Road Cycling Essentials

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Jono said:
I did this ride yesterday:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/525832271

I feel fine today, nowhere near as bad as I thought - I only intended to do about 15 miles total, but I felt fine so kept going... my legs gave up on me (got thigh cramps) about a little over halfway, going up a hill, so I had to walk up that, and they were ok... but the last 8 or so miles were hard going - I couldn't push myself to go faster than I was at the end, at all.

I wasn't really pushing myself at all, as it was just a "for fun" ride. But to be honest that's the longest ride I've ever done and more than twice as far as anything I've done in the past year anyway - I've not ridden NEARLY enough as I'd have liked to :\

I only had a bowl of muesli for breakfast and took some jelly babies with me. Didn't really eat a proper dinner the day before...
I'd like to do that ride again, as it was quite fun/pretty, without getting lost in Ripon :o But I think next time I should prepare properly fuel-wise... any advice about that kind of thing?
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Turning a 15 mile ride into a 50 is good going :)

These days I don't bother with my bowl of pasta the evening before a longer ride and it's not affected my riding one bit. Having a decent breakfast does help fuel you up for the day but I tend to fail miserably at that and just scoff down a couple of baby malt loaves and a banana then have banana #2 when I get to the meeting point if it's a club ride.

Generally on the go I'll just carry maybe another banana and yet more baby malt loaves plus of course carry decent supply of fluids. Then the rule is to eat/drink little and often even if you don't feel that thirsty or hungry. Probably not the same for everyone but I'm able to manage fine without energy drinks or gels, just use High5 Zero tabs to add salt and sugar/electrolytes to the drinks. You can achieve similar mixing fruit juice, sugar and salt though I can't say what the best proportions are to mix.

If I'm running low on food then will go for cake or a mars bar etc if there's a feed station or I dive into a shop.

EDIT while the extra bowl of pasta the evening before was maybe not needed, it does help a lot still having a decent meal the day before a ride :)
 
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Just attempted an evening ride and the heavens opened, How do you guys keep your mobile (other than leaving at home) dry in these situations? Use mine for Strava and ICE

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iMacMart said:
Just attempted an evening ride and the heavens opened, How do you guys keep your mobile (other than leaving at home) dry in these situations? Use mine for Strava and ICE
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Keep a carrier bag in your pocket - then just stick it in that. Or I put mine in my saddle bag but I have mudguards so spray won't soak it from underneath.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;26501006 said:
He probably could manage 1000w. I can. For 1s. Hoy could do around 2000w for 10s whilst having to steer.

Ask him how much he can leg-presses? On Hoy's Twitter feed it showed him doing 5 reps of 631kg.
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I'll ask him about his leg presses.

And yeah, strava has had me doing 800W in a burst going from 0-30mph sprinting off from the lights, but that's a pretty rare occurrence, and I certainly couldn't sustain that for any length of time.
 
So, between being sore from my 60 miler on Saturday and being sore from my 60 miler on Saturday, I've stayed in tonight to fiddle with my bike fit. I'm fine for 20-30 miles, and even 40 or so is ok, but beyond that I've been getting some pain in my back, like I need to stretch out a bit more. My right knee is also sore after long rides - one of the tendons going up into my thigh from the outside of my knee feels sore.

I've reset my old bike to how it was after the fit. It had been set up for the mrs, but she's not keen on a road bike so I'm grudgingly buying her a shopper :D but I've switched it back. I'd marked the seat post with nail varnish, that sort of thing, so it was easy enough to get it back to how the bike fitter set it up last year. With that as a guide, I've then been able to measure things on my new bike more accurately, with the two bikes side by side. I've got them looking pretty much the same now - it only took dropping the saddle a bit and taking it back a centimetre - so hopefully that'll be a bit more comfy now.

I'm also buying a new saddle come the end of the month. I think I'm gonna give the charge scoop a go. It's got to be better than the 4za stratos I'm using, which is like a rock, though I also think some of the blame lies with my dhb shorts, which I think I actually like less than my cheaper decathlon ones, as it goes.
 
I used to get some knee pain after very long rides, seems better now maybe partly helped by the mini bike-fit my mate did for me. Main thing was he lowered my seat about an inch, my legs were very close to over-extending even though I'd ridden like that for over a year. also seemed to help me get the power down better on hills without having to get out of the saddle quite as much.

One general tip I try to follow at the end of a ride is to do the last 5 minutes or so out of the saddle to help stretch the hamstrings a bit. May help for your back too? helps to go up a gear or 2 to give your legs something to push against.
 
Vonhelmet said:
I'll ask him about his leg presses.

And yeah, strava has had me doing 800W in a burst going from 0-30mph sprinting off from the lights, but that's a pretty rare occurrence, and I certainly couldn't sustain that for any length of time.
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I bet he's going to say that his legs are strong as they are ;) tosh load of wannabes at the gyms training upper body only and walking on chicken legs..

I'd say I could kick off good power for 10-15s but no hoy levels.. Please that's insane.

My leg press sits at 180kg x 40 - random last set at the gym to see how much I could kick off..

Squat is 140kg 1rm Max.

I wonder what he's at ;)
 
Exercise I used to do as part of a training plan, to help build up fast response fibres in the legs (or something like that) was what the coach called 'stomps'

Usually done on a turbo, but can be done on the road too - put bike into top gear, come to a virtual standstill then welly it for 10 seconds to get going as fast as you can. Rest 2 mins and repeat another 4 times. Used to mix a block of those into each hour of long low intensity sessions. The main amount of work here is the first part when you're pushing as hard as possible to get the pedals moving.

Getting out of the saddle is cheating I was told ;)
 
Replaced my cogs after 2 years of abuse and they still looks good! 1/8" though, keeping them as spares.
Got 17tx48t looks good and a fitting a gold KMC 1/8" :D
 
1/8" never wears out. My fixed gear stuff is on maybe its 4th year of daily use now. Just change the chain from time to time to keep it in tolerance and it's fine :D
 
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