Commuting with Business and Chinese

pprendeville

Time to get an aul diary going again to keep me on track. The last one I did was good fun. The title reflects my long commute to college which also involves a train and a Dublin Bike. Hope to to include some interesting insights on happenings in China and some business related info (mainly on bikes) just to spice things up and keep it interesting instead of having it all training related.

I've just about put down my first base period which went well. I never killed myself but it has laid the foundation. Just signed up for a coach also from The Netherlands who I stumbled across last year on Google. He's a number cruncher which I like. Also got a Pioneer powermeter on a great deal off eBay recently which I hope to put to good use. Seeing the numbers right there in front of me will make my training a lot more efficient. Already I've noticed a major imbalance between left and right legs which I already knew existed which has been confirmed by power output. Got an X-ray last year in China (not specifically for my hips) which showed there a misalignment in the hips. Also, doing single leg cadence drills, my right leg is much weaker as it always tires out much quicker. So I must try and work on this.

First up is an FTP test at the weekend out on the road. I won't be doing half the indoor sessions I did last year. So far the winter has been very mild I find. Long may it continue says you.

joey100

Which pioneer power meter did you get pprendeville? They look really good, had been looking at them but I think they were still on the 1st version and that had to be installed by a registered dealer (?). Did you go with the pioneer computer too? Prepare for a world of hurt with the FTP test!! Which are you doing, 1hour steady or the 20 min TT version?

pprendeville

joey100 wrote: »

Which pioneer power meter did you get pprendeville? They look really good, had been looking at them but I think they were still on the 1st version and that had to be installed by a registered dealer (?). Did you go with the pioneer computer too? Prepare for a world of hurt with the FTP test!! Which are you doing, 1hour steady or the 20 min TT version?

The 2nd generation release SGY-PM910H on an Ultegra crankset. Good write up here. Didn't get the head unit which I kind of regret. Registered dealer still has to do the job I believe. A small bit of work to do to get it setup with the magnets but it's fairly straightforward. Working really well so far.

I'm not sure whether I'll do the 20mins or the hour. Either way, they're never too pleasant.

pprendeville

FTP Test
Got my test in yesterday but kinda made a balls of it. Was hoping to average around the 280-290W mark and up it for the last 5mins. Instead I thought I was great and kept it at 300W or thereabouts. Its much harder to keep a steady figure out on the road compared to on the indoor trainer but the outdoor version is definitely slighlt easier in my opinion for the simple reason youre mind is distracted a bit more. 10 mins into the test I kinda realised I had gone out too hard. Legs were not feeling great but I pushed on. Averaged 304W for the 20mins so multiply that by 0.95 and its about 290W which is 10W higher than my last indoor test back around June. When I checked my timer after pulling up however i noticed I'd only done 19mins instead of 20. Need to do a 5min, 1min and 5sec tests this week.

Business & Chinese
Currently doing a 2500 word essay on China in the 21st Century and whether or not it will become the dominant world economy/superpower. Interesting reading up on its history. For example, the history of how Britain forced China to open its trading ports by importing huge quantities of opium into China in the 1800s. Britain had a massive trade deficit with China and the Chinese found none of what they were manufacturing was of any way interesting yet the British liked Chinese goods. However the Chinese were very fond of opium, which the British exported from its main Asian colony India, and in a short space of time, the trade deficit became a surplus for the British and the Chinese ended up ceding Hong Kong. Colonial imperialism at its best. The tables have completely turned around now however and the British are cosying up to China on trade missions, along with nearly every other country including Ireland, in order to get a share of its market. Reading about Kerrygold introducing a brand of baby milk for 43euro a tin to China, 43 flippen euro. Lots of milk scandals in China have made people so paranoid that they're willing to pay for quality. Thats globalisation for you.

pprendeville

Riding
Had a nice consistent week this week. Did some more testing including 5s and 30s max power outputs on Monday. Happy enough with my 5 sec max of a bit over 900W. Nowhere near the big sprinters but something to work on. Had a few nice rides home this week and the weather wasn't too cold or foggy compared to the previous week. Getting the smell of silage on the way home nearly makes me hungry. Absolutely love the smell of it. I rekon the cattle must go mad when they get a whiff of it. On one of the evenings I got a great bike handling skills demonstration in the carparkin in Lidl in Trim. This young Polish lad was flying around doing tricks on a Mtn bike like standing on the saddle with no hands and going up on the back wheel. 'Twas amazing. Had a quick chat with him and he said its a big thing over there. Cycling seems to be on the crest of a wave over there at the moment. There's a yong lad with Navan as well (not sure if he's Polish) who's savage at the road biking. One to watch out for. Highlight of the week was a spin with DeBhál up as far as Bellewstown. Picturesque conditions up there with the sun coming out. No place like Ireland for scenery when the conditions are right. Got in a 5min VO2 max test and averaged 358W for it. Still miles off the KOM at about 90s off the pace so lots of improving to do. Really missed the weekend spins last year when in Beijing. Just hope I stay fit and healthy for next years racing.

