Break in Transmission

Been a while! Sorry, but alas all my creative talents have been at their wits end trying to put some 'creativity' into essays on enthralling topics such as Industrial Relations in post unification Germany and post Mao China, and the roles of institutional investors in Corporate Governance. Just, so, exciting.

Anyway, what's been going on in super lazy dot points:

• I raced Tour of Canberra. I went as expected (not great![at this point in time]). The team went as expected (Freakin awesome!) and thus the team jets off to the next round of the NRS in Toowoomba with Nathan Haas kicken arse and the rest of the guys also putting the boot to the proverbial behind

• One thing we did do in Canberra, which was really good was a bit of a fun ride/general mess around and act like kids, with,  a bunch of kids.  Some of the local sponsors got word round so that when we rocked out to Stromlo Forrest Park the day before the tour started to cut some laps with a bunch of really enthusiastic kids. AJ even got the idea of setting up a tt course for the kids to race each other on, it got heated that's for sure!

• Other memorable moments include Shawry having words with a grumpy baggage handler who was throwing bikes around, and getting through three days of racing without any rain. 

• Coming up in the not too distant future for myself is a period of not too much whilst I navigate my way around some more thrilling exams. And not heaps more. I know, what the heck am I gonna talk about?? 

• Well for starters I am looking at some options to finally (touch wood) nail a few of the issues I have been having with my left hip. The upside to this is, the greatest sports doctor ever to walk the earth (Andrew Garnham), has sorted me out with a more than interesting hip rehab/prehab/general stability regime. Let's just say; Ballet, Dancers. Wow, geez, talk about flexible. My previous round of pilates work had me working in an environment whereby the coefficient of ballet dancers to non ballet dancers was, oh, say, 1:10. But now it's a ratio of Ballet dancers to Jono that's about 100:1. Brilliant.

All for now, stay warm this winter and enjoy the finish to the Giro! (I'll be busy thinking I can Dance.)


Jono

Win some free stuff!

Ok, long and short

IF you want to win a free pair of compression socks jump onboard with Zensah on facebook and 'like' them. Then follow the prompts. Easy.
http://www.facebook.com/zensahsports

In other news, I must confess, I had my socks on for the return flight from Malaysia (and they did the trick re 'cankles'), but I did have to take them off after a few hours of the flight there as for whatever reason (acclimatisation most likely) the plane was baking hot, so I couldn't hack any extra heat!

Malaysia was good fun albeit a bit flat but unfortunately the reports I wrote for our team  website from stages 3-6 all got lost in the wild world of the interweb. Given I have an essay to finish before I head off to oceanias in Shepparton I don't think I'll be catching back up on them unfortunately. I can quickly say the highlights (or lowlights) of our time were

1) Mark O'Brien's golf ball sized saddle sore*. Wow. just wow!

*Before editing this I spelt it 'saddle saw', now that would be a sight to behold...

2) Torrential rain, oh so much rain.

3) Bus transfers before and after stages. Not the most enjoyable, especially given the highly bureacratic nature of the race organisors. 10:00 start, 10k transfer, therefore 7:30 bus. Yeeaahh. Great. Then we get there and sit around for 2 hours then the buses return from the second leg (which we were not informed of) with all the Malaysians smiling thanks to that extra hour of sleep. Reminds me of Cadel's Spanish wheel change last year!

4) 10k neutral sections before stages at 15-20 k per hour. Yep, when you have a 220k stage coming up there is nothing more you look forward to than 30min of neutral. (sarcasm intended)

5) Starbucks. That's right, I went there.

6) Curry. Yum

7)  A block of cadbury given to us to lift our spirits pre stage.

8) Lots of space on our flights given the random 3am departures and arrivals.

Now it's back to the essay!

Jono

Malaysia

Some reports from the race are here, if they are not there yet, they should be soon!

Got the whiff

Racing in Asia. I love it.

It nearly broke my heart to not be able to race my final two big Chinese races, Tour of China and Tour of Hainan, with Marco Polo at the end of last year. But I was a was a broken, buckled, overly metaphorical wreck.

