Sunday, September 21, 2014

Cycling, Coaching: Thoughts.

Of late, coaching and training in cycling have all been about numbers: precisely drawing up a training plan (based on the athlete's abilities) to achieve a certain goal. Today, with the advent of technology, a coach doesn't need to ever have seen the cyclist he/she is coaching. It's great - one can hire a world class coach regardless of where you live. While virtual coaching is the norm today and is clearly working quite well, I think it lacks something important.

A lot of information about a ride/training session can be obtained from looking at the data but there are also crucial things that are missed. As a cyclist, nothing beats having your coach riding with you and giving you instant feedback - on your pedal stroke, posture, choice of gears, bike handling, efficiency, nutrition, reading terrain and winds, etc. And for a cyclist who isn't at an advanced level, these are really basic and important things - foundations, if you will. As someone who is beginning to get serious about cycling, my brief stint with a virtual coach was undeniably helpful - I had someone experienced designing workouts for me, looking at my ride data and giving me feedback. For me however, the feedback was too little and not quick enough. I thought It was also a little expensive for what I was getting. In addition to that, there are usually limits on how much interaction you can have with a virtual coach. All this experience had me wanting a coach that I could ride with.

One day, I'd like to be a cycling coach and not just a virtual one. What can I provide that a virtual coach can't provide? For starters, physical presence and all the benefits that I mentioned above. Being a geek and a gear-head, my knowledge of equipment could come in handy. I'm also an efficiency/optimization nut and I'll doubtlessly pass the madness on! At the moment however, I neither have the expertise nor the experience to be a coach but what I do know is that I have the passion and dedication for it along with the motivation to keep learning all the time. I need to start racing soon to translate all my bookish knowledge to firsthand experience. The journey has begun.

Monday, August 18, 2014

It's funny...

...how every monkey with a DSLR thinks he's a photographer and has a "Monkey Singh Photography" page on Facebook. Class, people.

Monday, June 9, 2014

That Moment.

Whenever I'm riding with a group of stronger riders, this is what I desperately try to avoid: getting dropped.
A paceline. To be dropped is to be left behind by the group because the rider cannot sustain the pace required to stay with the group. Riding in a paceline reduces the aerodynamic drag significantly.
Riding with stronger riders is something I really enjoy because it makes me push myself more than I normally would. I'm not too sure what exactly it is that contributes more to the post-ride sense of achievement and satisfaction - if it is trying my hardest and giving it your all on the road or if it's the confidence (and ego) boost I get from not getting dropped by stronger riders. It could also be something more physical, chemical: the endorphin induced feeling-good post a hard workout. And of course, a guilt-free pass to eat whatever I want! I suspect it's a combination of all of them in my case.

There are crucial moments in a group ride that determine if you will finish with the group or get dropped and crawl back home alone. These are moments where you have to find that extra bit of motivation to keep going and not give up, dig deep like you wanted to when you saw Eddy Merckx or Jens Voigt ride, apply everything you've ever learned about cycling and try being as efficient (I'll bore you with that some other time) as you can be to give yourself a better chance. These are moments when time seems to have slowed down, moments I remember clearly for weeks or even months after the ride. They define the ride for me. They're like tests which you pass or not: pass when you've really given it your everything irrespective of if you got dropped or not. It's a battle with yourself, not others. It also helps to remind yourself during these times that the suffering is only going to be worse once dropped! 

I don't know about others but, interestingly, these are also moments when I have barely any recollection of the surroundings whatsoever - I could well be in heaven and it wouldn't matter - vague recollection at best. I only distinctly remember the pain, effort and mental strength (or lack thereof) that was required on my part. During these moments, in spite of being a serious gearhead, never did I find myself wishing I had aero equipment or a lighter bike, only the legs and the mental strength.

I'll leave you with this. The great man himself.


Thursday, March 20, 2014

Thrilled to be reunited with my...

...butt cream, bwahahaha!


