Thursday sufferfest would affect your Saturday race performance IMO. If I was racing (time trialling) on Saturday I wouldn’t do a full interval session after Wednesday.

Not to any considerable degree, if you stopped doing any proper training three days before a race and you raced regularly you’d never get any proper training in. You can’t taper for everything, you won’t get fitter that way. Although intense training on the same day is not such a good idea. If you’re doing sessions that take longer than 48 hours to recover from, either they’re too hard, your recovery procedure is poor (food/sleep) or you’re being a pansy.

You’ve just gotta remember 4th cat racing is all about making it to the end and having a decent sprint in most cases. I’ve got instances where I didn’t even have to average 170 watts (that’s jack all even at my weight) to sit in a 3/4 bunch (I suspect they go a bit faster than a 4ths only), you just need to learn to position yourself well.

Your maximum heart rate is the highest heart rate you can achieve, assuming you cannot ‘better’ 204bpm, it is therefore, your max heart rate. Assuming your heart works, you’ll be fine.

Depends which kind of lactate threshold heartrate you mean. If you mean base line blood lactate + 1mol/L from a ramp test, usually about 85% of mhr. If you mean your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate as defined by Friel here: http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/determining-your-lthr.html (you probably do) it’s usually, but not always, closer to 90% of MHR.

This may be of use:
http://www.strava.com/activities/72295769
http://www.strava.com/activities/72295797 (I bonked like never before on this ride, so speed dropped big time on the climb home)
http://www.strava.com/activities/72295767
http://www.strava.com/activities/72295804
http://www.strava.com/activities/72356647

Most people say a 20kph average is respectable if you’re taking in HC climbs.

I’m on the wrong side of the North Essex/Suffolk border and the bike riding around here is shocking, it is actually offensively bad. A real shame because the weather is exceedingly good compared to the rest of the UK.

I’ve worked/used the following of late:
-Campag EPS
-Record
-DA 9000
-DA Di2 9000
-Ultegra Di2 6800
-Red 22

Observations:
-The campag EPS was the best feeling electronic groupset, all the benefits of di2 with a more mechanical feel (if that makes sense). Though I do question its reliability.
-There were no tangible difference between Ultegra/DA di2.
-Indexing got harder for 11 speed, once again.
-Campag definitely had the worst brakes, still very good though.
-Red 22 only trumps the weight category. Still very good, I really like doubletap.
-DA 9000 feels exceptional

Conclusion:
They’re all really good, pick the one that looks best on your bike.

Most of the fast guys I know do something like this (simplified):

In a week:
1x really long mtb ride, mostly for fun.
1-2x tempo/L3 2ish hour ride
2-3x hard interval/race simulation rides. Often intervals on the turbo, sometimes chain gang on the road or an eveing XC race.

You might want to start with one of each and then attempt to work your way up.

That will be interspersed with foam roller/core work, skills practice etc. They might do the odd road ride (more during the winter when the trails are really bad), but it’s not a salient feature of their training. Fast mountain bikers rider their mountain bikes the most – specificity innit.

The major advantage of clip-in (or “clipless”, their proper and confusing name) bikes, according to Jonathan, is that because the shoe is attached to the pedal you can pull up as well as push down. This makes a huge difference to power and efficiency and goes some way to explaining the warp speed of many urban cyclists.

I’m sure I read an article on research dismissing this.

True story.

There’s loads of studies, you don’t really pull up, it’s counter intuitive and contracting an already shortened muscle. Main advantage is that it keeps you foot in the optimal place for power production.

Edit: some people with particularly poor pedal strokes do ‘pull’ through the dead spots, often to compensate for not being able to activate their glutes at all.

35kph/21.5mph and that was at 240 watts avg (can’t do that now). That was in the summer.
Did it a couple of days ago, took 1h25ish at 200 watts avg, so 30kph/18.5mph.
Was that with a power meter? If so it suggests that it’s nothing to do with weather / headwinds / knobbly tyres. You’re just not as fit?

Me? I’m definitely not as fit. Just can’t get motivated to go out on these dark nights.

It was indeed. Read the bit below, it compares two rides about 6 months apart with almost exactly the same power outputs. 🙂 I can’t quite do 240 watts for 1hr15 at the moment, so like I said, you’re not a ‘strong'(i.e. you can’t produce the same power as you can when you’re ‘in form’).

