Im 47 next week, and honestly Ive hadthe best year’s racing Ive ever had (results wise) and am faster than when I was in my 20s.

Ive been racing since the 90s but over the years put on a fair bit of weight, and so in the ‘heyday’ ofthe I-Dave diet I put it to the test and lost overall about a 1/4 of my bodyweight, which ive successfully kept off (and lost a bit more) for over 2 years.

Also about the same time a local ride started – originally to get mountain bikers out over winter – which over the course of time has turned into a fast 23/4mph average 47 mile ride. That combined with commuting, racing and sufferfest videos (on non racing sundays) and being strict on diet has transformed me as a rider/racer. Usually top 5 in local cx races, still racking up KOMs on strava and loving xc racing and getting results.

I doubt it’ll last too long but im enjoying it while it does.

ive been searching for the ‘perfect’ recipe for years and have tried loads, currently using a kind of bastardized version of four or five recipes ive found worked well:

500g OO flour with 1/2 tspoon salt
260ml warm water with half packet of yeast & t/spoon of sugar
30ml olive oil
30ml milk

Chuck it all in the bowl mix it up, knead it until a spongy (but not sticky ball), put in bowl cover with warm wet towel, put in cupboard etc… until at least doubled but a few hours wont hut it.

Right now youve obviously got the topping you want but beware of mushroom they can give of a lot of liquid.

Tom sauce, get a can of decent plum tomatoes, crush them to release the pips and then blitz them until smooth (dont have to remove the pips but if they get broken upo they are very bitter)

Fast forward an hour or two, put a large flat pan (pref pancake pan) on till its very hot, put your grill on o max.

Split the dough into 4 roll into bases, place in pan, put on tom sauce, sprinkle with basil (dry is great) and parmesan (yep as well as mozerella), put on toppings and cheese.

This takes no more than a few minutes and the pizza will already be rising cooking, before the base starts burning out of the pan into the oven (on a stone if youve got one) and under the grill for the top to cook again a few minutes or it will burn very quickly.

Like I said Ive tried loads of recipes, this for me give the most authentic tasting pizza ive made.

another good area is the canal over to the east of paris – 5 minutes walk from Gare Du Nord, and where we stayed – lovely area

im a bit of an oddity according to my optician – Im red green colour blind in my left eye and blue green etc colour blind on my right eye.

Can cause problems when Im hurtling towards red tape marking a race course and I dont actually notice the tape! Clothes shopping under artificial lights is impossible unless my kids tell me what the colours are.

One plus side to it though is that camouflage does not work. Someone / thing hiding using camouflage I can see as clear as day – I was advised when I found out to apply for the marines as as a sniper I would be one step ahead but at 25 (22 years ago!) I was too old…

I went in August with my kids (5 & 7) – there are plenty of online articles about paris with younger kids and books of course.

this is very true and gives some great ideas – we neded up spending a day in Montmartre:

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/may/10/paris-with-kids-family-friendly

Dont forget kids are going to enjoy the real touristy things likew riding on little trains, up the eifel tower etc..

Couple of places to eat – the sunken chip & Pink Flamingo pizzas

http://www.coquelicot-montmartre.com/en/ will kepp you fueled for a day – esp if you go for the (bowl of) hot chocolate!

this was also a great book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fodors-Around-Paris-Travel-Guide/dp/089141973X

and so were these – loads of walks around paris tailored around things for the kidsto see and find too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paris-City-Walks-Natasha-Edwards/dp/0811861708/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411463790&sr=1-3&keywords=paris+kids

actually gave the kids something to do while wandering, and add in I Spy Paris (book) and theyve got more to do than you

oh and the catacombs are spooky and great fun!

another vote for the tracer pros, found them slightly quicker than grifos.

