I have my own ideas about road cycling, and it is true that I am quite often out of step with the mainstream of roadie opinion.

I have never been bothered to shave my legs, for instance.  The arguments in favour of it seem to boil down to two things:

1. Shaved legs are nicer when you get your legs massaged.
2. Everyone else does it.

Well there’s nobody lining up to massage my legs, so I just continue on with my legs in their ‘natural’ state.

I have never bought road-type cycling shoes, because it seems to me that if you’re not racing on your road bike, at some stage in every ride you are going to get off and walk, and I much prefer being able to walk around like a normal human person. So I use mountain bike pedals and shoes, on both road and mtb. Have done so since 1991. Will probably do so for the next 20 years as well.

I used to use a bike computer, until a few years ago. But I was never all that diligent at keeping a training log, or writing down my mileage, or recording how I felt on every ride. I do know someone who has an Excel file detailing every ride they’ve done for the last 10 years. Or more.

Lots of people find the record keeping to be helpful, especially if they are training for competition, or for an event. I hear from some people that strava.com is all the rage these days. It lets you compare times with friends over particular courses.

That’s fine for all those folks. It’s just not for me.

So one day about three years ago I just stopped using a bike computer. And this is a bit odd, because I am a gadget kind of person. I love my iPhone, the best gadget there has ever been.

But even though Garmin keeps putting out brilliant bike computers, and even ones that are affordable, yet I have resisted the temptation without much difficulty. I even have access to an older Garmin bike computer … I just never use it.

I reckon that if I’m riding with the bunch, and I haven’t been dropped, then I’m going fast enough.

And if I’m riding on my own, then what does it matter whether I’m going 25 km/h or 35 km/h or 15 km/h? Either I’m riding hard or I’m taking it easy, but knowing the actual speed makes very little difference to me.

I can see the point on long rides of knowing how far you’ve ridden, especially if you’ve mapped out a route with stops planned at particular locations. Only 8 km till the bakery, that sort of thing. But that’s not enough reason for me to bother with a bike computer.

So there really remains only one performance metric, one measuring tool, that I ever use. A stopwatch. On Mt Gravatt.

And this morning I even forgot to do that.

When I am at ‘racing weight’ and in good form, the Mt Gravatt climb takes me about 7 mins 30.

If my form is just OK, then about a minute slower: 8 mins 30.

This morning, Les told me, our laps of Mt Gravatt were above 9 minutes, the last one closer to 10.

Just shows me how much improvement I have in me! Somehow I don’t think I will get there before G2I, but that’s OK too. There’s a whole year ahead, and it’s always good to have room for improvement!

I have no positive track record with New Year’s resolutions, and therefore refuse to make them. Either that or I HAVE made resolutions, but I’m keeping them to myself.

But I do set myself goals. And they are usually bike events. Along with a few of my South Bank bunch friends, I will be riding the 2012 Grafton-Inverell Cyclosportif, on February 18th. Done it before, reckon I can do it again.

So this morning was my first hard road ride in a while. The Kenmore Hills Ride (KHR). 800 metres of vertical ascent crammed into about 45km. It covers just about every steep hill in Kenmore and Brookfield.

And although I was off the back a few times, and some of the others had to wait for me, I was pretty pleased with how I went this morning. There’s enough encouragement in how I went and how I feel now to think that I can probably improve my fitness some between now and G2I. And if I can eat better I may even lose a couple of kilos doing it.

The KHR. 

P.S. The origins of the KHR are a bit blurry. I’ve always attributed it to Bob Christiansen, but this morning Legs Hewett was telling me that he thinks Lawrie Cranley deserves the ‘credit’ for designing the route. All I know is: Les has done more KHRs than anyone I know. And every single one of them hurts.