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Swinley? Hills?
For the second time this thread - aww, bless 🙂
molly... all this 'aww bless' is feeling a little condescending. don't make me turn my competitive gene in your direction, that sounds like way too much hard work 😆
Just teasing mate that's all, so yes it was intended to be condescending 🙂
Could work for interval training that Phil... can we smoke on the way up?? 😀
I found a quote that I want for a tattoo the other day... was at the end of the Team Hoyt video.. something about "body being the carriage for the mind" Shakespeare I think... can I find it now? Can I flip!
DirtyG - I've just had an epiphany... indoor track cycling means all the pink lycra I could ever possibly hope to wear. Downside is that my steel framed roadie is heavy as hell.
Downside is that my steel framed roadie is heavy as hell.
You can't ride a normal road bike on the track. Very strict rules about braze ons and BB heights..but most of all brakes! road bikes with brakes would be very dangerous on the track
its all good molly 
i need a gym partner desperately i think... it'd be much easier to motivate myself to go and do certain exercises if i had someone with me!
yeti... i'm gaffa taping 6 huge cigars to your mouth for the climbs, extreme sport for the lungs innit.
Oh sugar.. so now I need a lightweight road bike regardless... a TT bike...a super lightweight XC bike... [i]and[/i] a bike for track days.
FFS.
Yup...i [i]need[/i] a race road bike, winter road bike, fixie, 2 x mtbs, and a track bike! 😀
You can hire track bikes which is what we did - we had to give our road bike measurements and they were set up for us. I got off the bike after the first few laps shaking with the adrenaline from having no brakes/getting used to it - scary as anything riding on the wheel of someone and having to remember to resist the pedals to slow down! But was a lot easier than i expected...took a few laps to believe that my pedal wouldn't hit the track pedalling in the corners too. And the Gs you get when you have built up speed for one fast lap...wow!!
I managed to get Mrs Grips to agree to me getting a track bike since you can't track ride without one.. 🙂
Hiring track bikes is ok but very frustrating - on mine, the saddle nose was rammed into my perineum causing me to think I'd become a eunuch, and the gearing was way too low for my phenomenal leg power. Still reached mind bending speeds tho!
I had no problem with riding fixed APART from the desire to stand up and rest for a bit to get blood flowing back to my balls - big nonon!
You're starting to sell it... although I live miles away from one... and there is always 4X racing too 😀
Anyways... back to the OP...
The event involves 9500m of ascent and 15,000 descending.
DGOAB - it is amazing! I did a taster session at newport last year. Same experience as you (i'll never ride that bank it's scarily steep!) Once you get used to it it's an amazing experience.
We did pursuit drills and i decided to hook up with the older guys from the club and they knew what they were doing. The young guys on the other hand were rubbish as they kept sprinting/chasing each other down and slowly down (basically not working as a team). i love the team work aspect to it when you peel off and go to the back and allow the other guys to come through.
must look into accreditation
new 4X track in reading now yeti.... one of my patients wants me to go ride it with him soon 🙂
TD - how far are you from Newport? My plan is to get work near home and then go to their race nights - Tuesdays I think. See you there? 🙂 Let me know if you find an accreditation session from August onwards, I'm interested.
trickydisco, We got right to the top of our track but i dunno how high it is compared to ones down south. When i saw it in the morning, i thought there'd be no way i'd ride up there but by the afternoon all of us road at the top fine. This isn't helping my desire to get straight back on the track this week! 🙁
Assume you mean general fixie riding? On the track for the all out effort for a half lap we were told to ride standing up if we could...first standing start to half lap wasn't good but knocked two seconds off my second one once i'd got used to standing up on the track bike.I had no problem with riding fixed APART from the desire to stand up and rest for a bit to get blood flowing back to my balls - big nonon!
Assume you mean general fixie riding?
No, never ridden fixed other than the track - and don't intend to either 🙂 Riding standing up was ok but standing up and resting was such an ingrained response it was hard to override.
I'm in Brizzle so not far. Got a few guys in the club that race there quite often. They want me to be the 3rd man in the team sprint.
i've got to know one of the coaches that does sessions there so I'll see about courses.
I'm going to have to flounce off my own thread in a minute! Think I'd rather talk about maltodextrin than track riding!
What is maltodextrin anyway?
Ah right.. good. I had real difficulty getting info on how to actually race in real races. If your club is involved I'll join 🙂 I don't think the Cardiff clubs do much apart from the fun evenings - that's all the info I could get out of Cyclopedia anyway.
Riding standing up was ok but standing up and resting was such an ingrained response it was hard to override.
On the other hand, it's a mistake you only ever make once on the track!
I haven't been on the track in a few months; been doing crit and road racing instead and just general riding. The weather is nice so it makes sense to be outside rather than on an indoor track! But track riding is brilliant, such a good workout.
I seem to have quick enough reactions to realise my mistake before anything bad happened. However one chap who'd arrived late and was going around on his own whilst we chatted didn't. He tried to stop pedalling and locked his legs, which threw him and the back of the bike up in the air quite high - he seemed to panic and lock up even more which resulted in his back wheel bouncing crazily along the track for quite a while.. as we all stood watching him amazed that he managed to stay on 🙂
I think you just have to get accredited and you can race in the leagues.
