Ok so new job has been brutally hard work and diet has been crap and exercise routine much diminished – but failed to get up Barhatch Lane for the first time ever on my road bike today. It was the third section that did me. Final push after the last house was ok, but that one 300m section 3/4 of the way up nailed me. Never had to walk up a road before

😳

Time to look after myself and get back into shape. I used to do it 2-3 times in a loop 6-7 years ago. At least my riding buddy struggled too and he is 3 stone lighter than me and rides to the station every day.

C mon THM – get back into shape.

Barhatch diet – Assumed this was pork scratchings, KP nuts and R Whites lemonade diet.

PS Good luck.

😀

JokIng apart – beer on the train in the evening need to go (and the nuts)!!

This?
[video]https://youtu.be/1NjTWvl8x-U[/video]

A few weeks ago I really struggled around Llandegla. When I got back to the car park I saw the rear mech cable had slipped meaning I hadn’t got the bottom 4 gears.

In addition to my current excess weight, I had back wheel skid for the first time on a ride bike today in the steepest bit. So my body position and weighting was wrong too. Trying to push hard out of the saddle but back wheel had insufficient traction,

But basically it’s lack of anaerobic fitness. Need to get back to the hurt a lot more training regimes. We were going to go on to White Down Lane but bailed out after Peaslake. Avoided the sliice at the village store which is a start!!

Hahaha, I did Staple, Shophouse, Cotton Row through Holmbury SM, Raike and then White Down this morning.

Having singlespeeded on the MTB for years, I like to swap between sitting and spinning (like spinning ever happens up White Down) and sections of standing to use different muscles – I also ‘Russian Steps’ on climbs just because thinking about doing that means I’m not thinking about how hard the climb is. But roads were very greasy and the only way I could stand was to add 3 or 4 gears and use my singlespeed cadence to avoid overpowering the back wheel. Just checked my Strava and I averaged 57rpm for the whole climb and 43 for the top section….. now feels like legs day in the gym!!

Just buy a new bike. That’ll solve it.

What are Russian steps?

I have resorted to sitting and spinning up hills rther than attacking them. But I have noticed that this has made me a crap climber when I used to be a good one. When I get out the saddle and push it, I can beat my main buddy up the hills, but sit down and spin and I really struggle. So seems mainly a fitness issue and getting back into road riding again after too much MTBing

New bike?!? See other thread!

russian steps are really a version of intervals; eg: 30s of effort then 30s of recovery, then 60/60, 90/90, 120/120, 90/90, etc.

But when climbing hard climbs I do 5 revs seated and then 5 standing, then 10/10, 15/15, 20/20, 25/25, 20/20, 15/15…… and repeat as long as necessary until you’re there.

It’s harder work climbing standing, particularly if like today your standing is very low cadence, but concentrating on getting through the intervals is better than thinking about how hard it is.

As for climbing seated. It is supposedly easier as you don’t have to support your body weight at the same time, but I don’t have the same leg strength in the seated muscle groups as I do standing (that SS background again) hence if I want to climb ‘fast’ then it’s standing and full gas, sitting and spinning is for saving energy. And sometimes it’s all I have to be able to keep the pedals moving…..

after too much MTBing

No such thing 😆

Thanks TOJ – will give that I try. After I stopped at the final house and had a one minute breather, the final push was straightforward. Just lost momentum on that one section.

I am also struggling with gearing at the moment. Relying too much on keeping a constant cadence which lead to a tendency to go too low too early. Need to attack the climbs a bit more, that’s what I used to be good at. Same with runnng, always made up ground on the up and downs and lost it on the flat.

Was a nice morning to be out though!

Felt a bit odd riding past walking bottom CP and not being on a MTB!!

Beer on train – stop that now

TOJ. Tried your advice today. Interesting and some success. I liked the way that your mind is focused off the climb. Only issue I had was when sitting back down for 20. Lost momentum then. But worked well otherwise.

Had a bit more success with climbing in bigger gears and attacking harder. I think I have been spinning up hills too much instead of attacking them. Basic issue is when I started to long distance ultra events when I got bored with tris I lost my anaerobic fitness. Just need to go back to hurting a lot more!!! 😉

Brexit innit.