Self Righteous Cyclist

  Introduction This is part 7 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the Introduction Part 1, where I start with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, where I incorporated sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride Part 3, where I introduced strength training Part 4, where I started taking sodium bicarbonate before races and strong group rides Part 5, where I adopted a periodised and masters training plan Part 6, where I completed Lactate Threshold and VO2 Max Testing Ever since under fueling for 3 Peaks (235km/4500m) back in 2019, I have been on the carbohydrate bandwagon and enjoyed many great long rides and races. During my Ironman in 2023, I consumed an estimated 107g/hr for 5.5hrs on the bike. Later that year dur...

Introduction This is part 6 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the  Introduction Part 1, where I start with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, where I incorporated sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride Part 3, where I introduced strength training Part 4, where I started taking sodium bicarbonate before races and strong group rides Part 5, where I adopted a periodised and masters training plan Perhaps the exercise physiology world should have named 2025, the International Year of Zone 2, because there has been so much commentary about it, its benefits and how to calculate it. Prior to the test, I this pegged the upper limit of my zone 2 at a Heart Rate (HR) of 141 or 77% of my max HR of 182. At this HR, I c...

Members of the Brunswick Club past and present, were everywhere you looked in Bright, for Australia's largest three stage tour. Twenty members of the club, 16 men and 4 women, rode across the grades, with 5 top 10 performances, including Luke Plapp's hat-trick and a few more made cameo appearances in the crit and supporting roles. There's a full run down in the chart below. Matt Keenan and Tom McQuillain kicked things off as they entertained us with their commentary at the Friday night crit.  Tom kicked on as MC over the three stages providing informed commentary about the who's who of the Australian cycling scene, fron emerging young talent, struggling age groupers, to wily old professionals, who are still riding strongly. A balmy Friday evening saw huge numbers of riders and spectators turn out for the street circuit criteriums, with Tom Butler and Pat Drapac making the trip up to race in a high quality field that included Jayco AlUla team mates Kell O'Brien and L...

Introduction This is part 5 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the  Introduction Part 1, where I start with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, where I incorporated sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride Part 3, where I introduced strength training Part 4, where I started taking sodium bicarbonate before races and strong group rides Following the Tour of Bright in early December 2024, I decided that I needed to put the fun back into cycling and take a break from structured training. In fact from the beginning of December until the end of March, I only did 5 indoor rides on the trainer. I just rode my bike wherever and whenever I liked. Road, gravel and even some track. I wasn't working at the time, so I would...

Introduction This is part 4 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the Introduction Part 1, where I start with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, where I incorporated sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride Part 3, where I introduced strength training In Part 4, I look at the impact of sodium bicarbonate, which I commenced in early January, when I started racing the regular Wednesday Masters crit race on the Teardrop here in Melbourne, just a couple of hours after my 2hr zone 2 ride. This was not the first time I had used bicarb. I experimented with it back in 2021 during an Auscycling 3 stage tour on Zwift and it got me a win in B grade. Back then I put 3mg of bicarb per kilogram of body weight into a drink bottl...

Introduction This is part 3 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the Introduction Part 1, where I start with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, where I incorporated sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride In Part 3, I look at the impact of strength training, which I commenced after recovering from the Tour of Bright in early December 2024 and continued consistently until April 2025, when a shoulder impingement slowed me down. And yes the shoulder impingement was due to overdoing it on a Military Press, so please be careful with loading up too soon. 🏋️ Purpose As a competitive masters-level cyclist, I set out to explore how consistent strength training could enhance my performance on the bike. While endurance athl...

Introduction This is part 2 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C category to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read  Introduction Part 1, where I start with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Five weeks into Part 1 (Smoothie & Creatine) of my N=1 experiment, I started doing longer outdoor rides on a Wednesday morning with a couple of mates, otherwise known as the WMR. Wednesdays are my easy day, so I insisted that we keep it social and ride Zone 2 pace (75% of max heart rate or lower). After trying a few different routes, we settled on Albert Park Lake as our home track, with it's one set of lights and very little traffic. Three months into my N=1, I had managed Personal Best power numbers from 3 to 35 seconds and also ridden very close to my record power f...

Introduction What if I said you could be a stronger cyclist, for less than a cup of coffee a day? Would you do it? This is part 1 of 10, of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C category to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. A year ago when I tried something new, I never thought it would end up as a ten part blog series, but here it is. Over the next 10 blog posts I am going to explore what happened when I introduced different ergogenic aids and training stimuli. Part 1 Smoothie and Creatine Part 2 Regular Sprint Training Part 3 Strength Training Part 4 Sodium Bicarbonate Part 5 Polarised Training and Masters Training Plan Part 6 Lactate Threshold Testing and Training Part 7 Increasing race day carbohydrate Part 8 90min Zone 2 rides with different inputs Part 9 Increasing Protein Intake Part 10 Putting it all together If you are new to this...