Now, you are probably coming here to read about how to service your own bike by yourself. Sorry, this isn't the post for that, that requires a much longer and more detail instruction than I can provide in a simple blog post although I will eventually post tips on how to do minor servicings.
What I really can't stress enough is - GET A PROFESSIONAL SERVICE!!
I'm fairly tech savvy and quite good at fixing mechanical things etcetera (I do have a degree in engineering after-all) but I don't have the appropriate tools for a complete bike service beyond the basics like chain cleaning, tire/tube changing and minor brake tightening. Your local bike shop has these tools, and most importantly an experienced mechanic who knows how to use them. I'm talking here about a top quality torque wrench (you NEED one of these if your bike is carbon or you risk destroying it completely), wheel truing devices that have very close tolerances (No point truing a wheel with one unless you can get close to factory spec trueness) as well as all the smaller things that become costly quickly if you try to purchase them yourself, like a chain-whip and chain breaker, .
Your local bike shop technician also has a wealth of knowledge about common problems that you might not even know you have, like knowing how much life your chain has left or why the gear keeps skipping from the 16t to the 14t and ruining your cadence rhythm completely.
The final thing I want to say about getting a professional bike service is they can clean your bike like new. I like my bike shiny and clean it after most rides, but no matter how much I clean it, it never looks clean.
In summary, you don't need to get your bike serviced all the time if you take good care of it and regularly clean it and keep the chain and cogs well lubricated, but you should really consider getting it serviced every few months (2-6 months max) depending on your usage. As a general rule I get my bikes professionally serviced every 2500km, putting in around 200km per week.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
First they ask WHY, then they ask HOW?
Sometimes we set off on a journey that we don't have an intended destination, we just know we have to get moving.
That's where I was not too long ago, graduated from university with a degree in an almost impossible field to break into at the current time due to a huge range of reasons. I was expecting to do the usual thing that I grew up watching happen, go to school, study hard, to uni, study harder, graduate and join the workforce in a graduate program for some big industry giant. But then things don't happen like that. You wonder if it was something you missed, did you do something wrong, you essentially feel like a failure and blame yourself. At least that's where I found myself just under 12 months ago. I was working a dead-end job in hospitality that I hated, only my co-workers kept me sane and I'm sure anyone who has worked in front-line service for minimum wage can understand.
It was just before the end of the year, when a lot of my friends where planning Christmas/New Year holidays and the like, when I was stuck at work doing night shifts and having horrible sleeping patterns causing immense amounts of stress, that I decided to pull the pin and quit my job. I gave my 4 weeks notice (at that time of year I was being generous and gave my boss enough time to find a replacement, never burn your bridges no matter how much you might want to, you never know when you might need to cross them again someday), and began to plan my life in earnest.I knew very little of where I was going to end up, just that I enjoyed triathlons and challenging myself to reach my limits. I'm also passionate about helping people and motivating them to reach their goals. I sat down and thought, for a very long time, about how I could take this and make a living from it. Professional athlete seemed like such a long distant dream that at first I discounted as any sort of realistic goal. I settled on becoming a model/brand ambassador. But first I had to make myself good enough. Good enough to be wanted as ambassador, good enough to be talked about and good enough to live with myself. To do this I had to bury myself in one thing, IronMan Melbourne. Everything comes down to how I go in this one event, if I win, happy days, if go top 3, awesome and top 10 is workable.
Now I had a goal, something to reach for, I needed to workout how to get there. I needed to develop a training schedule, a diet plan, find a support team and a budget to ensure I can afford to do this full time with my limited savings. I'll discuss this in more detail in my next blog.
That's where I was not too long ago, graduated from university with a degree in an almost impossible field to break into at the current time due to a huge range of reasons. I was expecting to do the usual thing that I grew up watching happen, go to school, study hard, to uni, study harder, graduate and join the workforce in a graduate program for some big industry giant. But then things don't happen like that. You wonder if it was something you missed, did you do something wrong, you essentially feel like a failure and blame yourself. At least that's where I found myself just under 12 months ago. I was working a dead-end job in hospitality that I hated, only my co-workers kept me sane and I'm sure anyone who has worked in front-line service for minimum wage can understand.
It was just before the end of the year, when a lot of my friends where planning Christmas/New Year holidays and the like, when I was stuck at work doing night shifts and having horrible sleeping patterns causing immense amounts of stress, that I decided to pull the pin and quit my job. I gave my 4 weeks notice (at that time of year I was being generous and gave my boss enough time to find a replacement, never burn your bridges no matter how much you might want to, you never know when you might need to cross them again someday), and began to plan my life in earnest.I knew very little of where I was going to end up, just that I enjoyed triathlons and challenging myself to reach my limits. I'm also passionate about helping people and motivating them to reach their goals. I sat down and thought, for a very long time, about how I could take this and make a living from it. Professional athlete seemed like such a long distant dream that at first I discounted as any sort of realistic goal. I settled on becoming a model/brand ambassador. But first I had to make myself good enough. Good enough to be wanted as ambassador, good enough to be talked about and good enough to live with myself. To do this I had to bury myself in one thing, IronMan Melbourne. Everything comes down to how I go in this one event, if I win, happy days, if go top 3, awesome and top 10 is workable.
Now I had a goal, something to reach for, I needed to workout how to get there. I needed to develop a training schedule, a diet plan, find a support team and a budget to ensure I can afford to do this full time with my limited savings. I'll discuss this in more detail in my next blog.
