New Stuff

My new grips for the DK arrived this morning from Chain Reaction. They are ODI Longneck ST BMX 143mm if anyone is interested. Below is a picture of them:

Last night I was was working and while I was on my lunch break I was looking at a facebook page that I am a member of to buy and sell BMX race bikes and up popped a Dialled bikes frame with 90% of the bits to build the bike do I bought it 😀 It was £130 so it was much less than the £400+ they usually go for all be it with lower spec parts than the expensive bikes. Here is a picture of most of the bits:

I had been looking for a while for a pro xl 20" any really liked the Dialled bikes as they are chrome frames like the Speedwagon which I really like. Luckily last week I also bought a cheap 180 mm GT crank off of the same group which I can now use 😀 

I haven't decided what to do with the new bike yet I have 3 choices:

1. Build it as a full on race bike and start to double up at races in the 20" and Cruiser this will be an expensive option as it will cost me about another £800 to get the bike fully race ready. This will been a great option as I will get much more race practice and my fitness will improve as I will be effectively racing twice.

2. Leave the bike as it is and race it anyway and change parts as and when needed. This is my preferred option as it will not cost me any money. And I will get the same benefits as above.

3. Leave the bike as it is and use it to train on so that the cruiser feels slower and easier to ride for races. This means I will get some of the benefits but not as much as options 1 and 2. 

I will mull this over for the next few weeks to see how I feel.

Buying the Dialled Bike has made on decision for me I am definitely not going to spend any money on the DK and I am going to ride it break-less and as is until things break and need to be replaced. I am planning to use this bike to learn freestyle on the way to work and back and also take it to the park to play with my son so it doesn't have to be anything special and I will be swapping out bits regularly as it will be hitting the floor a lot.

This afternoon I am going to remove the break and fit the new grips and maybe take the DK out for a bit of a ride with my son to test it out. I am still debating whether to put pegs on it or not as I have 4 pegs lying around to I may well put them on. I also want to slam the back wheel as far forward as possible to help with my manuals as I am going to start my 60 day manual challenge on Monday using the DK as the practice bike. 

I am currently making a list of tricks that I want to start learning over the next few months here is the list so far:

1. Manuals

2. Bar spin

3. Opo bar spin

4. Hop180 to fakie

5. Hop 360 

6. Grinds

At the moment these are the basic trick that I want to master, I can kind of manual now but not for very long so this shouldn't take too long to get better although I am going to do the 60 day manual challenge and video my progress just out of interest. Also the Manual is really important for racing as well as freestyle so I plan to spend more time mastering them than the other tricks which are more for fun. I used to be able to barspin and 180 so I do not expect them to take too long to master although the bar spins are going to be a bit tricky as I have had to change the way I ride due to my lack of ankle ligaments meaning that I can not ride right foot forwards any more or my ankle comes out of joint and effectively gets sprained meaning I can't walk for a week or so which is not good. This means that regular bar spins are now opo bar spins and opo bar spins are now regular bar spins. So in theory I should be stronger at opo bar spins than regular bar spins. 

I am just sorting out the harness for my action cam so that I can have some footage to put on here. I am also starting a youtube channel where I want to document everything that I am doing as a record of my progress and also as a resource to help other people get fit using BMX as their main method of exercise. I am still deciding whether to have one channel and put everything on the one channel (Race training, Freestyle and Fitness/ Weight loss) or Split the content into 3 separate channels. I think I will probably just have one channel as I can edit the daily videos into one longer video. I will also make it easier to manage than having to have 3 places and the blog to manage content every day.

Today and tomorrow I am planning to make a couple of bike check videos of the Speedwaggon and DK as my first videos as I have not started training properly yet then on Monday I will start my training properly. I have decided that I am going to reduce the number of long rides I doi as it is difficult to find an hour+ a day in one lump to dedicate to exercise so I am going to change it up and do sprints Monday, Wednesday and Friday's and then if I can fit in 2 long rides on Tuesday and Thursdays as a recovery from the sprints. I am thinking that I will do the sprints from 5-5:30 am on the weeks that I am working the early shift before I have breakfast then they are done. This will leave me free to ride with my son after work doing the manuals and stuff on the street after work. On the weeks that I am working the late shift I have all day to do the sprints while I am at the track practising track specific skills so it is not a problem. 

I have just finished removing the break from the DK and installing the grips. Below is a link to a video of a quick bike check I did to show off the bike:

https://youtu.be/v9IUlYS-wxY

Failing goals

This week hasd been crazy which has meant that I have not been able to complete most of my goals. The only goals that I have been able to complete is drinking 3l or more of water a day and also drinking lime water 30 minutes before eating breakfast in a morning. I must say that I am feeling much better for doing both.

I plan to get 2 more exercise sessions in tomorrow and Sunday so that I can make the weekly goal of 3 sessions a week so lets see if I can do it or not.

Re-adjusting Training

I am going to re-adjust my training as I am still a bit sick from the Flu I had the week before xmas and after the ride yesterday I am feeling worse.

I am going to hold off on the circuit until next week to give my body time to get used to exercising again and also let it get over the flu before I get into the regular training. Luckily I am working lates again next week so I will have time to do the circuits next week. Also next Monday is a bank holiday so I will have time to do the circuit without having to rush.

For this week I am going to ride my bike every day and also concentrate on my drink and food goals of drinking 3 litres of water a day, having lime water 30 minutes before breakfast and eating 3 bananas and 3 apples a day.

I am just drinking my lime water now so that is goal one achieved for today.

Pretty Successful Day

I managed to do 3 of my goals today. I rode my bike for 1:06:07 for 15 miles and climbed 701 ft. I also drank over 3 litres of water and didn't drink any Soft Drinks only water.

I didn't do the circuit or eat 3 apples and 3 bananas today as we didn't have any in the house.

I am going to start the exercises tomorrow morning when I wake up and try and get to the shops and buy some apples and bananas so that I can complete all of my goals tomorrow.

