Another month, another bike. Welcome to the June issue of Sergey’s Bikeporn magazine. Cycling season is in full swing and there’s one thing I learned regarding bike builds and upgrades: never do any serious changes during the season. Only fixes or minor maintenance tasks. The risk of losing a rideable bike due to complications is just too damn high. We only got so much time in our lives. Wisely, I’ve built the bike I’m going to talk about in winter. [Read More]

Last weekend I rode Santis Classic – an annual bike sportive in the Eastern part of Switzerland, with the start near a town Weinfelden. Getting there from Zurich area takes just an hour by car so I borrowed a fancy Audi A5 from our local car sharing pool in the morning. A bike race is a special occasion, after all. Santis Classic is an explicitly non-competitive and very inclusive event. For that reason there was no timing provided. [Read More]

Three years ago in 2015 I started a sabbatical with a couple of commitments, among which was to run a half marathon. The challenge felt invigorating and extremely exciting. For two and a half months I’ve trained hard and got to the finish line. Sadly, in the race I broke my left leg due to what is known as a stress fracture. I never gave up on the challenge and that single episode motivated me to make sports an important part of everyday life. [Read More]

On June 11th I have entered and completed my first bike race! About 4 months ago, as I climbed off my bike after a training session, a surge of endorphins pushed me to call Ilya to sign-up for a team race. The race consisted of 1km swim, 90km bike and 21km run. I have regretted the decision shortly thereafter but it was already too late to bail out…

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We humans are first to share our greatest achievements and “ups” in life but rarely do we like to admit failures, especially when it’s related to our most cherished values and strivings. Well, I’m human and I fail. More often lately than ever before. My most recent failure is the Madrid marathon 2017 which I was looking forward to…

After breaking a bone during my first ¹⁄₂ marathon in Lausanne in 2015 I had to take a long break from training runs. Fractures take patience. Despite my best efforts and a reworked training plan I experienced an injury about 4 weeks before the marathon date, right after finishing a nice 19Km run along the lake. I hoped for recovery but refrained from making the injury worse. Well, it didn’t heal completely so I took a decision to withdraw from participation. That didn’t preclude me and my DW from seeing Madrid…

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To complete a full Iron Man is still an important milestone for me. I really dig endurance challenges. However, I reluctantly decided to reduce the number of hours of training per week and let the ultimate deadline slip a year or two into the future. I don’t want to spend 15 hours per week of training on it yet. There are ongoing projects that I am not willing to sacrifice. In a way I’m adapting to the opportunities that currently present themselves instead of forcefully pushing a preconceived plan against the reality. [Read More]

I enjoy training for triathlon immensely. The sport attracts me with multidimensionality and the numerous skills involved. There is so much room for growth. It’s an art really. I will regularly share some of my observations as I progress towards my next triathlon goal - completing a half Ironman. Cycling After raving about Zwift and following its 4 month training program I chose to continue my training using TrainerRoad software instead. [Read More]