That Barkley film and whole race is just brilliant. Definitely worth a watch.

Got Lamarck on the schedule tomorrow, 4 * 10 at bang on FTP with 2 minutes recovery. IF of 0.92, nice.

Agree that mentally I find these sessions way harder than the VO2 max ones. Ooh well just knuckle down and get it done.

Starting to firm up the races now for April and May which is helping with the motivation, as is the ever increasing amount of daylight over here.

Watched that via the link on UKClimbing.org nice film and a tough looking race. Kudos for completing that.

Bet the weathers never been like that again

Gonna have to follow you to see that as your accounts private.

Back on the bike after 10 days running including a cross country race whilst I was in the UK.

Felt pretty good but I’m finding the 90 minute sessions damn hard to do at 100%.

Fit
Material
Intended use

If the designer gets these three right then performance comes as a direct consequence.

I have a couple of go to brands based on those criteria, (Sportful, Rapha, BioRacer).

Luckily our club kit is now made by BioRacer so I spend the majority of the time on the MTB in their kit, which is excellent.

Can’t read the link as its behind the paywall, however if BC are starting to hire PR teams then I’d guess its as an attempt to distance themselves from Sky for when the fallout of the return of Cope to parliament hits home.

Did it a couple of years ago, enjoyed it but felt that it knocked me back a bit with the amount of recovery I needed.

Not tried their new platform but have a fair few of the films and together TrainerRoad they work a treat.

Sweet spot work is not really recovery, but I get your point.

Geiger fits the bill, or Donner if you dial down the FTP by 5-10%

Anybody know if MvdP crucial puncture was because he hit that concrete block at the bottom of the off-camber descent where he took the low line and VvA took the high line, or was it the puncture that caused him hit the block?

Bit of a training update, I’ve been following sweet spot low volume for about 7 weeks now.

I find that this gives me a structured plan for the dark nights on my rollers whilst leaving me fresh enough to for a couple more sessions on the MTB if time/weather permits.

Upped the FTP 7 watts to 4.2w/KG from just before Christmas, so things are moving the right direction.

Racing licence paid for and first race entered in order to create a little extra motivation.

Keep looking at new bikes whilst I’ve been hunting around for a new one for my eldest son. Some really nice 2017 models out now, way more tempting than 2016 ones were this time last year, odd.

Mix it up, you don’t need to spend an hour on the bike to get a good workout. A hard interval session can be done half that time.

Don’t ride everyday, three days a week, if structured a little would be more than enough to maximize fitness. You can use a HR monitor and a tool like TrainerRoad if you want to get serious/structured. However as suggested there are plenty of sites online that have films/sessions available for free.

I have a Dolan Preffisio frameset. Unbelievably good for the price. Runs wider size tyres without a problem, has mounts for guards for winter riding, and has an excellent race geometry.

Been looking at their CDX cross frameset for my next project….

At the moment I’ve got Maxxis Ardent on the front and their Ikon on the rear. Both in skinwall 8)

Considering using the race versions of these in summer as I’ve been impressed with them so far.

I have a Swedish racing license but with UK nationality. I need to apply to the Swedish cycling federation to get permission to race anywhere outside of Sweden. Not raced UK nats, but have raced the Swedish ones a fair few times.

Geiger for me this morning, way too early but needs must. 3 *12 and felt pretty good.

Last of our clubs winter series of MTB races this Saturday then hopefully I can get a couple of good long rides in outside over the Christmas period, finish this block off and re-do the FTP before the next 6 weeks.

Wow this threads still going, nice.

Well I’m back on the bike and back on TR, and now apparently back on STW!

Spent the first 6 months of the year running, and the rest simply riding and racing my MTB for the hell of it.

Bit of structured training on TR now till March or so, starting with low volume sweet spot with a longer 3 hour ride outside thrown in for good measure when the time and weather permit.

Still on the rollers but have had an extensive play on a Kickr, despite the huge increase in FTP with it they’re good fun but not worth it when compared to a real power meter then can be used for outside training as well. IMO.