Circuit worked out

My daily circuit will consist of the following exercises:

Squats 20 reps

pressups 20 reps

wall squats 30 seconds

crunches 20

lunges 20

back extensions 20

calf raises 20

plank 30 seconds

I have decided that to not over train I am going to only do this circuit every week day to leave the weekend for rest or to make up for missed workouts so my revised goals until 27th of March are as follows:

Short Term Goals:

Drink 3 Litres of water a day.

Drink lime water every morning 30 minutes before eating breakfast.

Do the circuit above every week day (Monday-Friday)

Do at least 1 hour of aerobic exercise 3 times a week.

Loose at least 10kgs by 27th March 2017.

Do the 60 day manual challenge.
Eat 3 apples and 3 bananas a day.

Long Term Goals:

Drink no fizzy drinks at all for 1 year.

Do the circuit 5 days a week EVERY week for a year.

Loose 33.65kgs by 26th December 2016.

I am currently looking at ways to tweak my diet to help with the weight loss. Most noticeably dropping ALL fizzy drinks from my diet again as I have started to drinks some fizzy drinks even though I haven't been drinking coke but as my weight gain shows ALL fizzy drinks need to be dropped. This is why I have set the goal of not drinking any fizzy drinks for a year.

I am also researching a healthier breakfast as my current one doesn't seem to be working very well at the moment. After the 3 months I will re-evaluate my goals and set some new short term goals which will probably be more BMX racing related such as sprints 3 times a week to replace the cycling sessions and introducing HIIT training as well but I will have to see how sucessfull my weight loss is before I can do this.

Time to change

It is officially time to get back in shape. I am officially the heaviest that I have ever been at 103.65kgs!!! This is 16 stones and 5lbs more or less. my ideal weight is  between 70-80kgs so I am at least 23.65kgs over weight. That is almost 4 stones over weight!!!! I new I was fat but I didn't realise that I was that bad. According to the BMI matrix which is a bit floored as it doesn't take into account muscle mass I am Obese my BMI measurement is 34.6 with a measurement of 30 or above being obese.

That said it isn't totally my fault as I have been injured for the last 4 months so I haven't been able to ride my bike or exercise (although I could have been using the exercise bike if I wasn't so lazy).

The laziness has to stop NOW! I have been thinking about the best way to get back in shape and I have decided that I will start exercising today. I have been researching online and I have found that one easy way to loose weight is to drink 3 or more litres of water a day. That is an easy thing to do both at home and in the office when I am there so that is my first goal for the next year. My second goal is to drink warm lime water every morning 30 minutes before eating as I have found that this helps with my welbeing and seems to reduce the amount of times that I get sick during the year. My third goal is to do a basic full body - body weight routine every morning when I wake up for the next year. to start with I will do 20 reps of all of the exercises and then build up. The third goal is to ride my mountain bike for at least 1 hour 3 times a week. On top of this I need to start doing bike sprints at least twice a week as well as bmx specific skills training at the weekends.

I have decided that I am going to focus mainly on weight loss for the next 2-3 months to try and get my weight down to around 90 kgs and then I will replace the long bike rides with the HIIT training that I was planning to do as I think that I am too out of shape to start HIIT training just now.

Added to this I am going to do one Pilates session a week to work on my flexibility and body positioning and balance.

For the next 3 months my morning routine will be as follows:

Wake up
Make and drink warm lime water.
Do exercise circuit
Eat breakfast
Shower and get on with the rest of my day.

Regarding the cycling sessions and Sprint sessions, I will have to fit them in around my work shifts. When I am on late's it is easy as I have all day to workout before I have to pickup my son from school at 3:30. When I am on early's it is a little more difficult but I am thinking that I may do an hour ride at lunch then it is out of the way as I get really lazy after work.

I am just researching the body weight exercise circuit that I am going to to do every morning at I will post it once I have it finalised later today. For today I am going to do the workout later as I don't have it ready to go today. When my son wakes up I am going to do my first cycle ride with him along the 2 tunnels cycle path as he has wanted to go along it for a while now since I found it. For this week I am planning on going out every day for a ride to make the most of the fact that my son is on holiday from school so my schedule is more relaxed than normal.

DK decisions Made

Had time to take some pictures of the DK and clean it to make some decisions about the break and what to do about it. After checking the wheel I have decided to go breakless as if I want a break I will need a new back rim so I am not going to bother.

I am only going to shell out for new grips and that is it. Luckily the tyres are holding air so I don't have to shell out on new tubes either.

Here are some photos before I washed it:

And here it is washed:

I am going to Crucial in Bristol tomorrow to get the gearing changed so I will get the new grips and I will then take off the old grips and put on the new grips tomorrow afternoon.

Mount Hawke

I decided to take my son to Mount Hawke before I picked up my new bike as it was 30 minutes away. We got up this morning at 6am and we were at the skatepark by 10am. This place is amazing. My son rode his bike for an hour and then switched to his scooter as it was too busy.

He did his first drop in on the mini ramp within 10 minutes of being on the scooter and I haven't seen him since which is a great sign.
Here is a video of his first ever drop in.


After MountHawke we went into Truro and picket up my new DK General Lee from the Guy who I bought it off of on facebook.

The bike looks OK it had 2 flat tyres and the as he said before the brake doesn't work.

The tyres are both pumped up now and seem to be holding air so no problem there. After xmas I will take the bike to crucial for a services and will either get them to take the brake off all together or swap it out for a new lever, gyro and caliper as I need a break to stop me looping out when learning manuals.

Once it has been cleaned I will take a few more photos.

I have been looking online and seen a few places that people are using bike stands to practice manuals and finding the balance point. I am going to get some wood and build a couple of stands for my park bike and my sons park bike so that we can use them as part of our manual challenge starting on Jan 1st.

I havent been able to exercise at all this week as I have been sick as well as the broken rib. The rest has done me good as I am not feeling any pain any more. I am going to rest until Jan 1st to make sure that the rib heals. This will give me 8 days to get in somekind of shape before the next Bristol Winter Series race on Jan 8th.

Broken Again!!!

