Friday, June 06, 2008
The Adventures Of Matt Brammeier
Hello again people,
Just thought id let you all know what I’m up too again. I haven’t written for a while now as I’ve not really been up too much and didn’t want to bore you all.
Well I think it was March the last time I mailed you all. I’ve moved on a bit since then!
After weeks of pumping iron I was starting to become of the regulars at the local meatheads Gym and things were going quite well. From having to lower the weights on nearly every machine I used after the grannies had been on them I got a few funny looks sometimes from the locals. However at last my skinny leg got a bit of meat back on it and I could finally hold my head a bit higher in the gym and throw a few more kilos on the bar! I started leg pressing 5kg with my left leg and I was now on 70kg so quite an improvement there. So slowly but surely I phased out going to the gym and started getting some good hours in on the bike.
I was training a lot on my new Power Cranks and was finding them nearing impossible to ride. My left hip flexor had wasted so much I could barely pedal on them. However after some perseverance I’m now up to 30 min sessions at a time on them which I try to do 2-3 times per week. I could feel a difference in my walking and pedalling after using them for just 2 weeks! So not just an American Gimmick!
A few big weeks of 25 plus hours and I was raring to go, I was soon getting my heart rate up and doing a bit of intensity work and surprisingly feeling pretty good.
I soon got fed up of training and bashing round the lanes with a big red face and entered my 1st race on the 6th may. It was just a little Kermess race in a village near by so I thought “what the hell”. I didn’t feel nervous at all but was a bit worried to how I would go. I hoped I wouldn’t be too rubbish. Anyway I started the race and it wasn’t too bad, I probably held back to much as I didn’t know what to expect. I went with a few little moves and did a bit of jumping round and my leg immediately shouted at me to hold back. I got a few little aches and pains and decided to take it steady and just try to get round. If you’ve ever ridden one of these races you know that that’s not really as easy as it sounds. I ended up in the peleton a couple of mins back and unfortunately we were pulled out after 85km. I was fairly happy with that and even happier with how I felt. I was pretty sure that if I used my head in my next race I could get round pretty comfortably.
My next race was a few days later and it went a bit better than my first outing. I made the decision at the start to sit in and take it easy for 80km then take it from there. It was a fairly fast race so nothing went in the first 80km so I moved to the front and started to get stuck in. I felt pretty good and was well and truly part of the race until I felt a soft front tyre with about 15km to go. There was no way I was going to stop so I soldiered on, after a few hairy moments on the corners I managed to get to the last 2km of the race before my tyre finally blew out and I rode in just behind the group! Oh well, this was a finish in my eyes!
Until now I’ve done 10 races including 3 Professional Kermesses. I’ve got round every one apart from the first without any major problems really. My best result is 10th so far which isn’t bad for someone with one and a half legs!
I’m still not sure on my plans for the next few weeks, I’m still waiting on the green light from my team to be selected for some proper races and get going properly. What I do know is a lot more training, a bit of Physio and a couple of sessions on the Power Cranks a week!
So it’s slowly coming back and I don’t think it will be long before I’m back in the big races and getting some more results on my Palmeres.
Just thought id let you all know what I’m up too again. I haven’t written for a while now as I’ve not really been up too much and didn’t want to bore you all.
Well I think it was March the last time I mailed you all. I’ve moved on a bit since then!
After weeks of pumping iron I was starting to become of the regulars at the local meatheads Gym and things were going quite well. From having to lower the weights on nearly every machine I used after the grannies had been on them I got a few funny looks sometimes from the locals. However at last my skinny leg got a bit of meat back on it and I could finally hold my head a bit higher in the gym and throw a few more kilos on the bar! I started leg pressing 5kg with my left leg and I was now on 70kg so quite an improvement there. So slowly but surely I phased out going to the gym and started getting some good hours in on the bike.
I was training a lot on my new Power Cranks and was finding them nearing impossible to ride. My left hip flexor had wasted so much I could barely pedal on them. However after some perseverance I’m now up to 30 min sessions at a time on them which I try to do 2-3 times per week. I could feel a difference in my walking and pedalling after using them for just 2 weeks! So not just an American Gimmick!
A few big weeks of 25 plus hours and I was raring to go, I was soon getting my heart rate up and doing a bit of intensity work and surprisingly feeling pretty good.
I soon got fed up of training and bashing round the lanes with a big red face and entered my 1st race on the 6th may. It was just a little Kermess race in a village near by so I thought “what the hell”. I didn’t feel nervous at all but was a bit worried to how I would go. I hoped I wouldn’t be too rubbish. Anyway I started the race and it wasn’t too bad, I probably held back to much as I didn’t know what to expect. I went with a few little moves and did a bit of jumping round and my leg immediately shouted at me to hold back. I got a few little aches and pains and decided to take it steady and just try to get round. If you’ve ever ridden one of these races you know that that’s not really as easy as it sounds. I ended up in the peleton a couple of mins back and unfortunately we were pulled out after 85km. I was fairly happy with that and even happier with how I felt. I was pretty sure that if I used my head in my next race I could get round pretty comfortably.
My next race was a few days later and it went a bit better than my first outing. I made the decision at the start to sit in and take it easy for 80km then take it from there. It was a fairly fast race so nothing went in the first 80km so I moved to the front and started to get stuck in. I felt pretty good and was well and truly part of the race until I felt a soft front tyre with about 15km to go. There was no way I was going to stop so I soldiered on, after a few hairy moments on the corners I managed to get to the last 2km of the race before my tyre finally blew out and I rode in just behind the group! Oh well, this was a finish in my eyes!
Until now I’ve done 10 races including 3 Professional Kermesses. I’ve got round every one apart from the first without any major problems really. My best result is 10th so far which isn’t bad for someone with one and a half legs!
I’m still not sure on my plans for the next few weeks, I’m still waiting on the green light from my team to be selected for some proper races and get going properly. What I do know is a lot more training, a bit of Physio and a couple of sessions on the Power Cranks a week!
So it’s slowly coming back and I don’t think it will be long before I’m back in the big races and getting some more results on my Palmeres.
This is me looking seriuos at my first race !
# posted by matt8195 @ Friday, June 06, 2008 
