We’ve now got 4 but started off with fight club. Did local hero on tuesday night, loved it. Think i prefer it to fight club.

As mogrim says, have a look on their website and pick one you want to do.

Only experience of touring is a magical mystery month long tour with mustard, using two rear panniers and a small bar bag (plus two extra water bottles on the forks) I liked the panniers, however, when running very late for our train connection to Madrid (train in the station, on the other side of the platform, down one set of stairs and up another) I disliked them immensely! Some kind stranger helped me lift my bike as we legged it. Never had an issues with an unweighted front end – we did a 20% hill from cold after we crossed into Spain which was nasty but i didn’t have an issue with the front wanting to come up. Can’t really see why a trailer would appeal.

Less is most definitely more.

As a girl who takes her entire cycling wardrobe for a weekend away, i was surprised to agree with this – two sets of cycling clothes and 1 set of normal clothes was more than enough for a month.

Ah, brings back happy memories. I want to go away now! 🙂

I am mostly concentrating on road racing this year, with one 30 mile mtb race thrown in. If all goes to plan, i’ll be racing once or twice a week from the start of march to september. Will be adding in a few time trials and crit races but they will be used as training for road racing – a hilly 25mile time trial is one. Eeek!

No sportives for me this year – not many free weekends in amongst the races, and they are so expensive compared to road races. Currently loving the fast and painful nature of road racing and tactics involved… i wonder now why i didn’t stop doing sportives years ago and start racing!

Maybe even organise another totally futile Etape Caledonia ‘recce’ with a group of riders who haven’t actually entered it like we did last year!

You’ll have to be quick with dates, mustard and i are almost fully booked for every weekend, between moving house, training camp abroad and racing! 🙂 BTW, 9.45 group this saturday for us.

TSY is apparently going cold turkey on stw!

My money is on TSY not resting hence my challenge to him as i think he’ll find it impossible to rest properly. I’ve come to realise just how important and vital resting is.

My cold has gone so i can start training again! 🙂 Mol, if its just a head cold, you could exercise but just take it very easy. Interestingly, when i was ill (just a head cold) i was monitoring my hr and hrv levels…it said both were fine and i could still train as normal (if i wanted too) I rested for the bulk of my cold but it didn’t do me any harm to have a gentle ride after a few days (again, according to my hr and hrv).

Twas good. The bf and I set the turbo up and did a new sufferfest dvd, sweated buckets (really must buy a fan) but felt great/strong. 🙂

lol @ motivforz

Congrats to you both 😀

Do it but get something personal to you – don’t just opt for one from their book. I spent a long time designing mine and not many people know the meanings behind each part of it. I love mine (tatt is almost 2 years old, got it when i was 30). I really want a second one, but have no design inspiration so i’ll wait until i do.

I’m with Cynic-al on Q3…if i did want to use the trails, i’d prefer to ride up than get a chairlift. Might use the chairlift a few times max a year. As for what i’d pay, i guess it would depend on quality of trails/if i liked riding them, £10 for an afternoon would be ok. Difficult to say really.

Have you factored in trail maintenance budget plus amount needed to build the trails – will be a while before any money could be made after building the trails?

@petiterider

phil, 500ml is loads! I was going for about 250ml for 6 days instead as i couldn’t stomach anymore.

mol, get a race licence then and enter some. But I sgree with idave, its a special kind of pain. My tactic for when i get spat out of the back is to chase down those ahead and drop them – got a few places higher last year in a RR by doing this. Or i look on it as a TT, and see just how fast i can go on my own once i’m off the back.

TSY, Not sure my starting point as i’ve been learning bunch riding skills/tactis for the reasons Tricky outlines above so outdoor sessions have been slower than normal, and the rest has been intervals on the turbo. Can I tell you on 3rd March? I’ve a better idea – you can stop in at mine on your lejog ride this year and we can race each other? Whats another 20miles in the scale of things? 😀

I’ve no idea of my w/kg or anything else other than hr zones. I’ll be interested to know when i go for the test but just because i like geeky things*. I’m not planning on actually using a power meter during my training – i’m just going to concentrate on racing, tactics and riding as hard as i can. And anything else i’m told to by the race squad leader.

2 more weekends, then its race time *scared*

*and speaking of geeky things, last night i tried beetroot juice as i’ve read a lot about it recently, the latest being this weeks cycling weekly. After juicing up fresh beetroot, all i can say is, it is rank! Its earthy and sour/bitter! However, i will keep with it to see if it makes a difference. 😐

No idea if cramp can be due to high cadence – usually down to dehydration/ electrolyte imbalance/fatigued muscles.