Played basketball on Wednesday night and managed to break the rib in my back again!!!

Even though I have a broken rib I did my interductory session at Pilates this morning which went really well and I really enjoyed it.

I have spoken to my Pilates intructor and have decided that I am going to rest over christmas and new year and then strat doing one session a week to work on all the imbalances I have in my knees and ancles and work on my flexability as it is really poor. She also noticed that I have really poor range of motion in my hips which we will work on.

I am also going to pick up my new freestyle cruiser next week so once my rib is heeled I will be able to start learning freestyle.

Time to get fit!!!!

It is officially time for me to get back in shape. I have just weighed myself and I am the heaviest that I have ever been in my life! I am 102.1KGS!! That is 16,07 Stones. Luckily I am starting my training tomorrow after work.

On a plus side this has given me more motivation to get training. Also I should loose a fair amout of weight quickly as I am so far over weight. Usually when I get really heavy I drop loads of weight to start with and then it takes longer to shift weight after about 88KGs.

I am planning to train really hard on fitness up until around the end of February and then concentrate more on the BMX as race season starts in March. I intend to ride at the track at least 3 times a week during the time I am fitness training and then ramp it up as race season get nearer. I am going to focus more on skill than on speed as I think I have the speed and it is my technique or lack of it that is holding me back.

I have seen a few people who have done the 60 day wheely challenge and I think I will start this next year for my new years resolution. Basically you spend at least 30 minutes a day practising wheelies for 60 days and it is that simple. I am going to do the Manual challenge not the wheelie challenge as I need to get good at manuals more than wheelies.

I have just bought a used DK General Lee 24" off of a Facebook group and will be picking it up on the first day of my holiday on 19th December.

Here are a couple of Photos from the add:

I am also hoping to start going to the skatepark next year as we have a really good one near our house so it seems like a good idea. Also a lot of people are using park riding to improve racing as it helps with jumping which I am really poor at.

Back to Training

When I woke up this morning my legs felt good and well rested so I decided to go to the track and do some full laps to make my legs tired again.

I also took off my clip-less pedals and put the flats back on as everyone says that it is better to train on flats in the winter. I also wanted the flats as I am working on manual-ling and don't want to be clipped in if I loop out as I am not used to the new bike yet.

I did 6 flat-out laps with 3 minutes rest in between reps which was a struggle with my current fitness level and my legs are sore again!

I then did some manuals on the first straight to practice manual-ling doing a leg pump to bring the front wheel up not pulling on the bars. I also concentrated on looking over the lip of the jump which surprisingly helped.

I also did a bit of pedal manual practice over the tabletop on the second straight which I have got smooth now. I want to try and learn to pedal manual the first double on the first straight as it is faster than manualling but it is quite hard. I will continue pedal manualling the tabletops for now to practice my pedal manuals and also try and pedal manaul the first double for the next few weeks to try and get it dialled.

The weather today was great and there was even some sun as you can see from the picture below you wouldn`t believe that it is December in the UK!:

Rest Day

I am having an impromptu rest day today as my whole body is aching from racing on Sunday.

I am going to start the HIIT program next week as I need my body to get over Sunday before I start as I do not want to over train and get injured before I even get into shape.

I found a really good HIIT program that incorporated the majority of the body weight exiercises that I want to do into it so I am going to this program instead with a little bit of modification in that I will start with one set every day for the first 2 weeks to ease into it and then move onto 2 sets for 2 weeks and 3 sets for a further 2 weeks I will then do the 3 sets twice a week to maintain the gains and start to focus on bike specific training.

The program that I have found is on you tube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLrKgwICkWA&t=424s

It is sold as loosing 10KGs in 2 weeks but I am not in such a big hurry so I am going to stretch it out to 6 weeks to not over do it.

I will start on Monday and train every weekday for the allotted time and keep a record here of my weights and weight loss.

The video is great as it also has a built in timer so you can do watch the video to do the program.

Sunday I will weigh myself and record my weight I will also measure my Vertical Jump as I am curious to see how this program will affect my Jump as there are a lot of similar exercises to most home vertical jump programs.

Also a secondary goal of the weight loss is to improve my basketball fitness as well as my BMX fitness so I will see.

First race back

Yesterday I took the S&M to Bristol for the winter series races. I initially was going to do the warm-up and gates to get used to the bike and the new stem and wheels but it felt so good as did my shoulder so I decided to race.

During the gates in warm-up the bike was amazingly fast in face in my first 2 gates I beat people I had never beaten before by over a bike length to the first corner. This is mainly due to the Onyx hubs which worked as advertised and had instant engagement and my pedal strokes seemed more powerful as well.

In the races I got 2nd, 1st and 4th and took 3rd in the final but my legs were shot after the 2nd moto as I hadn't done a full lap for 3 month.

I also found that the 41-18 gearing was too low as I was spinning out about 3 pedals before the first jump and I was getting overtaken by one or 2 people by then. I have really liked the 42x18 gearing on the DK but unfortunately the S&M doesn't have enough chain stay clearance to put a 42 cog on the front as it only has less than 1mm clearance which is a little too close for my liking.

Last night I was looking at the charts and I can't make up my mind which gearing to go for. A couple of the really quick local racers run 39x17 and a few more run 37x16. I am leaning towards the 37x16 as I was running 36x16 which I liked but found it a little bit too spinny so 37x16 may be better.

Also more of the national riders run 37x16 and are really fast so if they are fast on it I can't have any excuses.

Here are a few photos of the bike after the race:

Apart from the gearing I am really happy with the bike and can't wait to actually ride it properly.

Yesterday's race showed that I need to get in shape quickly so I have decided that I am not going to race until the next Bristol race in January and concentrate on getting by fitness and leg strength back this month. Looking at the photo's from yesterday I need to loose a bunch of weight as well as I look like I have swallowed a beach ball. I also weighed myself last night an I am over 16 stone so I could do with loosing 3-4 stones.

