Road Cycling

[AndyCr15]

Yeah, it's happened before, I often can't actually tell why. I did push quite hard on Wednesday, but felt fine after it, ate well and slept well. I think it must just be the effort put in on Wed though. Likewise, last week at one point, I had a terrible nights sleep, woke feeling lethargic and heavy... then went out and smashed a ride, loads of PR's etc. Very odd sometimes.

 

[RoboCod]

Further to my talk about lungs and legs etc, I had Thursday off and rode yesterday, only 25 miles, so not a big one but my legs went after about an hour. Had nothing in them. Felt totally wiped out for the rest of the day. Rather odd and unexpected.

Do you snack when you ride? I'll always take some sugary sweets

 

[AndyCr15]

Not on a 25 mile, 1½ hour ride, no. Anything longer, yes.

 

[Trifid]

What do people usually eat before a early morning cycle? I have porridge and a spoon full of honey but think this could be improved upon for some additional energy.

 

[UTmaniac]

Yeah, it's happened before, I often can't actually tell why. I did push quite hard on Wednesday, but felt fine after it, ate well and slept well. I think it must just be the effort put in on Wed though. Likewise, last week at one point, I had a terrible nights sleep, woke feeling lethargic and heavy... then went out and smashed a ride, loads of PR's etc. Very odd sometimes.

Are you using any sort of fitness/fatigue/form guide such as Strava's "fitness and freshness" or the free https://cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ or the free https://power-meter.cc/home (if you have a power meter)?

Having purposefully reduced my bike exercise since around last weekend, in readiness to feel fairly fresh for annual leave I'm now on, today I'm in the relatively unusual position of +16 "form" on Strava's "relative effort and power" trend (ordinarily I'll be somewhere between 0 and -15). More negative than -10 is considered "overtraining" while being more positive than +10 should mean you feel quite good for a ride/race/TT.

It's a month old, but it will do for this demonstration...

If you run a very negative form for prolonged periods, like I did back in late Jan and early Feb, it catches up with you and every ride starts to feel like you are riding through treacle.

However, as much as "power and effort" shows all my exercise (cycle commutes, delivery walking at work, turbo training, outdoor rides), only my road bike outdoors and on turbo has power data and normally hrm data. Cycle commutes and walk delivering are gauged by what I assign as the effort perception, so as much as I have a reasonable idea of what to assign, the difference between adjacent low end scores makes a considerable difference in the relative effort score Strava gives (but Crickles thinks it's quite significant for my routine, walking accounts for ~42% of my CSS cardiac stress over the last six weeks for example).

Having almost certainly caught mild COVID-19 but without getting a test, the amount of fitness I've lost since March is quite depressing and it's only very recently I've been able to cautiously try and find some of what I lost.

 

[One More Solo]

What do people usually eat before a early morning cycle? I have porridge and a spoon full of honey but think this could be improved upon for some additional energy.

I aim for about 400cals of fairly simple carbs as find this strikes the best balance between energy and digestion. That usually means about 80g oats, 15g honey and 200ml milk, or 100g of Huel (I like vanilla mixed with hot water and instant coffee for pre training).

That gives me enough for a couple of hours base riding. If I’m doing a longer or harder session and have to start early, I’ll have the food above before I head out then start fuelling earlier in the ride than usual (either after 30 or 60 mins depending on what I did the day before) and eat every 20-30mins thereafter.

Oh yeah, and ********* of coffee.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Baptism of fire at a local bunch today. I set off and met a team mate thinking it was just the two of us but ended up with 4 random groups of various numbers jumping together.

Shelled a few of them early doors to bring it down to 8, of those 8 it included pretty much all the local firepower. Held on until the last 4 miles but didn't have the legs to push watts on the flat even with a tailwind - I think my saddle may be slightly too high(and very fatigued).

Lapped my Garmin when I met my mate to when I sat up and then again when a strong lad that got put out the back on a drag caught up to me and dragged me to the 'finish'. Still rode home at 20mph so can't complain.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3642965158/analysis/809/3254

and the official section where it's usually hard.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3642965158/analysis/1191/3534

I'm happy enough with that even though it's the most depressing thing seeing them just ride away

 

[grudas]

@Jonny ///M that is good going! Well done

 

[Jonny ///M]

Frightening how fit people have got during lock down though! Hopefully they have peaked and can't sustain it into the reduced race season

 

[AndyCr15]

Are you using any sort of fitness/fatigue/form guide such as Strava's "fitness and freshness"

No, not really. If I was racing or something, I would pay more attention, but I'm just cycling mostly to burn calories and also stay/get fitter. After Wednesdays ride it was -44, but by the time I rested and rode on Friday it was -24. When I rode on Wednesday though it was -28... and I felt great! In other words, I don't think that has a massive effect on how I feel when I ride. I've not had two full days of rest for months... maybe I should. I sometimes plan to, then the sun comes out and I can't resist a ride!

