Road Cycling

I think at the start of the year I was talking about what targets I could set myself given that mileage wasn't a good one any more. Today I had an idea... climbs! At the start of the year I'd only done 7 of the 'Top 100'. This year I will set myself a target of completing 10 more. I did Box Hill a few weeks ago and I'm hoping to head into Wales tomorrow and tick off a couple more. I have another route planned with two more, but I might leave them to my next visit (I'm at my mum's near Wales for a few days)

Not only does this give me a target, but it will encourage me to travel to ride new places, which I enjoy doing. I want to get to the Surrey hills and also Cheddar Gorge at somet point this year.
 
My year targets went out the window about 3 weeks in to the year. I caught a cough and still can't shake it, combined with my Tacx bike failing and needing to wait a estimated 6 weeks for the replacement. :(
 
Getting ready to fit these for Spring just as the snow is due! New wheel day!

Lots of deliberating between different options, price points etc but have settled on matchy matchy Roval Rapides. These are the CL IIs rather than the CLX but I’m sure I’ll survive.

F2-D7688-C-1-A89-4-BF8-804-A-089-E0-C7-B0-D37.jpg
 
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AndyCr15 said:
I'm hoping to head into Wales tomorrow and tick off a couple more.
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Yep. two more done. In fact #88 Penbarra is supposedly the hardest I've done yet (in the UK. I know I've done harder in Europe). I was honestly quite worried, thinking I might have to walk up it as I'm not at the top of my game at the moment and then throw in the rain, would I be loosing traction with some wheel spinning? It wasn't as bad as I had thought, although the first third was really tough, then it settled into a more steady rate to the top.

iEmWfGs.jpg

From the top of #88 Penbarra
 
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Swapped the saddle I got with my bike (145mm) for a new 130mm saddle and its made a massive difference to my comfort. Got brand new second hand 42cm bars coming next week which should hopefully help as well. Amazing how much a saddle impacts everything on the bike. Always felt like I wasn't "on" the bike quite right with the old saddle.
 
AndyCr15 said:
Yep. two more done. In fact #88 Penbarra is supposedly the hardest I've done yet (in the UK. I know I've done harder in Europe). I was honestly quite worried, thinking I might have to walk up it as I'm not at the top of my game at the moment and then throw in the rain, would I be loosing traction with some wheel spinning? It wasn't as bad as I had thought, although the first third was really tough, then it settled into a more steady rate to the top.
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Good effort in the wintery conditions!

Not far away from #89 that starts in Denbigh, well worth doing, crazy to to think I did it in mid March last year in summer kit given current temps. https://www.strava.com/segments/6671093
 
Yeah, I have another route with #89 and #87 in it. I had wondered about doing them tomorrow, but I think I'll leave them for my next visit up here.
 
AndyCr15 said:
Today I had an idea... climbs!
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I've had another idea for a 2023 Goal, although this one is indoor based. I only noticed today that SYSTM has 'Awards' (achievements). At the start of the year I'd only completed 2 of 12 climbing training sessions. I did one in February and I've just done one today. I think it might be a little easy to complete that, so a stretch goal will be to compelte 'All Speed' of which there are 15 but I've done 6 already.

It will hopefully be good motivation and a reminder to keep my training up!
 
Off to a local university on Friday (snow permitting) to complete a vo2 and lactate threshold test on a bike. Quite looking forward to it, I've ran and cycled for years but only recently starting taking it a bit more seriously about not just going out as hard as possible at every opportunity and actually trying to stick on lower zones for the majority of the time.

I've got some big multi sport events coming up later in the year so just want to make sure I'm not being too optimistic with the zones that get auto generated out of things like Garmin/Strava/Zwift. It's been a while since I've done an FTP test as well, although I'm definitely not at my fittest right now (toddler = constant illness) I'm really interested just to see the data that comes out of the test.

Anyone else completed something similar? For the price they are charging (£120) it felt like a fairly worthwhile bit of money to spend to see where I'm at.
 
OG said:
Off to a local university on Friday (snow permitting) to complete a vo2 and lactate threshold test on a bike. Quite looking forward to it, I've ran and cycled for years but only recently starting taking it a bit more seriously about not just going out as hard as possible at every opportunity and actually trying to stick on lower zones for the majority of the time.

I've got some big multi sport events coming up later in the year so just want to make sure I'm not being too optimistic with the zones that get auto generated out of things like Garmin/Strava/Zwift. It's been a while since I've done an FTP test as well, although I'm definitely not at my fittest right now (toddler = constant illness) I'm really interested just to see the data that comes out of the test.

Anyone else completed something similar? For the price they are charging (£120) it felt like a fairly worthwhile bit of money to spend to see where I'm at.
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Are you signed up at https://intervals.icu/ ?

Would interesting to compare the VO2max figure in the power section from recent weeks compared to what you get from the lab test. ;)
 
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