I order to get back in shape I am going to do the following training:

Mondays - AM - Body weight exercises
Mondays - PM - HIIT training on the exercise bike

Tuesday - PM - Sprints

Wednesday - AM - Body weight exercises
Wednesday - PM - HIIT

Thursday - PM - Sprints

Friday AM - Body weight exercises
Friday PM - PM - HIIT training on the exercise bike

On top of this I will do my normal track based training as I always have. I am thinking of doing a more endurance based focus at least 2 times a week by doing 3 laps at a time. I also to continue to focus on Manuals and tap manuals in order to get faster.

New wheels

Picked up my bike from Crucial BMX in Bristol and the new wheels have been built up and put on the bike. They look really nice and are so light and the hubs are amazing really zero drag and absolutely no sound at all which is weird.

I also fitted the Elevn 53mm Stem that I bought off of facebook as the S&M stem I bought was too long.

The frame is looking really dirty as I took the bike in to be worked on after doing gates on the Saturday and didn't have time to wash it.

The wheels are Onyx hubs with Box Focus 24x1.75 rims with black spokes, Crupi 24 tooth rear cog and Maxxis DTH 24x.1.75 tyres.

I also swapped out the Shimano bottom bracket that came with the frame for a Chris King bottom bracket that comes with a 5 year guarantee and the grease can be changed. I also bought a Sinz hollow pin stem and a shimano DXR left handed break lever to swap the right handed one that was on the bike,

I have left my old wheels with tyres and tubes so that I can use them for training on with the profile freewheel that I have at the moment although if I stick with the 37x16 gearing I will need to sell it and get a 16 tooth profile freewheel.

Bike Update

I have been riding both my bikes and I am liking the S&M speedwagon the best out of the 2 bikes. I have decided that I am going to keep the S&M and sell the DK as I have just bought a new wheel set for the speedwagon with Onxy Racing Ultra Hubs which are being built up at the moment at Crucial BMX. I have also swapped over the 180mm drx cranks from the DK to the Speedwagon and I am changing the gearing from 36 - 16 back to 41-18. I also swapped over the stem and S7M bruiser bars from the DK to the S7M and swapped the Crupi stem for a second hand S&M stem that I picked up off of facebook.

While the Speedwagon was in the shop I decided to swap the bottom bracket for a Chris King bottom bracket and also a new sinz hollow pin chain as the old chain was too short for the new gearing. I am also taking the profile elite freewheel off of the dk and putting it on my old wheels so that I can use the old wheels for training and going to pump tracks and the new wheels for racing and gates. I also bought a new left handed shimano drx left handed lever to swap for the right handed one I have at the moment as I prefer the break on the left hand side rather than the right.

Hopefully the bike will be ready tomorrow or Friday so that I can have a little play at gates on Saturday but I still can't do too much as my collar bone is still playing up which is annoying as there is a race at our local track that I will miss!

Still I am hoping that I can be ready to ride at the next winter series race in Bristol on 4th December. I am going to start riding my mountain bike tomorrow to try and get some weight off for the race as I am back up to 95KG's!!!!

Next week I also hope to start sprint training at least twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday nights which should help shift the weight as well.

Bored

Getting bored of recuperating. I still have 3 weeks until I can get back to proper exercise a racing.

I have been riding my mountain bike and last week I did 2 20 mile rides although my legs are really hurting still.

I have decided that I am going to sell the DK and keep the Speedwagon and use the money from the DK to buy a set of race wheels with onyx hubs. I am going to use the wheels that I have as my training wheels with my profile freewheel. All I have to do now is swap all the bits off the DK onto the Speedwagon.

I already have a couple of people interested in the DK so once all the bits are swapped over I will give them a shot.

Also at the weekend I got a second hand S&M stem off of the internet which should be here in the next couple of days.

I will upload some pictures once the Speedwagon is all in one piece.

Back at last

Haven't had anything to report for a while as my collar bone hasn't been healing very well! I got the all clear from the Doctor on thursday and I have just 4 weeks left until I can start bmxing again.

Last month I also got my new bike built up. It is really nice although I have only been able to ride it to and from work and I did some gates with it last saturday.

Here are a few photos from the day I picked it up from Crucial:

 

Bad news

Went to the hospital today for my 6 week x-ray and found out that my collar bone has not fused back together yet!

I have now been told that I will have to take it easy for another 6 weeks and if it hasn't fused together after these 6 weeks I will have to have surgery!

I have been told that I can ride a bike but I cant race bmx until the 6 weeks are over.

Rode to Work

Went to work by mountain bike this morning. It wasnt my best idea as my collarbone really hurt. I am going to leave it another week before I try and ride the bike again. I will see what the doctor says about it on Thursday but I think that it will be at least 2-3 weeks until I can ride the BMX on the track maybe more.

At the weekend I got a new pair of S&M race forks, another tyre and tube, break cable and shimano break and right hand lever. I am going to take the bike to the shop to build this weekend I can't wait.

Bad week

This week has been a bad week I have re-broken a couple of my ribs sneezing!!! This has set me back as I am unable to move properly again so the exercise bike is out for at least a week. It also means that I am not sleeping properly either which is pants.

Because of this setback I am re-thinking racing on the 14th of October. I may just use the weekend to learn the track ready for next season and try and get ready for the start of the winter series which starts at the end of October. The winter series will be good as it is on National tracks and against some of the National riders that if I race Nationals next year I will be racing against so I am again using it as practice for next year and not taking it too seriously as I need to concentrate more on getting in shape and recovering from my injuries than trying to go too fast and getting more injured.

I have most of the parts for my new bike now I am just missing forks to fit the 10 mm wheels. I am going to wait until next month to get the forks then I will build it up. I think I will get another profile freewheel as they are much better than the one that came with the wheels. I will add some pictures of the build when I do it.

Good week

My collarbone is getting much better. I have been able to ride the exercise bike for 20 minutes or more every day except for Wednesday when I was in too much pain.

My legs are feeling better as well.

Hopefully next week I will be able to ride the mountain bike as I am getting bored of the exercise bike although I tried to ride he mountain bike last night and it hurt too much. Fingers crossed.

