Turning Full Cycle
Being married with two young daughters in his mid-30s on top of his role as a partner in Gilligan Sheppard, Richard Ashby thought his days as a keen and active sportsman were behind him.
When one of the staff at Gilligan Sheppard commented that his stomach was hanging over his belt, he initially laughed it off … until he stepped on the scales to discover he weighed 96kg, more than 10kg since the last time he had done so. “It was one of those ‘OMG – what’s happened?’ moments,” he recalls.
He started walking and running, and while he enjoyed being outdoors, he didn’t find it challenging enough. When, around four years ago, an old squash partner suggested he joined him and his family for a cycle, Richard turned up on his trusty old mountain bike.
It was to be a life-changing experience. “The feeling of going fast with the wind in your face was great, as was the chance to share the experience and talk about it as you’re doing it,” he recalls. His enjoyment inspired him to invest in a bike to ride the roads and start participating in Fun Runs. His competitiveness soon emerged, encouraging him to enter into Group 1 events. The need to be mean and lean saw him lose more than 20kg, at one stage weighing just 73kg. It also bought him a dose of reality. “When you’re racing 17 to 20-year-olds, cyclists half your age, you see how much more energy they have. I knew time wasn’t on my side and while it’s useful having a general ranking, most of the time I’m happy to see how I do in my 35-44 age category.”
In March 2011 Richard participated in his first tour event, the four-day Cycle Tour of Northland, covering 322km with distances of 83-93km per day. The tour is one of the less arduous on the national schedule and the scenery is stunning. The biggest challenge Richard found was suitably recovering at the end of each day for the following day.
But it gave him enough confidence to take on K2, a 187km one-day race around the Coromandel described as the toughest of its kind due to the number of tortuous, winding hill climbs. He knew he needed help.
He hired Aaron Strong, a cycling coach who devised a personalised programme for the event. It enabled him to manage his training schedule around work and the time he has looking after his two daughters.
“I couldn’t spend the hours I needed to on the road because of work and family, so I’d spend an hour and a half spinning (on a cycle machine) at home with a television in front of me to fight the boredom.”
Richard completed the K2 last October in six hours 38 minutes, around 20 minutes slower than he had aimed for, admitting there were times during the arduous gut-busting event he questioned the wisdom of taking it on.
“When you’ve blown out (physically exhausted) and there’s still 80km to go you do wonder why you’re do something which is supposed to be fun,” he says. “But these are fleeting moments and once you’ve achieved it, it’s not long before you can’t wait to get out there again.”
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