Max HR is 195, threshold is 171… I’m doing my sweetspot around 145bpm…

I’m using a turbo and HRM. Going at around 75% max HR…

Weekends are often a problem for me with other commitments, so I’m trying to find what is the best combination.

I can manage a gentle/flat ride most Saturdays which would make Sunday a rest day and do something Monday instead…

I figured 30 mins was fairly short, and I’m trying to improve lactate threshold as well…

I’ve not done double sessions yet, but I was planning it for next week… I’m also trying to drop a bit of timber… :|

And not every day, I was thinking:
Monday – Rest, Tuesday – MTB Group ride, Wed – Road Chainy, Thu – recovery rollers, Fri – 2 x 30min sweetspot, Sat – gentle ride, Sunday – Group Ride.

In the past, I’ve performed best when I’m riding every day… When I’m on a training block, a complete rest day leaves me with very blocky legs.

Like I say, I’m just experimenting, but for me, sweetspot is a good intensity to burn fat, maintain form and not overtrain. Some useful food for thought though..

I’d get something better than nesquick too, loads of simple sugars in it which isn’t great.

I use SIS recovery shakes too, nesquick with milk is a lot cheaper and tastier and I’ve never noticed any difference.

I notice the difference if I don’t have either!

Yep, I agree with the Chef, the Wednesday night rides need to be a sweetspot sesh or sub threshold if I want to be competitive.

I’m experimenting with 30min sweetspot twice a day at the moment, see if I can iron out those dead spots without over training…

I had considered recovery rides on the rollers the morning after… Legs have felt like someone else’s today so I’m going to do a VERY gentle roller sesh tonight…

I always try to refuel quickly after rides, and a pint of nesquick before bed. Maybe I’m just getting weaker!

I’ll check out that freshness graph, I’ve not seen that before.

Thanks!

Could definitely stretch more… I tend to stretch prior to riding but it’s often “neglected” afterwards :oops:

Cheers Schmiken, any idea how I can avoid the hollow leg feeling I had last night? They started to brighten up after about 30 miles, but power was down.

My road team are gonna start thinking I’m crap! haha

G

Are all the chainring bolts present and correct? Gossamer is a fairly budget crankset, but it’s not known for being overly flexy…

G

G

Apologies, obviously I’ve had plenty of drivetrain components wear out, but none of the “hardwear”.

G

My Force shifters wore out recently after maybe 3 years regular use. The teeth on ratchet wore off, so just wear & tear.
I was happy with Force, and just as happy with the Force22 group set on other bike.

My winter bike has 8-speed Shimano 600 – the first of the STi levers – that I bought new in 1992. It’s been in regular use ever since, on the winter bike for the past 5 seasons. And it gets used 2-3 times a week, whatever the weather decides to through at it.

It shows no signs of wear whatsoever, the shift is a crisp and smooth as the day I first built it as a 19-year-old lad.

I also have 105, Ultegra and DA-7700 series groupsets that have been raced, TT’d, crashed and generally abused…

I’ve NEVER had a Shimano item die due to wear and tear.

G

There’s something (for me anyway) about owning Dura Ace that transcends its performance. It was always the groupset to aspire to, and the 9000 series is simply the best and most beautiful groupset ever made.

I have it on my R5 and there’s not a day goes by that I don’t find myself just looking at it. It’s gorgeous!

The fact that it performs so faultlessly is the other reason to go for it. I’ve had it for 2 years now, and absolutely nothing about it bugs me. No niggles, nothing I wish was slightly different, nothing that I feel could be improved.

The lever throw is so short and precise that it makes Di2 seem rather a pointless extravagance.

Looking at it from a different angle, there’s only 1 pro-tour team using SRAM this year, and that’s AG2R. And most of the others have migrated from campag to DA.

I think that once you’ve coveted it, and come so close to clicking ‘buy’, you’ll always regret it if you don’t buy it now. And how much difference is a few hundred quid going to make to you over, say, 5 or 6 years that you’ll be using your DA-9000…

You’d be daft to get anything else!

G

Lunge, I ordered them direct from Deng Fu. Very helpful and quick turnaround. I’d definitely recommend them… I spec’d them with red hubs and red nipples.

This is the third page I’ve visited since logging on 5 minutes ago – a ‘take-over’ ad has appeared on every page, takes about 20 seconds to load and locks up my browser when I try to close it.

Tried to help someone on another thread but wondering why I bother. I’m out of here until this forum becomes useable again.

G :evil:

I got pretty much the same wheel MrBlobby suggests but direct from Deng Fu. They’re built on Novatec hubs and worked out about £360 with duty.

I went for Deng Fu as they seem to have a good reputation and I’ve heard good stories about aftersales.

Bought mine for the TT bike, so wasn’t worried about braking surface and they won’t get much hammer. They’re quick too!!

G

It’s gonna need 2 bottle cages, a garmin mount, and clearance for mudguards if she plans to use it all year round. Full length cable routing would be a bonus, and don’t forget to future proof it in case she wants to go electronic at some point. And unless she’s competing, I’d concentrate on comfort rather than aero.

If having a harsh bike stopped him training I’d suggest that he was never very motivated…

What a strange thing to say! He found the bike uncomfortable giving him chronic back pain, sore wrists and saddle sores to the point that he started to avoid club rides. And because he wasn’t made of money, he couldn’t afford to take a hit on the frame he’d bought.

He loved racing it, but anything over 40 miles on typical roads was torture. So unless you’re buying a bike specifically to race, I’d be inclined to opt for a more comfortable all-rounder.

G

A friend had a Scott Foil – he found it so harsh he only rode it in crits. Being his only bike, his racing suffered due to lack of training, he lost motivation and practically quit riding altogether.