I’ve been working on my cadence over the last year and find my norm is now 85 so the 90 that sufferfest ‘recommends’ requires concentration to keep it at that, otherwise i revert back to 85. But i don’t have any issues with 110+ for the attacks.

I’ve been doing sufferfest once/twice a week. My legs feel it afterwards (ie immediately afterwards) but not so much the next day – and certainly not as much as i would if i did similar outside. My biggest issue is i run out of gears/resistance using my oldish turbo so it means i can’t attack as hard as i can. 😥

Time trail is fine TSY – I don’t draft when I set out for a fast training ride anyway and drafting doesn’t count. Only issue i have is up here there’s always a constant headwind, no matter what way i go/turn! Would need to be mid summer time too.

@idave, i don’t know – i may have the figures wrong as i said, my head is cotton wool atm. But i’m sure they said 5 watts and something about bodyweight. I’ll check.

No, i can’t ever have enough sleep. When on hols, I tend to get between 10-12 hours a night and feel fantastic for it. I tend to need a lot of sleep, or at least 6.5-7hours of unbroken sleep which i generally don’t get as i’m a lighter sleeper and woken up by my flatmate/bf/neighbours.

25mph over what distance?

20miles? Not sure, we’d need to make sure it was the same distance/gradient somehow.

I thought that I might need more leg strength so I tried doing squats with my 24kg kettlebell. One is easy, after ten it burns like some steep off-road climb. Watch the knees tho.

*buff mode* I sumo squat 24kgs with a kb – my PT set me a workout which has 3 sets of 15 sumo squats using 24kg kb. I’m pleased that its now very easy! */end of buff mode*

Ooh.. what’s the pass mark?

I *think* it was 5 watts per kilo of weight and be able to hold it for 1 minute. But not 100% sure so i’ll double check with mustard. My brain is full of cotton wool as i am recovering from the cold atm. If we get in, we get coaching, plus specific training sessions with the squad. They test because the club has over 700 members and not everyone can be on the race squad.

TSY, why don’t we have a better challenge – you can carry on with your no rest/lots of training, i’ll try rest/using energy products/hr monitoring/road racing and we’ll see who gets to 25mph quicker? 🙂

My new club has a watt test per body weight test that you need to pass to make the race squad so mustard and i will be trying out for it *excited* I’m now another kilo lighter (6kgs in total now!) so that’s got to help!

@druidh, keep us posted with your plans. We have that week marked for a trip away somewhere hot too – but we are wanting it more of a training camp as racing prep rather than longer/slower rides.

The bf and I went out for the club ride this morning. He is now shopping whilst I’ve got my feet up and watching tv 😀 

I hate shopping at the weekend. 

HMB?

*falls out of sick bed in shock* 😉 
Nuun and honey stinger chews/bars for me. The gels can also be used in water for energy drink rather than as gel. Hoping they get here in time for my race season start! Did you check out the honey stinger link I sent you? 

My GP signed mine for the Paris one. Didn’t charge me for it. He’s a runner too which maybe helped but I don’t recall him having any issues with signing it.

He’s not been on twitter recently either…that’s why my feed has been very quiet as there’s not been much chat between philly and DD!

Nope, currently using sufferfest means this winter. There’s no way i could do sufferfest with a cold, its evil when i’m feeling 100%!

As for the hills thing – it was saying most people find it easier to raise hr and deliver higher power on hills than flats and so its easier just to do intervals on hills.
Personally i find my legs kill me if i do intervals on the flat but they kill me slightly less on climbs because i was more of a climber.

@TSY, will it involve meat?! will it see me podium? my diet hasn’t really changed over the years, just much less fat in the last few months hence the weight loss and body fat drop. *eats lard pies*

I didn’t say i did sufferfest when i had a cold

Yup i reckon so Mol. I’ve entered a mountain TT (25miles) GULP. The article also went on to say how intervals should be done on both flat and hills, not just hills as you can cheat using hills. Intervals on the flat are good for TT’ing, sprints and solo break aways.

I’m currently using sufferfest and the turbo for intervals due to the dark/ice, so its around 4mins of TT effort and 3 mins of climbing effort and then 3 min rest for an hour. Its nasty! I nearly puked at the end of the first one!

I have 4 races in March then i’m racing twice a week for about 8 weeks before settling back into once a week…training will no longer be required from the end of March! 🙂

Can’t you practise on the TT bike first to get used to it? Was reading an interesting article about training for TTs – basically pick a hr you think you can sustain for 10miles. Warm up, get on a turbo and get up to this hr, note your speed at this hr and keep it at that for 10miles. Do this a max of once a week.

