Feb
7
February = FAIL!
February 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment
So far, so bad.
The cold has kept me off the bike. The only ride I’ve done this month was one to the train station and back with a bit of a detour to the 7/11.
Need to pull my finger out and hope for the cold and wind to go away.
Latest mileage: 5km
Yearly total: 1009.47km
Daily average:26.565km
Daily average goal: 33.71km
Feb
7
Bicycles For Humanity
February 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Just stumbled across this charity organisation Bicycles For Humanity.
Bicycles for Humanity – Tokyo (B4H-Tokyo) is a charitable organization founded by Andrew Eickhoff to further the mission of Bicycles For Humanity (B4H) to empower the people of Africa by helping them solve the basic problem of mobility. A bicycle allows a healthcare worker to visit 3 to 4 times the number of patients in a day, it allows a mother to transport water and get her goods to market. For students living a long way from schools, it allows them more time and energy for studies and helping at home.
The basic idea is to raise around ¥70,0000, collect 400 used bicycles, buy a shipping crate and send it to Africa. Together we can make it!
A bike can change a life in a poor country. Yet for millions of people on the lowest incomes, a new bicycle is financially out of reach.
Meanwhile, millions of perfectly good bicycles lie unused in North America, Europe, Japan and elsewhere in the world.
Bicycles for Humanity began in September 2005 with the simple aim of enabling people to raise funds and collect unwanted bicycles to send to reliable partners in developing countries.
In developing countries, Bicycles for Humanity, in partnership with organizations in that country, provides resources and support to make the process accountable and efficient. In developing countries, it works at the grassroots level to ensure that disadvantaged people are empowered through improved access to food and water, employment, healthcare, education and social opportunities.
Our movement continues to grow for 3 simple reasons:
1. It empowers caring entrepreneurial-minded people in Africa to step up and make a difference in their communities.
2. It links people here with like-minded people in Africa. Together, they tell the story of the need, collect the bikes and raise the funds to empower whole communities.
3. Accountability, honesty and humanity are the foundation of our movement. The more the people of Africa demonstrate this, the more support comes forward.
Our focus in 2008 was on distributing the Bicycling Empowerment Centre (BEC), a complete package that addresses bicycle delivery to remote areas, access to tools, training and spare parts.
The Bicycle Empowerment Centre (BEC) program was a huge success with now over twelve of them placed across all of Namibia. In 2009 we will launch Top UP, a program designed to send more bikes to communities that already have a BEC.
On this site, you will find information about volunteering, collections and developing country projects. You will come to know the people we empower and the many ways that recipients use bicycles to create new opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
You will also find ways that you or your community group, service club, school, sport club, religious organization or business can get involved. There are opportunities to support our projects by working within your community and through direct connections with partners in a developing countries. Help send a BEC to a community in need.
Please visit our Humanity Rocks Initiative to find out more about how you can join and become a part of this grassroots movement.
Bicycles for Humanity On Facebook too:
Jan
31
Goal! 1004.47km January
January 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Over the last few days I didn’t think I was going to make it.
Cold and wind and lack of motivation kept me off the bike more than was planned for and I stayed home yesterday psyching myself up for today. Even went to the extreme motivating tactic of shaving my legs last night to make sure I was in the right frame of mind.
Looking at the weather report it was going to be coldest at 6a.m and that meant I had another excuse to sleep in a bit for it to warm up a bit.
Left home around 7:15 and headed north up to Sekiyado where one of my team mates glided by me at a faster pace. He had already been on the road for at least 30km but I was not going to go too hard too fast so let him slide away out of site into the distance.
On the return leg I was hoping to get to Shinzakaya for the start of our usual Sunday morning sprint but I was about 15 minutes too late at that point and continued on to the finish line where they were all chatting away as usual over hot chocolates. After about 20 minutes of chatting I got back on and continued to Tokyo Bay.
My thighs were screaming at me by this stage for some breakfast and with 80km on an empty stomach I agreed. My thighs and I found a Royal Host restaurant near Kasai park where we could tuck in and get warm and recovered.
I just had a glass of water but my thighs shared a Clubhouse sandwich, 2 hot chocolates, 2 colas and a double espresso with sugar…
After lunch I calculated I had to do at least 2 laps of Disneyland before I could even consider coming home.
My thighs had energy to burn and we got home in good time, strong as ever.
Wasn’t so hard after all.
Today’s mileage: 140.06 kmkm
Yearly total: 1004.47km
Daily average: 32.402258064516129032258064516129km
Daily average goal: 33.71km
Jan
30
Sekiyado
January 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Yesterday afternoon, once it had warmed up a little I headed out to get some kind of ride in.