Revised training

Had to revise my training this week as my shoulder is really sore as I had to walk to work and back today and sit in the office all day.

I managed to do the 30 minutes on the exercise bike but was unable to do any exercises as I can not get my left hand onto my head yet to hold it still.

I am going to just do the exercise bike this week and then try again next monday as I am sure my shoulder will be much better than today in 7 days.

Hopefully i will be able to ride my mountain bike as well next week so I can get some longer rides in as well as I have a 20 mile route on the canal that is pretty much flat so I will not stress the shoulder at all. This will increase the fat loss from next week hopefully.

Back to Training

The shoulder was sufficiently better today to start on the exercise bike. I managed 30 minutes on level 1 with no paint what so ever.

I am going to start doing an hour a day from tomorrow to try and get in shape for the South West Championships on the second weekend in October. I will have to use the exercise bike for at least the next 3 weeks while my collarbone and ribs heal.

I also plan to start body weight leg exercises tomorrow as well to get some strength back after being in bed for 3 weeks!

I plan to do the following every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for the next 4-6 weeks:

Squats 3 x 20
Lunges 3 x 20
Step-ups 3 x 20
Calf Raises 3 x 20
Wall Squats 3 x 1 minute.

I am unable to do any upper body or core work yet due the the injuries but at least my legs will be OK by the time I get back on the bike.

Shoulder still hurting

I haven't been able to go on the exercise bike yet as my collar bone is still too sore.

I did manage to walk to work and back yesterday but I am in more pain today.

I am going to take the rest of the week resting and then try and ride the exercise bike next week.

Healing Well

The ribs and colarbone are healing nicely. I have been almost pain free since yesterday and I have not had a pain killer at all today. Also yesterday I was able to put on my T-Shirt without nearly dying of pain.

I am going to take it easy this weekend and then monday I am going to try the exercise bile riding slowly and with no resistance and see if it causes me to re-lapse or not. If it doenst cause any harm I plan to ride the bike every day for about an hour.

For the last week I have been going stur crazy as I have't left the house since Monday night and there is only so much TV you can watch! so hopefully exercising will give me something to do!

Season over!!!!

At the last race of the summer series last Sunday I had a really bad off and have broken my collar bone and 3 ribs so my year is done. I am going to be out for at least 2-3 months which is a pain in the arse as I was getting much better.

I can't remember what caused the off but I do remember I was 3rd to the first jump which was good.

I have spent he week in bed chomping on pain killers which hasn't been fun at all!

Next week I am going to try doing 30 minutes on the exercise bike to see if I can at least continue my weight loss which was going really well. Since I started BMX racing I have dropped from a 38" waist to a 36" waist which is really good and I was hoping to continue with this trend for the rest of the year which will be quite hard as I will be limited to what I can do for the next 3 months.

Hopefully I will be ready for the winter series that will start in a couple of months.

Looking back over the last 6 months I have come a long way. I have gone from being last by a long way to being an average B final rider and being up with the top 3 riders at the finish. I have also learnt to manual and I have started jumping a bit as well. I am also committed to clipping in which I did not think I would be doing yet.

I also had someone who was going to give me a jumping masterclass which I will have to put off until the end of the year now.

On a positive note by bike is totally dialled in now and ready to race when I am physically able and I have 50% of a new training bike ready as well. I bought a 22" top tube black S&M Speedwagon frame with a shimano bottom bracket on eBay and bought some second hand jump wheels off of a Facebook group. I already have a spare Shimano crank set, chain rings, seat and post, pedals stem, bars and grips. I just need a headset, chain ring bolts, forks and tyres and tubes and I will have a fully functional training bike.

My idea is to use the S&M to train and keep my DK for races and gate practice so that it doesn't get wrecked while I am learning to jump. However this might change if I like the S&M more than the DK which I can't see happening at the moment as I love the DK and I am really comfortable on it. However the S&M frames are supposed to be amazing too so I will see. I may have to buy some new wheels to use for racing and sell the DK.

Training Done

Got up early and went to the Bristol Track and did 6 full track flat out laps.

I wasn't as fast as last time (2 seconds slower) as my legs were still tired from yesterday's racing.

After the laps I went back to the Bath track and did 4 x 5 full out sprints of the first straight practising my Manuals.

Really tired now so I am going to rest for the rest of the day.

Good days racing

Had a good day racing today at Bideford. In the motos I got into the B final. In the final I was first out of the gate and got to the first berm in second place. In the end I got 4th place but I was close to the 3rd place rider.

Looks like my training is starting to pay off.

I am off to do laps in Bristol tomorrow morning early to keep up the progress.

Manual training

Went to the bath track today and practiced manuals on the first straight. I have now managed to manual the second double 3 times and case on the top of the second double a bunch of times. By the end of the session I was generating so much more speed over both jumps.

I also did a manual lap where I was able to manual not only the first and second jumps on the first straight but also the first double on the second straight and the double on the third straight so my manuals have got a bunch better.

I am also now wheeling the tabletop on the second straight which seems faster than jumping it.

Bristol Monday morning training

Got up at 5:30 and went to the Bristol track to do a quick training session as I had to be back by 8:00 for my wife to go to work.

I practised jumping the first jump for a while as a warm-up and then I did a couple of full laps to finish. I did 38 seconds for both laps so not too slow but not too fast.

Manual training

Had a nice chilled session at the track today with my son. He got bored so he filmed me practising my manuals over the first double.

I did a couple of good one and a lot of casing. Here are a couple of the better ones.

Good Training this morning.

Had a good training session today in the sun.

I was going to do full laps but I wasn't feeling 100% so I concentrated at doing first straights manual-ling the first jump and doing sprints back up the start hill from stopped.

After about 10 manuals where my front wheel just got over the lip or cased on top I finally started manualling properly and smoothly with my front wheel hitting down the landing ramp. It felt great and I was generating much more speed. After this I managed 5 or 6 tap manuals where I jumped the lip and both wheels landed on the down ramp. There are even faster so from now on I will try and do those instead of manuals.

