Cyclacrosse

Just two next door neighbours talking about our uni life and all that happens in it, hopefully providing some laughs along the way! We look forward to sharing this with you. -F, 19, Cyclist -S, 19, Lacrosse Player

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The Pathways to Success/Weathering the Storm

Just a quick cycling entry here. Having just returned from a ride in conditions comparable only to those of the 2014 Prudential ride London 100 (shortened to 67 due to the weather), I find myself wondering why is it that I do what I do. Now, it would be easy  for me to sit here and bemoan my luck for getting caught out in a thunderstorm but then id be doing myself an injustice. Contrary to what many of you may be thinking, I actually enjoyed the ride, thriving perhaps on the underdog status which I had had bestowed upon me by these weather conditions.

What I will say is that the road to success is not always a straightforward or even a logical one. I think part of me realised the heavens would open but the motivation and quest for success within my sport almost rendered me no choice but to go out for a ride. However it was not only my ambition that forced me out of the door into the rain, but also the knowledge that my university pre-seasons commence in just under a months time and preparation is the key. 

Having obtained more funding than ever before for this year, this is a very exciting time to be a cyclist at my uni. The prospect of coaching, a race team and performance status has certainly boosted my motivation and given me a new goal. The thing that is particularly good with regards to university sport is one can really make of it what they will. From leisurely Sunday spins to top end TT’s or criterium races, sporting life and in particular cycling at uni is a choice and can even provide a much needed escape every now and again. I have made the decision to strive for the top of my cycling club and hope to achieve many goals this season which I will talk about in due course. 

So in short. Sometimes the road to the top is not easy or rational and every so often, one may need to ride the storm in order to get ahead because it’s not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.

Have a good evening guys,

- F

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NEW BEGINNINGS

University brings about a huge change in the lives of the majority of individuals. One goes from the security, guidance and familiarity of schooling and home life and suddenly finds themselves faced with the arrival of Freshers week. My Freshers however was made even more disoncerting by the fact that I would have to share a bunkbed room for the first week. Once being dropped off by family and seeing them disappearing off into the distance, it truly hit me that I was well and truly at university and would have to very much fend for myself.

However fear not, as with most things in life, these things have a habit of working themselves out and usually for the best. After the agonising wait for new room applications was over, I quickly moved into my new accommodation within the first week. Fearing that perhaps ‘freshers groups’ would have been already formed, my fears were quickly extinguished in the form of my neighbour S. First impressions.. optimistic, outgoing, confident and nice guy.. and to a large extent I was right.

So having formed ‘Freshers Friends’ and  two main social groups of lovely people, I set about to complete my next main university goal. Get involved in the sporting aspect of university. As S has alluded to already, much of what we will talk about here will be related to everyday uni life, sports and also nutrition at uni, with particular focus towards performance optimisation. Personally speaking, I already had a brief background in cycling prior to university and therefore my decision to join the university cycling club was a fairly straight-forward one. Not only was it an excellent chance for me to broaden my horizons, but socially speaking, a fantastic way to integrate. After all, mutual interests always provide firm foundations.  

Cycling has certainly given me a lot and contributes a great deal to my everyday life. Thus, from further post from me, you can expect all things cycling. Whether it be management around other factors of life, training, racing or nutrition. I hope that it is both helpful and enjoyable to read! S and I are both very excited about the year to come, so whether you’re new to uni or not, we hope you can follow our journey and experiences with us in the years to come.

Have a great day,

-F

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The Myth of Student Food...

F and myself are very big on nutrition and not only eating enough for our physical exertions but also ensuring that what we eat is as clean and natural as possible and the most beneficial foods we can be eating. An aim of ours is to prove that contrary to popular belief it is possible as a student to eat very well on a budget and with limited time to cook. We are both in the process of compiling detailed nutrition plans for the next academic year, and the stuff we eat will be featured a lot on the blog. I have been experimenting with a lot of different breakfasts over the summer and what I ate this morning is pretty much a finalised version so I thought I'd share it as a taster (I'm not even sorry) of what's to come!

The meal consists of 4 decent sized cup mushrooms and 75g of kale, all sautéed together in a little butter and balsamic vinegar (see picture). I have this on 2 slices of brown granary bread toast along with three scrambled eggs. It takes just over 5 minutes to make, costs around £1.10, tastes fantastic and the price includes the eggs being organic and free-range. It is great balanced start to the day and is high in natural protein, antioxidants, fibre, and vitamins. F and I are keen to pass on simple, cheap and healthy recipes like this to help you through the year, and we are planning to do a meal a week together which will feature here, so do follow for plenty more of this kind of thing, especially those of you embarking on the great adventure that is uni this September! Have a peaceful day. -S

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An Unexpected Journey...

Freshers' Week 2015 was here and all the care-free and often common sense-free nights with it, for those who did that kind of thing. The serious work began later, apparently, and while I was hopelessly wrong the end of freshers being in sight gave me some hope of a bit of peace and quiet and an early night.

One place there had been no noise at all was the room next door, whoever had been assigned that room for some reason did not come. So it came as quite a surprise one morning to hear voices in there. Wondering if I was going mad I went to see who it was, and along with the lady from the hall office, was F, who had been sharing a room in another hall while looking for the perfect next door neighbour to move in with and V10 with me in V12 was right for him. This may not be the 100% accurate and directly quoted reason for why he decided to move into that room, but joking aside I couldn’t have hoped for a better guy to live next door to.

And so that Saturday in he moved, along with the endless convoy of bikes with him. It was so nice to find someone who wanted to go for breakfast at 7.30 to get on with life early in the day, someone who didn’t want to go out and get smashed all the time, who had a mutual respect for his health and a love of sport. The year progressed with both of us excelling in our sports, enjoying formal dinners together, many many seemingly never ending discussions about Watts per Kilo and head stringing, a lot of creative cooking with a microwave, probably a slightly too high snooker-to-revision ratio, a huge amount of support from F through a year of difficult encounters with the opposite sex for me, sharing the duties of dealing with our resident noise pollutants, a constant dynamic of mutual fond rudeness to each other, and so so many great times that leave us where we are today.

In a year which has seen some of the most unlikely things in our sports, the cycling hour record broken twice, Chris Froome win another tour totally clean, the first ever MVP award for a face-off man in Major League Lacrosse, and the emergence of potentially one of the most dominant MLL teams ever; something personally even more remarkable happened. I found a friend who got me, and didn’t mind putting up with me and my quarms.

And now we share a blog to tell our story from now on, because while halls are gone knowing us two there will be no shortage of things to rant and laugh about, hopefully you will enjoy this journey with us!

Have a great day.

-S

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A Little About Us

We are UK university students who lived in rooms next door to each other in our first year hall. We found last year that we have a shared passion for sport and fitness and wanted to be able to share how that impacts our university lives!

 F studies Languages and is a member of the Cycling team, while I study PhysPhil and play Lacrosse for the university and city.

 We both have high reaching ambitions for both our sport and academics in the year ahead and look forward to sharing it all with you!

 -S

[cyclacrosse-blog]

Hi!

This will be our space to waffle on about all things sport, fitness, nutrition, how it all impacts our university lives over the next few years as well as the challenges it presents and the generally awesome time we have doing it all.

We look forward to sharing it with all of you!

-S