Anyway keep calm and carry on!

A very US build, nice.

Front brake cable looks short?

The Tour of Poland is next year as it clashes with the Olympics, but not normally.

Guess they could throw Dubai, Oman and the others in 😛

My understanding is that it’s a backlash to the UCI reforms and an attempt to maneuver out Cookson and put someone French/more inline with ASO thinking in his place.

The inner ring analysis is worth reading for a balanced view.

struggling with PKW there Munge-chick?

Thanks for the clip mrblobby I’ll browse that later.

Cool that they seeming to be getting equal equipment billing.

Anybody tried eTap yet?

Nice looking kit!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/canyon-sram-unveil-colourful-racing-kit-for-2016/

Feeling a little blah after a couple of hard training days and a household bug doing the rounds, so tried to sweat it out with Rendezvous tonight. one hour of increasing 10 minute blocks finishing at threshold, turned out a little harder than I imagined actually, despite a TSS of only 66.

We’ll see tomorrow morning if that was a cure or the straw that broke me. 🙄

Yes, moving from 1 * 10 to 1 * 11 added weight as I wasn’t prepared to pay for a light weight cassette and the XT one, whilst “cheap” is certainly not light!

Out of interest going from 2 * 10 to 1 * 10 an upgrading parts saved me 350grams.

1 * 11 XT here, 11-40 cassette with a 36t AbsoluteBlack chainring, on a 29er hardtail.

Used mostly for marathon distance racing rather than multiple lap XC style.

I found I needed the 36t up front so I didn’t spin out keeping up with the 10t cassette guys on the “controlled start” sections that are normally a couple of KM’s on tarmac and ridden at well over 40km/h.

Timely thread as this is on the shopping list for Christmas.

A little clarification in the difference between juicing and blending, for those like me, who were not 100% sure:

Juicing vs. Blending: Everything You Need to Know

So a minute per KM slower than 10KM race pace. Perfect.

Nice finbar, sub 34 PB December! Congrats.

Can you define Friday’s “steady” pace?

The rest makes perfect sense.

Build the week around one fast session, one tempo session, one long run, and fill the rest with miles.

Some basic architectural statements would be useful.

Does it have to integrate with any other system?
How many people need access to it simultaneously?
Should it be written in a particular language?
Do you want to pay any Licensing costs or should be it based on freeware?
Does it need to conform to any standards?
Where’s it to be hosted?

All my sessions are done on rollers with TrainerRoad feedback. Brilliant training tool, great fun to use, improves technique as well as fitness, plenty of resistance to perform intervals on.

Highly recommend.

Good rollers, never ridden my MTB on mine though. But yeah loud would be a word that springs to mind.

Only watched the first half so far, but agree that the first film, due to its “accidental” nature has a better narrative. This one seems a little forced.

However the interviews with Taylor, his Dad, and Cam Wolf have been very good.

Cam Wolf moving from rowing worlds one year to road ITT world’s the next is proof that a big engine and a massive VO2 max gets you a long way.

In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. You missed a session indoors and rode outside.

You still rode, you still raised your heart rate, it’s all good training.

Consistency is the key to getting and keeping fit, not one individual session.

Keep on with the plan as it is, today’s session is there for a reason as is the next session.

Was wondering what we should run at the club tonight, so settled on Russian Steps, thanks for the inspiration stevious 😆 not sure the rest of the club enjoyed it mind

Top effort sir! 8)

To be Degenkolb you need to be able the shout really loudly despite absolutely nailing it in a sprint train!

An example of my understanding of Russian Steps:

15sec on 45sec off
30sec on 30sec off
45sec on 15sec off
60sec on 60sec off
45sec on 15sec off
30sec on 30sec off
15sec on 45sec off
30sec on 30sec off
45sec on 15sec off
60sec on 60sec off

Nothing under that name but both Sufferfest Downward Spiral and Do As You’re Told have that style of attack/rest

No pressure Kryton57, but the forum needs to know 😛