In other news i think i may have my second cold of the winter, having not had a cold for 2-3+ years. I wonder if being lighter is to blame…

Saw something similar in the TT i did… chap had his head down racing at 20+mph, cycled straight into the back of a van (admittedly the van was parked in the linside ane of a dual carriage way rather than the hard shoulder). In that case, they rang an ambulance but I didn’t see much more than that. Not nice to see during a race.

She should report it.

MTFU and race is what I say. Ride and ride some more

I like this Trickydisco…its going to be my mantra from now on 🙂 Except after Saturday’s wtfu, i’ll maybe wear a waterproof next time!

I am saying that years of experience and constant monitoring from a personal nutritionist helps a great deal.

You can of course learn a lot on the internet, but you need to experiment on yourself. A very detailed knowledge of physiology and some measuring devices would help (like Tim Ferris has tried) – and I am talking about going from normal down to 3% here.

I agree with this. If i had someone telling me exactly what/when i should eat and how i should train for optimal performace, my results would be far better than experimenting with different strategies myself – it takes a long time to see what works/doesn’t.

I want to podium one day fwiw and if i get onto the race squad, i’ll have access to training schedules/full support etc that would get me to the podium far quicker than i could if i was relying on my trial and error methods.

I’m interested to see my results this year – 5kgs lighter than last year and a good % of body fat gone too (17% – but bear in mind, women’s body fat is naturally higher than mens). My current thinking is i’m far faster on the bike when i’m heavier and have more stores to burn. 🙄

Lance never looked as emaciated as that bloke does up there ^^.

I’m not far off the same weight as Emma Pooley now. Wonder if I’ll have as good a season as her 😆

Sorry to hear about this – used to use that junction on my commute many years ago. Its very disappointing to read about the inital attitude from the police dept too – i’d be tempted to complain about it. Personally i choose not to use the cycle paths at night/whenever its dark and still don’t / wouldn’t – i don’t feel safe and i’ve had stuff chucked at me as well, as well as a ned trying to force me off my bike.

The pink bike or YouTube one?

ygm now tsy.

Go to the BC calendar. Buy a full race licence or provisional and turn up!*

heh, that’s almost the advice i gave TSY 😀 Tricky, i’ll be a mutual friend if it helps find TSY on fb…

@ TSY 😛 – this from the man who hasn’t entered any RRs… 😀 I’ll show you wimp – gym challenge is on!

Last time i tried cardio pre breakfast, my running partner thought i was going to kill him! I just can’t, i feel better/stronger later in the day. It works for me! Plus as i said, losing at least 1 hour of sleep on exercise days has a pretty big impact – it can mean under resting and then more time off exercise in the long run. Not helped by flat sharing and getting woken up by the flatmate either.

@ bigdawg, i’m not reliant on energy drinks/gels but for road racing i can’t actually eat proper food during the race – a handful of honey stinger chews is fine for a 1.30-2hr race. I tend to get very mentally down if i don’t get some fuel in when riding but rarely bonk. Road racing also gives me a serious appetite for days after it!

@TSY, not all of us can exercise at that time of day! I get more out of my weights routine by doing it in the afternoon than i did at 7am. Never again! Plus the sleep i lost from getting up early wasn’t good either. Sorting out my sleep for this season is a big priority to help me get faster!

@trickydisco, ygm (fb) re training camp help!

I’ve been struggling this week to control sugar cravings – i think its related to being so cold in work all the time. I was doing really well and my abs were visible but they aren’t so visible after a bad week of eating biscuits 🙁

I’ve ditched a lot of milk from my diet, but still have an inch or so in my espresso. Ditched the bulk of my treats (chocolate/biscuits) but as i exercise 6 days a week, i’ve kept the bulk of my carbs the same, although eating more root veg in place of pasta.

I’m now 5kgs lighter, 17% body fat (using calipers method and triple checked, and women’s body fat is higher than men’s anyway), lost inches all over – including 5 off my thighs and something like 8 off my abs. My weight seems to have stablised at 53kgs which i’m happy with. I could still lose a bit of body fat but i think i’d have to work pretty hard to do so. The challenge will be to keep my weight at this when i start racing in March as i’ll be using energy products whereas now a 2-3 hour ride is done without anything/only a banana.

I went down to a 14″ kona with my kula lisa and my hoss is a 16. Same TT length though. Would she be interested in my 15.5 cove hustler? 🙂

Mustard and I are working our way through the series, not long finished season 2. Love it. Just wish the person who has season 3 on love film would hurry up and send it back before i end up buying it instead!

Emsz, have you tried sports specific underwear? I’ve got pants from sweaty betty that don’t have any seams which i use for running. They don’t ride up at all but i do have a bum which probably helps.

I used to wear shorts to run in all the time, even in the snow. Then I discovered lyrca longs and love them to bits. I’m actually quite disappointed when it gets too hot for my 3/4s.