For Sale ... me and my time.

 

While out on my tod the other morning enjoying the unseasonably warm weather I got thinking.

 

Jack (our son) is off to Uni this weekend and I’m going to miss his company.  His summer holiday has helped the father / son bonding no end and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him more than I would have done if I’d still been on the 12 hour ‘torture-trip’ to and from the MoD in Cambridge.

 

So what now … for me?

 

Well … only VERY recently I bumped in to a few of my ‘old’ cycling chums from the era when cycling was real fun.  No pulse monitors, power meters or plonkers who think they know it all but in reality don’t know their arses from their elbows … just fun. During the conversation, it was suggested (not by me I might add) that there must be lots of cycling folk out there who know an awful lot less than me (presumably about cycling?) and as a consequence might be prepared to pay me (did I really write that?) for help and advice as to how to go a bit faster on their bikes.

 

I don’t have any coaching skills as such but after 40 years or so in a sport where I’ve won lots of National Championships and broken many National Records I suppose I must have been doing something right.  I’ve certainly learnt lots of things that didn’t work (at least for me) so even that’s something worth knowing surely?

 

In the ‘olden days’ the only real way to learn from folk was to mix with them … to train with them … and to race with them.  I figured that a lot of what made them fast would rub off on me if I did just that. That was the theory anyway. So I joined GS Strada to learn from the likes of Griffiths, Downs, Waugh, Wreghitt etc etc. No sooner had I joined, Downs Waugh and Wreghitt left!  (In all honesty I think they retired ... at least I don't think my arrival on the team had anything to do with it).

 

I’m not entirely convinced it’s a good thing, but we’re now in the 'dot.com' era.  So much information is readily available at the click of a switch and coaches / advisors / mentors are more accessible now than they've ever been.

 

So where am I leading to?

 

Well ... I can ‘coach’ (sort of … but don’t have, and don’t intend having, any glitzy web-site).  

 

I can ‘mentor’ too (lead you by the hand to give advice based on what I’ve learned over the 40 years or so I’ve

been racing). 

 

I can also SHOW you first-hand what going (reasonably) fast is like (something I found most helpful during  

the team time trial sessions we had on the A1 prior to the 1984 Olympics).  

 

We could (for example) meet and ride a 25 up and down the F2 where you could i) sit on my wheel,

ii) go through and do a turn at the front and give my weary and ancient legs a rest, or iii) kick the shit out

of me as ‘pay-back’ for any events I might have beaten you in back in the day (these sessions are

particularly expensive for clients so beware!  Well it’s only fair don’t you think?).

 

So if you want 'coaching', mentoring or even just a ride with a clapped-out old has-been, drop me an email

and we can discuss. Bear in mind we all know what the 'going rate' is these days though so please don't

risk any embarrassment by expecting something for nothing ... a common trait of today's time triallist I'm

afraid and probably why I'm more inclined and willing to entertain older fogies like myself than the element of the younger generation who tend to think they know it all ... but don't!  The fact that the older farts are unlikely to give me as hard a time may also have a bearing on my preference.  They are also more likely to be 'of drinking age' which would help in any post-race debrief held in The Eltisley, The Monkfield Arms or The Blue Lion  ;-)

 

BTW ... I DON’T do Club Dinners or Public Speaking any more.  I’ve done more than my fair share of them

and died on my feet too many times to put a price on doing any more.

 

Grateful if any interested party could / would contact me on   ian_cammish@hotmail.com

 

Cheers!