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The Sh*te on a Bike Thread
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too much of a sissy to do it in the winter, huh?
[climbs up a very high tree very quickly]
Jj
My hill reps at the moment are about 1mile long at the most
roflol
(((((Willum)))))
<<<whispers>>> most wimpy normal people only use 100 yards or so!
Hill Reps of a mile?
Sheesh
Is it just me that's really crap or is that hardcore?
hardcore sh*te.. are we starting a new language and scale of sh*te here..??
I like that... it sound exclusive..
This sort of thing
* Spin-Ups. Increase your cadence until you begin to bounce on the saddle. 100+ rpms. Then back off the cadence just a hair and stay there for 1 minute. Recover completely and then repeat. Do about 5-7 repetitions. This bouncing is a result of muscles not working together efficiently. By repeating this drill, your muscles will learn the firing patterns required for efficient coordinated movement.
* Isolate Leg Drills: on a trainer, unclip one leg and put it on a chair or stool. Pedal with the other leg and try to "Circle Pedal:" apply power to the pedals smoothly in a circle, by eliminating the dead spots. Think of "scraping mud" off your shoe at 6 o'clock and rolling the top of a barrel at 12 o'clock. A road variation of this is Dominant Leg, where you let one leg do 90% of the work, while the other just goes along for the ride.
* Strength: Spend 5 mins in a hard gear out of the saddle, try to maintain form and a stetady 60rpm, recover 3mins then spend 5mins seated grinding a hard gear ... recover
Feck me
I'm still at the pedal, stay vertical, don't die stage of bike training.
*thud* head falls off....
that doesn't sound very sh*te...
absolutely not hardcore sh*te...
[throws li'l fleecy pink glove at Will's feet]
I challenge thee, sire. To B@stid Hill! You 'member B@stid Hill? When I first conquered it?
one day I shall cycle up it!!
lol
Hmm, not so sure about the 'drills'. It's a personal thing, and perhaps I'm a bit biased as I've jsut been a 'natural' cyclist. I know other people that have been top cyclists and been very disparaging about the drills, and I'm not going to be like that (I hope), but just ask some questions that may provide an alternatiive way at looking at things.
Firstly, it's my belief from seeing other cyclists at races and out training that a massive limiter is people being in the wrong gear half the time, or jsut generally having carp riding technique. Simply getting out and riding regularly will be a massive help. Just like swimming, get out and ride 3 times a week if possible. Commute cycling is perfect as it entails lots of gear changing, so come race day you're shifting like second nature. Similarly pulling away from lights is a mini interval session. I know this isn't possible for everyone, but it is for a lot of people if they really wanted to.
Controvertial one, but get a computer with cadence on it. Ignore speed (or even distance) jsut solely concetrate on cadence. Almost all the weaker cyclists are grinding away at too low a cadence. Cadence takes time to work on, but if you can be comfortable at a fixed cadence which lies between 85 and 95 then I'd almost guarantee a front half bike split. And it doesn't take long, just cycle for a few minutes on the turbo without looking at the cadence and see what you naturally do, then add 3 rpm per week, and aim to hold at that. And this is where the 'get out and ride' comes in. Because once you're confident then you won't be a slave to the cadence monitor you will instintively be changing gears and keeping pedalling within 2 or 3 rpm of your natural without looking.
Of course getting the bike set up right is also vital, too low and you put too much strain on your knees, to high and you'll be rocking on the sadal. If you've a turbo then get on the bike, put a 10cm length of masking tape horizontally over your butt, and video yourself cycling from behind. This will show if you're rocking from side to side. If you're not, then check to see how much bend you've got at your knee. If your knee is over your toes when the foot is at the bottom of the pedal it's too bent and you could probaly do to come up a bit.
Personally I wouldn't do unclipped one legged drills, I don't think it is at all useful. Your changing your position for a start and whilst you shouldn't be pedalling just down like a piston, then you shouldn't be pulling up (just taking the weight of the shoe) and even the back pull is slight. It's the forward and down so from 11 o'clock to about 6 that you're puting the power in (from the right looking at your right leg). Others have asked whether I should do a mile of hopping one legged on teh treadmill to improve running? I don't think it's as clear cut as that, but if you really want to practice this then stay clipped in and concentrate on just workign one leg at a time. You can even do this out on the road.