I think it’s usually a combination of simply not being as strong and the cold, generally more windy, heavier bike etc.

I have loop I do pretty regularly on my road bike, it’s 43km/27miles with only 250m of climbing.

Fastest I’ve ever done it was 1hr15ish give or take, so c. 35kph/21.5mph and that was at 240 watts avg (can’t do that now). That was in the summer.

Did it a couple of days ago, took 1h25ish at 200 watts avg, so 30kph/18.5mph.

Found a couple of files where I did it an average of 200 watts in the summer, both of those were around 1h20, so 32kph/20mph.

There you go, time of year makes about 1.5mph difference!

Yeah, mine did this – GT85 alleviated it and 2x full strip down & clean prolonged life by about 2 months.

The permanent solution is, however, far simpler… Shimano.

I’m usually able to get fists on the floor if try. Pretty important for road racers, you need to maximise the power you can produce and minimise the power you must produce. Flexibility will mean you can achieve a more ‘aero’ position on the bike (minimising the power you must produce) that doesn’t inhibit power production (maximising the power you can produce), although glute flexibility matters more than hamstring flexibility when it comes to position on the bike. Luckily mine’s really good and I can get away with 13cm of drop on my road bike.

Santini is rather good, proper ‘italian mountain climber’ fit. 178cm and 57kg for reference. Have a look on prendas, much cheaper on there.

Re this – http://anthonycolpo.com/cycling-and-bone-health-why-cyclists-must-lift-weights/

Interesting – I wonder if typical professional and elite cyclists have low bone density from birth, could be one of the many genetic pre-requisites, like a monster vo2 max and exceptional metabolic efficiency. Obviously riding road all the time doesn’t help this.

Whilst the article concludes that one should lift weights if you’re a die hard roadie, it also provides another implied conclusion – regular mtb’ing/running will improve bone density too. More mtb/cx anyone?

Macavity –

Most of the stuff Danny Hart is shown to be doing with Wadsworth and in Minaar’s thing(who’s meant to be the best in the business for mtb coaching in the UK) are either core work or plyometrics. Although I guess is depends what you define strength training as, but most people really mean resistance training with the aim of increasing strength.

Spouting some serious shite here. Let me guess, you are a roadie who rides a mtb and dislikes going downhill or anything technical?

Weight training is one of the best things to improve performance on a MTB.

MTB involves balance, hip power, upper body strength, explosiveness, muscular endurance, core stability and proprioception. All things that can be trained with weights and a decent program.

You guessed wrong…

Like I said weight training improves neuro function and core stability, but in a hierarchy of what improves you as a mountain biker it’s way down the list. Most of the current research says plyometrics is far more effective at improving neuro function and body weight exercises will be more than adequate in improving your core stability to a good standard.

Yes some people do need to do weight training, but they’re exceptions to the rule. They either have vast inadequacies of a given muscle group or are elite athlete looking for the ‘marginal gains’, even then weight training isn’t a salient feature of many annual training plans, prominent during the winter as part of the prepartion phase, but they’re elite athletes and very different to the archetypal bloke on an mtb. It would be completely illogical to use strength training on a muscle group that already has the adequate strength to perform what is demanded of it. If you’re a grown adult who isn’t built like an Italian mountains man in pro peleton you probably have the strength to perform things like manuals/bunnhops/navigating technical terrain. There are still some exceptional professional mountain bike races who are built like teenage girls, but could get down a downhill route on their hardtails than 99% can on their skill compensator.

I think this can be summarised by saying that; weight training is a sufficient, but not necessary, nor the most efficacious method of improving mountain bike (XC/trail) performance in most cases.

Mountain Biking is a predominately (read almost entirely) an aerobic sport, unless you’re doing Track/DH/4X/BMX weight lifting is going to add very little benefit to your mountain biking, particularly if you’re only riding a few times a week. It may actually make you slower – adding unnecessary weight. Weight training is really something, in relation to endurance athletes, that you add in when you get closer to or at elite level, when you’re looking to improve neuro function and core stability during the off-season and you’re already doing a lot on the bike already.

If you want to lose weight, weight lifting isn’t the way forward – going out for a bike ride will not only improve your aerobic fitness far more, but it will have far greater calorific expenditure. Ultimately weight loss comes through adjusting your diet, i.e. less calories in, more calories out to put it simply.