Had a good chat with upthe19th this week as well about weight loss. Going to analyse my behaviour a bit more as to what makes me eat and why I might overeat in certain situations instead of just calorie counting. Kinda like a stitch in time saves nine approach.

Chinese and Business
Now I've been learning Chinese for about 4 years I've been thinking of writing short article on my experiences and how others could go about learning it. Need something like this to improve my LinkedIn profile. Was at a careers workshop last week and according to the presenter it's the small things like this that make a big impression on employers. I remember a classmate telling me he was going over to Manchester for a City/Utd Derby match. He had his Chinese textbook with him and an auld lad asked him how in the name of God did he read those "symbols". For anyone learning Chinese, when you hear people referring to characters as symbols it's quite funny. It makes it sound like its a secret language or something. So I'm going to give a quick intro on how "symbols" are written.
- First of all most Chinese characters are made up of 2 components. The first part in most cases is the radical which indicates the meaning of the word and the second part indicates the pronunciation.
- For example, the character for dog, 狗, pronounced gou can be broken into 犭and 句. The first part is the radical and it is the dog radical but is also found in the characters for cat and pig. The second part indicates the pronunciation of the word for dog, in this case gou.
- Learning the 214 radicals off by heart gives one a good foundation and allows you to build up your knowledge slowly and in some cases guess the meaning of a character if you're not sure. Context helps also.
- Menemonics is a great way of helping me to learn characters. As the word suggests, you creat a story in order to help you remember the meaning. My favourite mnemonic has to be the one for the character for milk, 奶, pronounced nai. On the left is the radical for woman, 女 (picture a beautiful woman her crossing her legs and that will help) and on the right is the character for fist, 乃. So the story I made (actually I found this story online but am claiming it) for this one is "In a _nairobics_ class, a *women* put her *fist* in my face when I tried to suck her *MILK*! She's weird!"

pprendeville

Riding
Have had a good consistent couple of weeks the past 2 on the bike. Getting in a good variety of spins including anaerobic, tempo, sweetspot and FTP efforts as the coach is figuring out where I'm at and what I can do watts wise. Figure I'll need to up my FTP by 30-40W to be any way competitive for A2 but I think my main weakness is my anaerobic power. When you look at the big hitters in the upper categories, none of them are really small light guys. Think of Shaw, McCrystal et al so I'll be looking to improve this part of my game also.

Been pretty cold recently and wet which wasn't too pleasant. Ended up putting a layer of tinfoil under my insole and also between the outside of the shoe and under the toe warmers. Also taped off my shoe vents. Makes a bit of a difference. Wednesday was pretty miserable coming home from college with strong winds and rain but its easier to ride in the dark for the simple fact that you can't really see the rain all around you. A mental thing I suppose.

Teamed up with Upthe19th to try and help me focus on my weightloss. Had a good chat with him and he has some very useful concepts to help so a big thumbs up for that. Have dropped down into the 65kg mark this week after having been averaging in the 66s for a long time since getting home from China. All a matter of discipline and thinking about what I'm eating and why.

Had a bikefit with Aidan Hammond on Fri. My left hip is lower than the right and we made adjustments to work around it but he recommend a guy called Paul Tansey who specialises in hips. Anyone know of him? Might see if I can it looked at as its a problem for later life more than anything else. good results in the spinscan test show I'm above average in my pedal stroke and torque angle.

Business
Just reading today that the Chinese economy has overtaken the US economy in size. Must be a very big deal to the Chinese and the Americans with the Chinese now having the bragging rights on this issue but in the broader scope of things I don't think it is wise for the Chinese to be prioritising the size of their economy. Ireland was going great for a longtime with year on year increases in output only for the wheels to fall off the wagon. Somehow I don't think the politicians are as naive in China as they were/are here but I still see problems ahead for China. First on the list has to be the pollution levels there and how this will affect a whole generation of people. Property prices have spiked there also in the last 5 years and the government is in a strange position in that it technically own all the land in China and is selling it to developers at the highest price but this in turn leads to high property prices and inflation. A double edged sword. Will be so interesting to see how the country develops on the international stage now that it is the worlds biggest economy.

upthe19th

pprendeville wrote: »

Teamed up with Upthe19th to try and help me focus on my weightloss. Had a good chat with him and he has some very useful concepts to help so a big thumbs up for that.

Don't think I can take much credit here. It's a 2-way street. It's helping keep me on the bandwagon as well. It is interesting though when you break it down I think. Time will tell if it has any merit.