Rob Watkinson

Back running after 16 yr break. Former Road man on bike and past it 800/1500m athlete

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@Brady_H Glycine. Worked wonders for my sleep

[Cycling Legends Media @CyclingLegends1]

Today’s photo shows the French rider Antonin Magne entering the Galibier Summit Tunnel from the south on stage 14 of the 1928 Tour de France, 329 kilometres from Grenoble to Evian.

Since it opened in 1891 all traffic passed through the tunnel’s vast snow doors, until it was closed in 1978 for repairs. An extra piece of road had been built to the top of the natural Galibier pass, and traffic was diverted that way.

It followed the trail that theoretically linked the Maurienne with the Guisanne and Romanche valleys before the tunnel, but few journeys were made. The tunnel really opened the area, and opened people’s horizons. It’s said that before the tunnel nobody north of the Galibier ever married anyone from the south. The populations mistrusted each other.

The 1978 diversion road increased the height of the Galibier from 2,566 metres it was in old Tours de France, to 2,646 metres today. When the tunnel reopened only motor vehicles were allowed through it, cyclists have to go over the top, the way the Tour goes now.

Magne was an interesting character. He was serious, said little and lived a very simple life. They called him ‘the monk’ so you get the picture, but he was a hell of a cyclist. He’d won the previous stage of the 1928 Tour, a 333 kilometres trek from Nice to Grenoble across the southern Alps. It was his second stage win; he would win another 8 during his career and become French number 1. In 1931 and 1934 he won the Tour de France overall.

The Second World War ended Magne’s career in 1939. Come peacetime he was offered a job by his longtime sponsors, Cycle Mercier. He became their number 1 team manager. But Magne was old-fashioned, his methods worked in the early days of his direction, when he steered the career of the great Louison Bobet, but he was less successful later.

He stuck to running teams as they had been when he raced, putting everyone behind the same team leader in every race. It worked with Bobet but was less effective later with Raymond Poulidor. Racing had evolved, teams became increasingly multi-headed, with roles changing within a race. New Mercier manager Louis Caput was a less successful rider, but very successful with his 1970s Gan-Mercier team.

📸 Agence Roi

[Chris Chavez @ChrisChavez]

A little more for the marathon nerds: Yomif Kejelcha ran 1:59:41 to become the second man under two hours in a legal race and he was on Sabastian Sawe's shoulder until 41K. Took a bit different of a fueling approach.

The Santamadre team, an emerging Spanish company, shared his fueling plan with the targeted amounts at each station. A few things stood out to me, if I'm reading this correctly. Kejelcha planned to take roughly 60ml of fluid at most stations, which is estimated at less than half of Sawe's intake (though it's worth noting runners often toss bottles quickly and don't hit their targets exactly). He skipped 5K entirely and took nothing at 40K.

🗣️Santamadre co-founder Alfonso Beltrá López:  “We took advantage of the pre-race window to reduce digestive load as much as possible. We knew exactly how much fluid the athlete loses and how much energy his body consumes, as we had monitored him 24/7 over the previous three months: body temperature, breathing rate, heart rate and oxygen saturation. We also controlled his caloric load in detail. The strategy was to provide 287.4 g of carbohydrates between the pre-race and in-race fueling, in addition to the 580 g of glycogen we had built up during the two-day carb-loading phase before the race.”

I didn't know as much about their products beforehand but the Unusual Fuel (taken by him at 15K, 25K, 35K) is a high-carb drink mix: 100g of carbs and 500mg of sodium per 500ml. Unusual Gel 45 is a 45g carb gel in a 1:1 glucose-to-fructose ratio, available with or without caffeine. He used the caffeinated version pre-race and at 20K. 

Then there's Reset Gel (10K, 30K), which is an interesting one. It's billed as a CNS fatigue blocker with 300mg of tart cherry polyphenols. It also has 30g of carbs. It kicks in quick and his two doses overlapped to cover most of the second half. 

🗣️ López: “We used RESET Gel at 10K and 20K, a gel designed to help control muscle damage and reset fatigue. It was one of the key parts of our strategy, exactly as we had seen in the specific training sessions.”