Re the video link I posted.

First, if you thought Boris was a fool/insensitive/a reprobate, you might find this funny:
Boris Johnson’s cycle safety test [/url]
I haven’t decided if it’s a strawman or worrying insight in to his mind yet, but it’s quite funny.

Second, if you think Boris is being reasonable, sentimental etc – can I please have some of what you are smoking? He didn’t have any answers and resorted to a series of ad hominem. Seriously though, to be shrouded by his cuddly exterior still after watching that you must either be taking some heavy drugs or exclude your reading to the Daily Telegraph.

Boris fails to address the issue that cycling is not getting safer during his rise of fame and riches term of office as mayor, Jenny’s statistic clearly show this fact. He’s using the fact that less people having died under his term of office and ignoring the fact that notably more people have been seriously/critically injured/died under him. Instead he’s taken to (mostly outside of that questioning) blaming or implying blame upon various things – the cyclists themselves, HGV drivers, earphones etc. However the real issue is one of infrastructure – the notion of having HGVs sharing road space with cyclists is difficult at best, and fatal in reality. Here’s the issue, it would take a monumental amount of money to make the necessary infrastructural changes. And hey, guess what the Tories stopped all of when they got to office? Nigh on all transport infrastructure projects, as part of their crazed austerity (there’s different to fiscal consolidation, which is what we really needed to do).

Read between the lines folks, he’s ducking and diving because the political ramifications of this are less than actually making a u-turn and actually dealing with the issue – he’s doing this, because he can.
As for Jenny Jones, what she was doing is called redress of grievance. That’s what she’s elected to. We need more people like her representing us, and less people who look hilarious in their tennis kit. Her comeback was better too.

Oh and those of you saying cyclists are to blame, well sometimes yes (I see some down right ridiculous riding daily), but the ‘literature’ and studies are saying that it’s the driver most of the time. Cyclists should probably have some form of training but it does need to remain accessible, so I believe it should become a part of the national curriculum, unfortunately that wouldn’t be happening any time soon – a four letter name that sounds like clove is (partially) the reason why.

Study by the Department for Transport:

With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time.

As for banning headphones, would you ban car radios too, do people with hearing aids have to stay off their bike? You’re a little silly wearing them in urban areas, but cycling safely is so much more than being able to hear to your full ability.

Boris needs a chat show on channel 4, not a capital city to run.

Here’s Boris being nonchalant and a downright insensitive moron.

I don’t own one but know a number of people who do or did and I’ve had a go on a demo bike – so I’ve used an XTC a few times. Honestly I think they handle like dog feces. New 27″ anthem is however, a class bike (29ers one is good too). If you’re after a 29er HT then I’d say stump up the extra for a specialized stumpjumper (pun intended) they do ride rather well.

Your MHR is what it is, typically genetically predetermined and a largely irrelevant number. Most often it will reduce as you get fitter – power at Vo2 max and heart rate a vo2 max i.e. MHR (it should be at least) were negatively correlated for me. So power up, Hr down but no change in actual vo2 Max.

Was out doing Hill reps once, chain came off. Bloke in the car behind me jumps out. I put the chain back on, hop back on and gives me a push to get going again. Wasn’t even a cyclist, just seen it done on tv and seen me do hill reps a few times on the hill. Appallingly good behavior!

I do 4 A -levels (but they’re easy ain’t they) 9-4 monday-friday + plus an hour or two at home each day, work Saturday 9-6 and still get around 8-14 hours of training/bike riding (inc racing at least fortnightly) in pretty much every week and I nearly have a social life. Get some discipline, relevant lights and clothing, an intimate relationship with coffee and a routine, you’ll find copious amounts of time to ride. Beginning you half hour commute to work an hour early than needs be is a good decision – trust me!

You could probably make any bike from 50cm-54cm (where the seat tube and top tube are similar in length) fit you. Best seek advice from your LBS. There are way too many variables to decide frame size upon height alone – for instance I’m notably taller than you but ride a 50cm (with 53.5cm ETT).

