I’ve found a 2/3/4 race but it’s a bit more of a step up than I was hoping for at this stage

I was thinking of doing that race too as stage races suit me but its quite a way to travel and I haven’t raced since I crashed in May because my shoulder still hurts. Stage races are a bit of an unknown if you’ve not done one before – in terms of knowing how your legs react to double stages in one day / getting your nutrition and recovery right between stages etc. This one is interesting with the RR before the TT which I suspect will change how the race is ridden. I don’t think anyone reaches a level where they feel ready to race as such – there’s always nerves about taking a step up esp in women’s racing where you are up against pros, excuses like not fit enough etc. If you want to do it then race it and have fun, set mini goals so you’ll feel like you’ve achieved something even if worst case scenario you get dropped.

any top tips beyond the standard savlon?

I was told not to use savlon as once the antibacterial stuff has worn off, its just a gloopy mess sitting on an open wound.

The nurse put a honey dressing on my road rash which was great, kept it infection free and healed it up well (hardly any scaring 6 weeks later).

Ooft, heal soon Kryton. Sounds like whiplash from landing on your head – I had this after my crash, was horrible but thankfully only lasted a few days.

I’ve been checked over by a sports medicine GP since my ribs and shoulder are still sore. Shoulder now taped up. Minor panic about big alps trip coming up, I can still ride but can’t climb out of the saddle as it hurts my ribs too much and any form I had feels like its long gone…

I always thought a road race was an extended crit and I be doomed to failure

Eh no! Unless your racing round Pimbo (industrial estate) that is. Much more fun IMO, less corner sprint corner sprint, and a chance to use the terrain to your advantage if it suits you. Plus not only do you get to warm up but there’s the neutralized section to get into the swing of things before the race kicks off.

*waves* at DGOAB, thought you’d given up on STW but you seem to keep coming back to the racing threads

waves back. no, still here, just not as often.

Yes I’m better the longer races go on, I seem to “last” better than some others

This would suggest you and crits will never get on! I’m barely getting going by the time a crit is finished even if I extend my warm up. Road racing is the way to go 😀

Quick straw poll. Many on here competing and doing well at more than one discipline at a time?

Not me, focus is all on road racing with some crits from time to time. I think if you want to commit to something that the training has to be so specific that not many people can be successful across many disciplines – not talking pros here, and obviously some people are just naturally good/talented, but for the mere mortals who have to work at fitness/skill.

I’m still very sore, whiplash has gone but bruised ribs impacting ability to train/race so DNS in my race yesterday. Can’t see me being fit enough in any sense of the word for this coming weekends stage race either. Can’t climb out of the saddle or sprint due to the pain in my ribs and its another hilly course so not ideal!

Well my stage race didn’t go to plan after some stupid inexperienced rider rode into me twice in the space of seconds at 25mph, the second time with enough force to take me down less than 1km from the finish. Head injury, whiplash, road rash, bruises, ribs hurt & damage to my wheel. Fainted when I got home so had a lovely trip to a&e on Saturday night. 🙁

@monksyfudger really?! Even in my local races (Scotland) we will have 2 neutral service cars! Only time I’ve not seen service car was at the early CDNW women’s series.

Nothing, that’s what neutral service are there for. Plus crashing in a race is bad enough without having pump etc in pocket!

Dirtyrider, ouch, healing vibes.

Returning to racing this weekend having not raced since end of March (head not in it). Have lost some top end due to 2 weeks of antibiotics….doing 3 races over the next 3 weekends, 2 of which are stage races is a nice way to ease back into racing 🙄 Should have been peaking in a few weeks for my target event but that’s not going to happen after the time off / antibiotics & Laura Trott & Jo Rowsell on the start sheet for it too so maybe just as well my goals have changed.

I’ve just finished two courses of antibiotics (first lot didn’t work 😯 ) Clarithromycin are minging, I couldn’t fall asleep & had a metallic taste in my mouth all week too. No idea how you can even contemplate the Fred whilst on them, I’m exhausted & I don’t have a chest infection!

There’s other sportives, health comes first especially in your case.

Biggest thing for me now, is that I can’t ride fast right from the start, I really need 15 to 20 mins very steady, even maybe slowly, to begin with.

