A cycling log

And now for something completely different...

I've been cycling all my life (who hasn't?) but it wasn't until maybe two or three years ago that it was something that:

a) I really enjoyed and
b) could be decent at

I have stepped up my mileage over the last 12 months and have decided to start building towards the goal of riding competitively. I'll be tracking my progress in here.

Current stats:

Weight: 67kg (@ 179cm)
Functional Threshold Power (FTP from here on i.e. max sustainable power for 60 mins): 265W
W/kg: 3.96 (bit of a pointless e-peen stat as it doesn't usually include bike weight but I'll mention it anyway, bike included brings it down to a more realistic 3.5ish)

Training-wise, I'll be riding on the road in a mixture of solo and group rides and also using a tool called TrainerRoad. This is a program that takes speed and cadence data from your bike when using a stationary trainer and converts it into virtual power data. You can then use this power data to gauge your effort against a huge number of workouts in the TrainerRoad database. These are structured to work you at different intensities to build everything from endurance to explosive power. Mainly, it means a LOT of interval work!

TrainerRoad measures your FTP by an infamous 20 minute fitness test. This involves a 30 minute warm-up followed by a 20 minute block in which you need to ride at a pace which could be sustained for 20 minutes and no longer. Ideally, you should be ready to pop (and throw up) by the end. I did this yesterday to determine my current FTP as above.

10/8/13 workout link: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/376066

My very simplified plan at this stage is to start building towards next season already and maybe fitting in a few test events along the way. I will spend the next 2-3 months doing higher intensity work to build my FTP and then consolidate this over winter with higher mileage at lower intensity to build a base for next year. In the spring, I'll step up the intensity again with an aim of peaking for the first races of the season, whenever they are!

On the cards for this week are a couple of time trials that I'm doing more for social reasons than anything (I've just joined a new cycling club) and I'll hopefully top those up with a TrainerRoad session and a ride on the weekend. My thoughts are by doing the time trials at this stage I can also give myself a decent benchmark to see improvement from.

I'll update this thread as and when I get chance. Thanks for reading!

Nice. I have been watching bike training for a while with an aim to get my recovering triathlete wannabe brother from London to Huntingdon in around 4 hours, so I'll watch yours with interest!

On that basis, I don't know too much about cycling!

So what is your diet like, and how come you lumped 4/5 unpleasant tests in one session? What were you shooting for with them (peak power/overall power)?

Questions, questions...

The initial spikes you see in the session are just the warm-up. Ideally a warm-up will gradually take you from resting to slightly above the actual level you plan to work at. The twenty minute constant block is the main work of the session. I was going more on feel than shooting for a particular power but I was hoping for a result in the 260W range, so 265 is pretty close.

Important to state the power is probably only accurate +/- 5% anyway due to limitations of the measuring method, but I'll be happy to see any improvements relative to that.

Diet-wise, I tend to eat a higher protein lower carb diet which may come as a surprise based on the sort of work I'm doing. I find my energy levels are a bit more consistent this way. A typical day would usually be something like:

Breakfast: Wholemeal bagel with 3 egg omelette/scrambled eggs
Lunch: Chicken with salad
Dinner: Salmon with green vegetables and side salad
Snacks: fruit and nuts

If I have a longer ride (60+ miles) planned then I'll usual aim for a pasta/rice meal the night before and porridge in the morning.

Quick update, rode my first 10 mile time trial last night near Macclesfield in a time of 26:04. Strava trace is here: http://www.strava.com/activities/74228898

First thing to mention was it was a completely non-pretentious, friendly event and no could care less what time you do as they're far more worried about their own performance. Ultimately, if people see that you're happy with your time then they're happy for you. I'd definitely recommend going along and giving one a try.

Anyway, pretty happy with how it went as a first go but still shows me I would definitely benefit from developing my absolute power. Although my ultimate goal is to race which generally involves a lot of short, sharp efforts rather than the steady effort you hold in a TT, I expect this sort of threshold work will always be useful when things get quicker.

There is a hilly TT organised by another local club tomorrow night which I'm tempted to go to depending on my recovery today as it should play more to my strengths.

Today I will be aiming to do a light spin on the indoor trainer this evening to clear my legs followed by some stretching and rolling (Rumble Roller and hockey ball). I've found icecold's mobility thread really useful in terms of addressing some of my functionality issues which are pretty typical of cyclists (tight glutes, hams and hip flexors) which cause me to round my back and shorten my effective torso length. This ultimately makes my bike position less efficient and comfortable though things have improved massively in the time I've been working on it. I also need to work on my core strength so need to make time for this.