Advantages:
-More aero (not by loads)
-More weight on the front wheel, good for cornering
-bike looks ‘pro’

Disadvantages:
-Flexibility issues could reduce power output
-More weight on front wheel, perhaps not so good for hard front wheel braking
-flexibility issues may make you look very ‘untidy’ when pedaling

If you’re bike has a short head tube i.e. <12cm then you’ll need very good levels of flexibility (very few people actually are flexible enough, including the pros e.g. Gilbert) to get away with slamming your stem. Slamming it if you are not will just delve you into a world of bio-mechanical issues with your neck, recruiting the glutes and hip flexors, lower back issues etc. If you’re uncertain, get a bike fit.

Show do we explain the current fashion for short stems and wide bars?

Bar height, width, stem length etc on MTBs have a far wider acceptable parameters because of the greater importance of handling, less aggressive (more upright) position and greater amount of time spent out the saddle.

It’s pretty hard to go wrong with the front end when it comes to bike fit side of things on an mtb, as long as you don’t do anything extreme. Seen a few instances of upper back pain due to ridiculously wide bars though…

I had one of them BG fits, did both my all of my bikes (cx, road, MTB) took many hours, probably cost me at least £500 after all the component changes and the actual costs of the fit itself. Probably worth mentioning was that the saddle height, position and fore and aft is the same for all three bikes.
Had new stems, bars, having the pedal spindles turned to make them shorter, narrower cranks, pedals with lower q factor, saddles etc, new shims and insoles – list goes on.

Best £500 I ever spent cycling wise. Spent less on physio fees since, less pain, had a noticeable improvement in metabolic efficiency (the percentage of a calorie that gets used for turning the cranks) and get complemented on how good I look on a bike pretty regularly.

Easily worth it if you ask me.

When I compared it to other brand geometries, it looked very similar to Cannondale CAAD / Super Six.

They’re copies of a supersix, the geometry is identical.

I took my tyre off to check the sealant levels a few days ago. I removed 3 thorns, one piece of flint and two bits of glass. I’d say that makes them worthwhile. (Hutchison Fusions on Stans Alpha for me)

The only single determinant of how fast you go is how much work you put in to going fast.

I think most rational people would assume that….

Aren’t we all forgetting the two key determinants of how fast you go?

When going up hill/accelerating = Power / weight
When on the flat = Power / Coefficient of Drag

If I lose a kilo from the bike I improve my power to weight ratio do I not? Thus going uphill faster. Unless I’ve bought some aero wheels or whatever, i’ve not changed the coefficient of drag to any significant extent. Indeed it’s debatable if the wheels make more than a negligible difference at the kind of speeds most people ride at anyway…

Equally if I lose a kilo from me it has the exact same effect as above, however it is likely if I lose a kilo that my surface area will reduce (you get smaller don’t you?) this will reduce my coefficient of drag. This makes me faster of the flat too.

Ergo, losing weight from the body > losing weight from the bike, no?

Definitely worth the time and money. If I had turned up on my own I wouldn’t have ridden much, but with a little guidance from Tom and John I rode the lot! On a 100mm 26″ xc race hard tail too…

LTHR is simply the highest heart rate you can sustain (read average) for an hour, in a quasi-steady state effort. However it’s difficult to maintain concentration/motivation for an hour so instead you’re probably best off using the ‘friel method, found here: http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/11/quick-guide-to-setting-zones.html

I’d be wary of training by heart rate given how inconsistent it is, caffeine, hydration and heat, among other things can have a huge effect – I’d say you’re far better of using RPE or Power. For instance a good dose of caffeine means I can hold 200bpm for a fair while, without caffeine I max at 201bpm.

And max heart rate means very little since it’s quite an arbitrary measure, in that it can yield different relative intensities to different people. So whilst your zones based upon MHR may say you’re in Z3, in terms of output you may be z2, this may be because you can sustain a relatively high heart rate compared to the average person. So yeah, whatever the highest heart rate you have ever seen on your HRM, that’s going to close to your MHR – but you don’t really need to know.

Edit: Technically LT is the wattage at the point at which lactic acid begins to accumulate within the body (A few labs use your baseline lactic level +1), but that’s another story.

You’re not meant to run more than an 80mm stem on an on-one due to the longer top tubes – 100mm will make it feel very vague, particularly for a bike like a 456.

Also, your bars need rotating forwards (unless that’s how you like it).

Ralphs are an ideal tyre for that course, they were fine when I rode it in slightly damp conditions. No need for snakeskin or such, as there aren’t many sharp rock edges at all. Wouldn’t run too lower pressures, ie <22psi since there’s plenty of potential to burp the tyre.