But alas, with many an hour of rehab work I am back on track, and thanks to Genesys for having some faith and taking me on in my buckled state I am only a week away from a return to the Asian scene!

On the cards for the team is Jelajah Malaysia and the Tour of Korea. Both are going to be fantastic.

Malaysia will be a real shock to the system. Hot and humid, like a punch in the face. But the curries and catch ups with Malaysian friends from Marco Polo will make up for it. I cannot wait! The course is unfortunately flat but given it runs along some coastal roads before making its way south towards Kuala Lumpur I am hoping for some wind to tear it up. Maybe even some success like Marko experienced last year

Korea is going to be similarly fantastic. I can't really put words to how excited I am! I had such a ball racing there last year. The race was so well organised, I mean they even chartered a private flight to transport the entire race after stage one, the food was amazing (anyone say kim chi?) and the racing was really tough. It had everything, wind, rain, snow, mountains, highways, kim chi. Everything.

The only two downsides are that I have to bust my arse being back at full time uni, it's just one big game of catch up but hey that's life. Secondly, the flights start to drag, especially when your flight to Kuala Lumpur depart at 03:30 on Sunday morning! Ouch!

Here is a good recap from our Childrens First Foundation ride a few weeks back and some more talk on WattBike Max power comps, geez there are some good sprinters out there in the Genesys corporate world!

Time to grab a quick nap before heading off to the airport, I think this is going to be a disjointed night for sure!

Jono

Hobart

So, day 1, training camp:

90k's there. Lunch. 90k's back.

Simple equation? I think not!

When the trip down takes not much over 2 hours, without minimal stress, you know you are in trouble. And trouble we were in. It was windy. So bloody windy! We had 8 guys swapping off into the headwind and we struggled to crack 30,  this was out of this world bat-shit crazy. Stupid. It should never be that windy. I hope it never is again. As my cheeks still have a bit of windburn

Day 2
Cold. Snow down to 900m overnight. Summer? A Tasmanian summer at best. The rain continued, as did the ride. After 3 hours or so our route was shortened to avoid snow and save sanity. What is going on in this state?!? It was really turning on the weather for the mainlanders. Only coffee and carrot cake could save some face for this frigid land.

Day 3
Mt Wellington. The one I had been waiting for. 3.5 hours of nice bunch riding, loads of ups and downs, some swapping off, some lunch and then up the climb it was. We had a bit of a race, the results showing who was strong, and who was even stronger! Everyone soon felt deflated when we came in around 10 minutes behind Ritchie Porte's PB time up the hill. Never Mind. The view ( and maybe some coke) revived our spirits after the hour of power.

Ok the pictures are crap, but at least  I tried, unlike Kane (seen below), who thanks to some remaining Indian gastro gut and a sore knee found more respite in bed, rather than going up the berg, wise choice Kane, wise choice...

Day 4
Today it was TV time. Local Hobart TV were swooning over the ever impressive Nathan Earle who is soon to be deemed the next best thing since sliced bread (or Ritchie Porte, or Will Clarke, or Cam Wurf). So as we rode off straight up hill (whose idea was this!?!) we had to put on a brave face and pretend not to be suffering, somehow we climbed 900m in the first 45 minutes even though none of the climbs were longer than a few k, guess they all added up. The day then followed some nice easier roads only then to send us up some more vicious bergs that resulted in the numbers being pinned on and the ears pinned back. I couldn't hold the front men. I was suffering big time. This camp was harder than a race. Then it was the half an hour swap off that really blew everything out of the legs. Lunch was on and the day was just about done. The ride back from New Norfolk to Hobart was spent reminding myself how to pee on the bike (well, to pee away from the bike moreso) whilst on the move. I am not sure if the afternoon traffic understood what was going on. I bet it looked weird.

Day 5
The finale. Nearly done. It was a long early section of the ride on some roads that were so far beyond dead I think they must have been brought back to life, then killed again. They were D-E-A-D. But quiet nonetheless. Lunch was churned, coke was consumed and the last part of the ride was another swap off from hell. Everyone wanting to hurt everyone else. Perfect. A tick over 6 hours and the camp was done. Phew!