Finally, the Prototype he sipped for 75 minutes pre-race is a new product in the works. Santamadre says more is coming on that in the months ahead.

🗣️López: “It was a real shame he couldn’t grab the last bottle at 35K. We believe everything could have changed. At 41K, he ran empty; those extra three minutes could have been covered by the 12.4 g of carbohydrates planned for that point.”

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@100Climbs @tntsports There was free live coverage on you tube.

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@ScienceExpand Exactly the sort of crazy shit I get to do at work whilst scating around the ‘safe manual lifting’ guidelines

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@cyclingontnt That’s was superb. Well done Matthew 👍👌💪

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

Trying to convert lads old bike to dirt jumper. Hard to get chain tension right but got there

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@DefiantLs Kin ell. Same amount of brain cells as wheels on his bike

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@IntraRunner 1/2 bagel peanut butter half a banana on top then good to go

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@MichaelRimmer8 @EilishMccolgan @10KValencia Great run Elish 👏and top job Michael in your support 👍

[Howard Luks MD @hjluks]

The Most Dangerous Phrase in Midlife Fitness: “I Used To…”

“I used to run faster.” “I used to lift heavier.” “I used to train every day.”

I hear this constantly. In the office. In the gym. From people who still care deeply about being capable… yet are often injured.

I always ask patients what sports they play. Not uncommonly, they’ll answer football or basketball. I’ll ask when they last did it… the answer is universally— in college or high school. Then a spark woke them up, and they tried to get back to the things they did 20-30 years ago. While that’s not impossible, it requires a far different approach.

The problem isn’t remembering the past. It’s training as if the past is the standard you still have to meet.

When training is anchored to past ability, the focus shifts away from adaptation and toward proving something. Over time, that almost always leads to frustration, injury, disengagement, and a visit to my office.

Midlife isn’t about reclaiming an earlier version of yourself. That version lived in a different body, with different recovery capacity, different stress, and different biology.

What you have now is a different body. Not a broken one. Not an inferior one. Just different. But one that is still able to adapt and achieve.

The people who age well in sport and in life understand this sooner rather than later. They stop chasing intenisty volume for its own sake. They become more selective about intensity and focus on consistency. They leave room for recovery. They care less about what a workout looks like and more about what it allows them to do tomorrow.

They aren’t lowering standards. They’re changing the rules… they’re adapting. For the longest time, I didn’t do this. I was working out in my late 50s as I did in my 20s… and I was often hurt or aching enough that the next day was a bust.

The question stops being, “Can I still do what I used to do?” It becomes, “What do I need to do now to stay strong, capable, and independent ten years from today?”

That shift isn’t quitting. It’s about choosing healthspan… and adapting to what the passage of time demands.

—Howard

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@Geniustechw Had exactly same happen to me. Driver on wrong side of road.

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@mission753 @downingcycling 👍

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@tim_roozendaal I was always a Novablast fan and thought the nimbus 25 was too soft. The 27 is a great shoe though. Firmer and prefer to novablasts now

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@brady_h Nimbus 27

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@runliftrunlift They are good. However I have to say I prefer my slightly firmer nimbus 27’s

[Track & Field Gazette @TrackGazette]

Mondo Duplantis' 🇸🇪 Pole Vault World Record timeline is CRAZY!!🤯🔥

2020 - 6.17m
2020 - 6.18m
2022 - 6.19m
2022 - 6.20m
2022 - 6.21m
2023 - 6.22m
2023 - 6.23m
2024 - 6.24m
2024 - 6.25m
2024 - 6.26m
2025 - 6.27m
2025 - 6.28m
2025 - 6.29m
2025 - 6.30m 🆕️

14 World Records!!!!🐐🐐🐐

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@mission753 Had that pic as a poster as a kid on my wall 👌🏻

[cycling archives @mission753]

Time to bring back Time.

[Rob Watkinson @rawmarshrob]

@lucasaganronald At least he has carbon plated super shoes for the advantage 😂