No skiing :'(

Today is a sad day, I've just realised that i will not be able to get away to a ski resort this season.... mainly due to deadlines and just not being able to take time away. I love skiing so much i am generally depressed, it will be at least 9/10 months until I next go.

So my question to my loyal skiing (or dare i say it, boarding) followers, do you notice a significant skill loss after skipping a season? I have managed at least a days worth of skiing every season for quite a few years now. I'm hoping I my level of skill won't deteriorate too much.

All that I can do now is watch videos on youtube of what I'm missing:

Bike finished... Finally!

It's actually been done for a few weeks now, but i forgot to update the progress i made on the build in this blog. Whilst riding i've definitely noticed people staring at the machine beneath me, give a definite "Awww yeahhh" feeling.

So here's the finished thing:

Been on a few rides (nothing properly hard core until i'm confident it's not going to fall apart!)
Feels really good riding, air suspension has been adjusted and is really smooth. However the stem is a bit long for me, so i'll change that. I also need a new saddle, the one in the picture is a manky old one i found just to do the job in the meantime.

No other hitches really, brakes do rub a bit:

But I think that'll fix itself after i bed them in a bit more.

What do you guys think of the bike? :D

German Volume Training

German Volume Training (also known as GVT or the 'ten sets of ten' method) is pretty much lifting crap loads of weights crap loads of times to gain crap loads of muscle.

<really ripped guy here>

It goes something along these lines:

One Exercise. You perform one exercise per body part. That’s it.
100 Reps. For each exercise, 10 sets of 10 reps. Or as close to 10 as you can get.
And a break of around 30-60secs between sets.

This is brutal, but has been known to give people muscle gains of 7kg (around 15lbs for you Americans) in as little as a month. Tried it on Sunday with a couple of exercises, don't think i've ever contorted my face so much with effort before.. but it was fun, will be trying it again this weekend coming - with different exercises. Will let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, anyone had experience with GVT or similar? I'm not a body builder but i hear it's really good for endurance strength (which i do need) so that's why i'm going for it.


Now for a picture of what happens when fast food meets GVT: