Category Archives: Rapha Cycling Club

Marv’s bike log…January 2018…where did 2017 go??

Dear Rouleurs,

As MMT’s age creeps towards the big….5…0….  sigh, he’s noticed that days just keeping slipping by at an increasing rate…boo.  There is so much to do and so many places to ride.  However, summer 2018 style has been a particularly pleasant and January was an excellent month for cycling, with lots of sun, some rain and strangely, quite a bit of humidity. The humidity came care of some heat trough that lodged itself over SE-Australia for a few weeks.  Some mornings, MMT could close his eyes and feel the warm warm moist air and think that he was in Thailand.  Ah…that’s proof that MMT is in desperate need of a holiday 😉

January was significant for a couple of other events.  First, MMT completed the ridiculous flaming, dog poo covered, jumping hoop, obstacle course that was re-applying to work with his current employer.  More on that in March, MMT hopes.  Second, MMT returned back to  the RCC crew and completed a number of speedy south side rides. Finally, MMT completed the 65km course of Cadel Evan’s Peoples Ride on a very muggy Saturday morning down in Geelong.  The last two points contributed to a bumper result for January.   Here’s my monthly graph for Janaury 2018.  Already, MMT is up on monthly target, achieving a very productive 800km even. That’s a pretty good start.

On the back of that work, MMT’s Strava graph is also very consistent.  As stated before the weather has been very good so, riding 21 out of possible 31 days, means really solid workouts on the bike.  This makes MMT very, very happy :-).  MMT’s ride log can be found here.

Before signing off, a digression about this log.  One of the things that MMT was ruminating over during the Christmas holidays was what kind of target, he should set for 2018.  Afterall, whilst MMT was YAFFed many times in 2017, he still managed nearly 8,000km.  Which is not bad for a 48 year old “Clydesdale” with a bad back, who is desperately trying to keep his weight down to something that starts with a ‘9’.  So what to do??  Well, part of the answer lies in doing a few Strava challenges to keep motivated and continuing to ride with RCC.  The final annual MMT decided on was 7500km, or approximately 145km a week.

Whole point of this effort, was three fold:

  1. Cycling is fun and MMT wants to get better at it.
  2. MMT would like to loose about 10 kg this year.
  3. MMT is aiming to complete an “l’eroica” style event in Italy or Spain, to celebrate his 50th Birthday.

So really, the 145Km target is meant to be way of getting to those goals, rather just counting kms. So there it is, why MMT keeps churning Kms and blogs.

Until next blog, ride safe.

Marv

Marv’s 2017 Annual Report

Dear Rouleurs,

Hasn’t 2017 disappeared in the blink of an eye.  MMT had a great year all things considered.  He watched his adorable little red-haired girl grow from rug rat to toddler and attend childcare.  He received the best ever Father’s Day present in the form of her first steps in this world…awesome work bubba girl.  His beloved AFL football team, Richmond Tigers broke its 37 year drought and won the 2017 AFL Premiership.  MMT still gets goosebumps and feels a bit teary when thinks about that one.

So onto cycling, like Alan Kohler on ABC I have a bunch of pretty charts to present.  The first one shows my yearly worm, or how I accumulated kilometres over the course of the last 12 months. The sharp kick at the end is the Festive 500.  In December, alone, MMT did nearly 1000km.

The second, has the same data set, except its month by month.  This graph clearly shows the impact of worst cold and flu season Victoria has for 15 years. MMT was seriously YAFFed in April, June, August and September.  It also shows how doing Rapha related stuff has pushed my annual kilometres to almost 8,000.

The final graph shows my ride activity month on month.  It seems the combination of work, life, Bubba mean that about 22 to 25 rides a month is what I can expect for the next few years.

So in summary the numbers look like this:

So in an average month MMT, does 24 rides, for 660km, which takes about 28 hours and burns 33,460 calories.  Honestly, MTT feels that he should be much, much thinner than he is, after seeing these numbers.  That would be something to work on in 2018.