Have you done the series before? If so, what sort of positions were you getting, and what sort of positions do you aspire to achieve this time around?

How much training do you do now, and what sort of training do you do?

Realistically how much time are you willing to set a side to train and what equipment do you have available to you? eg – Turbo, HRM, road bike, power meter etc.

Also, unless you have loads of ‘lunch muscle’, given that thetford is relatively very flat, weight loss will offer little performance benefits – There’s a guy who’s at least 16st who makes the top 10 there, the key is laying down a good amount of power and sustaining it for the race. However, sustained fat loss is rarely a bad thing.

I have had problems locally with riding across footpaths, so I took to walking across them/gaining permission to ride on them – Some land owners still objected to me walking my bike across a footpath. One tried to knock me off my bike whilst I was riding along shortly after leaving his land, then got out with his shotgun and threatened to call the police, I said ‘go ahead you’ve just pointed a shotgun at a minor…’ I then blackmailed him into giving me permission to ride on his footpaths. But for assurance I did some research to see if I was in the wrong! My findings were that:

There’s no binding precedent for a case on this matter, however the likelihood would be that you would be held ‘not liable’ in a court of law, this is on the basis that:
-A person on foot (i.e. a foot passenger) is legally allowed to walk on a footpath
-Crank v Brooks 1980 clearly states that a person walking with their bicycle along a zebra crossing is a foot passenger – whilst this isn’t binding, it would be very hard to believe a judge not accepting this as a ‘definition’
-a footpath is a pedestrian facility in the same way as a zebra crossing or footway, so it seems reasonable to assume that the law applies in the same way for footpaths
-No piece of statute states that you cannot walk a bicycle on a footpath, and the common law presumption is that if it isn’t prohibited it must therefore be permitted

Thus it probably isn’t a civil offence, and the chances of the case actually making it court a virtually nil.

NB-I have no formal legal qualifications.

I have one,

Bad Stuff:
-Limited to BB92 (it’s actually an 89.5mm) which suck, I’ve had mine since October, and I’m one 2nd which is on its last leg – this is a Sram BB incase you’r wondering.
-Long top tube, not great when you’re 5’9″ and have a 34″ inseam, a 16″ isn’t an option, even with a 400mm post.
-Hard to bunny hop and descend on – but hey it’s an xc race bike, you’ve just got to concentrate.
-Poor tolerances, the chain line on mine is really at the extreme, but it still works(shifting), just about.
-Mine weighed in at circa 1450g, not the 1300g claimed.

Good Stuff:
-Price – couldn’t get a better bike, for what I do, for the money.
-Plenty strong enough
-Great geo for racing, and it manages trail centres too (I put the stem the ‘right way’ up, risers not flats and sensible tyres and I do ‘play’ on it. Perhaps the head angle could do with being a degree slacker?
-Stiff under power, yet relatively forgiving rear end.
-Looks quite nice (red & white).
-Climbs like a daemon.
-Very Stable in the corners.

IMO Zone 2 training should be used to supplement other training, i.e. when your legs are too tired to do more intense training, but rested enough to do less intense training, because, after all, it is still beneficial. It makes your body more efficient and gives you an opportunity to work on other aspects such as pedaling technique. I wouldn’t worry about how far you ride, but how long for, I’d aim for at least 2.5 hours of quality riding in Z2, but don’t take it as far as walking up hills to stay in zone, that’s just plain boring. You’ll get faster and if you’re faster in Z2 you’re faster in Z3 and so, so on, just to a lesser extent.

If I started training in Z4, 5, 6 only, I’d be wanting to give up come March, not gearing up for the big training blocks, training requires moderation.

A word on zones; basing them on your maximum heart rate is a little stupid, as everyone has a large variance in fitness, and using zones based upon LT is vary more specific to each individual and therefore leads to the desired adaptions brought about by training.

I also think from the Z5 blurb above that HR is useless for 30 second intervals – it’ll take more than half of that to ‘catch up’, for 30 second intervals flat out is the way!

Yes, very true. My heart rate will peak at 200+ halfway through the rest when I do 40 sec flat out sprints! Hence the reason my zones don’t include a HR value just power value for my 6th zone. So it’s just as hard as I can.