Strength, well that comes later IMHO. Get technique and confidence first, and general cycle fitness, and then look at the strength side. The only time strngth should be an issue on 90% of tri-courses is if you've got the gearing wrong. There is nothing wrong with a compact or a 12-27 cassette. And with even a 39x27 then anyone who cycles 90 minutes a week over 3 occasions, or 2x 1hr rides can get up even a 1:4 climb. Of course practicing hills helps, and I don't mean hill reps either. I mean jsut go out and don't chose a route that avoids hills. Go out for an hours cycle, not 20 miles. And again, this is where the cadence bit comes in, not the speedo, as if you look at speed (that means nothing because of gradient and wind) then you'll go too fast and get demotivated. Just ride for time and go as far as you do in that time. A month of riding like that and I assure you that come race day then you'll be flying past people on the hills, especially all those that spend their 'bike time' doing 10 minutes of drills on the turbo (honestly not meant as a pop at anyone, I genuinely promise). Just get out and ride, keeping the HR down on the climbs, learn to cycle efficiently. Don't get out the saddle unless you really have to, and then when you do, keep as steady as you can and don't lean the bike over, that wastes 20-40% of the power that you are putting into the bike as added friction.
May I ask a numpty question?
I have come to the conclusion that petrol is too expensive and I am now going to cycle to work every day. It is 45 mins each way so equates to 1 1/2 hours biking a day and 7 1/2 hours a week. If I then do just one long ride on a weekend, I am currently up to 3 hours for a long ride, will that harm or hinder my training? I *gulp* would like to have a crack at IM distance late next year.
That's exactly what I did as my IMA training, and am currently doing form IMNZ. You will fly around, it's great training. Just watch out and take it easy on thurs/fri to start with as you'll be tired and can pick up strains easily.
Shed loads of gear! Probably cost as much as driving and parking in reality. You need to really look at your food intake as you'll burn a lot of cals, and that needs replacing or else you'll be depleted and unable to do anything else.
Pack your bag the night before to give yourself time for a quick snack pre ride, then get a second brekkie at work after the ride in (I used to go to the gym between the ride in and work for swimming / running). As for kit, then some Lusso repel longs I found to be the best value, a couple of pairs of those. Some shimano MO50 shoes with MTB pedals, porelle waterproof socks and some Planet-x overshoes. Top half varied day to day, but layers was the way. Base layer, gillet and a waterproof. I just got a real bargain top off chainreaction. Always go for layers and adjust the zip for the uphill/downhill bits. Gloves I got some Marmotte ones from Likeys.com that whilst being £30 are windproof and dry really quickly. I also wear a nike scull cap that does jsut enough to keep my ears from freezing. For bike lights then I got some cateye EL-200 lights for the front, and doubled up, so one on flash the other on constant. Back I can't remember but that was chosen to fit on my panier as I lost 4 or 5 last year. Panierwise then I got a topeak rack top bag that has zip out paniers. So normally it's jsut the bag that fits wallet, gym kit, etc, but if I need to carry my wetsuit / laptop etc then I zip out a panier. Clicks in and out so is a 2 second job either end of the journey.
Don't go all out every day. Some days then jsut use it as a recovery ride, others then perhaps go a bit quicker, or do some 5 minute efforts, and 5 minute recoveries.
Bloody hell D74 - you writing a book or something? I am with you on the cadence bit though. I keep to a 85 - 95 cadence. If it drops below 85 then I drop a gear, til I can't drop any more. It does mean I end up in my granny gear early, but I haven't got the strength in my legs to grind away in a higher gear. I only have my cadence and distance travelled visible on my bike computer. Only look at my speed at the finish - never during.
WW, 6 mile climb is something you just don't get round these southern parts (or not that I've come across anyway). I'm impressed with my 'just over a mile long' climb at the moment.