Road Cycling Essentials

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Vonhelmet said:
Urgh, I got up at 6 this morning to get out for a decent ride before church. It was 3 degrees when I set off and between being a bit tired, a bit underdressed and a bit underfed I felt a bit bonky at around 25 miles in. I limped home, but it certainly wasn't my best ride. Still, 33 miles all told. Roll on spring.
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Its tough at this time of year. My level has dropped so much and I am embarrassingly behind some of my riding buddies to the point where I am soloing it out most of the time at present. Under 16mph yesterday for 40 miles and 2000ft!! Just need to work harder I guess. Will reward myself with some of these if I can hit March in better form than 2014.
http://www.zuus.co.uk/zuus-z50-carbon-fibre-cycling-wheels-pair-50mm-rim-depth/
 
grudas said:
Have you linked them?! I've got the Garmin app on my lappy.. That syncs to strava and Garmin connect ;) all I do is plug my Garmin in.
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physichull said:
Aye, as Grudas said.

Up until yesterday I always plugged my Garmin into my pc to sync rides with the added benefit that it would charge it back up again. Yesterday though, somebody on the club ride was telling me that the 810 had Bluetooth (I had no idea!), so now I just pair it with my phone and sync via the Garmin app. Then because Strava is connected with my Garmin account, it appears there shortly after.

Not sure about the issue you are having with the rotating screens though? Mine stay still and you just swipe left/right to see different screens.
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Yeah linked them last night after googling around and came across dcrainmakers guide/review thingy, not sure why I didn't look there first! It's kinda what i've been expecting to do all along - no plugging in to sync (otherwise i'd have bought an older unit! :p ).

My ride from yesterday was in garminconnect before I setup the Strava link and there doesn't appear a way to force it through, i'm gonna do a turbo session today as a test (much easier to fiddle with the 810 too!) ;)

I'm getting there, I love the unit itself it's just all the faffing around afterwards which I was expecting to be better/straight forward/reliable. As i'm fairly technical it bugs me when things are more unreliable than they should be - certainly with a product like this (and the price tag!) ;)

Thomas. PLease. said:
Raced my second Cat 4 race this year yesterday, went pretty well, and hopefully got some points out of it!

Full write up:

http://thomaswhatley.blogspot.co.uk/
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Saw the ride on Strava, good work and looks like a strong start to your year! :)
 
Bit of a weak start to the year for me too as I was so ill around NYE. I managed to keep doing a fair bit of turbo training work as soon as I was remotely recovered but I still don't feel quite as strong as I was just before Christmas. Almost there though - will probably recover completely just in time for me to have to take another break in Feb :rolleyes:

Roady said:
Yeah linked them last night after googling around and came across dcrainmakers guide/review thingy, not sure why I didn't look there first! It's kinda what i've been expecting to do all along - no plugging in to sync (otherwise i'd have bought an older unit! :p ).

My ride from yesterday was in garminconnect before I setup the Strava link and there doesn't appear a way to force it through, i'm gonna do a turbo session today as a test (much easier to fiddle with the 810 too!) ;)

I'm getting there, I love the unit itself it's just all the faffing around afterwards which I was expecting to be better/straight forward/reliable. As i'm fairly technical it bugs me when things are more unreliable than they should be - certainly with a product like this (and the price tag!) ;)
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Use Trainer Road to do your turbo session. You can record it with the 810 too but don't use that as an excuse to not do the proper workouts ;)

From memory when I first got my 810 and I had a similar issue to yourself the ride that was seemingly stuck just on Garmin Connect did eventually filter through to Strava, though it took absolutely ages.
 
I've barely ridden yet this year, because it's been too windy and then too cold, hence why I siezed the opportunity to get out both yesterday and today as soon as I could be sure ithat wasn't icy. It occurred to me that I'm due to do a 100 miler, or thereabout, in May, so I need to step up my training in preparation for that.
 
This is the first weekend since middle of December I havnt felt dodgy. I had a chest infection and larygitis type stuff and its only now that I can take deep breaths without feeling my chest tighten. Gonna take it really slow and build up gradually as I dont want to get set back.

ps. ROADY....How are you getting on with the Defy , good points or bad points so far ?
 
Maxeh said:
Nice ride today, more PRs and a better average speed.

https://www.strava.com/activities/245823754

Just need to add another 10 miles/500ft to my ride :p

What's a good ratio of elevation per say 10 miles to aim for?
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There's not really a general good elevation per mile to aim for. You can try and do a hilly ride, or a flat ride.. short ride, long ride, etc. Or just go and ride around some nice countryside and enjoy yourself.

