It's a plan!

[Kirstie]

From now till the New Year is the classic weight training season for cyclists. Coaches vary with their opinion of using weights after that. Although I don't see a down side, from Feb onwards there is usually not enough time as doing other things are more important. High reps with low weights are most commonly advocated, with some people doing no leg work whatsoever. Cross training on a rowing machine is probably all the leg work you need till Christmas, together with some gentle rides at the weekend. (one mountain bike ride per week is allowed till March, but should be seen as the sole 'hard' session you need in a week).

The good news is that working specifically to raise your maximal lactate steady state ability has no disadvantage on shorter events. If I was to guess (having never met or even seen you!) I would guess that you need to spend from now to March doing less intense, steadier but longer work outs and trusting (your HR monitor ?) to keep your effort down, but consistent.

The MTB racing I did was pairs races over 12 hours. Anaerobic threshold was important for that as was recovery, as it comprised 3 x 2 hr hard sessions over a 12 hour period.

But yes what you say makes sense to me. Long sustained lower level efforts now, combined with some weights, and then get going on the intervals at the end of Feb?

I want to do the route des GA just for fun but I don't like suffering (much) and I like having things to aim for. I also like doing something different: Climbing is something I've never really tackled in earnest and I'd like to work on it.

 

[Hilldodger]

Climbing a hill is essentially the same as accelerating without getting any faster. The trouble with England, the East Midlands esp. is there are no long hills. Not any that require more than five minutes.



Really? I can think of several in Leicestershire/Derbyshire that you'd struggle to do in five minutes

 

[Ravenz]

Ravenz: How do I see myself climbing? Just faster!

thats what I say to myself every time , I see a decent hill.. I can do 'faster' .. the mind likes to play silly tricks on the body ..
on pain of not getting fitness advice absolutely correct and the more you listen to fitness advice the more confusing it can get.. 1 saying this . t'other saying that.....
I would say 'do' get back into the GYM habit .. and pick up that resistance training..

best of luck and keep training log to note your improvements!

 

[Kirstie]

Really? I can think of several in Leicestershire/Derbyshire that you'd struggle to do in five minutes

Righto then where are they?
I know that cold ashby and west haddon near me have some good climbs. South of melton (around somerby) is fairly challenging and rolling, and there's some good stuff south of daventry but none of it very long.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I'd agree with most of what has been said. I am built very different from Kirstie (I have natural Emma Pooley-style grimpeur build), and find climbing fairly easy (usually). The way I got very good (which I was a couple of years ago, not now) however was a combination of:

1. Over winter - riding about 25 miles every day with consistent longer rides on the weekend and one in midweek - one day off - doing the miles basically; combined with regular not too heavy free weights, martial arts-style stretching exercises, and lots and lots of sit-ups; I had done several years of pilates before that so that probably gave me a good base.

2. In Spring - daily riding and riding with the club regularly, continuing the weights (though less often) and the sit-ups etc.; plus a couple of times finding the steepest hill in the area (a 1/4 - 1/3 slope up from the Fish Quay) and just spending an hour or so riding it in different styles and in different gears (without pushing so big a gear that you'd injure yourself).

3. In summer, doing some really hilly sportives for longer more consistent climbing - (the Bealach na Bah, 5 Dales. Cumberland Challenge were a few I remember from that year).

Actually that seems like a plan!

 

[Crackle]

Something else I used recently since I returned to cycling was an online calculator to start to understand a little more about the power I can generate and what I can expect to achieve.

My favourite is this:-

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm (edit: doesn't seem to be available now but hopefully it will be back)

or you can download one

http://www.machinehead-software.co.uk/bike/power/bicycle_power_calculator.html

If you plug in some known routes and times it will give you the power you can generate on a ride. So if you know a time and distance up a known gradient you can work out your power and get a rough idea of what your maximum might be.

You can use it to then predict what you are capable of training too. i.e. there's no point in me aiming to do 14mph up a 10% hill because I physically don't generate that kind of power but I might realisitically achieve 8-10mph if I train to increase the amount of time I can put out max power.

The other depressing thing it does is show how much better you'll be if you lose that extra stone

 

[Hilldodger]

Righto then where are they?
I know that cold ashby and west haddon near me have some good climbs. South of melton (around somerby) is fairly challenging and rolling, and there's some good stuff south of daventry but none of it very long.

Up to the top of Borough Hill there are several routes

 

[jimboalee]

Ah, Machinehead. I had an argu... discussion with him once, about eight years ago.

The one thing that is not possible to mathematically model is 'cycling speed up a gradient.'
Well, I tell a lie. It is, but its lower than you actually ride up a gradient. The mathematical impossibility is modelling the rider's determination to ride up the gradient.

Which makes all on-line power calculators a waste of effort for the author.

The only way to do the sums and get a result within 1%, is to write your own calculations and include a scale of RPE (Rate of Percieved Exertion) into the formulae.

After a few hundred sortes, you get to know your average RPE and your limitations, so predicting a 300 km rando is possible to within 15 minutes. That's about as accurate as anyone can expect.

 

[jimboalee]

PS.

In England, on a basically circular route, hills make next to bugger-all difference.
Only when the finish is at a greater elevation than the start, and the average upward gradient is steeper than 0.25%, does it matter.

Planning my Land's End to JOG proved that each 220 km day was so long, the average gradient didn't make one stick of KitKat difference to if the 220 km had been flat.

 

[Crackle]

Ah, Machinehead. I had an argu... discussion with him once, about eight years ago.

The one thing that is not possible to mathematically model is 'cycling speed up a gradient.'
Well, I tell a lie. It is, but its lower than you actually ride up a gradient. The mathematical impossibility is modelling the rider's determination to ride up the gradient.

Which makes all on-line power calculators a waste of effort for the author.

The only way to do the sums and get a result within 1%, is to write your own calculations and include a scale of RPE (Rate of Percieved Exertion) into the formulae.

After a few hundred sortes, you get to know your average RPE and your limitations, so predicting a 300 km rando is possible to within 15 minutes. That's about as accurate as anyone can expect.

Aside from that, how accurate do you think they are otherwise. Personally speaking, as i don't race or do Sportives/Audaxes then if it's around 90% accurate I can live with that.

Do you mean also that the power predicted from Machinhead is actually lower in real life?

I guess the only true way is to buy a power meter or do a lab test, which I'm sure you'd do if you were serious but for all other purposes these online sites are going to tell you more than you would otherwise know.

 

[jimboalee]

For a cyclist who doesn't race, doesn't ride sportives or Audax and rides for less that two hours in a day, there is no need for extra nutrition and there is no need to know how much power is involved.
If the hill is too steep, he gets off and pushes. The hill will still be there next week.

One annecdote worthy of mention is:
"The bicycle engine, unlike a car, gets MORE powerful after a good thrashing."