A bit of a South Easterly blowing helped me up the river but left me with few options on the way home and was very hard to head back. The Bridgestone Anchor team coming the opposite way near the castle on there way home up the Tone river. They would have been flying with the wind at their backs once they made that last left hand turn at Sekiyado.
The weather is nice today and I should get out early and do as much as possible today…not feeling very energetic though.
135.59km to go….
67.795km today and 67.795km tomorrow will do it….
Yesterday’s mileage: 43.65km
Yearly total: 864.41km
Daily average: 29.807241379310344827586206896552km
Daily average goal: 33.71km
Jan
28
Guinness World Record Piranha & Egan Golf & Folds of Honor Foundation
January 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment
For the Folds of Honor Foundation balls were sponsored….and…
At 11:16, Nigel Mangan of Egan Golf (Ireland) hit ball 7,351 to break the world record for most balls hit in a 12 hour period.
Piranha golf clubs of course!!!
I’m sure a few Guinness’ have helped him celebrate this awesome achievement.
Jan
28
BG FIT (Body Geometry Fit Integration Technology)
January 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment
A few guys I train with have had a BG Fit and I have noticed a great improvement in their riding abilities. Especially with extra speed with seemingly little effort.
I know my positioning is not great and possibly my bike sizes are not exact.
The price for this is probably not cheap and would probably require new bits and pieces for my current bikes (stems, cranks, seats? etc) which would make it even more expensive.
More research needed…
BG FIT (Body Geometry Fit Integration Technology)
Developed after years of working with Dr. Andy Pruitt Ed.D., PA of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and found only at your local Specialized dealer, BG FIT (Body Geometry Fit Integration Technology) is a comprehensive fit philosophy created to help cyclists ride faster, longer and in greater comfort, while reducing the chance for injury.
PRE-FIT
Every fit- whether it’s for a novice or experienced cyclist- starts with a brief interview between a trained technician and rider that addresses the individual’s injury history, needs and goals.
INTERVIEW FLEXIBILITY
This evaluation gains an accurate picture of the individual’s flexibility and other physical attributes, including assessment of foot structure, knee position, spinal curve, shoulder extension, hip flexion and leg length, among others.
ASSESMENT SIDE
Assesed using the side view of the rider, the goal is to deliver a correct neutral position that’s both powerful and comfortable through adjustments to seat height, handlebar height, stem length and cleat position.
VIEW FRONT
Analysis from frontal view to optimize hip, knee and foot alignment for greater performance and balanced power delivery. includes analysis of pedal and shoe placement and squareness on the saddle.
VIEW FOLLOW
UP
After a week or so, the technician calls to discuss the effectiveness of the adjustments and to answer any other questions or concerns the rider may have.
Jan
27
Day Off
January 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Too lazy to make the most of the day off today and did practically nothing till night time sprint training.
No long warm up like last week just a short one lapper then start.
3 starters and 3 late comers.
After a bit of a nose bleed on the third lap I took it easy till the last lap.
Today’s mileage: 42.63km
Yearly total: 820.76km
Daily average: 30.398518518518518518518518518519km
Daily average goal: 33.71km
180km to go…supposed to rain tomorrow, Friday off, Saturday off, Sunday off….
Jan
25
Slow ride to work
January 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Today’s mileage: 61.08km
Yearly total: 778.13km
Daily average: 31.1252km
Daily average goal: 33.71km
Nice and slow today…10 minutes slower than usual to work and quite slow on the way home till one guy passed me, then I went into a 10km pursuit time trial mode till he turned off. (gave up).
Then slow again for the last 5km home.
They are doing lots of winter repair work to the river banks this year. More so than previous years. So much for the new government cutting back on spending. More truck loads of dirt than ever.
Peel the river bank open, re-shape it, fill it back up with dirt again, move on to the next section and repeat.
Jan
24
Tour Down Under 2010 Stage 6
January 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Final Stage 6:
Stage Results:
1 Chris Sutton (Aus) Team Sky
2 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky
3 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
5 Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
6 Allan Davis (Aus) Astana
7 Matthew Goss (Aus) HTC-Columbia
8 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Francaise Des Jeux
9 Gert Steegmans (Bel) RadioShack
Final Results:
1 Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
2 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
3 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
5 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram
Jan
24
Tour Down Under Stage 5
January 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Overall standings with one day to go:
1 Andre Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia 16:53:45
2 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:00:11
3 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram 0:00:17
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Katyusha 0:00:20
5 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:21
6 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky 0:00:24
7 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katyusha 0:00:25
8 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:00:26
9 Markus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:27
10 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana 0:00:29
