how to really train

Now you're talking

no

Even though I'm quite fit I have a weird HR which is nice and low resting - 50 or so - but then shoots up on the first hint of exercise. It also comes down quickly, too, but I'll be in the 170 range when friends are about 150.

how do I shot "hill reps"

OK this week's ride with the harder group has clarified my training aims

I want to be able to ride 100 miles at 19mph+ in a group and stay with the climbers on the hills

so essentially I want to get better on hills - am I looking at hill intervals to get better on them?

you need to focus on your base first, but yes hill repeats wont hurt!

how did you fare on the ride?

your daily bicycle log

nice work cozy, esp in that weather.

in order to ride 100 miles at any speed you need to (as cutty states) build up your endurance.

for hills, repeats will definitely help as well as increasing your ability to recover (via intervals).

100 hilly miles at 19mph is about race pace for sporty amateur riders so it will involve some training and logging lots of miles.

• purchased rollers from reputable squirming-themed online store to rack up the winter k's and work on smooth pedal action
• waited customary week for goods to arive
• package arrives, reveals itself to be turbo trainer rather than the rollers i ordered

:|

rollers finally turned up. bit of a wobble-fest frankly!

pls record and post to CYCLING LOLZ

I've got a couple more time trials to go before the normal racing season finishes, but I'm already starting to think about the actual end of the season which is my club's hill climb championship on the first Sunday in November. I got second place last year (which, while good, isn't amazingly so, seeing as there were only ten or so riders in it and some of them were at the er.... less competitive end of the spectrum) with 2.51. The first placed guy, who is much better than me and has won a couple of road races this season, got 2.35. This is on a climb about three-quarters of a mile long which has a false flat in the middle and the steepest section is about 12% (according to the sign at the side of the road).

I'm trying to do some strength training to prepare for this. I was advised to do this last year by a coach (but didn't get round to it). On Wednesday I went up it staying in the big ring the whole way up (53x21 and then 53x23 on the steepest bit) staying in the saddle and grinding, thinking this is what I'd been told to do. When I got home I re-read the instructions from a year ago and saw that what I'd actually been told to do was go in a ridiculous gear (53x17) and try to sprint up out of the saddle until I reached the point where I couldn't ride any more. Then I was supposed to mark this point, turn around and go back downhill and ride for a few minutes until my heart rate had recovered, then repeat it four more times seeing if I could beat the point I'd marked.

I still haven't tried this, but on Friday I went back to the hill again to do some timed practice. I went up in the big ring (53x21 all the way), this time out of the saddle and pushing hard, and managed 2.59. Then I did a loop and came back to try it again, this time using the big ring on the flatter bits, but down to 39x19 39x21 on the steeper bits. It felt horrible at the end but I managed 2.50 (so better than I did in the actual race last year).

Chapeau! Do you think you'll be able to get to 2.35? Or close enough to give him a fright?

To be honest, no. Fifteen seconds doesn't sound like much, but it feels huge.

just go up it faster

That might just work...

I recommend using a lighter bike

TODAY MARKS MY FINAL DAY OF TRAINING OF THE 2010 SEASON AND I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT!

always be training.

regardless. you are a winner. you showed real motivation this year and you killed it! <3

youre both remarkable!

honestly, cutty is a saint for putting up with my incessant barrage of n00b racing/training questions.

but both of you guys have been such rad support. *hugglez*

are you going to make the step up to a heavier bike next season

Filthy weather again this morning, but I went out and had another go on the hill climb. This time I tried going all out earlier than normal and just counted on adrenalin to help me gasp my way up the final stretch. I smashed my PB by 8 seconds and got 2:42. Felt so spent afterwards I had to just ride home again.

guys i think i figured out intervals/tabata training

any tips/recommendations etc for improving pedalling technique? I have noticed that when I go for a higher cadence (on real bike or indeed stationary bike at the gym) I get ... "bouncy". I'm sure you know what I mean - arse lifts off perch at every stroke almost, feels really really inefficient. Is it a question of more and more miles? a simple case of cranking up the gear? or are there exercises/methods for improving smoothness?

its been consistently v. v. cold and 8" of snow is lingering, so i went to spinning classes on sunday and last night. i may know how to ride a bike, but apparently i don't know how to "spin." like, i was pretty baffled by the "jumps," where you stand for just 4 pedal strokes and sit for 4 pedal strokes at 90 rpm. also, contradictory instructions about intensity levels.

all i really want is to use a spinning bike for my own workout, but neither venue i go to appears to allow that.

Chris/Porkpie - are your feet clipped into the pedals? is the saddle high enough?

Clipped in yes, maybe the saddle does need to go up, but I set it up as per the prescribed method (can't remember the details but it involved measuring and a bit of maths). Of course there is the random factor of being 6'3" but with only a 32" leg.

buy a spin bike for the home!

I have a mystery knee injury that has appeared from nowhere. I must have twisted it, possibly while playing toddler games, or possibly through dancing while intoxicated. Common sense says I should just rest it until it feels better, but I've had two months of scarcely cycling and the start of the new season is getting closer. If I just go out and ride tomorrow regardless, am I going to regret it?

my mystery knee injury that used to only hurt on my right side now switched over to my left side. right side's fine though.