I see these about quite often : http://www.cwmcarnparagon.com/ and i'm sure some ride the track: http://www.cwmcarnparagon.com/trackevents.htm
Sorry TSY.. this thread has split apart.
Anyway..in short.. i'd say get yourself a heart rate monitor and try and work out your zones if your that serious about improving your fitness. It took a lot of the guess work out for me and i felt i made more improvements.
Weirdly i now find i can ride on feel a lot more and pace things without a heart rate monitor. I don't wear it for races really anymore and can pace TT's much better (
ir12daveor - are you doing T-P??
Been there, done that (2009) and am doing it again this year.
What is maltodextrin anyway?
It's carbohydrate used as a replacement for sugar/fructose as it is energy dense & digested faster making it ideal for energy drinks/foods.
I think it's basically glucose that has had some science stuff done to it.
Ah, i don't stand up to rest and i was very conscious of keeping the pedals turning! Think its a real shame we have an outdoor track here.
TSY, i'm not going there on a thread with mol and tj in it!
.. and it's easier on the stomach than sugar or glucose meaning you can drink it for a 6 hour ride without being sick.
well i've been using the torq stuff by the bucket load which has maltodextin in it and i've had no problem losing weight
ir12... what bike are you riding for it??
DirtyG is it in High5 4:1?
Yup it is. And its fine. I've got a good website link to send you which compares stuff and pros/cons. Maltrodextin = pro on that website.
Yeah... I try and use as little of that stuff as possible at the moment. I know it works and all that but as much as possible I try and get my calories from food. After AS I was using it only after riding when I knew it was going to be a while before I could get a proper meal.
The Southern Yeti - Memberir12... what bike are you riding for it??
Did it on an Intense 5.5 the last time, I'll most likely do it on the same bike with a few minor mods this time... or put my Intense Uzzi on a severe diet. Still a bit of a toss up, the 5.5 is a touch too steep, but the Uzzi is a lot too heavy.
Just out of curiosity, why are you using it less? Different type/intensity of training? I did similar but then came to the conclusion it hampered my recovery so came to a happy medium for the type of riding i'm doing atm.
It's easy to get calories without a) having to digest a lot of other stuff, which is useful when riding, and b) it doens't come with anything else, no fat or nuffink.
I never really used it much anyway Dirty... maybe 1 to 2 a day for LEJOG. Plus a handful since. I just don't think I ever train at a level where I need it and really not a fan of synthetic foods.
Energy drinks / protein powders etc kind of go against my diet philosophy so are a last resort for me. I'd rather eat a sausage roll 🙂
Plus.. if anything's going to hamper my recovery... it's going on all night drinking binges 😀
dave.. I was going to do it on a hardtail but have jsut bought a Covert... feels ideal and is sub 30lb.
I just don't think I ever train at a level where I need it
You always need fuel - not necessarily energy drink but you do always need it. It's not always possible to fill your tank beforehand either if you are going a long way. It's like driving lejog and deciding you aren't stopping for petrol on the way, so you have to drive really slowly 🙂
Yep, agreed Mol. I'd rather stop and have a cake 🙂
Stop? Pah!
The Southern Yeti - Memberdave.. I was going to do it on a hardtail but have jsut bought a Covert... feels ideal and is sub 30lb.
It's more about the angles than the travel. In my opinion the majority of the terrain is not stupidly technical, a lot is flowy. It's more about having a bike that feels stable when pointed downhill than a bike that can soak up huge hits. A hard tail would be ok (but you'll take a bit more of a battering) if it has a head angle of less than 68deg and about 150mm forks. A mate of mine did it on a Dialled Alpine in 2009 and I couldn't match him using a full suspension. Ashes recent advice about which bike to take is really spot on.
See... as I said... I'm just not that serious Mol... except about cake. I take cake very seriously. More to the point I don't ride competitively on things that require me not to stop every now and again... Afan Monster could be an exception.
Covert is 66 or 67... I think it's perfect though not properly ridden it yet.
Yeah that's what slow people usually say Yeti.. 😉
That tickled me Molly!
As Dave suggests, a long travel hardtail will work well (I did it in 2009 on a Blue Pig) but you do take a pounding over the duration of the 7 days. A full sus that you can carry would be a much better all rounder for the event. It also depends a little if you're doing it for the experience or to compete at the sharp end - something more bouncy will be better for many of the timed stages, which are predominantly down, but not always.
You will however be going uphill a lot of the time - the word 'updulating' was coined to re-define Ash's use of rolling or undulating as a description of the days riding.
Practice walking/climbing with your bike before you go, and build up some leg muscles for walking too. Take comfortable shoes, and if using SPD's make sure you've got flexible, grippy soles and not race shoes.
Swinley is not a great place to train for the event no matter how much you may try to convince yourself. It didn't work for a number of us who went in 2009!
Well I've already put in a bit of time riding in Scotland.
Hiked up and down Scafell Pike in 4 hours the other week and planning on a walking weekend in Snowdonia soon too.
Started up tabata again this morning... the 4 min warm down was still really hard but allowed me to recover enough to go and do more intervals... feeling pretty shattered now though 🙁
Any other T-P riders reading this... are you interested in a hardout long weekend of riding in about 6 weeks time??
Tabata on foot or on the bike?
Rowing machine... then intervals on a spinning bike.