In conjunction with the mobility work I've been using Steve Hogg's excellent bike fit website to adjust my position on the turbo and iron out some of my issues. There are some excellent bike fitters out there but I like the DIY approach as it encourages you to think a bit more about your issues rather than just pay to have them fixed. I've found either filming myself or using a mirror really useful in seeing what I'm actually doing on the bike. Often what you think you're doing is nothing like the reality. I made some adjustments on the weekend and these seem to have had a positive impact.

I have tragically neglected this thread but I started it at the wrong time of year really. After a good summer last year, my latest round of ACA exams were like hitting a brick wall in terms of training time and were swiftly followed up by far too many weeks working away in bike-unfriendly places.

However, I'm working hard to get back on it. A few easier long rides over Christmas have been followed up with my first 6 week block of TrainerRoad of the year. This 6 weeks has been all about sweet spot work and technique with not too much in the way of sprints and higher intensity stuff (that's not to say it's been easy though!).

I retested my FTP at 238W at the beginning of January and am due for a retest this week after completing the first block of work. Ideally I'd like to be getting near 300W by the end of the year as I think that would make me fairly competitive for the hill climb season. I'll be aiming for some flat TTs as well but not sure if I will manage any bunch races this year as I haven't had much chance to work on my group riding skills. The loooong (more in terms of time than distance) weekend group rides my club runs don't really fit with my schedule and I can never make it to the evening sessions because of work.

I'm heading to Manchester velodrome for an intro track session in June so that's something to look forward to as well.

FTP up to 251W as of last night. Moving in the right direction. ****ing hate that 20 minute test though!

Yeah... I've not heard many people singing the praises of power testing.

My coach at work runs the Strength and Conditioning programme for the Irish Rowing team, and he's told me stories of power work that make my blood run cold.

His favourite is what he calls the "hour of power."

Haha I wasn't at the tasting blood stage (that happened in a TT last year...) but certainly nearing the going to vom stage.

Right, time to get back on updating this. I've just retested my fitness at what will be the start of my training for 2015 so seems like a good point to get back on it.

Vital stats @ 18/11/14:
Weight: 70kg (same height...)
Power: 240w

2014 summary

-Completed the Fred Whitton in 7hrs51
-Started track racing and placed third in my category at my club's track championships
-Set a new PB in the one 10 mile TT I made it to this year with 25:38
-Started lifting to complement my riding in September (now squat@70kg, deads@85kg, bench@55kg)

I reckon I peaked fitness wise about 2.5 months ago, but I still wasn't quite where I wanted to be. My endurance was good, but I lacked the top end speed that makes the difference between 3rd and 1st on the track. Racing starts for me in mid-January so this block of training will be about regaining my endurance and then building my VO2 max to cope with short, high intensity races. Sprint efforts will get added in nearer the off.

I won't update this for every session, but here's today's fitness test as a kick off: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1255430-20-Minute-Test

2015 Goals:
-Win some races
-Start working FTP up to magical 300w mark (again)
-100kg squat, 140kg deadlift, 70kg bench (let's be ambitious)

One More Solo said:

I won't update this for every session, but here's today's fitness test as a kick off: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1255430-20-Minute-Test

Click to expand...

Wow, that's an impressive graph. Bang on the target power all the way through, looks like you've paced it really well!

Yeah, fairly happy with the pacing, had a bit left at the end but not much really. I always find you get a big bump on the 1st retest with the dual impact of the training you've been doing and just being more practiced at doing 20 minute tests!

Week 1 of training back on the bike done.

Tue: FTP test (above)
Thu: 3x12mins @ 204W
Sat: Weights (1x5 90kg deadlift, 5x5 50kg squat [dropped weight to try low bar squats], 5x5 37.5kg OHP) and mobility work (adductors, psoas, calves/heel cord)
Sun: steady 40 mile ride with a few sprint efforts and cadence drills thrown in

Week 2 of training (will just edit this post as the week goes on):

Tue: Weights
5x5 60kg squat. Building up the weight slowly as I get used to low bar form which seems to suit me better. High bar was giving me hip issues despite a lot of mobility work alongside it.
5x5 55kg bench. Tough but got all of them up, will probably need a spotter for 57.5kg.
5x5 50kg pendlay rows. Starting to struggle with these and stuck with 50kg the last 3 times despite completing the sets as I'm not happy with form. Might look into some assistance work.

