Ascend - what an awesome product!

My posts have nt been very regular lately because life for me at the moment is flat chat and so the riding has taken a back seat. One thing i have kept up is the Ascend products. I sprinkle the Muscle Protein powder on my cereal for breakfast - this helps maintain the supply of protein to the muscles which finishes the repair process from the previous day of training or work (bricklaying). The Ascend line of protein products has allowed me to maintain my muscle strength during my break from training.

For the lead up to the 24 worlds i was using the Ascend protein to help with my recovery from the training load. The power test proved that it was helping as i hadn't punched out that much power in 7 years. You may then ask if i was in such awesome form from using the Ascend protein, what happened at the 24 Hour Worlds.

To put it simply the human body is not a machine. The Worlds was my 4th 24 hour event in less than 12 months. So apart from a knee injury my body simply would not allow itself to be destroyed. The body would still work well for shorter events and training, but this is still a far cry from racing a 24hour Mtb race at this level. The body knew what it was about to be put through and simply would not allow itself to be pushed as its reserves had not been fully replenished from been emptied out so many times in one year.

Having the Ascend protein is one of the only reason's i have been able to keep going at this level all year. The body just needs some rest from the 24 hours for 12months. I am looking at it as another opportunity to focus on some marathon racing and lots of team events at the upcoming 24 hour races - maybe even a couple of stage races. These races for me have always been used as lead up events to boost fitness but thid year i will focus on this race format.

So if you want to feel awesome on the bike - use Ascend products. Just remember it helps you recover faster so you can train harder and more frequently.

Team Giant win Chase the Sun Series.

Ok so i have had a break after the worlds. This is common practice for me to just walk away after a big build and have some time away from riding. I have been catching up with my family and work has been crazy since getting back. We seem to be getting somewhere now, finally finding a competent bricklayer to help us get through the work load.

After 3 weeks of zero riding i had to get straight into racing with Rd 4 of Chase the Sun on the weekend. This i was not expecting as i had gotten the dates wrong and thought i had a couple more weeks to get my legs rolling again. We had a great course set for the race using the entire Com games course with and add on of fire track and some minimal single track. I thought this was great as it had rained all week. The Com games track is hard waring and holds up well in the rain. This loop should be used if the weather is bad all the time. I think Full Gas are learning how to adjust according to the weather conditions so we can still have a great race no matter what conditions they are faced with.

I was up first pairing with Murry Spink again. I was surprised i actually came in a close second on the first lap. Murry quickly asserted his dominance sending me back out for a double with a small lead. I held pretty well just holding my place. Murry just never slowed down tapping out the 5 fastest laps for the day taking the pressure off me so i could just survive my laps, sucking up the cramping. In the end we won closely followed by Team Felt and the Torq Team in third. This finishing order worked out better than we thought and gave us enough points to take the series.

My advice to anyone else who is considering racing cold straight of a break. Don't do it. That night i was woken several times , my legs cramping refusing to relax. Anyway a few easier rides over the next couple of weeks before i look at some more races.