 

[Trifid]

I aim for about 400cals of fairly simple carbs as find this strikes the best balance between energy and digestion. That usually means about 80g oats, 15g honey and 200ml milk, or 100g of Huel (I like vanilla mixed with hot water and instant coffee for pre training).

That gives me enough for a couple of hours base riding. If I’m doing a longer or harder session and have to start early, I’ll have the food above before I head out then start fuelling earlier in the ride than usual (either after 30 or 60 mins depending on what I did the day before) and eat every 20-30mins thereafter.

Oh yeah, and ********* of coffee.

Very similar then. But it is tea that is essential in the morning. I think next time I'll try eating a couple of biscuits as I get onto the bike.

I asked my go-to person for fitness advice and his advice was not to copy him. He had pizza for dinner and nothing in the morning.

 

[Berger]

Went out and felt very meh even though should be reasonably fresh. Sacked off a long ride and came home.

Think I need some Zwift races to perk me up, no racing or bunch rides killing off the top end, I have lots of tempo but felt a bit meh.

I was going my best end of April start of May then got COVID type symptoms and had a week off, been fairly average since then.

 

[Jonny ///M]

Covid ***** you up bruh.

I had 2 weeks off then 3 days with a different thing and my fitness didn't feel like I'd only lost 2 weeks. Starting from scratch would be an exaggeration.

 

[Roady]

Those in the know, does the newer Ultegra RD (R8000 / R8050) medium cage fit a 34t cassette? I think now they're called Short and Medium? I'm sure I read something. The older 6800 would do a 32t maximum and they where called Short and Long cage then, not Short and Medium???

I've fitted an older 5800 11-32 cassette and it's really reduced the amount of increased drivechain noise I'd found the last few months on the 6800 11-30. So pretty sure my RD (done less than 7k miles) is ok. I do have to change the RD at some point (moving to Di2) and just wonder if I then try the HG cassette which can come in 11-34 (or I stick with my usual 11-32). I really shouldn't have got the 11-30 as I've never been that happy with the spacing on it.

I like the look of it too and I usually am not a fan of the look of Treks... The newer ones are looking better, but then so many of the newer bikes across all brands are looking similar/familiar.

Said that about Treks being quite a swooping generalisation of the brand and then a 2019 Madone caught my eye last night and is now added to the list...

Cable outers, disc rotors, bolts, hockey wheels, bar tape.

I need to take a photo of my super xto show you what can be done.

You always did well with the Ridley too!

Bit extreme even for me (I normally average something in the approx 90-105rpm ballpark), but I did a short event last month averaging 123rpm for just over 21mins https://www.strava.com/activities/3450549479/analysis

Anyone completed the 200Km ride challenge yet? https://www.strava.com/challenges/pas-normal-midsommer It's been ~25 months since my one and only 100-miler to date, a silly part of me wants to give this a shot, a more sensible part says I'm in no shape to tackle something this long, when I've only done two 50-65 mile rides this year and I'm still down on my power and fitness numbers before catching COVID-19 three months ago.

Very extreme! You now a track sprinter then?!

200km is a big ask if you're not regularly doing 100km's, or 100 milers for that matter!

To be fair when I was regularly doing the early morning 100km Zwift rides there where a couple over Xmas (and related to other events/occasions) when they also did 200km group rides and I was really considering one. But 200km on Zwift with a group is only a 5-6 hour ride, out on the road it's a 8+ hour ride for most of us...

Or just do what Harry Tanfield did...

I have a video of the noise it made..

as you can imagine that would upset a few people

Haha love the title. Yeah kinda used to those noises but mine have only been that loud on the really wet days with so much standing water on the roads. All the turned heads at the end of the second clip are priceless!

I'm in need of some more cycling jerseys as I've only really got one, are there any recommended brands to look at? Been looking at Castelli and Le Col, but didn't know if there were others to consider?

As mentioned but a few more: Rapha, Sportful, DHB, Santini, Exeondo, Endura, Altura, Torm... Must be more I've forgotten. Sizing is all over the shop with many of them so if unsure ask around, many of us can advise and most of us own several brands so can compare sizes to each other.

Just discovered even carrying a few extra kg I'm a medium in Rapha Pro-team as I scalped/sniped a light summer one on eBay. Considering I've got a Core in medium and it seems shorter in the body I'm a little confused.

