I need a proper routine.

[willhub]

Well I made a thread on why I am feeling crap, and it may be down to routine I reckon. My cycling is quite erratic and random, some day I might go out only to do 40 miles but end up doing 120 miles!

I dont know how to go about making up a routine, but I want to get faster and be able to do longer mileage, I can do 60 and under pretty easilly and can do 60-120 ok, over 100 can get tough for me sometimes though.

I'm thinking about doing chain gangs, they are on a thursday, possibly different when I go back home, and thinking about doing TT's, not confident yet about doing TT's as I want to up my performance first. I also want to do long club rides at the weekend so those could possibly be incorporated into some sort of routine.

Any help would be good, thanks


Will.

 

[monnet]

First off, over 100 is usually tough for anyone, especially if you're doing it on your own as you can't share the work and it can be mentally very gruelling.

I think you've got a good plan shaping up (and very similar to the way I ride). A few notes from personal experience here.

1) Clubrides - brilliant. I don't know about the clubs you'd belikely to get involved in but my club do leisure/ sport rides every Sunday of 60-80 miles with a cafe stop at an average of around 18mph. These are great for getting to grips with group riding, are nice and sociable and privide real motivation to get out. Plus there's usually a bit of fun sprinting for signs and climbs etc. We also have shorter (under 50 mile) rides on Saturday that have similar flavour (tea and cake flavour usually!).

2) TT's don't worry about your speed/ fitness etc. That'll come. The sooner you start the better you'll get and you're not tied to anyone else's pace. You'll probably not be the slowest, just remember you're veryunlikely to be the fastest for some time. Personally I hate testing, it just doesn't suit my way of riding but it has its benefits and first and foremost, you are competing against yourself.

3) Chaingangs. I love chaingang but for this you really do need confidence - in your speed, power, bike handling and ability to move around a fast moving group. Ours are typically 40 miles run off in well under 2 hours. There are spells when it goes 'stupid' fast and then spells to recover (if you're still there). Remember the guys that ride theses are training. Alot of them will race, in mine there are plenty of 2nd cats as well as a teh odd first and 2 elite riders. Those guys can make you suffer if they decide to turn it on!

Anyway, I find 1x chaingang; 1xTT (or race); 1x Sunday clubrun plus the daily commute and Saturday off (unless I've had a day off in the week) gives me plenty of structure and motivation.

 

[willhub]

I did one chaingang the other day, it was very very windy, managed 65 miles and 20mph average, lots of faffing about though, I reckon I'd have found it easier sticking in a group doing 24 constant.

Last year I did the sunday club runs, 100+ miles every sunday, usually around 130 miles with them creeping up to 150+ sometimes, one of them was 240 miles but I never did that cause I am not fit enough.

I need some sort of excel spreadsheet developed I think!