Hey everyone, glad to be here. I’ve been racing for about 15 years, mostly mountain bike and gravel, and I’m based in Omaha, Nebraska. I’ve lined up at a lot of the bigger events over the years, including Gravel Worlds, Leadville, BT Epic, Life Time Oz 50, Lutsen 99er, Breck Epic, and plenty more. As a working dad, I’m still pretty locked in on training, nutrition, and bike setup. I also coach a group of high school riders who are turning into some very fast mountain bike racers, and I’ve really enjoyed watching their progression. Looking forward to being part of the community, learning from everyone here, and hopefully contributing where I can. We’re all figuring this out together.

So one of the biggest, easy gains that you can make is by jumping on the aero base layer band wagon if you haven’t already. Some people/brands call them “aero bras” as they are like crop tops for dudes and women can wear them too (over their sports bras of course - these are definitely not a replacement for normal bras). I have a couple of links here below. The first one is the rule 28 which is one of the better tested aero base layers on the market. See Nero Show Episode 155 on YouTube (the first 10 mins of the show breaks down the results) to see the data on this. The second link is an aliexpress one which I’ve bought before and I wouldn’t think it’s far off in terms of aero savings. These things definitely help save time. But you need to be hitting 40kph regularly in order for it to be worthwhile. Usually the faster you go the more of a difference the aero equipment will make - but on the Nero show they found the aero bra to be equally effective at both 40 and 60 kph in terms of watts savings (cannot remember what it was but it was the same amount of watts saves at both speeds) which is pretty unusual. As a percentage that means it’s more useful at 40kph but still definitely worthwhile (so not equally effective as I said in the last sentence 🤓 but still very useful!). Especially during long distance events where you could save tonnes of time for zero effort. It’s probably the most cost effective upgrade you can buy. Way faster than buying a new bike unless you are riding a gate, but for most people it would make a more significant difference to get one of these things. 2 situations where they aren’t worthwhile: If its really hot then you are best not to wear an additional layer despite how light this thing is. If heat could be an issue in any way then I would ditch this and focus all your energy into heat protocols like ice, slushies etc. and don’t bother with the extra layer of kit. If it’s so cold that you are wearing jackets and that then you won’t be receiving any aero benefits from the aero base layer(shockingly 😔). The grooves of the aero base layer sleeves need to protrude under your jersey sleeves to obtain the aero benefits ( I don’t really know how to articulate that point but have a google if you’re confused and it’ll make sense). So if you’ve got too many layers on then you will not be availing of these gains. Prioritise staying warm though in this case of course. Everybody else will be cold too so it’s not like you are missing out on something compared to everybody else.

Anyone else having issues? The app seems to crash on me numerous times a day when logging meals and sometimes says its lost connection with the server even though my Internet signal strong. Very frustrating 😕

After hearing some of you talking about overnight oats I finally tried them out this morning. Probably much healthier than the sugary cereal I’ve been eating for breakfast lol. Today I used oat milk, pure maple syrup, and a touch of cinnamon. Hoping to make this a morning routine. Would love to see how you make yours!

"What's the ONE thing you want to nail this week?" 2 weeks ago my goal of the week was to look into vagus nerve stimulation and I hadn’t made much progress with it. My girlfriend had a chiropractor session on the EF camp yesterday and it turns out they have loads of the Neurosym devices lying around in the service course beside us. So I’ll get to trial one later in the week which is cool. Saves 700€ which is handy. Other goal is to figure out some heat management stuff around my POTS for later in Spring when it warms up. I reckon I might need to move somewhere cold for the summer to manage symptoms as even Ireland is too hot these days to cope with it. Better to look into it now when I’m feeling better and have the energy to do so. So sussing that out would be good for this week. Also we made a Strava group yesterday so if you go to clubs and then search for a club you can type in not done yet and request to join. Vern will then decide if he wants to approve you 🙏 Any issues with this then you can let me know and I can send you a prompt to join via Strava. Reminder for any new members that we have weekly group calls on Mondays and Thursdays. 7:30pm GMT +0 this evening. If you go to calendar and then find today’s date you will see a couple of links. The first one is called Coffee time which is hosted by Mary and everyone is welcome to attend. This is just general chat so you guys can talk about whatever you want together. The second link tonight is for the Q and A which is with Anthony, Sarah and myself. I’ll make a post now and you can include any questions that you have. Have a good week, Matthew