Not sure that’s entirely an age thing. I’m “only” 35 but need a 20min warm up to get going for my training sessions. Before i started training i remember i used to feel rubbish until i’d done the first climb/effort then would feel great.

Yup I like my toe covers for this time of year. I’ve got over socks but reach for my toe covers on days like today.

Largest field ive raced in has been 105. Standard of riding varied massively right down to a rider visibly shaking with nerves on yet bike. But it’s road racing, ive seen crashes happen when riding strung out in a line.

Can you race on the road instead? Fields usually restricted in size & it’s a much nicer environment IMO (not a fan of crits). Failing that, ditch the crits since your long term goal is XC.

Cool, Team 22? Nice interview with them on Velocast

Yup, velocast also a new sponsor for this year 🙂

My team is sponsored by bowman & the palace is our team bikes. Impressed with how it corners.

What are you building it up with?

Normally just have fluid & gels. Sometimes I get hungry ie if the race is over lunch time so if I’m hungry I’ll eat a bar. In stage races I get hungrier as the stages go on so will eat more bars then. Practice eating gels etc in training / chaingangs.

I had my first (crit) race of 2015 yesterday. My coach changed my training this winter and it seems to have paid off as i got into the break of 7 riders really early in the race. The break was caught after 40mins by a chasing group which was working better than we were (the break had all the race favourites / big names in it, i wouldn’t have classed myself as a favourite going into it!) and it then blew apart again before a big crash on the final corner took out 4 riders and i slipped passed it to take 4th. Pretty good start to the season and maybe this year i can set my sights on a 1st cat licence.

Haze, well done for your 3rd cat.

I always eat afterwards, although sometimes that means i’m not eating until 10pm in the summer months! I can’t eat before hand, i hate having to force feed myself if i’m not hungry, and eating my tea at 4/5pm so its settled before i ride is just wrong, plus even then it doesn’t seem to sit nicely. Generally have a snack before training and eat during it if its over an hour.

Too far, it’s part of the reason im a bit meh about my season this year. The last 2 years have been spent driving up & down the m6 most weekends – Edinburgh – Lancaster / Manchester / Chester / Milton keynes / Huddersfield / Ireland & others. Very little road racing for women up here.

I’ve used training peaks for almost 3 years now. The first 2 were training to HR, the last year to power (but still wear hr strap). My TSS to power is lower than it was to HR (even though my HR zones were right). My recovery ride to power gives me TSS of around 13, using my HR strap but no power is 40. I think the TSS was originally set up for power & adapted for HR, so power is the most accurate TSS as long as zones are set right (set threshold too low & you’ll get massive TSS compared to what it really is).

I think it’s pretty useful data from training peaks in general, the performance management chart is good.

Tights on the road bike for me. I saw a guy ~60 on saturday in very short shorts, iirc it was meant to feel around -4 with the strong winds.

Either that or repeatedly attacking. Racing starts in 8 weeks & my training plan looks pretty evil! Did you ever go down the coaching route btw?

I did wonder if it was an age thing! No I have current / actual power showing on my garmin (from power meter) & I’m not going over the watts, just up them steadily. I find it hard to sit at the desired watts during the first minute or so, then it all settles down. But glad is not just me!

Had s nasty session on Tuesday night 10mins at threshold, 10mins easy then 20-30mins threshold with every 2mins up my watts by 80 for 20sec then settle back to threshold. Set a new FTP, Quite a nice way to get a new ftp too.

Does anyone else get this when doing intervals ~ 60-80watts higher than than threshold….For the first 1.5mins in each interval I feel horrible, legs burning etc but then this goes almost completely after that and the rest of the interval is “easy” compared to the first 1.5mins, power is spot on & HR rises slowly to what I’d expect. I had a good warm up & it’s the same on every interval so it’s not that.

+1 for freemotion routes as well as the 20 GC routes on the iphone app. We rode for a week there, pico de las nieves is the highest peak and worth doing. We stayed away mostly from the coast, aside to ride from Playa – Mogan and into the mountains that way for a change. Its all very hilly – the first day we did 2,000m of ascent in ~40km which was pretty constant uphill.

