“I’m impressed. Very impressed. The Cycle Challenge Guide is an excellent publication, perfectly written for novices and experts alike. Amy Taylor has done a great job and her guide will be useful, not just for the Taupo Ride, but any medium to long distance road race. Well done.”

-Jonathan Kennett, Author of RIDE the story of Cycling in New Zealand

Starting the 6th of January Kinetic Edge and Avanti Plus Mt Eden will be joining forces to bring a weekly group ride to the inner city. The ride is aimed at riders that average 20-25kph and need to practise riding in a bunch to improve their skills and fitness. The group will be taken each week by a KE coach.

Time: 6.30am from Avanti Plus Mt Eden - coinciding with their normal Tuesday morning group rides.

Weekly as of the 6th of January. Be there!

Xmas/New Year Hours:

24th – 8am – 2.30pm (Amy), 9.30am - 2.30pm (Aaron)
29th – 8am – 4pm (Amy), 9.30-5.30 (Aaron)
30th – Aaron available 9am – 1pm in the office
31st – Aaron available 9am – 1pm in the office
Back on board as per normal 5th January

If anyone has questions be sure to ask either myself or Aaron - no matter who is your primary coach.

KE supporters Hudson Gavin Martin rode the Tour of Southland this year and their cool cycling kit is now available to the public. Check it out here.

About five years ago the Academy of Sport released data demonstrating that anyone who had achieved athletic success such as a World Championship or Olympic medal, had spent about 10,000 hours training to achieve that. For most people that is 8 to 12 years of hard slog. Take the uber talented Sarah Ulmer. It even took her 3 Olympics, or 12 years, and she’s got talent and attitude to boot! This has recently been backed up in other fields, and coined the 10,000 hour theory - that all skilled people in any field take 10,000 hours to master whatever they are experts at. One of my favourite authors Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in a 30min presentation for a design agency here. It’s well worth the watch/listen.

The most important thing to take from this is that to reach your potential in cycling things take time. To be truly proficient, to have trained your physiology and your skill takes years. The other point that Gladwell makes is that it is not just 10,000 hours of practise but it also takes this time to learn what you are good at, and keep learning, tweaking and adjusting. I think this is especially true in cycling with its diverse range of disciplines and challenges. But more than anything it takes this time to find what we are good at, not so good at, and find ways to truly master our weaknesses. So no matter what your starting point, or age rest assured that if you keep working hard, you will keep improving.

Another example of this is Victoria Pendleton. She is the current Olympic Sprint track cycling champion. On her website it details her improvement over time. And we aren’t talking minutes, we are talking 0.1-0.5 of a second each year or so until many years later she is Olympic champion. That’s a great demonstration that each little step counts, and unfortunately we can only truly appreciate that change or improvement by looking year to year!

The weather gods put on record breaking blue skies and temperatures for Taupo last weekend. So many people did superb times, such as Coach Aaron coming 5th in the Elite mens’ race in 3:43! Flying!

Everyone did well and we congratulate you all!

Of note, the biggest improver in the men’s section was Louis Crosby who bet his PB by 1hour and 45minutes! In the women’s big congrats to Linda Grant who smashed her PB by 45mins!

With such superb weather it seems a shame to have a break now doesn’t it! So keep enjoying time out on the road, getting your endorphins in between Xmas shopping, and remember the Northland Tour is not too far away

Amy

PS. A nice little Xmas gift can be found here.