Monday, 9 March 2015
Gear - Garmin 920XT
A crucial part to my training programs is the ability to accurately track my sessions and races with useful metrics, both in real-time and post exercise. My main weapon of choice is Garmin's flagship triathlon specific watch, the Garmin 920XT.
The 920XT has all the features you could want for all three discipline, it measures heart-rate (HR) for running and riding, speed/pace for all three, laps and strokes for swimming, cadence for running and RPM for riding. As well as acting as a regular watch and showing your time.
These tools are incredible useful, if you understand them. For me, a lot of time has been spent in understanding how my body functions under different conditions, essentially to work out my maximum efficiency for any given distance or event. Garmin has a great website that is bundled with all their GPS and tracking devices, Garmin Connect, that helps you to analyse the data and develop your own peak performance ranges.
The best part of the 920XT is the 'Triathlon' mode, it runs the watch through the three legs at the push of a button, and includes transition times! So now you can easily move for one even to the next, getting accurate times and be able to pace yourself properly. This function is particularly useful for long distance events when keeping a close eye on your power output is vital.
The 920XT does have an optional 'quick-release' kit that can be purchased separately to detach the watch face from your wrist and attach it a bike mount. I don't personally use this as I us a Garmin Edge 510 on the bike leg, I prefer the larger screen and ability to view more metrics simultaneous without having to take my hands out of the most aero position to touch the screen.
The 920XT has all the features you could want for all three discipline, it measures heart-rate (HR) for running and riding, speed/pace for all three, laps and strokes for swimming, cadence for running and RPM for riding. As well as acting as a regular watch and showing your time.
These tools are incredible useful, if you understand them. For me, a lot of time has been spent in understanding how my body functions under different conditions, essentially to work out my maximum efficiency for any given distance or event. Garmin has a great website that is bundled with all their GPS and tracking devices, Garmin Connect, that helps you to analyse the data and develop your own peak performance ranges.
The best part of the 920XT is the 'Triathlon' mode, it runs the watch through the three legs at the push of a button, and includes transition times! So now you can easily move for one even to the next, getting accurate times and be able to pace yourself properly. This function is particularly useful for long distance events when keeping a close eye on your power output is vital.
The 920XT does have an optional 'quick-release' kit that can be purchased separately to detach the watch face from your wrist and attach it a bike mount. I don't personally use this as I us a Garmin Edge 510 on the bike leg, I prefer the larger screen and ability to view more metrics simultaneous without having to take my hands out of the most aero position to touch the screen.
Saturday, 7 March 2015
Hi!
I thought I would delve into the world of blogging and see where it leads. I'm passionate about sharing my story to inspire and motivate others on their own fitness journeys and life goals.
My story here starts in 2015, 2 weeks before attempting my first full IronMan at IronMan Melbourne on March 22nd. I aim to finish in under 10 hours, in the 18-24 Male category, a time that will see me competitive with the top 5 finishers. However I have a long history in sports, having begun swimming from a young age and reaching state and national level in the pool as an early teen. After a somewhat limited success in the pool I turned my attention to boxing, which I competed as an amateur boxer for 5 years. As a boxer I won several state titles and learnt a lot about training techniques and how to approach life with a positive mindset and use a holistic approach to achieving the best results you can. I owe a great deal to my mentor and boxing coach, Brian Butler, for helping me to grow into a young man with a firm grounding in the basics of health, fitness and life in general.
Now as I am moving into the elite ranks of age group triathletes I am hoping to use my experiences to motivate people and help them to achieve their own goals, be them sporting, academic, or just to become more productive in their day-to-day lives.
In addition to my sporting endeavours I have also studied at the University of Melbourne and have a degree in chemical engineering. Whilst this may seem unrelated to triathlons and motivational speaking, completing this challenging degree has helped me to develop highly technical skills in organisation, communication, data analysis, reporting writing and networking. I use these skills everyday in my training and finding new ways to bring my story to you, sharing a wealth of knowledge in a simple and easy to understand manner as well as working on great deals for the best products to suit you.
It doesn't matter how fast you are going, don't stop moving forward, you are lapping everyone on the couch!
More from me soon!
Max
My story here starts in 2015, 2 weeks before attempting my first full IronMan at IronMan Melbourne on March 22nd. I aim to finish in under 10 hours, in the 18-24 Male category, a time that will see me competitive with the top 5 finishers. However I have a long history in sports, having begun swimming from a young age and reaching state and national level in the pool as an early teen. After a somewhat limited success in the pool I turned my attention to boxing, which I competed as an amateur boxer for 5 years. As a boxer I won several state titles and learnt a lot about training techniques and how to approach life with a positive mindset and use a holistic approach to achieving the best results you can. I owe a great deal to my mentor and boxing coach, Brian Butler, for helping me to grow into a young man with a firm grounding in the basics of health, fitness and life in general.
Now as I am moving into the elite ranks of age group triathletes I am hoping to use my experiences to motivate people and help them to achieve their own goals, be them sporting, academic, or just to become more productive in their day-to-day lives.
In addition to my sporting endeavours I have also studied at the University of Melbourne and have a degree in chemical engineering. Whilst this may seem unrelated to triathlons and motivational speaking, completing this challenging degree has helped me to develop highly technical skills in organisation, communication, data analysis, reporting writing and networking. I use these skills everyday in my training and finding new ways to bring my story to you, sharing a wealth of knowledge in a simple and easy to understand manner as well as working on great deals for the best products to suit you.
It doesn't matter how fast you are going, don't stop moving forward, you are lapping everyone on the couch!
More from me soon!
Max
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