Aaaggghh!!! Allianz!!!!!

I happen to be a marketer and when I first heard Allianz insurance's "ahhh..." campaign (interestingly they refer to it as the "one word for insurance" campaign) I thought it was a bit risky and that it could easily backfire on them. A lot of the "ahhh..." in the ads come out more with anger than their intended anxiety.

I'd conveniently forgotten at that point in time that our Cyclecover contents and bike cover is underwritten by Allianz. Even if I'd remembered, I would hardly have imagined at that time that I'd be a case in point.

And yet, here I am.

By the way... I'm detoxing

Probably should have mentioned this sooner, but I'm currently ten days into a detox.

I'm eliminating meat, wheat, dairy, alcohol and caffeine from my diet until the first weekend in November. I'm also avoiding processed foods to eliminate added sugar. Naturally occurring sugars from fruit is OK.

In the first week I've conquered morning teas and drinks at work (turning down chocolate cake and champagne) and even resisted the urge to chain smoke as stress relief in the absence of chocolate or wine.

So far, I'm going great guns.

Life after Lance

"My name's Athletic Powerhouse and I'm an ex-Lance fan."

I'm one of those people who name their bikes and my last road bike was called Lance. A group of us traveled to Adelaide for the Tour Down Under in 2009 to witness his comeback and I did his Twitter ride last year. And yes, I own a Livestrong cycling jersey.

I haven't worn it for a while though. And probably not likely to ever again. At the risk of sounding like a lover scorned, in light of the USADA charges, I want Lance to get what he deserves, so that all of us can have a life after Lance.

A life less floppy

I am taking a hiatus from running to build up some core strength so I'm 'less floppy' when I run.

Not my words. My masseuse Sam at Inclusive Therapy described me that way.

And he's never even see me run.

Junk miles


With my road bike out order and with a need mostly to keep up base fitness, I've started doing a weekly or so bike commute to work.

My first ever cycling coach called rides like these "junk miles". They're not specific enough to give you good training results, and can leave you tired, so less receptive to proper training sessions.

I've done a bit of thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that "junk miles", right now, are not junk.