Wed: 60 mins on the turbo, focusing on high cadence sprints and a little bit of sweet spot work to finish. http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1281883-Goddard

Thu: Gym
5x5 65kg squats
1x5 90kg deadlifts, with some deload work at 80kg
5x5 40kg OHP (went 5, 5, 5, 3, 4 - hard)

Fri: Turbo, 6x6 mins at sweet spot (90%ish FTP)

Sat: Gym
Bit hungover so:
5x5 60kg squats, felt bleh
5x5 57.5kg bench, went up OK
5x5 50kg rows, making progress with these and going to up the weight next session

Sun: easy ride, just a quick spin out and back to enjoy the sun

Progress pic as of this morning:
Definitely the leanest I've ever been and the extra strength seems to help my comfort on the bike. I generally feel like a better functioning human too rather than a glorified engine.

Week 3:

I missed the 90 min turbo session last week and will try and squeeze it in this week, but I'm working at a client site this week and have a much longer commute as a result.

Mon: Turbo, 4x8 mins @ sweet spot, working on cadence. Easy enough but felt productive.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1298972-Ericsson

Wed: Turbo, 6x5-7 mins @ sweet spot, cadence around 90rpm. Absolutely Baltic in the conservatory last night (where I have the turbo), kept my jumper on till 30 mins and could see my breath! My laptop then decided it was only going to let me see a third of the screen, so bit of a frustrating session all round. Session itself was comfortable but just a challenge due to struggling to get warm. http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1307273-Carson

Set up fairly well for the rest of the week, hoping to squeeze in two 90 minute sessions then have a skills session at the track on Saturday.

Update:

Fri: 60 min turbo doing cadence ramps from 100-330w, fun session!

Sat: Gym (AM), 60kg squats and 70kg deadlifts (5x5). Lighter weight to save my legs for the evening. Also hit a Bench PB with a 1RM at 70kg (which is my exact bodyweight as of this morning).

Track (PM), SQT session doing through and off, team pursuit, sprint laps and Italian Pursuit.

Sun: turbo, 5x10 mins at sweet spot. Legs very sore but felt comfortable.

Good week! Tired now though.

Updated to finish week 3. Two more weeks of base training to come.

Another busy week, having to squeeze in sessions due to working away.

Mon: Rest

Tue: Working away so took my track bike and rollers and did half an hour on them in the hotel, along with some core work and stretching. I'd planned to use the rollers again on Wednesday but they are louder than I've realised, you don't really think about it at home.

Wed: Rest

Thu: hour on the turbo with 5x7 mins at sweet spot. Really tired and stiff after driving back from Harrogate, so a bit of a drag. http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1338139-Tunnabora

Fri: should have been 3x12 mins at sweet spot but my phone packed up midway through the final interval so ended up being 12/12/6. http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1344443-Geiger Had to go to the work Christmas do anyway so gave me an extra couple of mins to get ready.

Sat: 90 mins on the turbo, 3x20 mins at sweet spot. This is easily the most boring session of all and makes you long for the VO2 max work to come... These long intervals are great for aerobic fitness but my God do they drag.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1345221-Eclipse

Sun: 2 hours at the track to finally complete my track accreditation so I'm now able to ride in public training sessions. Manchester run SQTs (Structured Quality Training) focusing on different aspects of track riding (sprint/keirin/madison/points etc) which you need to be accredited to attend. It in theory means everyone is competent but you still see some unbelievably stupid things going on!

The actual accreditation slot turned out to be a decent session in the end, mix of paceline stuff, some mock racing and a bit of chaingang. These are never a great workout as abilities tend to be very mixed but there were a couple of opportunities to turn my legs over and all helps with the base fitness.

Most importantly, accreditation also means I can ride in Monday night league at the track when it starts up in January. I've signed up to race Mondays and Fridays so will do either or both depending on work. I'm excited to race as I've not done any outside of club race nights.

Only negative point of the last couple of weeks has been the lack of gym work which is for two reasons: 1) prioritising bike sessions 2) my membership expired a couple of days ago and no plans to renew until the new year as I'm on holiday over Christmas. I think realistically I need to get a home setup to be able to have time to do 5 days of gym and bike work. We're moving house next year and will be looking to accommodate that as I've really enjoyed the weights stuff.