Everyone is now ready for Jelajah Malaysia!

From back on the mainland,

Jono

Zensah Compression Socks

Well a sad but wonderful thing has happened recently. I have sold out.

Yes I am taking over the world one free pair of compression socks at a time. If you divide the hours I waste typing this stuff up by one pair of $50 compression socks I would be making a good $0.0002 dollars an hour, maybe less. But nonetheless I was as giddy as a school girl when Zensah compression contacted me and asked me to do a review on their product. Ooo-right.

So, a few weeks later and after some time getting to know my new pair of large Zensah socks I have a review to put forth. Firstly, the short sharp summary

PROS
-Very Comfy,
- No skin irritations, rashes, general annoyances
-Mild compression, effective on short flights, feels nice after a hard ride
-Nice and warm ( would be a CON if in a hot climate)

CONS
-Rather warm, if in a really hot area you may get a sweat up wearing them
-Mild Compression, if you were after something much more compressive you would have to go custom fit
-Arch support?

The Compression Sock Guru
After injuring my right hand ankle/shin as seen here I needed some good compression to stop blood/fluid/yoounameit from pooling around my ankle. Once I returned to weight bearing activity (and cycling) I wore compression socks round the clock (except in bed). The socks I had that time where a pair of Venosan custome fit ones. Given the circumstances I require a high compression (somewhere in the realms of 30+ mmHG) and having long and skinny legs meant that by the time I got socks that fitted the length of my legs they were no longer tight enough.

Going back to the Zensah socks at hand I found that given the cheap price tag (compared to ~$200 worth of custom surgical grade ones) they provided a nice level of compression but not nearly as much as my previous pair. That was, however, to be expected. Furthermore; if you found yourself with larger calves than my good self then you would be getting a more snug fit.  Even for my skinny legs the socks did stop any swelling on our flights to and from Hobart (1 hour flight time, loads more sitting at airports playing Fruit Ninja on i-phones) for our training camp which is impressive, and I am looking forward to seeing how they go after 8 hours to Malaysia in a weeks time ( I will update the report so do check back to see my thoughts)

I am one of those people who loves to walk around in socks, indoors, outdoors, anywhere. Thus my post ride routine on camp was to clean up, feed up, then get kitted out in a t-shirt, jocks and socks and whittle away the arvo. The socks held up very well with the base stitching being very thick and durable. So on one hand it may be disapointing that the socks can get very warm, the trade off for this warmth is comfort and durability. You may look for socks with thinner stitching around the sole but they may not last particularly long. Also, if it is cold, warm socks are a god send. Given we woke up to snow on Mt Wellington on the second day of our camp you would have to have been lucky to get the socks off me that day! The socks were fantastic in Tasmania, though I can foresee they will be getting pretty sweaty in Malaysia.

The only real qualm I had with the socks was the claimed 'arch support'. I am a bit sceptical of this claim, yes the base of the socks is very thick, it is comfy, it is durable and it does compress nicely. They feel nice when worn for recovery, they help with ankle swelling during flights and on one of my recovery rides they did feel great (but you won't catch me racing in them due to sponsorship issues). I can't really say if the claimed arch support of the sock aided in any of the above. I think you would have to get a pair yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Finally, I have notoriously sensative skin that will always revolt in red rashes and blisters in response to certain products, like band aids, strapping tap, certain types of rubber/latex and some tight fitting materials that involve some sweating (Thankfully not lycra!). So it was one big tick that these socks didn't trigger any problems. That's a pass for the claim of anti-microbial fabric in my books. Also, after two weeks and not one wash they don't stink. Surely that's a miracle!

So, after weighing up the pros and cons of the socks whilst trying to be honest and not a marketing puppet; I would conclude that I would have no issues in recommending these socks to you. If I wanted some compression socks, and had no serious injuries that required very high levels of compression, I would buy these socks happily.

Happy Hunting

Jono

This One Time, at Band Camp...

The two things I think of when Hobart is mentioned to me are:

1) Cold Weather

2) Mt Wellington

So when our team decided to have a week long training camp in Hobart I got pretty interested. I started packing my thermals even though it's summer,  and then  I started wishing I was as light as I was when I was 15.