This route is one of the toughest, with the valley of tears nearly doing just that given my gearing choice of 39/25 – i was gripping my bars so tightly just to get up the climb that my fingers bled!! Its around 3,200m of ascent and 125km ish. http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/travel/top-rides-gran-canarias-valley-of-the-tears/#.VKhBsCusWSo%5D Its down as the Vott light here with a route to download http://www.cyclegrancanaria.com/shop/gpx-tcx-downloads/

Enjoy, jealous, stunning weather when we were there in November.

Just shy of 10,000miles. A little bit disappointed I only checked my mileage mid December as I’d have aimed for 10.

November was good, 56 hours & 850miles. Mostly just long z2 rides but a week in gran canaria helped up my hours, mostly going slowly uphill being overgeared. No motivation for turbo so been training in the dark which I actually really like as the number of intervals goes past quicker for some reason.

If she feels fine then it’s nothing to worry about. The 220 minus age is rubbish. Everyone is v diff, my max HR is 201 & bf’s around 170 I think. If your really interested, threshold HR is much better to know.

Also running generally equals higher hr than biking too.

I think you do need a decent amount of z2 / base work if you plan to race a lot throughout the season but you do also need some high intensity in there. So for example I’ll do 4 hours of z2 on Saturday then roughly 5 x 5 mins over geared climbs, 4 hrs z2 Sunday, Monday z1 recovery ride, Tues 1.5hrs of structured high intensity, Weds z1 recovery, Thursday similar to Tuesday, rest Fri. Plus core & gym work. My z2 rides are phased out / cut down in Jan / Feb time for race prep….so that’s around 3 months of base building.

I never used to believe in z2 but having a base has allowed me to recover quicker aerobically in races / training, it’s rare I feel aerobically challenged when racing and I can handle a harder training schedule too.

If you don’t have a lot of time to train I think Friel recommends z3 so there’s less of a de training effect but don’t quote me on that!

Seems a long time for minimal riding molly?

+1. Each to their own but the way i lose weight is 4-5hours of z1-2 both Saturday and Sunday from ~ October to Feb. Its so easy that i’m not tired when i get in so no hunger/sugar cravings, plus my base is built then so it is a win all round.

I don’t think anything in z1-2 should increase hunger/cravings. Eat real food on the bike and ditch any energy products.

I tried 25s for the first time last winter. Hated them and was very glad to switch back to 23s, which i use for everything (summer, winter and racing). Have no issues riding them in the wet/ice etc. The only time i’ve wished for wider tyres was racing up a cobbled climb 20 times 😯

A friend who is doing is says allermuir down to swanston through the golf course.

On my last race 2 weeks ago in fife I clocked 76.4kph. That looks similar towns to what I hit descending in Lanzarote in January – and that’s in full tuck position.

I get mine from The Protein Works, whey 100% in chocolate silk, tastes good. I alternate between that and hemp protein with cherry juice in it, and Osmo acute recovery at the weekends.

Sounds more like you need a rest than are unfit. Usually inability to reach high HR/PE as high as normal/performance dips = virus/illness/over trained. But if you are only doing short efforts then HR lag will come into it – i doubt i’d be even close to zone 4 after 1 min.

Being unfit (IME) means HR is quicker to rise than being well trained.

The OHs parents have a nespresso machine, it makes good espressos. Think I’m in similar position as you, I only drink espresso & when I go away racing for the weekend the aeropress is a poor substitute for proper espresso & I miss it.

I just drag my sessions around on TP if i need to move them for whatever reason. My plan is usually set out a bit in advance and then tweaked weekly / daily depending on where in the season i’m at – daily would be if i’ve come back from illness for example, or maybe as a result of my comments from the session the day before. Have to say for me the contact is important esp when things aren’t going to plan (like injury, illness, busy, whatever) I filled in a few questionnaires before we started working together to outline the time i have to train, my timing preferance etc. Although i don’t specifically race TTs, he coaches friends who both RR and TT and they are amazing testers. He seems to think i’d be good at it too if i didn’t find it so dull compared to RR. 🙂

Can recommend my coach, Total Cycle Coach, worked with him for ~ 17 months now, always there when I need him
(including phoning him in tears at the weekend), he’s helped with proper warm up, we Skype every week & additional emails if needed, race tactics etc are all part of it, and he’s brilliant at analysing my power data & using that to tweak my training plan (hello more evil intervals!)

Double & 12-25 for me. A 28 has to many jumps & never the right gear for me.