I didn't have as much success on the second jump although I managed case my front wheel on the lip of the second double which is much better than I usually do. I will keep practising first straights to see if I can get to manual this jump by the end of the summer.

I also practised jumping into peddle manual on the tabletop at the start of the second straight which is much faster than pumping it. Tomorrow I am going to try and jump this tabletop as well as I am just and just casing the landing still.

Full Laps

I wasn't able to go to Bristol this morning as I had to take my Son to school so I went to the Bath track instead after dropping him off at school.

It was really hot today but I was able to do a warm up of a full lap pumping followed by a full lap peddling constantly (using the break to control speed) followed by a full speed warm up lap.

I then did 6 full speed laps with 5 minutes rest in between.

The last lap was a struggle. Unfortunately Strava didn't record my lap times very well so I am not really sure how fast I was doing the laps.

I am looking into alternate methods to time laps as Strava seems to be really flaky!

Tomorrow I am going to do 2 x 10 start hill sprints followed by 2 x 10 downhill sprints both with walk back rest in between.

Training with Couch

Saturday we had training with a couch which was really good. We practised drills to get used to cornering in packs which was really good and really tiring. We then did some uphill sprints up the start hill where we stopped at the bottom of the hill, balanced and then sprinted when the coach told us to.

I was quite surprised as I was the only one that breathed and kept my hips forwards in the sprint position and had to demonstrate to the group.

Unfortunately I had to go after this as I had to get home before my wife went to work.

I talked to the coach and we are going to go to Tiverton on Tuesday nights when I am not working to have extra training sessions as he runs session there and there are not too many people training.

Looking forwards to these sessions.

Also talked to him and some other people about increasing fitness and they all said about sprints so I am going to start spints next week.

I also talked about the new 180mm cranks and that I don't really like them too much as everyone said to keep at it as they really are better.

Wednesday racing

Went to Bristol last night for Wednesday night racing. I did ok and I was starting well but I was still behind the top 3 guys by the second jump.

I also pulled a calf muscle in the final but still managed to get 5th.

The new bars are really good and the bike feels really good. I also bought some 180mm Shimano dxr crank arms to see if they are better or not. I fitted them tonight but haven't tried them yet. The cranks came with a 42 tooth chain ring as well so I may try it out at the weekend.

New Bars

My new S&M Bruiser bars arrived today so I fitted them and my Crupi front loader stem on the bike and took it to the track for a couple of test laps.

The bars are nice, they take a little bit of getting used to as they are quite a bit higher even with moving from a top loader to a front loader stem.

The bike is much easier to manual and the front doesn't come up when sprinting any more. I took 2 seconds off of my best lap time so they must be OK.

I have a race tomorrow night so I will be able to see how the bars are then.

Gates

Had a rest day yesterday and also Slept in this morning so I was really fresh for gates this morning.

I practiced listening for the beep instead of watching the light as everyone I have spoken too has said that it is faster and better. I also practiced rolling backwards before going out of the gate which seemed to be working well.

I managed to manual the first jump a few times but there is still a lot of room for improvement as I am not getting any speed off of the backside of the jump.

There were not many adults at practice today as there was a national race  but I beat everyone there out of the gate. I was also jumping the table top which I havent done in months.

Trained Again Today

This morning I went to the Bath track and recorded the exact lap of the track on striva. I then did some training. I did 5 full laps and then practiced doing the start hill and manualling the first and second jumps and jumping the tabletop on the second straight.

When I got home I mapped track on strava and saved it as a segment so that I can keep a track of my lap times.

While I was at the track a guy who was British number 2 a couple of years ago arrived to do some training. I asked him about training and he said that skills wise the best skill to learn is manualling and to keep at it as I am almost there. He said to forget about jumping for now as manualling was much faster especially when you learn to do tap manuals.

I also asked him about the training he used to do and he gave me loads of advise. He said that he did uphill sprints in the off season and did 12 sprints with walk back rest. In season he said to do downhill sprints and do the same number and frequency as the uphill sprints.

He said that when he did full laps he did 6 laps with 3 minutes rest in between and that on the last rep he was usually almost throwing up.

I was also talking about gearing and that I wanted to go up a tooth at the front and he said that it would be better to go down a tooth at the front as the first straight is the key to good results.

I am going go from the 41x18 that I have at the moment to a 40x18 tomorrow to see how it goes in gate practice tomorrow.

Clipped in update

I forgot to write about my first race clipped in on Sunday. It went well, and I am definitely not going to go back to flats any time soon.

I was able to keep up with the faster guys up until the first jump which I hadn't been able to do before.

Because of the improved first straight I had my best results in the motos so far. I took 5th, 3rd and 4 th. I came 7th in the semi and 8th in the b final although I was in 6th for over half of the race.

On Monday I went to track Bristol early and did some laps and managed to beat my PB 3 times twice at 36 seconds and a new pb of 35 seconds this shows that clipless pedals are definitely faster than flats.

New forks

I bought some 20mm chrome forks for my bike as I have had problems with my left shoulder and arm due in part I think from the shocks from casing manuals and my carbon forks.

Someone at the weekend suggested buying some s&m chrome forks as they absorb more shock and are actually lighter than carbon forks.

I decided to try some cheaper chrome forks first before shelling out £150 on the S&M forks.

I went on eBay and bought some URP 20mm cruiser forks £30 delivered. They arrived today so I put them on my bike and went to the track to do some testing even tough I wasn't supposed to be riding to rest my arm!

First impressions are really good. The bike feels much smoother and there are no shocks going up my arms. As I was there I decided to try and manual the first jump and was able to do it a couple of times and also cased a few times without pain in my arms.

I am going to do a proper training session to MN borrow to see how my arm feels.

Here are some photos of the new bike. Oh I also bought a new Allen key with the 3 most common sizes for a bike in a star shape. I also bought a couple of all stands so that I can start sprint training tomorrow.

Clipped in

I went to gates today and it went fine clipped in, even though it was really windy so I am going to ride the clip less pedals tomorrow in the regional to see how it goes.