Used them last season to good effect and havent been out ofhtetop 5 inthe local summer series.

my son (6 – 7 next month) has finished the harry potter books, he loved them (and got to say I really enjoyed his reports of them over breakfast) – he’s now onto Anthony Horowitz – there are two series Alex Rider (teenage James bond type of thing) and The Power of five books (kinda non scary hidden world and portals). Not brilliantly written but he enjoys them.

im with fourbanger stayed at Le Robinet d’Or last weekend with the kids, Ive been to Paris literally hundreds of times and this is bar far the best hotel Ive stayed in, cant wait to go back – also check out the canal, pink flamingo pizza and the Sunken Chip.

not sure why they’re showing the 2015 Giants, the 2014 bikes still arent available according to Giant UK

Solo cheers – Ive got a fridge full of coconut milk as its on offer at sainsburys, quite high in sat fat but may give that a try next time out.

Im literally stepping on a train to paris for a long weekend so will catch up with this thread when Im back. Quite interesting to hear other points of view.

personally I think the saxo tinkoff tops could be a lifesaver on the road they were glow in the dark luminous !

solo – you seem to have studied this in great depth – you’re someone I could sit down with over a (home made) curry and discuss this in depth.

Something Ive kept out of this is (as its not what the thread is about) that compared to a lot of people I have a relatively low carb diet – I only eat carbs that I need, in general most people eat far too many carbs, and hence end up carrying excess weight. My carbs come from things like sweet potatoes, chickpeas, brown rice, fruit, usually (other than fruit) low GI based foods.

Something else I realised last night – on my ‘cheat’ day (saturday) I do eat a huge bowl of muesli with bananas yoghurt honey and coconut for breakfast. Now the cheat day is saturday – so effectively on a saturday I eat a big carb based breakfast, wraps with refried beans peppers and cheese midday and then something like the wraps for dinner – what Im saying is I eat more food the day before my high intensity days than any day during the week, so my sundays are probably my least fasted days in terms of calories consumed in the 24 hours beforehand (I usually ride to work and back every day).

Regarding carbs in drinks I originally stopped using them as they played havoc with my stomach, esp mid race, so swapped to Hi5 zero. That goes part of the way to rehydration which I personally think is more important (although Im sure there are tests to tell me otherwise) and to date havent had a problem. Something else I noticed with carby drinks is that although you get the initial ‘shot’ of energy when it dropped off power output was less than before i’d drunk it. This way I dont get the spikes of energy and usually end up taking longer stints on the front towards the end of a ride

clobber you can make them with chickpea or coconut flour – they are very easy to make but its a time consuming job when it comes to rolling out 20 wraps to 1-2mm thickness, which is essential.

heres the recipe obviousyl just swap the SW flour for whatever you want to use (same for naan bread too)

http://kitchenmason.com/2013/03/17/tortilla-wraps/

tbh I wish I knew more about how the body works and fuels itself, annoyingly I start to get half decent at xc at this age, and in my 20s I just used to poodle around in the top half ofthe middle of the pack!

Like you say it works for me but that may just be the result of the 6 years of early sunday mornings.

clobber – I make them myself – pack of chicken breasts, cut small, can of chickpeas (soft ones), Large red sweet pepper sliced, I medium to large sized sweet potato cut into 1cm cubes.

Cook the sweet potato for literally 2-3 minutes or itll go mushy, cook the chicken until cooked, obviously drain the fat/water etc.. add the sweet potato, (drained) chickpeas and half jar reggae reggae sauce, cook for about 5 minutes and then add the peppers, mix it all up. Spoon into small wraps (the larger ones are too thin – or you cna make them the kids love helping but it is a faff) – You can obviously eat them now but I then roll them up, in a baking tray, bit of grated cheese and stick thme in the oven for 10 minutes.

Usually out of 8 theyll be two left over which go in the freezer for lunch during the week.

Oh and coconut rice – plain basmati, 1/4 cube of coconut (the hard packeted one blue dragon or whatever it is from sainsburys) and cook normally with water – or use creamed coconut.

Im quite hungry now!

I can usually do top ten in vets for something like mud sweat & gears, but when youre racing against people who are putting their sponsors down as Cannondale UK they seem to be in a different league.

