Road Cycling Essentials

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So I managed my 2nd half-century ride yesterday, and boy it was tough. Twice I had to stop as I thought I was going to throw up. I was a little disappointed that my average speed had dropped from last week's 50 miler (by about 0.5mph). Which was odd as I felt like I put much more effort in, and the elevation was about half as last week's ride.

6 of us rode in total, which was nice as there's normally only 2-4 of us. They made me take a really long stint out in front, but I took the pace a bit too quick.
Eventually someone else took over from me, and I slowed down to recover a little and to check on somebody that dropped behind the group a fair amount. I asked if she was ok, and to my horror she asked if I could toe her back to the group.
We got back to the rest of the group, turned a corner and saw a wall of road. Certainly the steepest climb I can remember. Unfortunately, my heart rate was already pushing 170bpm before we started climbing. I like to spin up hills at around 90-100rpm, but I quickly ran out of gears on this one. I couldn't catch the guy in front of me, but came a narrow 2nd before jumping off the bike, trying not to be sick everywhere.

We finished the ride on a little sprint challenge, up a small hill. I pushed way too early, but managed to finish 2nd again. By this time I was really feeling sick, but fortunately could take an hours rest before heading home.

Really enjoying riding with this small group. Another ride Thursday, and luckily my SiS Endurance Pack as arrived in time :D

Ride on Strava for anyone interested:
http://www.strava.com/activities/174800511
 
I go to the Streatham Fitness first, they have plenty of plates there, really good freeweights section. 2 full squat racks, fixed flat bench, fixed decline bench, 5-6 adjustable benches and DBs from 8 - 50kgs. Also got a swimming pool, sauna and steam. £60 a month.

I could make 7.15 at Wandsworth and we could ride together from there, I actually live in Clapham, so it should be a fairly mutual meeting point
 
janp said:
So I managed my 2nd half-century ride yesterday, and boy it was tough. Twice I had to stop as I thought I was going to throw up. I was a little disappointed that my average speed had dropped from last week's 50 miler (by about 0.5mph). Which was odd as I felt like I put much more effort in, and the elevation was about half as last week's ride.

6 of us rode in total, which was nice as there's normally only 2-4 of us. They made me take a really long stint out in front, but I took the pace a bit too quick.
Eventually someone else took over from me, and I slowed down to recover a little and to check on somebody that dropped behind the group a fair amount. I asked if she was ok, and to my horror she asked if I could toe her back to the group.
We got back to the rest of the group, turned a corner and saw a wall of road. Certainly the steepest climb I can remember. Unfortunately, my heart rate was already pushing 170bpm before we started climbing. I like to spin up hills at around 90-100rpm, but I quickly ran out of gears on this one. I couldn't catch the guy in front of me, but came a narrow 2nd before jumping off the bike, trying not to be sick everywhere.

We finished the ride on a little sprint challenge, up a small hill. I pushed way too early, but managed to finish 2nd again. By this time I was really feeling sick, but fortunately could take an hours rest before heading home.

Really enjoying riding with this small group. Another ride Thursday, and luckily my SiS Endurance Pack as arrived in time :D

Ride on Strava for anyone interested:
http://www.strava.com/activities/174800511
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Good average speed for that distance and that amount of climbing. Good work!
 
I've had my bike for a couple of months now and am starting to slowly crank up the amount of riding I do. Did a 28km (very hilly) route on Saturday in the pouring rain and then another 35km yesterday, this time mostly flat. Averaged about 25km/h on both which doesn't seem too bad.

Hopefully I can do a half century by the end of the month. A question though, do you guys who ride that kind of distance do it all in one go or do you have a bit of a rest somewhere on the route (not counting traffic lights!).
 
FishFluff said:
I've had my bike for a couple of months now and am starting to slowly crank up the amount of riding I do. Did a 28km (very hilly) route on Saturday in the pouring rain and then another 35km yesterday, this time mostly flat. Averaged about 25km/h on both which doesn't seem too bad.

Hopefully I can do a half century by the end of the month. A question though, do you guys who ride that kind of distance do it all in one go or do you have a bit of a rest somewhere on the route (not counting traffic lights!).
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Do what works for you, if you're trying to push for longer distances and feel you need a break half way then take one. You'll find that over time as you increase the distance these shorter rides won't need a stop.

50km I'll do non stop as that's just a normal ride for me. Yesterday I did 65 miles and stopped for lunch at 40 miles. Used to be a time where I'd be crawling back the home barely able to keep going after 30miles/50km.
 
Whenever we do 50+ miles, not always but normally we have a stop somewhere for some food.

On some organised mass rides we've done we we've just done the whole thing in one.
 
I regularly do 20-30 miles with no stops. I've done a couple of 63 mile rides with no stops - that's harder work. Most of our group rides are 40 miles or so, but they involve a few stops. Some short, just to get the group back together and have a gel or whatever, and then usually a proper half hour coffee shop stop.

Do you mean half century as in half metric? Like 50km / 31 miles? Yeah, that's totally do-able in one go once you work up to it.
 
I decided to test the proverbial waters on did a Grudas, just bought a carbon saddle out of China.

See how it goes, next stop a ready to ride Chinarello lol
 
I'm not a fan of the "cake stop" and prefer to not stop except for pee breaks or quick stops to scoff down some food. If I stop for any longer I end up feeling worse as my muscles have cooled down.
 
FishFluff said:
I've had my bike for a couple of months now and am starting to slowly crank up the amount of riding I do. Did a 28km (very hilly) route on Saturday in the pouring rain and then another 35km yesterday, this time mostly flat. Averaged about 25km/h on both which doesn't seem too bad.

Hopefully I can do a half century by the end of the month. A question though, do you guys who ride that kind of distance do it all in one go or do you have a bit of a rest somewhere on the route (not counting traffic lights!).
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I always did my rides in one go only stopping to get a water refill and some sweets :D

I'll start using cycling cafes once the weather goes crap though for a warm up /dry off

you won't get your miles up unless you actively go for it, I was doing 20-30 mile rides for the longest time before I did my first 50 miler and then just switched every ride to 50 miles.

started to gain a bit of speed and fitness instead of being stuck seemingly in a rut, don't let your body get to comfortable
 
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FishFluff said:
I've had my bike for a couple of months now and am starting to slowly crank up the amount of riding I do. Did a 28km (very hilly) route on Saturday in the pouring rain and then another 35km yesterday, this time mostly flat. Averaged about 25km/h on both which doesn't seem too bad.

Hopefully I can do a half century by the end of the month. A question though, do you guys who ride that kind of distance do it all in one go or do you have a bit of a rest somewhere on the route (not counting traffic lights!).
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How often do you cycle? If it has been every weekend then an extra 10km to 50km is nothing really. You could do it in your next ride. :)
 
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Shamrock said:
I'm not a fan of the "cake stop" and prefer to not stop except for pee breaks or quick stops to scoff down some food. If I stop for any longer I end up feeling worse as my muscles have cooled down.
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I think it depends on how you pace yourself, where it comes in the ride, how long you stop for, etc. Our usual stop is about 10 easy miles from home, so we've usually done 30-40 harder miles by then, and we often have a fairly long break. Starting up again is murder. You feel really cold and your legs just don't feel right. It sucks!
 
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Is that for Ride London? When I was heading to RP yesterday there were signs all round that way. It looks like there'll be a lot of closed roads!
 
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