My new kneepads arrived today. They are Fox Racing Launch Knee-Shin guards 2016. I really like them as they are the first knee/shin guards that actually stay up. I like the 661 kneepads that I bought last month but they slip down so that the knee pad is actually below my knees which is a pain in the arse. I am going to use the 661 pads for lap training during the week and the Fox ones for gates and races.

Bath Regional 2016

Bought some photos of my son and myself racing in the last SW regional here in Bath.  Here they are.

Getting better

Feeling better today although I still can't breath properly. We have gate practice tomorrow morning at 10am so I will see how I am at full speed. I am also quite excited as it will be my first gates with clipless peddles so should be an experience at least.

I am off to my container in a bit to pick up our bikes ready for tomorrow and also to pick up some old tyres to put on my old cruiser as I am putting it up for sale online along with some other bits that I want to sell.

I want to use the money from the stuff that I sell to buy some new handle bars as the rentals that I use at the moment don't soak up any of the vibration of the track and are giving me sore wrists and shoulders.

I have been looking and I think that I will buy some s&m bruiser bars as they are supposed to be the best bars at the moment for a cruiser.

None of the online shops have any in stock which is a sign of good stuff.

I am contemplating going from gates here in bath to gates at the track in Tiverton where we will be racing on Sunday so that we can get some practice on the track before Sunday. If we leave here at around 11:30 we can get to Tiverton by just after 1pm which is the time for gate practice there. This will also mean that I will know the way for Sunday which will make it more relaxing.

Ill

I have been ill since Tuesday. It meant that I couldn't race in Bristol last night as I couldn't breath and had a temperature. I decided that I will rest until Saturday morning. I went to work on my old GT cruiser today but it was a real struggle to breath and my legs were burning as a result of this.

I have a race on Sunday so I am going to rest until Saturday.

I found out today that at the moment I am 5th in the South West and 30th in the UK in my age group at the moment so not bad for my first year.

I have bought some more kit as my knee/shin pads keep slipping down. I also bought some elbow pads and some more shorts. Hopefully they will be here by tomorrow.

I am going to practice gates against a wall tomorrow night clipped in to practice before gates Saturday as I still have not done a gate clipped in! 😭

Getting used to clips

Went to Bristol this morning to train and get used to the clipless peddles. I am really getting used to them now.

I managed to level my best time even though I could hardly breath due to man flu.

I managed 5 full laps and then I practiced doing the 4th and 5th straights as they were the areas I had the least flow.

I got better on the 4th straight but didn't have the lungs to do the 5th well.

Decided to rest instead of getting worse.

Clipped in

As my shoulder was hurting I decided to try putting my clipless pedals on my bmx and go to the track.

I rode for about an hour before I couldn't stand the pain in my shoulder any more.

I really liked riding clipped in as it felt really good and I could go much faster.

I think I am going to keep using the peddles for now and see how it goes on Wednesday night at Bristol and then I will decide about clipping in for  the race on Sunday or not.

Good week

Had a good week training week this week. I have been focusing on manuals again and I am getting much more fluid and faster. The extra speed caused me to crash as I had to jump the last jump on the 3rd straight as I was going too fast to stay on the ground! On a positive note I made the jump but cased the landing and lost my peddles and got dragged into the last berm and hit the deck. Luckily I got away with gravel rash on my right leg and right elbow a d that was it. Typically i fell when I wasn't using my knee/shin pads if I had them on I would have been fine. I do have to buy some elbow pads next month tho as I always seem to get my elbow.

Unfortunately I have managed to hurt my right shoulder somehow today so I had to cut my training short as a result. It feels like a muscle strain somewhere in my shoulder and may well be from not warming up properly before starting to try and manual bigger doubles.

Race day

Had a good days racing today. Didn't come last in any of my motos and made the semi final and b final so made my first goal for the year early.

My son had a good day too. He did his first ever un-assisted gate start today in one of his motos and also finished 4th in his final.

My new freewheel is excellent I got the profile freewheel which is as good as advertised. I was flying out of the gate and down the first straight. Then after that it all went down hill.

Laps

Went to the track with my son who has 3 days off of school for teacher training. We did full laps and the times are below.

Dylan

L1 = 56.67
L2 = 54.70
L3 = 56.43
L4 = 56.99
L5 = 59.98

Me

L1 = 37.52
L2 = 39.11
L3 = 39.90
L4 = 36.47
L5 = 38.46

The track was really slow as it had been raining for the last 2 days without stopping.

I got the photos from the regional the other weekend they are pretty good.

Easy day

Went to the track this morning but it was really windy on the second straight so I concentrated on the first straight and peddling down the back of the jumps.

I am going as fast as I can now without jumping the second jump which is way too big for me to Jump at the moment.

Tomorrow I will try and practice the second straight as well.

Good day's training

Got up early and went to the Bristol track and did some 90% laps. Managed to go 1 second faster than last week even though it was raining and the track was wet and sticky.

I took this to mean that the new gearing was better so I went to Crucial and bought a new profile elite 18 tooth freewheel as the Shimano one I have been using to test is a bit crappy. My old 17 tooth freewheel engaged really quickly but the 18 tooth one is really slow to engage and it feels like the chain is loose even though it isn't. Also the Shimano freewheel is silent which is really strange.

The profile elite is supposed to be the best freewheel that you can get and it has 140 points of engagement that makes it instantly engage. Apparently it is the equivalent to a cassette hub and much lighter. It also makes a really loud noise like a cassette hub.

After Bristol I went back to the Bath track and practiced the last 2 straights. I think that I have it pretty much dialled. Tomorrow I will practice on the first half of the track to try and get that dialled too.

Race Day

Had a good day racing yesterday. Did realy bed in the motos and gated really badly.

In the C final I rode well and took 2nd place. I also managed to jump the first jump really cleanly and was able to peddle the whole track without my legs giving out so the training is starting to pay off.

I am taking a rest day today and then I am getting back to it tomorrow. I have 2 weeks until the race at Bath so I am going to practice here and do flat out laps every other day with technique training the rest of the time.

