Mini Review: Protective Chamois Cream


This is maybe one of the overlooked areas of cycling as it is a very personal thing but if you neglect to use some kind of protection on your shorts then this can lead to all sorts of trouble including sores, rash and if left will need medical treatment. I do not want to alarm anyone but I have had trouble in the past when I got a saddle sore which kept me off my bike for a week which maybe to a weekend rider might not have been to bad but for myself meant my daily transport and training ceased completely until it healed up. To help prevent this a good cream will go a long way to stop this happening, I have been using the Ozone Protective Chamois Cream meaning now I do not suffer from any of the above problems I descibed.

The modern short pads of today are mostly all made from a man made material and not the Chamois material of old meaning you can shove them straight into a washing machine and dry off with no problems. I use the cream on any Cycle more than 1hr as below this I find you do not get any problems, apply the cream to all the areas where your shorts rub i.e. the inner thigh and buttock region try also to not hang about in your shorts to long after your Cycle as this is the time when bacteria has a field day. Always wash your shorts inside out and if you can not get a shower right away after a workout at least clean yourself in the private areas to kill any bacteria (I like baby wipes for this) , also apply talcum powder to dry out any moisture.
Using the Ozone Protective Chamois Cream and keeping to some of these personal hygiene tips above you should be rash free making sure you do not have any down time on the bike this season.

I have been tuning in to the AMGEN Tour of California the last few nights through their Tour Tracker from Adobe, the info is fantastic through the tracker and with the bonus of watching live streaming content of the race in full flight in the background.
Yesterdays stage from Stockton to San José proved to be a cracker with the race lead up for grabs right up until the line, looks like Johan's Disco squad will take some beating this year.

As the Racing season is looming I thought I would share some memories of myself when I was a team mechanic for the Recycling Team in 2005 in the An Rás Tailteann (The Irish Tour) or more commonly called just the Rás, we went on to win the Rás with Chris Newton taking the overall. The Rás is an annual 8 day stage race held over the demanding roads Ireland has to offer with Irish County Teams competing against seasoned professionals and international squads. The 2007 edition will run between the 20th - 27th of May starting out in the Kildare Town of Naas and finishing in Skerries after 1200km of hard fought racing.
The Rás has a deep history behind it with some top names in cycling winning this race such as Stephen Roche, check out his bike that he used to win the 1979 edition at the bottom of the pics>>>>>>.
One of the Riders of note is Phil Cassidy who won the Rás in 1983,1999 and was still up there in the mix for a stage win in 2005 which was his last Rás before retiring at 43 in some stages he even helped his son Mark, Fantastic.
Check out the full set of Pictures from the Rás here: 2005 Rás

Since I could not get out yesterday I took to the road on the fixed today to get a great workout the Picture is of my details from my Garmin 305 Edge and using the SportTracks software.

So as this week I have been well busy in the shop and today was chucking down with rain I have decided that this is my rest week and I will start building up the mileage again from tomorrow. I was due an easy week round about now anyway but the way the week went with the shop and weather it is a good time to refresh the legs before moving onto the next block of training.
This year my training is geared up towards the Highland Games grass track season which starts in May and runs till Sep with races every week and sometimes more as some Games are run on local holidays during the week.
The racing takes place on grass although there is one in Inverkeithing where the track is cinder and can be a lot faster if the conditions are dry. The tracks are oval of anything up to 400mts in length but some can be very tight at under 300mts with no straight as such meaning you feel like you are cornering all the time (interesting in the wet!) The racing is usualy fast and furious giving the crowds a great show of which some number in the thousands giving a great atmosphere.
If you have not experienced a Highland games before put it in your diary as it is a fantastic day out for not a lot of money. Check out some dates here: Highland Games 2007

Pictures are Halkirk Games 2005 from Caithness.org

Mini Review: Nike Pursue Glasses



The Pursue are a very good fit on the face and can be custom shaped to your head as the arms can be moulded to shape and this comes in handy for me as my head is quite small meaning some glasses hang out the back slightly. The other good point of this is the arms can be moulded down out of the way of some helmet securing systems as these sometimes can get in the way.
The other points on the design is that the lens has what Nike calls the flying lens system meaning that the lens is attached at only two points on the frame so the air can circulate to avoid the lens fogging over. The nose bridge has also got design points as it has grooves to again help the air movement and keep your vision clear.

The lens that the Pursue comes with is the Max Speed tint which is not a heavy tint meaning you can run with this in most low light conditions up to dusk, this is a good thing in Scotland as the sun can be out one minute and away the next meaning you can start out with this lens and finish your run even if the sun drops. If however you are cycling at night then a Clear lens will be needed and if you are going to start out with the weather dull/overcast then my favorite lens at the moment is the Hi-Vis Tint which are fantastic at bringing out all the detail on a dull day which gives you confidence on descents and low light conditions.
Cheers for reading.

A cracking Club run this week at about 72 miles round the back of the Ochil Hills through Dunblane with a Cappuccino stop in Causewayhead. At one point in the run I managed to get up to 40.2mph going down to Gleneagles on the Fixie. Once you get to these kind of speeds on 49x18 it is like going through some sort of speed barrier as up to about 35mph it feels like your insides are in a liquidiser but once you go over the 37mph mark it seems to get smoother which is a bit bizarre.
Next week the first Reliability Runs start which I am looking forward to as it is a great test to see where you are sitting fitness wise. I will be back on the multi-gear machine for these as the speeds are generally a lot higher average speeds, anyway it should feel a bit easier as I have been on the fixed for a good month now.
Later,
Keep Spinning.

Cyclocross 2006/2007 World Cup 11 (Hoogerheide, NL)
Check this clip from the above race, Cyclocross = Hardcore Racers!