GavinB, you need to pedal faster, thats a very slow cadence for the rollers. Its much easier if you are around 90-100rpm (or over if you can)

If you really want to improve pedal stroke, cadence etc, ride rollers on a fixed gear.

Does it make that much difference? Just curious!

Interesting. I need to get a new turbo but had been toying with the idea of rollers with resistance. Decisions, decisions…

Tabata, Sufferfest

Really? Do you have rollers with resistance? In the hardest gear with my max cadence, i can’t get much into Z4 (out of 7 zones!) so resorted to one legged drills/cadence work/recovery spins on them and everything else outside (or turbo no doubt)

I love the rollers, look forward to a session on them 🙂 Did my first turbo sess last night since Feb, realised just how much i prefer rollers to turbo. But rollers not suitable for max effort work. My pedalling technique has come on loads with weekly roller sessions.

Sue, thats a huge amount to do…i’m getting coached (with the aiming of getting my 1st cat licence next year) and i doubt even my biggest base week would look like that! Read the joe friel stuff, seems to be what my coach uses, build a good endurance base, muscle strength (in the gym or on the bike) and speed skills. I’ve got roughly 2 x weights sessions per week (kettlebells, box jumps, trx work, etc) then 4-6 x rides depending on how big the week is. All Z2 stuff (zzzzz) as much as possible except for the club run on a saturday. Insensity builds from Jan with my first race in March but your intensity work might need to start later, depending on when you want to be in good shape for? Its a long season if you are competing, be careful not to do too much just now and burn out.

Make sure you don’t do the same thing week in, week out…ie this week is my recovery week, so i’m doing 8.5hours and changing the rides ive been doing. Next week is 12.5hours, which will be 2 x weights, 3 x rides of 3 hours outside, then the rest on the rollers to make up the hours. The next week is even more, 15 from memory so it’ll change again.

PM me if you want more info 🙂

Practice. I have 30 sec cadence drills to do ie 30 sec high (105) 30 sec higher (115) 30 sec max (125). I’m fine until I hit 125. The first two times i do it, I bounce at 125, but it smooths out after that, and by the 8th, its a smooth stroke. My max cadence has risen by 5 doing these drills.

Changing to harder gear defeats the purpose of ths kind of thing. Thinking about pedal stroke helped me.

I got loads changed during my recent bike fit which took 5 hours!! The difference it has made is amazing – way more aero, better handling etc. I’m on the drops about 99% of the time these days as it feels natural/right, and the bike fits so well that I was sprinting down Col’s in Nice which isn’t something I ever thought I’d do! I think its worthwhile if its a proper fit ie flexibility / injuries etc taken into account.

Here’s what i thought of my fit.

http://pescetarianrevolutions.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/bike-fit-a-whole-lot-more-ooommph-with-no-extra-training

I’m on the coached edition (independent coach). I like it. He puts in my training and can comment / see what I do. I quite like the stats / charts it gives me, like the performance management chart.

It really depends what you are training for and what your goals are for next year. I started my new training plan last week, for 3 base periods i’m working on endurance, strength and speed skills. Most of my training is Z2 work which i don’t really agree with but what do i know! Its roughly 2/3 chaingangs, 2 gym sessions and 2 roller sessions a week. I have an 18 hour training week to build up to as well 😯

Roll on summer for racing, fast chaingangs and more intense work! 8)

Fast chaingang tomorrow morning. Forecast is for no wind so reckon it’ll be fast than usual – last time there was no wind, we were doing 25mph before the chaingang even started!

Sunday, longer social road ride, race squad meeting, dinner out at my fav restaurant – seafood and bellinis to celebrate end of the race season! 8)

You can learn how to do the short steep climbs with practice. I was never very good at them before I started training properly this year, now i know exactly what i need to do to get up them at speed and how to recover afterwards.

Don’t be afraid of the dark got me.

Also the orphanage (+1 for the child with the freaky sack over his head) – until the end, then i realised it wasn’t scary!

Badly fitting bike. Bloke i train with used to do it, after a 5 hour bike fit, he doesn’t any more. 🙂

I’d sooner put road pedals on my MTB than MTB pedals on my road bike

+1.

I toured for a month with spds but would have quite happily gone with my road pedals but was advised mtb shoes/pedals would be better. Next time I’ll stick with road pedals.

And having bought my first pair of carbon soled road shoes earlier this year, I now own 2 pairs and will never be able to ride anything else 😕

Oh, Jack is part of your club? I think he’s going to be training with us over winter. He’ll need a HRM, our coaches train us using HRMs.

flowerpower, you should try the gore oxygen shorts…waistband is amazing on them, elastic at the back but not at the front. Fits like a dream and so comfy. I now have 3 pairs of them!

Nope, hate them – don’t like having to pretty much undress for a pee, and don’t like the bib section of them. If i *had* to get them, i’d look at the newer designs with the zip at the back

Oh, whereabouts do you stay? I’m aiming for my cat 1 licence next year, 225 points needed so need to race as much as poss! 😯

Will start in a winter series in January

winter crit series, or track do you mean?

Oh and Mulletus Maximus, how did your racing go this year, did you ever manage to do any road/crit stuff?

Ok, so for the majority of you, is biking your only sorce of fitness or do you combine it with some running?

Just riding for me. Not properly started my winter training yet, so sitting at around 150miles per week just now / 3 rides a week. When I start training it’ll go up for around 5-6 days per week again.

