Merry Christmas!

Hi Team, Logan here with another monthly update on what's coming up at Grit Coaching in January. We hope everyone gets a chance over this holiday period to log some quality miles on the bike, relax and enjoy time with family and make the most of these longer days. Enjoy this months email from your coach!

January Bunch Rides

A lot of time an effort goes into these rides to offer a safe and fun experience for those that join. I do them regardless of my own fitness, motivation and sacrifice limited time with family and friends in the weekends. For these reasons they are only available to those I coach or Grit members. However to keep the rides fun and enjoyable I am totally fine with riders inviting friends along, provided you give me a heads up before the ride.

Dec 2023

​Sunday 24th Dec Christmas Devonport Ride - 7:30 am Kohi Cafe or 8:05 Unitec.

Jan 2024

Wednesday 3rd - Keep an eye out on the WhatsApp group. We will gauge whos around for this. If there are enough of us keen then we might do the normal loop starting at 7 am from Kohi Cafe.

​Sunday 7th - Concrete Monster KOM - Meeting 7 am at Kohi Cafe.

Wednesday 17th - Normal Wednesday Bunchy - Meeting 6am Kohi Cafe

Sunday 21st - Piha Lone Kauri - Meeting 7 am Kohi Cafe, 7:35 am Unitec

Wednesday 24th - Normal Wednesday Bunchy - Meeting 6am Kohi Cafe

Sunday 28th - The Mighty Coast Loop - Casual pace group 7:30 am Clevedon carpark. Fast pace group 7:50 am Same place. There will also be an option for a 6:45 am Panmure Bridge Roll out. Approx 175kms

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Grit Strava Club

IBuilt/ Grit Coaching NZ Cycle Classic Team

The 5 day UCI 2.2 New Zealand Cycle Classic kicks off on the 10th of January. Many of you will know Bill Blackmore who has joined a few bunch rides over the years. Bill is backing the team with his company Ibuilt Wood Products. Bill has a real passion for helping young riders gain opportunities in cycling and triathlon. This will be his 2nd year putting a team into the Tour. Logan will be behind the wheel of the team car during the race, in a DS (Coach) role.

We have a young team of up and coming U23 riders (all of whom were born around the time I started cycling... Ekkk...), including Matt McClune, Carlo Worral, Redmond Connolly, Cameron Beaumont, Jack Gillingham and Tom Stephenson.
The NZ Cycle Classic is the only UCI sanctioned tour in NZ and comes right at the start of the international season. The Majority of the stages are raced in the Wairarapa region with the last stage a circuit race around the high street of Wellington. The overall winner of this race will lead the world UCI rankings at least until the Tour Down Under finishes. The race boasts some legendary winners, including Robbie McEwan, Ben O'conner, George Bennett, Corbin Strong, and stage winner Michael Matthews to name just a few that went on to World Tour success.
Logan will be posting stories and updates to Instagram if you want to follow the teams progress.
Many of you will also know Joel Douglas, he will be lining up with the Pista Corsa Team. You can follow them here as well.

​NZ Cycle Classic Website​

​2023 Footage​

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3D Bike Fitting

As most of you are aware I am the premium bike fitter at MEC Bikes (Mt Eden and Ellerslie) with over 6 years of experience. I use the 3D Velogic Fit system which allows me to take a data driven approach to bike fitting with the ability to take measurements and power readings as the rider pedals. What is less well known is I have the ability to come to you and easily set up at your home. All my equipment is very portable. This is something I have been doing more and more recently. It's made life a lot easier for my fit customers. I also have a fully kitted out fit studio at my house in St Heliers which I am more flexible on appointment times. If you are uncomfortable on the bike or want to make sure its optimised / UCI legal position, then contact me for more information / book an appointment.

Pricing

Mobile Bike Fit None Grit Member $300 Grit Member $230

Grit Studio Fit None Grit Member $250 Grit Member $190

MEC Mt Eden Fit All riders $250

P.S. I am working on setting up automated scheduling software. Links to this will come out in next months email.

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Content Worth Consuming

Articles

​Is "Micro Quitting " Keeping you from your true potential. This was shared in the WhatsApp group chat a couple of weeks ago. The key point in this article is that its easier to trick yourself into quitting a small amount and how that erodes your ability to grow and reach your goals.

We should see some discomfort (e.g. getting up early, hard training etc...) and failure as having potential for growth, not something negative to avoid at all costs.
There is a tension, in that we need recovery and we need to listen to our bodies. Sometimes the smart thing is to quit or adjust to get the best results. Self awareness and honesty are the key attributes we need to build in order to get this balance right. This is where reflection and conversations with your coach are helpful.
We need to remember its a balance, and a constant practice. Endurance sport can be a monotonous grind at times, it gets us out of our comfort zones and into tough environments. That's precisely where we find the most growth! Recent experience has shown me that even after years of being an endurance athlete you can lose that discipline and the ability to suffer and push yourself if you don't practice it.

​Sports Supplements Resource - Thomas Solomon is an exercise scientist who runs an amazing blog reviewing scientific literature in an easy to digest format. The linked article is specifically on supplements, but his other articles are worth checking out as well.
Marketing has significantly warped our understanding of the benefits of supplements. In this article he also includes a nice summary of how to think critically about all information, whether its coming from a sport scientist, athlete, coach or dare I say it social media influencer...
Those competing or aspiring to compete at an National or international level should check out this video which is linked in the Thomas's post WADA talks with Ron Maughan

​Drug Free Sport NZ is another great place to get familiar on the topic of supplements.

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Book

​On Pace by Matt Fitzgerald I have this on Apple books. Matt does an amazing job at breaking down the skills of pacing. Mainly from a running perspective but the principles apply all the same to cycling. The main principle of the book is building better interoception the ability to make sense of the sensations and signals your body is sending to allow you to pace your effort and finish your event/effort as fast as you possibly can. He argues how devices can help but most likely hinder our ability to build interoception. I took a heap out of this book, even when thinking about bunch races, where the pace is more dedicated by the peloton. It's nice and easy to read with lots of real world examples and stories to help make sense of the science.

On the difficulty of finding your limit in a race - “Finding your limit in ... a race is like taking a math test, trying to keep calm in a stressful situation, and working to exhaustion all at the same time, taxing the soggy, electrified, three-pound organ that makes us who we are more severely than just about anything we experience in our everyday lives. That’s hard!" Matt Fitzgerald

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Media

​Remco Evenepoel YouTube Channel - Young superstar Evenepoel has started a youtube channel! His team have created really high quality content showing how he builds for events. He has uploaded 4 videos and I am sure there is plenty more to come.

​Documentary: Trial by Giro, following Canyon-SRAM at the Giro d'Italia Donne GCN+ has been sold... so not sure where this will end up. Watch it now while you can. A great insight into the women's team as they tackle the Giro Donne, arguably the most prestigious of the women's professional events. If you have watched the TDF doc on Netflix this has a similar style. Really recommend checking it out!

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Thats a wrap team!! Merry Christmas and see you out on the road!!