Not a humblebrag, but I am in the best cycling shape I've been in in years. Still a pudgy bugger but able to amble on.
This is pertinent, I promise.
I'm two sportives down this year (Kinross and Etape Caledonia) and both presented some uniquely new challenges for me. After last year I knew that hills were my enemy so I did some concentrated training around that aspect; again, not bragging but it paid off on Schiehallion this year when I did the entire thing seated at an average 9mph.
No, hills weren't the issue this time.
Group riding I knew my faults and failures, and I was regularly dropped on ordinary inclines. What I then did is try to catch the group.
Legs pumping, out the saddle, well and truly blasting ahead to catch the tail of the group at 27-28mph. Caught up and then:
BONK
Done.
Gassed out and breathing out of my bahookey. No energy to push and the group just sauntered off again.
What really bugged me though is that the recovery from this bonk was maybe 2-3mins in the saddle and I was up to full speed again. But in this game 2-3mins is the difference between finishing your route sub-4 hours or tacking on an extra 30mins to your time.
Does anyone have any 'one weird trick' type things that keeps them from dying a speedy death like this?
This is pertinent, I promise.
I'm two sportives down this year (Kinross and Etape Caledonia) and both presented some uniquely new challenges for me. After last year I knew that hills were my enemy so I did some concentrated training around that aspect; again, not bragging but it paid off on Schiehallion this year when I did the entire thing seated at an average 9mph.
No, hills weren't the issue this time.
Group riding I knew my faults and failures, and I was regularly dropped on ordinary inclines. What I then did is try to catch the group.
Legs pumping, out the saddle, well and truly blasting ahead to catch the tail of the group at 27-28mph. Caught up and then:
BONK
Done.
Gassed out and breathing out of my bahookey. No energy to push and the group just sauntered off again.
What really bugged me though is that the recovery from this bonk was maybe 2-3mins in the saddle and I was up to full speed again. But in this game 2-3mins is the difference between finishing your route sub-4 hours or tacking on an extra 30mins to your time.
Does anyone have any 'one weird trick' type things that keeps them from dying a speedy death like this?