No recent updates as I've been in Oz over Christmas without much internet access - doesn't mean the training has stopped though! Took advantage of the summer weather to rack up 450 miles over the 3 weeks, with a good mix of touristy cruising, some shorter more intense rides and some longer tempo rides.

I found a local group ride to tag on to on a couple of weekends which turned out to be great. Most of the time the pace was hard but sensible until the final 10 miles or so which turned out to be a bit of a smashfest. Looked down at my Garmin at one point to see us riding along at over 50km/h with the wind behind us. I was a bit out of place on my 1980s Dawes steely alongside a Cannondale SuperSix Evo and several Trek Madones but, as they say, it's not about the bike.

The legs were starting to feel pretty good by the end of it so it'll be a couple of easy spins this week to get over the jetlag and then racing Friday for the first time.

Long overdue update time.

Training has still been going well despite work being very busy at this time of year. I finally made the investment in a proper powermeter (a Powertap G3) to give me more reliable and repeatable power measurements. It’s one thing targeting 300W but then getting there and finding you were only pushing 250W in reality.

As it turned out, my FTP has only increased from 238W to 245W, but that’s with the large caveat that the 238W reading came from TrainerRoad while the 245W was taken from the Powertap. Given I’ve done a lot of training in between, I’d like to think TrainerRoad was overreading a bit and the improvements I’ve made is bigger than that.

I’m now moving in to a block of more specialised training (focusing on 3-5 minute power especially with some sprint drills) as I think that’s what will benefit me most for track racing. Speaking of racing…
I’ve done 3 league nights at Manchester velodrome, one Friday night and two Mondays. There aren’t massive differences between Mondays and Fridays, other than a slightly different mix of races and the fact that Monday night is two senior groups with separate junior races, whereas Friday is four groups with a mix of all ages.

My first Friday went fairly well, I started in the lowest group and finished 2nd in the points race and course des primes. Me and the guy that finished first in both were promptly bumped to group 2. He then proceeded to win the 1km scratch by about a third of a lap while I finished in the middle of the bunch. I think I found my current level but he hadn’t!

I raced the following Monday too, starting out in the lower of the two groups. The night started well with me picking up 2nd place in the 12 lap scratch, and missing out on 1st by about the depth of a rim. I made the mistake of starting my sprint a bit late as with another few metres I would have won it. The remainder of the night was a bit more low key, although a smarter move in the elimination race would have given me a good chance of top 3. I was stuck at the back of the bunch with about 6 riders left, and attacked over the top to avoid being eliminated. What I should have done was commit fully to the move and get on the front, but instead I dropped in second or third wheel and soon found myself being shuffled out the back. It was a good lesson to learn though.

The night ended with a combined group one and two points race over 30 laps. Thanks to the group one guys, this was ridden at an average of just under 29mph so it was bloody fast! I followed the fast guys on a club mate’s wheel for the first 20 laps and ended up lapping the bunch without even realising it. I didn’t manage to pick up any points along the way, and I didn’t have the stamina to stay the distance, but I was happy to keep up for a decent part of it. With hindsight, I should have geared up as I was spinning at about 120rpm just to stay in the bunch!

More to follow…

Having watched some track bunch racing, it does seem like race craft can really help - Laura Trott's ability to repeatedly just miss being eliminated and then hit the front at the right moment seems key to her constant success at the elimination races.

How do you like the G3?

GSVBagpuss said:

Having watched some track bunch racing, it does seem like race craft can really help - Laura Trott's ability to repeatedly just miss being eliminated and then hit the front at the right moment seems key to her constant success at the elimination races.

How do you like the G3?

Click to expand...

Big time. I'm probably 50 or more watts down on some of the guys I race with but that means trying to race a bit smarter - sitting in the wheels, not doing too many turns on the front and not burning too many matches early on. It doesn't always work but gives me a chance to be in the mix at the end at least (and lose the sprint!). Trott is a master really, she reads races so well. She also has a fantastic riding position so probably makes up for her relative lack of top end power that way.

The G3 has worked well so far, don't know whether it will ever leave the house but it's a good training tool that takes out some of the guesswork. I'll probably get one of those 4iiii crank based power meters down the line for outside.