So, the new Cycling Chit Chat post for this week launched on a Wednesday, which is totally fine we don't need schedules here, I can only imagine how annoying and difficult life is with not even half of the resources I have and without electricity for most of the day, if you don't know what I'm talking about go and follow @nanixxx with her cycling and photography posts. 🙂

I really feel like a new... how do you call it, stage.. era... time? of my life has started, for the last maybe six years I've been focused a lot on online activity, primarily crypto and gaming and over the course of the last year cycling has become a part of my life more and more which has now come to a point I don't play Splinterlands as much anymore, and for now I don't even feel like making posts about it anymore but who knows, it might return at some point.

They say that every 7 years, we change into a different kind of human. Of course much stays the same but I think this is true to some extend, when we get older we get into different stages of life like for myself now my kids are not small anymore and don't need us as much as they did, at the same time our financial situation improves and becomes more stable when we grow older so I started to prioritize time off of work, health and fitness and the things I like to do more and more, cycling was the solution. When we bought the Zwift indoor trainer for my wife was the catalyst that started the more serious training because I could now measure what I was doing, the intend was that we would buy it for her, and at that time I wasn't very interested in it - I would use it in the winter when I couldn't go outside or when it was below 5 degrees because that's where I think it's no longer very comfortable to be on the bike for multiple hours, well... that quickly escalated with the ability to be able to train at power and no longer have to guess with heart rates, it also made me realize with a higher average speed than on my mountainbike I could extend my range in the same amount on the bike and being able to vary with hand positions the comfort was higher so last week I bought a road bike which I don't have yet, it should arrive at my local bike shop tomorrow so I could hopefully get it Saturday morning 😍

It's not that I don't go outside anymore, every Sunday I ride together with my daughter and she always chooses to go to the same MTB Trail 😅

The trail has multiple sections with small parts of normal road in between so we can both ride on our own pace on the technical sections and I can wait for her at the end, which is nice to lower my heart rate again 😅

My last (and first) FTP test was about six weeks ago and I'm curious to see if I have improved so today, actually in about 40 minutes from now I will do my second test, not a ramp test like last time but a proper 20 minute FTP test but with a warm up, a small high intensity burst before the real test to empty the anaerobic energy, then the real test and a cooling down, the total test will be more than an hour I think.

Last time my FTP result was 210 Watts, and all my training from that point got based on that number so it's important to keep testing every 4 to 6 weeks.

I'll start preparing now and finish this post later, by then I can share the results as well I just hope it's not lower 😇

So, a day later I can say going all out for 20 minutes is pretty hard 😅

The gain in six weeks was pretty small, but at least it's not lower! I've been mostly doing easy zone 2 rides so from now on I will try and do at least one interval training every week.

Just before I started with my training, the local bike shop called that my bike is delivered and ready to be picked up, but because I don't have a wall mount yet so not a very good option to store it and I can't ride it any sooner than Saturday late afternoon, I made the appointment for Saturday morning, I'm pretty excited! 😊

One more thing I need before I can ride this bike... are pedals! The MTB we bought for my daughter came with SPD pedals but we switched them for flat pedals, so now I can re-use the SPD pedals on my new bike 🙂that saves me about €40...

When I was finished training and had a shower, someone was at the door with a nice suprise...

The wall mount, a week early! The universe knew I couldn't store my bike! 😍
Well, now my Garmin mount and water bottles still need to be delivered but those are smaller problems to ride without, I have some old bottle cages in the shed and the Garmin came with an extra handlebar mount I can use for the time being.

So, after my weekly chore, cleaning the bathroom I mounted the Rockbros Wall Mount with a little modification to put it more out, away from the wall because there are shelves on the wall...

💬 ChitChat topic(s)!

Bicycle expenses for upgrades or maintenance… how do you manage them?

Well... I'm pretty bad at the management of that 🤣 buying my second bike in 13 months, outside of normal expenses we live a pretty simple life, we don't go out, we don't eat out... I'll rather spend the money on something that lasts more than one evening and ends up in the toilet the next day 😇

Tell us about your latest purchases in clothing and accessories.

Just like nanixxx, I also bought a extra bibshorts, because when you have two they don't wear as much and sometimes when I cycle two days in a row I faced the problem that it wasn't entirely dry just yet.

I choose to test out the Dutch brand Acelera, my first bibshorts are from Rogelli and until now I like the Rogelli more because it's tighter and the grippers on my legs are better. The chamois on both are good though and that's the most important thing, to not get a sore ass... 😊
The Rogelli chamois dries a lot faster as well, when I got on the indoor trainer in the Acelera shorts (which I used and washed about 38 hours earlier) and I sat down, the saddle got wet and my bum cold... so I changed to the Rogelli.

Which colours do you prefer… or colour combinations, and which do you think are best for riding on the road?

Well, obviously something that can be seen from a distance. I used to buy most in blue / white / black because my MTB is blue, but now my road bike is white 😏 well... blue and white matches good as well!

Dinner is ready so I'll leave it at this!