Before a race Ill have a scrambled eggs mushroom and chorizo for breakfast (usually about 7am) drink throughout the morning, about 90 mins before the race Ill have a small portion of porridge with coconut and banana in (cold obviously) and then about 45 minutes ill have a banana. I take gels with me but cant remember using one this year. For CX no porridge just a banana.

Dont forget my fasted sunday rides are only so I can go out for long (or high intensity – think sufferefest) rides and be back indoors early. I dont eat anything or make coffee as Ill wake my littluns up. Until I saw this thread Id really never given it much thought and thinking about it when I go out for evening rides I dont eat anything much after 1pm (maybe a banana) so not much difference in time (6 hours) between that and a sunday morning.

On a side note something Ive noticed seems to have helped with high intensity work loads lately, I eat beef (or pork) jerky the day before. No idea why but seems to have a positive effect (Big T are great with the different flavours too)

i just assumed that what I ate the night before was what was fuelling me. Normally on a saturday Ill have a (home made) curry or this weekend it was chicken sweet potatoe sweet peppers and chickpea wraps (covered in reggae reggae sauce) and coconut rice, which is also what I normally have the night before a race.

I guess Ive just got used to not eating on rides, if i was to eat anything before the local chaingang id end up throwing it back up.

Njee I wish, although Im quick there are a lot quicker riders in vets locally, although I am quite handy on a cx bike!

me or hora..??

my bikes 20 years old and still running 8 speed xtr from 96

Hora – im 5ft 7 and weighed 12.5 stone, saw a picture of myself taken at a cross country race and decided I needed to do something. Lost the initial 2 stone quite easily and havent had many problems but this year made a concerted effort to get under 10st (ie 9st 12) and thats when bodyfat went down to 5%.

Have pretty much cut sugar out of my diet (other than 2 cheat days!) can’t believe it was so easy and made such a difference…

Downside my clothes dont fit me again!

Ok I didnt know if that was classed as fasted or not – tbh the reason I do what I do is (a) to try and replicate the latter stages of a cross country race when youre effectively dead on your feet but a lot can be made up if you can keep pushing and taking places and (b) so I can spend the rest of the day with the kids when I get back and theyre up. Its served me well the last couple of seasons, although Im not sure theres a lot of science to prove anything.

Hats off to anyone that gets up early to ride, virtually car free rides are a blessing

What shape? 5% bodyfat – apparently not normal for a 46 year old who can climb better than the local youth team on a 20 year old bike?!

But a couple of years ago i was 2 1/2 stone heavier, its been a lot of hardwork determination and stubborness

are we talking real fasted rides or early morning rides using the previous nights dinner.

Every sunday Im up at 5 either doing an hour (hi intensity – intervals) on the turbo or out for 3-4 hour ride (70 miles plus hilly ride – good for KOMs with few cars about!), i dont eat or drink anything beforehand (otherwise Id wake the kids up!), drink I use High 5 zero (no carbs) and usually have a cereal bar (9 bar) or two in my back pocket, but 9 times out of ten Itll still bethere when I get back… Never hit the wall or had problems.

Once im back however Ill have scrambled eggs, chorizo peppers mushrooms and a bowl sized mug of coffee.

the papers and media keep telling us about this 90% death rate but then tell us there have been 640 deaths from over 1200 reported cases, now Im not brilliant at maths but thats not 90%.

Also from the BBC today:

Guinea – 319 deaths, 427 cases
Liberia – 129 deaths, 249 cases
Sierra Leone – 224 deaths, 525 cases

Again that doesnt look like a 90% rate.

oh Disney is for later in the year when my daughter’s 5 for her birthday

im off to paris on friday for three days (my two are 4 & 6)….

Staying at the Le Robinet D’or a fantastic hotel only 5 minutes walk away from Gare Du Nord, and despite its looks its not as expensive as some ofthe chain hotels around, and one of hte few that could accommodate all four of us in one room.

