how to really train

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

!!!

that's me booked my B&B for next year's etape caledonia

anyone else fancying it...?

I am considering letting you talk me into this..... Nb I have done 0 research on it

only has a tiny wee hill in it

mark C should surely be willing

LOL no

what does it mean exactly to "stay on top of the gear"?

does it mean avoiding shifting to a shorter gear (esp on inclines)?

i've heard it used a few times but never with any explicit definition.

cutty just IM'd:

perhaps to focus on the back stroke portion of the revolution, ie, not mashing.

yeah, turning it over without getting pushed to the back of the saddle, not mashing.

where is cuttye? (miss you man!)

^^cosign this

Where is my sweet prince, CUTTY?

hi! i'm back training my balls off. 3 hour ride before work tomorrow morning, 2x20 tempo.

can't really ILX because i have hardly any downtime at work to parse through this crazy place.

Good to see you again, I'm down 10kg this year. Can't imagine 3 hrs before work, when do you sleep?

all good!

I just joined a gym, quite a big and well-appointed one, and they have four exercise bike which are basically MTB simulators! You watch what's essentially a computer game but instead of using a control pad, you pedal faster/slower, change gear, brake and steer (i.e. lean the bike over) as you go round the MTB course.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/first-look-trixter-xdream-exercise-bike-20073/

I rather enjoyed it tbh - the only less good thing is the problem I have with any racing computer game - lack of feedback makes things like when to brake or change gear less than intuitive. And the gear system is much too vague and unsubtle. But otherwise, it makes 20 minutes on an exercise bike go past much more quickly than normal.

My new training partner is the current Masters state champion in both the road race and the criterium disciplines... Guess what he had in his spare bottle on our training ride last night?

5 pounds of fishing weights.

O how I lol'd.

maybe he wanted an arm workout???

maybe he's a machine that drinks metal?

i'd fill it with quarters. that way, if you ever need to do laundry while riding, you have a bottle full of quarters with you.

or gold, because... gold, y'know?

I put lead in my drinks

I think I am riding with 5 extra pounds of pies since the weather changed.

I had a dream last night that Brian May came to my party riding a bike made of lead, which I then broke with some pliers.

^^^shastanomics ftw

I did the Trainnerroad 8 minute FTP test and scored 308W. (Trainerroad estimates my power about 50W higher than my trainer). Not sure what to do with this info except test again in 6 weeks.

Great number, most accurate in relation to subsequent tests, rather than absolute. Very sensitive to tire pressure and roller tension. If you keep those consistent every ride it should be good.

Tyre pressure was probably low and the wheel circumference was definitely wrong. My W/kg is probably less good.

Anyway, relative is much more useful than absolute. February is about intervals.

the lower the pressure, the greater the resistance, the greater the roller tension, the greater the resistance. if so, i need to put on a tubular at 160psi and like half a turn of roller tension, then i might hit 300.

LOL we are family

how do you like that tacx?

It is pretty nice, very quiet although they seem to have a few quality issues. When I first got it, the fan that cools the heatsink was installed upside down so it would over heat and beep at me. Also the clamp that holds the wheel is a nice design, poorly executed so it jams sometimes and I have to hit it about a bit to loosen it. The wireless is nice although I can't help thinking that given that the brake is generating power it would power the computer as well.

Also, updating the firmware has been a hassle. In all its a more complicated trainer than I need but it was a gift so what the hell. During updating the firmware I tried a demo of the virtual trainer software. It's not very well executed and I'm not really all that interested in competing in 3d VR bike races (also the subscription prices are stupidly high).

I should try some experiments with tyre pressure and roller tension to see if I can get trainerroad to match the trainer more closely. 50W difference seems a lot. I'd be interested to know what firmware trainload based their resistance curve on, it changes with version.

I've been doing these drills where you find a 2km stretch of 2-3% grade, then do repeats in your tallest gear (mine's 120 gear inches), staying seated, relaxed upper body (no rocking), deep breathing, but just grinding this big gear out. It's deceptively difficult because your cardio is never taxed but your legs feel completely wasted by the end.

What does that help with? (I mean, obviously it helps with strength/power, but what is it specifically useful for?)

Muscular strength and pedal stroke efficiency.

Peter

is anyone else aware of the VE method for coastdown testing of real world CdA and Crr? i am, and now im _really_ fucking pathetic. *scouts acceptable hills*

i cant figure out the embed for this, but i think i'm becoming too much like rod (and also, tt people were a fave target of derision for me when i raced bikes).

http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/07/tt-rider-rod-and-bikefitter-discuss-the-secret-of-speed/

jfc i'm fat now