In one way or another I have always been into bikes, from as early as I can remember I have been cycling, I cycled to school pretty much everyday once I got to secondary school and I did my paper round everyday on a bike, and every time I did it was a race, could I beat my friends to school, could I beat my previous best time for delivering papers, my hunger for competition was a constant.
However I never actually raced bikes, I got my competitive kick from swimming and rugby both of which I competed at a reasonable level at, and when I was younger made me incredibly fit, training was brutal mornings and evenings everyday, and swimming galas or rugby games at the weekend, combined with cycling I can safely say I have never been fitter than I was as a teenager.
As with all teenagers, things moved on I lost interest or in the case of swimming had a fall out with the coach over a toilet break, being told "if you get out again don't come back" did not wash well with an all knowing teenager and I did not return to the pool after that night.
I still had rugby and in some ways it was a relief, I had collapsed from exhaustion in school one day and was rushed to hospital, it was quickly established that this was not caused by the amount of work being done in school and I would need to make a decision as I could not carry on the way I was, and having a fall out with my swimming coach made that decision for me.
Overtime the rugby team a played for drifted apart, we all grew up got cars and in my case I became lazy, I didn't want the hassle of the training and games and often I became a replacement rather than being in the starting 15, so when I got to college I had pretty much given up sport, the only constant had been bikes.
The other constant was my food intake, despite cutting down on exercise I carried on eating huge amounts, this was to lead to what has been a pretty much constant battle with weight, something that I still struggle with today, I might say i have an economical metabolism but the fact I can eat my body weight in Haribo and not bat an eye suggests there is also something wrong in my head, I like, no love food and my sweet tooth is outrageous.
So, a good number of years passed, my weight yo-yo'ed. Then i met my now wife Fee, we had a passion for motorbikes and as it happens beer and chips! Needless to say this had a profound effect on my weight and I soon weighed in at 110kgs or just under 18stone.
I had not really thought much of it, I have broad shoulders and could carry the weight reasonably well, but after a seeing some photos from a friends wedding I knew something had to change.
I needed a goal, a target to aim for, initially this was just to be able to run, and I used the "special K diet" to start with, eating special K for breakfast and dinner with a reasonable lunch, given I was hardly exercising this worked and the weight began to come off, I found I could run (not fast or well but I could run) so the next target was a duathlon, so I decided that Stokesley would be a good place to start, completing the novice race and putting in a good bike split to be first back off the bike, I must admit I was happier on the bike back then than I ever was running!
That said, there were some great things about running, specifically the trail running my wife and I often ran off road together and some of the scenery we ran in was stunning, it is something that I do miss.
Moving on the next goal was triathlon, and I competed in a number of races with good swim and bike splits but the run never really came together and I was left frustrated, good results were always lost with my poor run, however the side effect of all the training was that my weight was down and I got to around 80kgs, was it easy? No, losing weight is seriously tough, mentally and physically getting the diet right and cutting down the excesses was a daily struggle.
After about 3 years of triathlon I made the decision to focus on cycling, it was always my passion and I found there is little better to me than being out on the bike in the fresh air just enjoying the changing scenery. I ended the 2013 season with some solid results, I was, for a period, unbeaten at the York Sport track regardless of the nature of the race, I could be out front driving the break, or taking it in a bunch sprint.
In 2014 I moved from Clifton Cycling Club to York Cycleworks, as I have said before they have always been very supportive from buying our first bikes to bike fits to general support and banter, I felt it was appropriate to give something more back.
2014 was a tough season for a number of reasons, and as a result of not being able to get the training in I was not in a place to be competitive in races which meant i tried too hard and often ended up crashing, so much so I have a reputation for it even now.
2015 has been a solid season, lots of races, PB's, some points, some wins but above it all lots of fun.
That brings us up to date, I am still working on maintaining my weight, and in time reducing it some more to maximise my potential for 2016, but in a nutshell that is where I have come from, I am very much an average Joe that enjoys riding a bike.
I had not really thought much of it, I have broad shoulders and could carry the weight reasonably well, but after a seeing some photos from a friends wedding I knew something had to change.
That said, there were some great things about running, specifically the trail running my wife and I often ran off road together and some of the scenery we ran in was stunning, it is something that I do miss.
Moving on the next goal was triathlon, and I competed in a number of races with good swim and bike splits but the run never really came together and I was left frustrated, good results were always lost with my poor run, however the side effect of all the training was that my weight was down and I got to around 80kgs, was it easy? No, losing weight is seriously tough, mentally and physically getting the diet right and cutting down the excesses was a daily struggle.
After about 3 years of triathlon I made the decision to focus on cycling, it was always my passion and I found there is little better to me than being out on the bike in the fresh air just enjoying the changing scenery. I ended the 2013 season with some solid results, I was, for a period, unbeaten at the York Sport track regardless of the nature of the race, I could be out front driving the break, or taking it in a bunch sprint.
In 2014 I moved from Clifton Cycling Club to York Cycleworks, as I have said before they have always been very supportive from buying our first bikes to bike fits to general support and banter, I felt it was appropriate to give something more back.
2014 was a tough season for a number of reasons, and as a result of not being able to get the training in I was not in a place to be competitive in races which meant i tried too hard and often ended up crashing, so much so I have a reputation for it even now.
2015 has been a solid season, lots of races, PB's, some points, some wins but above it all lots of fun.
That brings us up to date, I am still working on maintaining my weight, and in time reducing it some more to maximise my potential for 2016, but in a nutshell that is where I have come from, I am very much an average Joe that enjoys riding a bike.
No comments:
Post a Comment