What is it you want to do with your riding?
 
At the moment its a means of creating a calorie deficit whilst trying to learn a new hobby :)

I really enjoy the rides I'm doing at the moment, great to get some fresh air and not take things too seriously, but I always crave some progress :p

I guess it's either aim for doing my routes quicker or add in some more hills/distance.
 
Probably a good approach is to work out a number of routes with different aims:

1) Something ridiculously hilly (perhaps hill repeats). Find all the longest/tallest hills near you and go up and down them. This route doesn't need to be long.

2) A long and mostly flat route. Perhaps between two towns or to a place of interest (or potentially to somewhere with a train station so you can get the train back).

3) A route that rides through some nice forest or valley or something. Likely to have a few hills but nothing crazy simply based on the location. edit: If you decide you want to concentrate on speed with this route it's worth trying to find a route that has minimal traffic lights/etc that will cause you to have to slow down.

First one will help you improve your leg strength a lot and your cardio fitness for short/intense intervals. Second one will improve your endurance and enable you to really start increasing your miles. Third one can be for rest days or when the weather is really nice and you want to see some scenery :)

Obviously that's just a start.

I know you already do lifting and such so you're not coming from a sedentary start or anything but I think the approach should still be the same - it's just that you've got a leg-up on a complete beginner :)

edit2: If you want the quickest way to create a kcal deficit then you're best off using a turbo btw. I've done a 1.5 hour session that burnt 1300 kcal, which wouldn't be impossible at all for you to get to in a month or three (or four...).
 
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Apologies for being a dick given everyone else is having a tough time but I feel great at the moment. :rolleyes: Got plenty of rides in over Christmas and had a solid 6 weeks of base turbo work before that. Managing to get in at least 3 quality sessions per week including racing. :) Aiming for a 100km ride every month this year and knocked today's off in just over 3 and a half hours.

https://www.strava.com/activities/245871769

I also picked up points on both track league nights I've made it too. Need to write those up. Feels like things are heading the right way.
 
Maxeh said:
Nice ride today, more PRs and a better average speed.

https://www.strava.com/activities/245823754

Just need to add another 10 miles/500ft to my ride :p

What's a good ratio of elevation per say 10 miles to aim for?
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It depends on what you're after. I could come up with rides of, say, 40 miles with anything between 1000 and 4000ft of climbing. Much more than that would be hard to find, short of doing hill repeats on a categorised climb. I like rides with about 2500ft over 40 or so miles, so about 60ft/mile, but flatter rides are good too. Looking back at last year I did a couple of 60 milers with elevation as low as 1500ft, so that's like 25ft/mile. On the other hand, when I rode to Holme Moss to watch Le Tour I racked up 3600ft over 36 miles so about 100ft/mile, so not a wonder I was knackered on the return leg.

I guess it depends on where you are in the country. I have a lot of flat country to the south and the west, and lot of hills to the north and east, so I have a lot to choose from.
 
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Had an interesting end to my wee easy spin today. Got out to do 30 wet and windy miles at a rip snorting 14mph average after getting destroyed in the bunch ride yesterday.

All was fine until i turned the last corner for home up a wee rise to my street. Out the saddle like i usually do just to blast to the top and then roll into the driveway when i heard a horrendous grinding noise and then the back wheel completely locked up. Managed to hold the back end as it skidded about without spilling into traffic and get unclipped ok. Looked back and my rear wheel was no longer attached to the bike! :eek:

Still not entirely sure what's happened. It looks like the chain has come off one of the small cogs on the rear derailleur and got jammed up between the cog and the metal cage that holds it. That's locked the chain up completely, and then because i've been out the saddle giving it the beans it's somehow managed to force the whole quick release mechanism out of the frame and detach the rear wheel from the bike. Tbh, i would have expected the derailleur hanger to snap before that but it didn't.

Anyway, looks like the rear derailleur may now be toast, as the cage holding the cogs is bent outwards quite badly and the whole shebang has about 5mm of play from side to side where it attaches to the hanger.

Trip to the bike shop in order i think.... :(
 
On the upside, i didn't crash or fall off and it happened about 50 yards from my front door at the end of a 2hr ride. Could've been a lot worse.
 
ShiWarrior said:
wish I had a strong start of the year

been ill for 4 weeks now, only been on the bike about 3 times so far
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Similar for me. Been knocking down a cottage and putting in foundations since November. Went out with the club on Saturday, was the first ride in over 7 weeks!

Found the pace hard, which is to be expected. Tough time to get back some fitness. :o
 
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