But seriously, a must-have for any regular road cyclist out there.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

The Bicycle Obsession

is one of the two big ones I have at the moment (Himalayas being the other one, in case you're wondering). A lot of even my closest friends don't know just how passionate I'm about cycling (road cycling actually, the Tour de France kind, if it helps understanding). It's part of everything I do - eating, sleeping, reading, browsing the Internet, making up a day's (even a week's or month's) schedule, grocery shopping...you get the idea. Like with anything else, it's a great feeling when you meet people who are as mad as you, who speak the same unintelligible (to the average person) language and who take joy in crazy ass weird little things that the average Joe wouldn't look a second look or think a second thought about. It's a connection; a kind of acceptance. I knew some people through a cycling forum but had never met them before the recent Tour of Nilgiris (TfN) that I rode. It was really great to meet them finally and to ride with them. It was the people I rode with that made TfN a great experience. Riding with people is often very different from riding alone. When you're riding in a group, you work together (by taking turns at the front of a paceline) to keep the speed up. There are a lot of unsaid (and hence beautiful) things going on - mutual trust (riding so close to each other needs a lot of it. It's amazing how a bunch of strangers can trust each other that much), deciding the pace depending on road conditions (terrain, winds, etc.), knowing when a rider is struggling and keeping the pace down for him/her to recover, everyone pushing that little bit extra because you're working as a team etc.; the cameraderie is addictive!

So what do I get out of cycling, I get asked often. It's hard to describe but besides the obvious fitness gains, I feel that it improves my quality of life. The time I'm out riding is time I spend with myself. Although I don't really think about anything specific (actually, all my mental energy is spent on trying to do what's supposed to be done for that ride - pedal stroke, form, making sure I'm neither slacking off nor overdoing it etc. with an eye on traffic), in the end it feels like time well spent. It's also an added benefit that you meet some very cool and like-minded people, like I talked about. One of my favourite tasks is to look at my ride data (yes, ride data; it can get quite technical. Some sample data if you're curious) as soon as I get home. It gives me a high (especially if I think I rode well) :-) It takes a lot of knowledge, time and experience (which I don't have at this point) to use this data. So I enrolled myself with the Peaks Coaching Group. I have a (virtual) coach who gives me specific workouts, analyses the data from these rides and gives me feedback, all in order for me to reach my goals. So what are my goals?

My goals for this year are simple, simply stated at least:
1. Get as close as possible to a sub-hour 40k (this is HARD)
2. Become a decent climber. Climbing is something that I'm really bad at (owing mainly to my excess weight). Climbing fast is something I can't even begin to imagine - it would be intense PAIN. Before the TfN, I used to dread climbs, be afraid of them. The good news is I no longer do and try my best - one of the best takeaways from TfN.
3. Ride 12000+ km this year. I've done around 1200 this month and I'm so far on track.
4. Start racing. While I'm not too keen on this, a race for me would at least be a good hard training ride.

To accomplish or even get close to them require one thing: lose weight! To do it, I have to be watchful about what and how much I eat. While controlling myself with food is a challenge even normally, after a hard day's ride it's almost impossible - it's guilt-free eating after all! And this is why I've NEVER lost ANY weight due to cycling :-P But I know if I have to get closer to my goals faster, I'll have to take food more seriously.

For me, any cycling talk isn't complete without talking about equipment! First and foremost - I love my bike! It was a self-gift for my 27th birthday :-P I'm an equipment geek and lazy. So if some component upgrade holds promise of making me faster without extra effort, I'm sold. My current road bike happened in a similar way. Even though I spent (and still spend) a bomb on it, it puts a smile on my face at the end of the day. What's money in comparison? :-) The next major thing I'm spending on is a power meter, one that's part of the rear wheel's hub and measures the exact amount of power you're putting out. Just the hub costs half of what my whole bike costs! (and mind you, it's one of the cheaper power meters on the market). I should have my hands on it in the next week or so and then I'll be building the rear wheel myself (a first for me).

I've planned on doing some riding in the hills in the south this month and in the foothills of the Himalayas in the summer. I'm also planning to go to Europe and cycle there. I've never been more excited about my cycling!


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Explorer Mode

I tell people that if I hadn't become an engineer I'd have become an explorer. A Himalayan explorer to be precise. While it's a rather romantic idea, it's a little hard and a little dangerous to do it alone. Having good company makes the journey twice more fun and half as hard.

What I'd like to try one day, when I find that elusive partner (has to be a girl, obviously :-P) is to start at a place and walk into wilderness with no destination in mind. Keep heading in the most interesting direction. Once the supplies are down to the last third and if there's no settlement in sight, turn around and head back to the starting point. And start all over again.

This is my dream way of travelling in the mountains.