That sounds encouraging

[warning: EMO]

I am really, really, really, really out of shape. Very disappointing. Getting "looks", "talkings to", "bailed on"... and it's like 85 miles with 5500 feet of climbing in under 5 hours is pretty groundbreaking for me, but still coming up short.

What sucks:
I bonked on this 5 mile climb today.
2 guys I ride with are in really good shape (one seems to be peaking at the moment, he threw down 400+W for over 10 mins the other night in spin class) and are not shy about showing off their early season fitness.
Kinda had some "neg" feelings today about LL this, which sucks because I'm usually a pretty "posi" dude about training/racing.
Basically need to HTFU and stop being slow and lose more weight.

LL = all

jaxon, maybe pay a visit to 3Db1k3f1t in sausalito, it's the same guy who set you up at BN.

nb&s: if you've ridden through similar pain before, it's worth a shot. otherwise it's probably going to take a doctor visit. :-/

anddddddd i left my phone, credit cards, cash at a shop like 15 miles away. awesome! I really feel like driving across the bridge in traffic to go get it.

leaving your shit behind sucks, but not being a january spinning champion-- i'd not worry about that one iota. when you drop those fools when it counts, you will be happier.

i weighed in at 177 on thursday, thats 6lbs weight gain in 2 months. plenty of it is from lifting, but still, i'd like to be 165 in may.

FAT

MANTIS

thanks man

i'd like to be 165 in may.

also, a goddamn pony if you please.

hey since you may be around gbx, i got to quiz some dude today while skiing about his inbounds-oriented at set up. he had a set of marker barons w/ burly-ish looking scarpas. he said they were heavyish and slow to flip to tour mode, but din 12 and stable. maybe that's what i need? im an old fat guy shepherding kiddos around for the most part, do i really want dynafit? school me.

the dynafit stuff looks so ~fancy~. where fancy is like, awesome. i also really like awesome, but its hard to justify.

if you are an ancient decrepit old man skiing w/children (joeks) then you really don't need barons. they're heavy and unnecessary unless you're hucking big stuff. as someone who will be THIRTY G-D YEARS OLD in two hours and used to be a ~serious bro~ i'm pretty comfortable w/my new setup. ....which i haven't actually ridden yet. that being said: my Onyx bindings (3rd party dynafit) are DIN 12, so i'm not sweating it.

My club is not known for its racing prowess. There is one guy, in his 40s, who's a decent third cat road racer and got a 1st place and 2nd place in road races last season. He's been saying he wants some company as he has no team mates (there were team mates, but they keep getting poached away to racing teams as opposed to traditional clubs). Given the huge constraints on my free-time I've never entered a road race that was actually on the open road, as these events, even at the lowest level, are at least 50 miles long. Except when I'm on holiday I'm lucky if I can find four hours a week for riding (and that includes racing), so I've just focused on events of 25 miles or under. I'm kind of tempted to give it a go this year, but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile: I fear getting destroyed and not finishing.

I can probably manage the pace (not at the moment, because I'm desperately short of miles and still trying to shake off illness), because I managed to race about 26 miles at 24mph (in a bunch) last summer. And I can definitely ride the distance (I did 94 miles at >18mph in 2009, not counting a brief stops). But I have big doubts about whether I could manage the distance AND the pace (i.e. 50-odd miles at maybe 25mph).

Should I just go for it and see what happens?

(This is assuming my entry would even be accepted, which is doubtful given I've accrued zero points on my licence in two years of racing)

I rode 50 miles this morning with the two strongest riders from my club and managed to hack the pace. The road racer says I should be able to manage a 'proper' road race, so I'm going to give it a go.

awesome! When's the first one? Also - with two of you, are you disadvantaged by bigger squads (ie have to look at breakaways to get owt)?

Well, I'm probably going to start racing (doing my usual combination of 10 or 25 mile time trials, and 20-25 mile long 'road' races on closed circuits) in the middle of March and I've seen a couple of proper road races 45-55 miles long that I'll probably try to enter: one at the end of March and one at the start of May.

Yeah, riding without several team mates is a tactical disadvantage in terms of getting in breaks / chasing / possibly leading out sprints, but this isn't a concern for me: I'll just be trying to finish the first few times rather than seriously expecting to get a placing.

Spring is here, meaning double work-outs.

I did am/pm doubles on Mon/Tues... 120 miles total. Had to wake up at 4am Mon and 4:30am Tue to work it all in. Primary efforts included across all 4 workouts: 2x15 minute @ 250W, 3x10minute climbs @ 300W (I'm not a climber so these sucked), 2x15 minute @ race 250W, 1x10minute climb @ 350W, 1x5min @250W ending in sprint for 30 seconds (avg 500W), then 1x30min at race pace (250W) on a circuit with 1 minute @ 500W at the end of every lap. Also bumped up my recovery pace from 15mph to 18mph to really increase the pain.

Had to wake up at 4am Mon

!!!