{"id":17715,"date":"2016-08-18T10:12:35","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T09:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/?p=17715"},"modified":"2016-08-18T10:12:35","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T09:12:35","slug":"are-you-the-dave-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/are-you-the-dave-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you \u2018the\u2019 Dave Smith?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introducing Dave Smith the Coach<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s great to be joining the Merlin blogging team, as let\u2019s face it, I like to think I played a significant part in the success of Merlin Cycles\u2026<\/p>\n

You see back when I bought my first bike as a grown-up, long ago before the internet was let loose on the public, I would drool over mountain bike parts in double page adverts in MBUK (with tiny font) write a cheque, put it in an envelope, post it, and several weeks later receive a parcel of parts that my local bike shops wouldn\u2019t even know existed.<\/p>\n

\"1L8A4055<\/p>\n

This was so long ago that I\u2019m now more than twice as old as I was then. It could be said that the pendulum has swung from cycling mail order, to male older cyclist. But I\u2019m not here as a reward for propping up Merlin\u2019s early days. Rather I\u2019ll be writing various things related loosely and tightly to cycling because in the course of doing many things on two wheels, I\u2019ve made enough dumb mistakes to know a thing or two that may help some of you avoid the same mistakes. Despite the fact that an \u2018ex\u2019 is a has-been and a \u2018spurt\u2019 is a drip under pressure, it could be said that I\u2019m kind of an expert.<\/p>\n

\"13517648_595925813909498_1632475221028193407_o\"<\/p>\n

A brief summary of my cycling related activities reads thus\u2026<\/h2>\n

Cycled across several deserts in my youth<\/p>\n

Written for loads of cycling magazines<\/p>\n

Written two books in three languages<\/p>\n

Raced expert cross-country for a few trade teams<\/p>\n

4th<\/sup> in GB Downhill championships (lifetime achievement yet to be bettered!)<\/p>\n

Coached XC riders to world cup titles, Olympic medals etc<\/p>\n

Coached DH riders to world champs titles etc<\/p>\n

Coached Tour de France stage winners and yellow jersey holders<\/p>\n

Motor-paced the GB team in Columbia<\/p>\n

Was GB Olympic road racing coach<\/p>\n

Ran an ultra-marathon in Mongolia off 5 weeks training<\/p>\n

Did a half-ironman triathlon after 10 weeks training<\/p>\n

Was inactive for years at a time<\/p>\n

Was overweight during those years<\/p>\n

Was injured and ill at times<\/p>\n

Have been slated on online forums<\/p>\n

I now ride roughly 10,000 miles a year<\/p>\n

Returned to racing at 48, racing 3rd<\/sup> cat at 50<\/p>\n

Rode the length of Ireland in 3 days this year<\/p>\n

Rode 210 miles on an MTB in one ride this year<\/p>\n

For my next trick I\u2019ll be riding half the distance of the Tour de France, stage by stage – then trying to win some road races.<\/p>\n

\"27870592276_108bd9dcfe_o\"<\/p>\n

Trial and Error<\/h2>\n

Trust me, these activities were strewn with errors, mistakes and screw-ups, but in a good way \u2013 most of the time. So on that basis, I look forward to sharing some odd and quirky little tips, best practice advice, recipes, excuses for not winning races, complaints about the weather and hopefully along the way you\u2019ll gain some sensible information that will help you to become a better\/faster\/leaner cyclist. The blogs will focus mainly on health, fitness, nutrition, travel and training. I hope to cover everything from how to ride up the Galibier without tears, to riding your first time trial, or even how to cook half-calorie rice.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll try not to be too snarky and hopefully it should be fun!<\/p>\n

Web: www.velocityandvitality.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter: @ffflow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introducing Dave Smith the Coach It\u2019s great to be joining the Merlin blogging team, as let\u2019s face it, I like to think I played a significant part in the success of Merlin Cycles\u2026 You see back when I bought my first bike as a grown-up, long ago before the internet was let loose on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[2088,2085,2086,2067,2070,2069,2068,2087],"ppma_author":[4633],"class_list":["post-17715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bike-rider-coach","tag-coach-road-cycling","tag-coaching","tag-cycle-coaching","tag-cycling-expert","tag-cycling-for-fitness","tag-dave-smith","tag-mtb-coaching","author-admin"],"yoast_head":"\nAre you \u2018the\u2019 Dave Smith? 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