Since replacing the Foil frame, he’s actually enjoying riding and rues the day he chose an aero frame, and the 2 years loss of cycling enjoyment that ensued.

An aero frame is a tool for a specific job, ie to eek out a few watts or saved seconds in a race. The price you pay for that (at the moment at least) is a loss of comfort.

G

I might go and hang around outside the Odeon and pick off horny women coming out… The leg work’s all be done, innit.

G

Grahams is my everyday port… Very good value and lovely smooth taste.

G

Bought my 8-year old godson a proper archery beginners outfit – a little fibreglass bow, an end of arrows, quiver, bracer and tab.

Looking forward to teaching him to shoot – that bit is a present to myself!

Bought the girlfriend some rather nice things from Victoria’s Secret. Hope the wife doesn’t find out ;)

G

G

Thanks for the replies chaps, very helpful. I’ve emailed Dom to see if it’s something he’d be able to do.

:)

G

Thanks Bandito… Nearest one is Leeds so I’ll have a look for a machine shop near by.

Just don’t want to walk in and sound completely clueless!!!

Cheers
G

You’ve all been emailed… :)

G

Of course I can Supertune… ;)

You also have mail Geoff…

G

You have mail eyerideit… :)

G

I’m still completely astonished at the lengths Sky seem prepared to go to to inconvenience a customer who’s already been massively inconvenienced by THEIR massive f*** up!

And the bell end seemed to expect gratitude for getting me back online, despite a fortnight’s downtime, at least a day of lost earnings and losing my phone number forever!!!

May they all be plagued by itchy bumholes and constant, unidentifiable squeaks from their dashboards….

Apologies for the delay in updated – their subsequent funk-ups have meant I’ve had to devote most of my life to resolving this issue… :twisted:

After much to-ing and fro-ing with “Sal” in the Executive Service Team, I was told that Open Reach would have to instal a new phone line into my house, and a new wall socket. This is despite me having a phone line and socket installed less than 3 years ago, and it working perfectly until they remotely disconnected me.

I tried arguing the toss, but it really wasn’t worth it – perhaps their cables self-destruct when they’re disconnected.

Anyway, I was told I needed to be at home between 8am and 1pm for the engineer on Tuesday.

So, I sat their, like a complete mug, watching daytime TV all morning. By 11am, I’d adopted a snow leopard. By noon, I’d applied for a funeral plan so I could get a free Parker pen. By 1, I was trying to remember if I’d had a trip or fall in the past 3 years.

Oh, and the f*****g **** from Open Reach hadn’t turned up!

So off I trotted to see if anything was left of my business, and rang “Sal” to see what the hell was going on. I was told that my phone and broadband was now up and running and it was suggested that I should be grateful that a) I had my services back, and b) I hadn’t had the inconvenience of actually having to answer the door to a man in a hi-viz vest!

I was given no explanation as to why Sky thought I’d be happy with them completely wasting 5 hours of my life – on top of the 5hrs 44mins I spent on the phone – and that, as they say, was that.

They’ve given me 6months free line rental and have been kind enough not to charge me FOR THE F****** MONTH IN WHICH I HAD NO F****** PHONE OR BORADBAND!!!!!

AAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

DON’T USE SKY!!!! EVERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

G

You could always try a Google image search for ‘large’ images… I quick search yields the same image at 1100x1400px.

Then, if you found an unscrupulous fine-art printer/framer, they could probably interpolate it and do a giclée print on a stock that would disguise any pixelation, put it in a nice mount and frame it to sir’s satisfaction.

If you’re in the Lancs area, I satisfy most of the above requirements, and if you don’t like my scruples, I have others… ;)

G

A chopped up black plant pot keeps my wheel-sucking friends clean.

G

The executive team just rang me, another 45 minutes wasted! He told me that it had been escalated to the highest level, here’s my personal direct line blah blah blah…

He also told me that there was every likelihood that they might not be able to reinstate my services. I pointed out that fibre broadband is available in my road and that, as a bear minimum, they need to connect that ASAP. He assured me that he would leave no stone unturned and offered to credit me with whatever it costs to get a dongle… Not sure if that would be any help as I have terrible 3G coverage round here.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings…

G

If I cancel the DD, I have effectively terminated the contract. I’m in a stronger position if they’re taking my money and failing to provide me with the services I;m paying for. It’s a flagrant breach of their “1-month notice” clause in their T&Cs.

I’ve done the CEO, I’ve done the Twitters. I’ve got one of their twitter monkeys giving me the PR schpiel as we speak…

I also wrote a formal letter of complaint on Saturday to escalate their internal complaints procedure.

G

Did they offer any recompense? I’ve had no services for 4 days now, my solicitor advised me not to cancel my direct debit to ensure that my contract with them remains…

2 weeks would be f*****g inconvenient, but at least I would get my services back. However, they’re saying that they’ve changed to requirements for line speed and won’t provide broadband on my line any more!!

FFS, it’s 2014 and I live on the outskirts of Preston, not in the Outer Frickin Hebrides!!!!!

G

I think they’re telling the truth that because it was an automatic cancellation, the number is held in quarantine for a fixed period and can’t be reconnected. It’ll then be given to a new customer somewhere down the line.

As such, I think I should expect some sort of recompense for having to reprint my stationery…

G

Thanks PK, I’ll report back if it’s successful…

G

I’d be wary of mentioning impact to your business, as I believe most suppliers have get out of jail free stuff in their t&cs.

I have my number listed…

Office: xxxxxxxxxxx
Home: xxxxxxxxxx
Mobile: xxxxxxxxxxx

I don’t think that would constitute a breach of any T&Cs… Would it?

G

It’s not a line fault, they sent out an engineer to replace my Sky box last month and the call handler accidentally switched my account to one without phone or internet. So 30 days later, it shut down.

They’ve admitted they f****d up…

G