Until next blog, ride safe

Marv

PS Go Richie Porte in Team BMC in the 2018 TDU

And….we’re back in 2018 and MMT is feeling festive ;-)

Dear Rouleurs,

It’s the second day of 2018, MMT is already been on the bike and churning out kilometres.  First things first,  MMT completed Rapha’s Festive 500, for the first time.  Here’s his log, written on the ever-so-stylish Rapha chit.

MMT cycled every day betwen the 27-12-2017 and the 30-12-2017, to finish the challenge with a day to spare.

At some point MMT will have to write a short blog about this challenge, which proved to be tough, mainly to muscle fatigue and horrible headwinds. Also, disappointingly, there didn’t appear to be any decent coffee shops in Frankston, which made 3 of rides particularly difficult…sigh 😉 All the rides were dutifully recorded on MMT’s strava log.

 Damn…MMT’s legs hurt after that second 100km ride.  As Jens Voight would say ‘shut up legs’…But still its worth all the pain to know that MMT finished 11,921st out of  69,622 who completed the challenge….giggle 🙂

Anyhow that the first blog for the year over and done with.

Until next time, ride safe.

Marv

To Rapha Cycling Club or to not Rapha Cycling Club….that is the question

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT mentioned in a blog a few months ago that became a member of the Melbourne chapter of the Rapha Cycling Club. MMT received his shiny new membership for Christmas from Mrs MMT. MMT was actually twice gifted, by receiving the Rapha Welcome Kit for 2016 and the new 2017, later in the post. Nice. MMT has 2 member chapeaus, a matt grey metal membership card, a luggage tag, musette, a bunch of stickers and access to Rapha’s free members only app. In short its an impressive haul of goodies.

Mind you club membership was $225, which is not cheap but is comparable to racing licence purchased via Cycling Australia/SKCC herein Melbourne. Also not cheap and not discounted in any form is the Rapha Club Cycling Kit. There’s a couple of nice features about the kit. First it’s really well made and looks great. Second it is not plastered with sponsors adverts. Compare the following:

   

The St. Kilda is one of the best club jerseys going round in Melbourne at the moment. The above version was offered to members between 2013 and 2016. MMT has bothered with 2017 version, as its just a little too bit Mondrian for his liking. The Rapha Jersey is much cleaner, daresay MMT say, elegant design. Yes MMT is biased and Yes $200 was shelled out for the short sleeve version of the Brevet. The other cool feature of club membership is being able to lay your sweaty hands and cleats on one of these Canyon bikes, if you are visiting a city that has RCC Club House.

Phoaw….its so beautiful. MMT can’t wait until he clips into one of these beauties in Sydney or who knows may be London some time soon. MMT digresses.

Of the main reason why a cycling club exists is for its members to go cycling. RCCMEL offers three regularly scheduled rides.
Tuesday’s Northside ride deporting from Richmond
Thursday’s Southside ride departing from Elwood
Saturday’s Shop ride departing from the Popup Shop in Fitzroy

MMT has been riding on Thursdays. The first couple of rides post-pneumonia were unpleasant and just a little bit humiliating. MMT was dropped on ramp leading out from Sandringham to Black Rock. The hacking cough and reduced lung power were to blame. However, MMT is now on pace and happily not always the lantern rouge.

The Thursday ride has become the stretch ride for MMT’s aspiration to be ‘FASTER’. The bunch averages 30Km/h and in certain section on the return leg touches 50Km/h. Those sections were quite a shock. The outward leg is a straightforward run down Beach Road to Mordialloc. After that the route weaves through the back streets of Parkdale, Mentone, Hampton and Brighton. MMT surmises that being a newbie in the bunch and being dropped on the return leg would mean using Google Maps to get back to Elwood.
So the key question is club membership worth the $225 annual fee worth it?? MMT thinks so the answer is ‘Yes’.

Until next time, ride safe

Marv