I like running, used to do a lot over winter time but thinking i’ll mostly just ride this winter.

Depends what you are trying to achieve, time etc.

Me. Twice a week during winter but only for weights. Occassionally go spinning but mostly ride outside or on the rollers. Can’t fit in weights in the summer on top of racing and training but have a year long membership so really should use it even if just for the steam room/sauna!

I like it, it helps keep me stronger for racing, no matter what my coach thinks about it.

personally, if you cant crack 20mph average on a 20 mile route now there is no way in life you can up that to an avg of 24mph by next year

+1. Sorry but being realistic, its a huge jump. Best i have done this year is just over 24mph and i can’t even describe the suffering i was in to do that. I lasted 25mins and i wanted to be sick the whole time. I think you’ll need two seasons to get up to that speed.

Depends if im riding on my own or with a group. If its a group and i know they are silly fast on the climbs, i save my energy for the climb. If i’m on my own and don’t care about speed on the climb, i’ll take advantage of the tailwind.

Go fast with the tailwind, gel before the climb, sorted?

I got stuck at 20mph last year. This year I changed:
training properly (being coached – so sessions were to HR, working on my weaknesses, very structured)
riding chaingangs that were at first well out of my ‘comfort’ zone ie average of 22mph door to door but chaingang sections significantly faster
ride lots. my training plan was between 10-13hr per week and i had no time/energy for anything other than training or resting.
race lots. at least once or twice a month at the start of the season, once a week when i was peaking in july and august.
fuelling well on and off the bike.
resting well
new wheels (50m deep sections that roll so much faster than anything i’ve used before – don’t under estimate how much difference wheels will make!)

Interesting i didn’t do much bike training over winter, yet was in my best form ever this summer and went from cat 4 to cat 2 in one season.

I’m not so sure about the Z2 type riding….i know some advocate it, but i read some joe friel stuff that suggested if you “only” have 6-12 hrs per week to train that Z2 detrains athletes and there’s nothing wrong with Z3/higher intensity stuff. But if you have 20hrs per week, Z2 seems to be the norm. Personally, i’m going for sticking with the fast chaingang for as long as i can over winter time (being a girl i suffer more than the blokes i ride with in a headwind) so i can step my racing up another level, 2 x more social continential chaingangs ie around 16-18mph, 2 x weights and if i can fit it in, 1 session on the rollers working on cadence / one leg drills.

I’m still on the good bike (and aero wheels!). A lot of the club are also still on good bikes, although some have already dug out the winter bike and mudguards. I’m pretending its still summer 🙂

Looking forward to clear crips winter rides but think i need to get some better hubs/wheels…can’t face going to open pros after riding my 50m deep sections for months! 🙄

Our has been on once, day after we got back from Nice! Have been tempted the last few nights though, its chilly.

My last road race isn’t for another month yet, 3 more to go. Kinda disappointed the season is over, loving road racing and getting better all the time (4th to 2nd cat this season!), but at the same time I’m tired and need a break as been racing every weekend since July!

I love climbing. Would spend pretty much a whole day there during a winter weekend. Never had any pain from my hands, other than my skin being a bit rubbed from the rope. No time to climb due to racing once a week but can’t wait to get back into it.

@DD I didn’t know you climbed. #manofmanytalents 🙂

So just fruit and veg? No fish?

Didn’t know this was on so will have to catch up on it. But 600 calories a day?! What was he eating to make up the calories?

tricky, that’s not good. I’m hoping that won’t happen to me next year…i’m very motivated by my progress this year, but equally worried that if i get to cat 2 in my 1st season then it’ll be much harder next year and i won’t see as many improvements/good placings! why did you find the racing boring out of interest?

Ha, busted 😉 47miles, average heart rate just slipped into zone 4 this week (mostly because it was a headwind both ways – seriously, how does that work?!), average cadence of 93, one long climb, 3 short steep ones. Better?! 😛 My new wheels are awesome, but not quite – i’ll not be able to attack without being heard!

Mol, why not do some road racing, very cheap – about £10-15 per race – then you’ve got no excuses!

I do have a fitness question though: what it is that makes one feel sick when at high heart rates (ie sprint finish of a race?)

Come up here for a weekend of racing Molly, we can have our TT showdown too 😈

21mph ride for me last night, loving training atm having settled into being coached. 16 points til i’m a cat 2, omg!

One of the women’s gymnastics on the trampoline

*waves at mrsf* you mentioned the gym in your lunch hour – you could try to do something every lunch hour if you have the time as that way you won’t be feeling guilty about chores/other stuff if you wait until the evening.

what about riding to work too?

Jamie, i know you can’t run but a very easy recovery ride ie zone 1, might ease your legs? Why has TSY or DD not given you a massage to make them better by now?!

So why haven’t you entered yet Mol? Did I miss something? I entered my races back in January, or at least as many of them as I could, with others done on the day entry opened.

Strength exercises: KB swings, KB sumo squats, jumping squats, hamstring curls on a swiss ball, weighted lunges, glute exercises, step up and downs, calf raises. Core work too will make a huge difference (i don’t mean endless sit ups, but things like mountain climbers on a bosu ball, planks etc)

If i wasn’t racing that weekend, i’d be up heading up to watch you! 😛

I’m sure you are TSY, but that would make your ego even worse if i admitted that! 8)

Going to catch up with the programme tonight.