Friday evening plan to watch the roller skaters take over the city. Saturday up to montmartre for bowls of hot chocolate, stair climbing, views from the sacre cour and kids having pictures in place de tertre and then off to one of the parks for picnic and kids playing. Funfair at the bottom of champs d’eleyse sat afternoon before dinner, and then sunday morning over to the eifel tower and then general wandering and food before jumping bakc on the train at 6pm.

There are some great books for kids in paris, along with Eye spy Paris and the kids phrase book my son hasnt put down since last friday!

on the same type of subject my laptop (Acer – xp!) has in the last two weeks started to take 20-30 minutes to start up, used to take 30 seconds.

Malware and virus scanning installed and up to date – nothing showing

the old line of everyone was doing it was one of LA’s excuses, the same as being tested 100s of times a year – both of them not true.

the point has been made already if you didnt get on a programme you were out of the team (Andreau). If you spoke out about the endemic cheating you were out ofthe industry (LeMond, Simeoni – who he chased down mid stage and threatended on camera). If you spoke out against armstrong you were destroyed (Betsy, emma riley).

The only reason he made his comeback is because a rider thought to be clean won the tour and he thought it would be an easy ride.

to date he has still not apologized to the andraus and even though he was given chance aafter chance to confess (by usada) he chose to spin it and make himself out to be the victim on Oprah. He’s still lying

And as for raising millions for cancer awareness all that money could have made a real difference in fighting against cancer instead of going into his personal jet fund to make appearance all over the world.

I took my kids about a mnoth back, my son (6) having read all the books is a huge fan and dressed up – he was in heaven.. Walked trough the door 12 o’clock think we finally got out about 5.30. Did the photos, had wand lessons, met death eaters (my daughter was terrified – 4 year old!) probably the most fun Ive had on one of the kids days out (and ive only read the books with my son), and my son before he went to bed that night said that was his best day ever…

couple of tips – the brooms have been covered, get there early, butterbeer you’ll love or hate (my son loved and walked around with a butterbeer moustache for 20 mins it my daughter hated it) – get ready for the sugar rush! Start saving now for the gift shop at the end, hide credit cards and dont pay £8 for a chocolate frog!

Ive had a set of the ACS Pros’s made for guitar playing – can literally leave them in all day without discomfort, and obviously depending on the ‘baffle’ you can still hear whats going on, I always wear them at gigs now too.

Just about to get another set made for my Shure in ear headphones tobe used as monitors

the rancilio is an amazing machine – Ill be honest other than the dial on that quick it’ll do the same thing

Everyone thats had anything from the silvia is amazingly impressed (match with a rancilio grinder and coffee from coffee real – yes it is expensive!)

I went down this route but then got lucky on ebay and scored a set of spooky cantilevers for about £8… They are easy to set up, stop me as well asthe mini v’s and I can get the wheel off without having to let the tyre down.

Ive only just found out that you can ride the course the day before – 170km for EU€35! Definately doing this next year – registration is closed for this year..

sweet potatoe pakoras… as found in sainsburys..

thanks bikebouy – havent been to the museum of london in years – friday is now booked off..

where is there a giant shop near st pauls – Im after a new TCX for this year…?

a 12 year old frame – 26″??

Personally drop bars on 26″ wheels never looked right to me – someone over on retro bike built up a zaskar with drops and looked awful.

And also 26″ wheels will just be a mtb with drops not a cx bike..

aherm…

What about the woman’s race – two british riders in the top 5…

cheers for that -cheaper than XTR too…

got to say ditching the stock battery is pretty par for the course – Ive got the smudge battery and the 4×18650 case – the smudge battery is better just because its more compact but when it starts raining ill use the battery case – only problam Ive had with that though is its just a bit too big for flat top batteries, but nothing a couple of bits of silverfoil doesnt cure.

I actually find the secret service guy theory quite believable certainly puts a lot of the other theories to bed and explains a lot of why a lot of the testimonies by secret service agents dont seem to tie up with anyone elses