Wahoo Kickr18
A friend first mentioned the concept of a turbo trainer as he thought it might work for him having previously landed in hospital after road training in the Barossa Valley. I initially didn’t know anything about turbo/smart trainers so this started some intense research and discovery over about a month or so. It also just so happened that we are in the midst of a worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 – massively increasing the popularity of indoor smart trainers. After agonising over whether to get a Tacx Neo 2T or Wahoo Kickr18 I finally decided on the Kickr as did my friend. It appeared to me that the Kickr was a more solidly built unit and it looked to be more widespread in commercial settings – although this could simply be due to sponsorship or an aggressive marketing program from Wahoo. I run an Ultegra groupset with a 10 speed cassette and the bikeshop told me the dimensions of a 10 speed 105 cassette are the same as Ultegra with weight and material being the only difference. The 105 cassette was included with the Kickr (swapped from the original 11 speed cassette by the shop) and fitted for no extra cost by the very helpful shop mechanic. Having now completed 188km (10 slices of Zwift pizza) indoors its early stages yet but the gear changing isn’t as smooth as I would like. Maybe the spacing of the cassette is not perfect so I will continue to explore this minor issue. Anyway I’m impressed so far and the biggest bonus for me is being able to train from home. My motivation to train has now greatly improved.