I am going to change my freewheel today from a 17 tooth to an 18 tooth to see if it makes a difference. I talked to a lot of racers yesterday and the majority are running either a 41x18 or a 42x18 so I am going to try out the 41x18 for a week or so.

I really need to focus on my manualing and jumping as on the Bath track you have to hold the manuals longer than you do at Bristol so I need to really focus on this.

Practice and Gates done.

Got up at 6 this morning and went to the Bristol track and got an hour of training in early.

I didn't have time to practice jumping this morning and only had time to do 2 x 50% warmup laps followed by 5 x 90% full track laps with 10 minutes rest in between.

I managed to get to the last straight before my legs turned to mush this morning which is better than before so I am improving slowly.

I had my phone in my pocket and timed the laps with Strava. My lap times were as follows:

My lap times were as follows:

0:39
0:41
0:39
0:39
0:37

As you can see I was pretty consistent and according to Strava I have the 5th best time on the track although I am 10 seconds behind the first place person!

Also of the top five times I was 3 miles an hour faster than any of the other athletes with a top speed of 22.2mph so not bad.

At 10:30 I went to the track in bath and did an hour and a half of gate practice.

The 41x17 gearing is working better as I kept up with a National racer this morning who was clipped in. He also helped me with keeping peddling until the jump by scratching a line just before the first jump to peddle to before stopping peddling which helped loads.

Tomorrow in the race I am going to try and imagine the line on the track and see if this stops me getting over taken by the first jump.

I am now going to relax and eat a load of carbs ready for the race tomorrow.

Revised training

Just been looking for ways to get fitter for Bmx racing and I have just stumbled onto an article which stresses the importance of doing full laps.

The article states that you should be doing 5 full laps at 90% of full speed with 10 minutes recovery.

I am going to try this tomorrow morning after doing a warm-up of 2 laps at 50% and then 5 first straights practising jumping the first jump.

Hopefully this will help me to get around the whole track on Sunday.

I got my bike back from crucial Bmx this afternoon and it looks great with the new 41 tooth chain ring and a black chain.

I will take a couple of photos tomorrow morning when I get to the track.

First race night done

Did my first race night at Bristol Wednesday Night and got beaten badly.

I was first out if the gate every time but by the first turn I was in last place.

Talking to the guys you have to jump the first jump to keep the speed so yesterday morning I practised the first jump and I can now jump the gap onto the flat. I need to now learn to jump onto the down ramp which is about 6 feet of where I am currently landing.

For my practice for the rest of the week I am going to practice jumping the first 2 jumps tomorrow and then practice the last half of the track.

I am not overly confident for the races on Sunday but I was racing against some of the top guys in the region on Wednesday night so I am hoping to do better than second to last where I finished in my last regional race.

I have had the morning off this morning as my bike is being serviced I am also getting a new chain and a 41 tooth chain ring to try and help with my top end speed and try and stop people over taking me before the first jump as I am just spinning the pedals by half way down the start ramp!

I bought a new chain so that it will be quick and easy to go back to the 40 tooth chain ring without having to move the back wheel.

I am going to pick up my bike later this afternoon so I will take it to the local track tonight to see how the new gearing works out.

I will go to Bristol again tomorrow morning early to test as well.

Another good days training

Got up early again this morning and went to the Bristol track again. I upped the intensity today and went all out for the first 4 straights. I wasn't able go flat out any more than this as my legs stopped working!!!!!

I am going to have a go again tomorrow to try and make the whole track as I have a race there tomorrow night and at the moment I am blowing out of my arse for the last 2 straights!

Back to Training

Got up at 6 this morning and went to the Bristol Patchway track for a couple of hours training. I have the first and second straights pretty much sorted and I have finally learnt to manual!!!

I did it by accident on the first jump when I hit it too fast and manual without thinking about it and it just clicked!! I can now consistently manual all of the jumps on the first and second straight.

To make this mornings session even better I learn how to pedal out of the manuals as well so I could feel that I got faster as I was able to carry the speed down the third straight.

Tomorrow I will practice going full out for the first 3 straights to get that dialled as well.

My bike is now 100% dialled in and perfect. Thanks to the guys from Crucial BMX in Bristol for sorting it out for me.

Yesterday I bought a freestyle bike for myself and my son for us to play on around town. I found myself a second hand but nearly new Blank Ammo 2016 (http://www.crucialbmxshop.com/blank-ammo-2016-complete-bmx-bike-black-chrome.html?) and a new Subrosa Salvador 18" 2016 (http://www.crucialbmxshop.com/subrosa-salvador-18-2016-bmx-bike.html?) this is what they look like:





We took them for a little spin yesterday and they are fun. Really different to the race bike but still good fun.

We are going to the track in bath now for a bit of a play before lunch.

Just got back from the track, it was really good there were loads of people and they even got the gate going which was a bonus. Feeling really tired now so I am going to relax for the rest of the day ready to go back to Bristol tomorrow morning to train hard again.

I managed to manual the first doubles on my last go but it is much harder than in Bristol. Hopefully after a couple of weeks practice I will consistently be able to manual all of the jumps at Bath too.

New Track

Over the weekend by local track in Bath was resurfaced and had some maintenance done as well.

This morning I have been there testing it out and it is really good. Much faster and smoother and the changes to some of the jumps has made a big difference.

Hopefully it will stay dry for a couple more days to bake the surface hard as it is still a bit we and soggy in places especially the last straight.

Because of this I practised mainly on the first and second straights as they were harder.

Here is a picture of my bike and the newly surfaced track:

I also tested my new five10 shoes and they are amazing. once your feet are on they don't move at all.

I have a race in 2 weeks so I need to start training more. I am going to start going to the Bristol track as the race is at there and I have only ridden the track once so I need to get used to the track.

Slow week

I haven't been able to ride at all this week as the track is closed for maintenance. I have ridden to work and back all week so I have done a bit of exercise.

The new bike is now 100% and ready to hit the track on Monday when the track opens.