I’m after two things, small non obvious to the general cyclist tips for gaining mechanical and biomechanical advantage, but mainly psychology, tips for coping with motivation, dark moments, wind/rain etc on endurance rides.

Road preferably but also the topic in general.

Thanks

Available for Kindle btw.

Available for Kindle btw

you’ve got to shun all that poncy shite sonny jim – ascetism’s where it’s at

or atavism, I forget

Graeme Obree’s manual is what you want

The ‘Belgian Hammer factory’ Not on Kindle, it’s a proper cycling book to be read laying on your bed in your pants.

it’s a proper cycling book to be read laying on your bed in your pants.

sounds like it might lead to onanism – that’s surely not going to help

‘Road racing technique and training” by Bernard Hinault and Claude Genzling – if you can find a copy!

That and ‘the Obree way’

Looked at a summary of the Obree way – sounds intriguing, downloading when said kindle is charged!

The Chimp Paradox, it’s what Chris Hoy read and claimed it made a difference, having read it, I can concur, it’s just persisting in getting rid of the goblins and controlling my inner chimp. On kindle, and a good read.

tips for coping with motivation, dark moments, wind/rain etc on endurance rides.

Read some climbing books maybe – The Shining Mountain, how Boardman and Tasker climbed Changabang. Or Touching the Void if you’ve not read it. Walter Bonatti’s Mountains of My Life – his solo of the Petit Dru Pillar or escape from Mont Blanc.

Cyclists don’t know how easy they have it ) I’ve not read anything that shows how much you can take when it gets properly cold, tough, you’re tired, hungry and hallucinating etc in the way mountaineering books can. Maybe there’s less of a tradition of writing to pay for trips in cycling and the real hard riders I can think of haven’t written books yet. (If I’ve missed any, would be good to hear of them)

@ benji. I’ve got that, but I found The Power of Accepting You (Michael Cohen) shorter and more concise/reflective of real life £2 on amazon kindle books . Generally less hard word although the Chimp Paradox is good.

You found the Chimp paradox hard work / had hard words? This one might be more up your street:

I meant putting it into action Gary….

Not cycling specific, but NLP might be of interest to you. Plenty of books out there too…

Jeez, Obree’s a bit more intense than I thought….

Interesting book so far though.

I could spend all day just shouting at you!

Cool, do you fancy an 85 mile run along side my bike on Sunday? 🙂

I’ve decided that in true Obree fashion, I’m taking fig rolls instead of energy gels.

Oh and I’m going to win the sportive. Thinking anything less is the start of a negative spiral into second place…

I got the Obree book a while back. Admittedly I didn’t read it all, but the but I did read seemed overly-traditional, old-school nonsense. The ‘ride yourself sick session’ on the turbo every week seemed to be one of the most un-scientific things I’ve ever read.

Mind you, it’s Obree – what did I expect! 🙂

Anything by Lance Armstrong should do it…

The Rider by Tim Krabbe – not kindle I’m afraid, but a good read.

Tried to read the chimp paradox a few times, but seems a load of convoluted hogwash to me. Still if it helped to win gold medals there must be something in it!

Not cycling specific but I reckon you should read Rowing it Alone by Debra Veal.

I doubt you’ll get it on kindle & I seem to recall it was discontinued after her divorce/name change – possibly reissued under Debra Searle.

I didn’t get on with “the chimp paradox” either, it may work as a system with coaching, but as a stand alone book to self apply I found it pretty useless dumbed down waffle.

I find books which are just stories of peoples adventures much more inspiring and motivational, as someone above said there are some really good books about climbing, I liked “the beckoning silence” and “psychovertical” I also liked “eat and run” by scott jurek which is about ultra running. There are also a couple of good books about the tour divide.

Phew MSP, I thought it was just me!!!

In the same vein, Survival of the Fitest got me into ultra running!

, tips for coping with motivation, dark moments, wind/rain etc on endurance rides.

Isn’t this a prime case for this? Or do some reading on mindfulness – you can read all the mountaineering books in the world, but all they’ll tell you is that in brutal situations, people cam get through it all, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that reading about it will help you to cope. Mindfulness on the other hand might help you accept things for what they, because, to be brutal, most biking situations are about discomfort rather than life and death and dealing with that is about accepting it.