Zero sleep tonight, hopefully it doesn't hurt cycling performance too much as I had big intentions for the ride!

Dirty stop out. Made the most of the relaxing of restrictions!?

What do people usually eat before a early morning cycle? I have porridge and a spoon full of honey but think this could be improved upon for some additional energy.

I have my normal, couple of slices of buttered toast and a bowl of museli. Before a club/social ride I'll just have a bit more museli in my bowl. But I'll always eat 1.5 hours into any of those rides anyway (half hour ride to meeting point and then an hour into the ride).

No, not really. If I was racing or something, I would pay more attention, but I'm just cycling mostly to burn calories and also stay/get fitter. After Wednesdays ride it was -44, but by the time I rested and rode on Friday it was -24. When I rode on Wednesday though it was -28... and I felt great!

It's worth looking at in an easy way (like Strava Fitness Steve showed & explained really well!) if you have Premium/Summit/Whateveritscalledthismonth. For interest yes, its more data to take in, but it's also quite good to see some correlation of how you're feeling and how it and the data stacks up on a 'normal' week, then also easier and harder weeks. You then easily learn how the numbers relate. I'm not saying let it guide your riding (at least not at the leisure level you're at), but if you do start to plan some structured training or ride/plan some future events/sportives/big rides it can really assist in having a good day.

 

[Fusion]

I have an Endura FS260 Pro Race Cape... But I got it after it rained... So have never had to wear it. Fit is really good and slim, packs down tiny and the cuffs are tight, too...

I can't remember the size, however, but their sizing is pretty good.

It was £46 when purchased...

Depending on torso that will be borderline Medium and Large in Sportful. I'd steer towards Large as at least then you can wear it over pockets rammed full of food etc. Probably a medium in DHB. I like my Sportful kit (shorts, jerseys, warmers, winter jackets etc) I don't own any of their jackets as I tend to go for jerseys. Fiandre range is superb. The Jackets I own I've always been happy with the DHB's offerings I have (own 2 commuter and an EQ2.5). Would size a medium in them as comparable to a Large in Sportful.

Cheers both. Went for a dhb Aeron Tempo 2 jacket in the end, bought it this morning for £76. Don't think I'll need it over the next week, though the changeability of our weather means you never know!

 

[Begbie]

Can anyone recommend a waterproof jacket? Would like something I could use in all 4 seasons if possible, so perhaps a light shell would be best so I can layer it over whatever jersey I wear. Waterproof rather than shower proof, breathable (a must!) and say, less than £100.

Sportful and DHB ranges seem to have a few different options. I’m 5ft 10” and 79kg for sizing purposes. Cheers.

https://galibier.cc/product/tempest/

Can't believe it's only £60. Mines is a little tight, should've bought an XL. But it's very nice.

 

[Jonny ///M]

@Roady 34 is fine with GS mechs on R7000/8000.

 

[Berger]

Covid ***** you up bruh.

I had 2 weeks off then 3 days with a different thing and my fitness didn't feel like I'd only lost 2 weeks. Starting from scratch would be an exaggeration.

I dunno, as said before I did a self test which came back negative but who knows what the accuracy on these is. Whatever happened I had two days in bed and was totally wiped.

Rain all day tomorrow so will try and do some turbo work after cutting today short. Fingers crossed we get back to bunch rides start of July.

 

[Jonny ///M]

I think the tests aren't as reliable as they say.

So many people get two negatives and then a positive eventually.

I didn't get an official test but the mrs did get a positive result.

Bunch rides are in full swing here now it seems. Possibly 14 bodies today at the biggest point today.

I'm hoping I can get up to speed properly to be rolling with the big guns. I'm not sure how you get fitter than I've ever been and push the watts.

I'm mates with this guy https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/points?person_id=654&d=4&year=2015 and even now he doesn't train much he's back doing 23mph rides alone. We both go out and ride bikes hard but he's always faster and has more stamina.

 

[Jonnybmac]

I aim for about 400cals of fairly simple carbs as find this strikes the best balance between energy and digestion. That usually means about 80g oats, 15g honey and 200ml milk, or 100g of Huel (I like vanilla mixed with hot water and instant coffee for pre training).

That gives me enough for a couple of hours base riding. If I’m doing a longer or harder session and have to start early, I’ll have the food above before I head out then start fuelling earlier in the ride than usual (either after 30 or 60 mins depending on what I did the day before) and eat every 20-30mins thereafter.

Oh yeah, and ********* of coffee.

Have you tried using something like high5? It helps with fatigue and recovery from loss off electrolytes etc?