I also packed my flute. You never know.

During my time with the VIS we where always lucky enough to have our camps at Bright in the epicentre of the Victorian Alps. We had Hotham, Buffalo, Falls Creek, both sides of Tawonga, Rosewhite and the climb into Beechworth at our feet. It really was an all you can eat buffet of long painful climbs, I was always cautious not to overindulge. Every hill there were always two or three different groups:

1) The overeager juniors. The halfwheelers. The racers. They had numbers pinned on and there was a finish line at the top. They often started out the week smashing up the climbs, going like Contador past a dropped chain, the moment the road went up these kids found their way to the front

2) The camp regulars, these were the guys that had been overeager once, but now found themselves weathered but nonetheless wise. Racing flat out on the second day up Falls Creek usually meant a world of agony then next day up Mt Hotham. These guys paced themselves and did some specific efforts but generally climbed en masse and put pressure on the overeager juniors to 'Slow down it's not a race!'

Every regular knew that on the last day coming back from Beechworth was when everyone put their balls on the line ( chicks too!) It was the 'halfwheel-off' of the century:

Riders two abreast, mano a mano, you and your nemesis just kept upping the tempo every 500m of your turn, the pace always increasing to the excruciating end. Each rider trying not to let on how much it hurt, no swaying, no grimacing, just push, push, push.

"Keep your breathing steady, eyes straight forward, keep your cadence up, don't bog down, oh god this is starting to hurt, don't worry, he'll crack soon, just 500 metres more, you can do it, come on, keep going, oh god was that 500 metres all ready!?! Hey! I said STOP swaying, what are you doing with that breathing? Sounds like you are being strangled"

Then as both riders neared thermal implosion the stronger of the riders would begin to sense the kill. Like any true predator the strong partner would go in for the kill. As the weaker rider you could tell when your stronger nemesis started to smell your defeat, they oozed confidence, you knew, that  they knew, that no matter how much they were hurting, it was hurting you more. Much more. They had the power to end it all. And eventually they would put it down one more cog and blow you to smithereens. And it was game over, back down the group you would drift, fending off the taunts of defeat. Only to do it all again next time you got to the front.

3) Then came the 'out of formers'. For these guys the camp was pure agony. The juniors smashed you on the climbs, the regulars flogged you on the flats. No rest. No joy. Just a long week of seeing the group of riders you should be with disapearing into the distance whilst keeping a brave face when Davo drops back in the car to see what's taking you so long! No hiding here!

Throughout my VIS years I have been a member of all three groups and I always came back from the camps feeling fitter, stronger but mighty happy to be home.

The only downside being, that even with enough climbs to construct a grand tour, it still managed to get a bit 'same same' throughout the years. Nevertheless this repetitive grind didn't worry me, being a creature of strict routine and structure I found it kind of pleasing knowing exactly what we would be doing each day.

So with tomorrow comes a whole new training camp! Getting on a plane for starters adds a bit of adventure, but also increases the CBF factor. One of the most draining things ever to confront a cyclist is having to get off a plane and unpack your bike and go riding straight away, but I guess I'll just have to suck it up! So providing I can get Internet down in Hobart I hope to have some good stories of of pain and suffering.

Speaking of pain and suffering, this is a favourite of mine from Arnaud:

Arnaud is not the kind of Masseus to start causing you all sorts of grief in all sorts of places then to have the nerve to stand there and patronisingly say

"Relaaaax, just let the muscle relaaaaax"

"I CAN'T EFFIN RELAX YOU'VE GOT YOUR ELBOW JAMMED THREE FOOT UP MY @RSE! HOW THE F*** DO YOU EXPECT ME TO RELAX!!!!"

No, Arnaud is a forward thinker, he is pretty aware of human reflexes; when he starts gettin' in there people usually start jumping and flailing and screaming and crying; unless you are Scott Morrison who apparently has no feelings at all ;-) .

But for Arnaud, no problem, just strap the poor bugger to the table. He ain't goin nowhere!

From the mainland, and soon to be on the Southland,

Bye for now!

Jono