Planet Rugby Forum

Puncture proof tyres are the go here - Aussie roads have so much glass on.

Just back from my first ride on the new bike. For a guy that has kept himself pretty fit I am gobsmacked how hard it was. Had to give up on a couple of hills, especially when i f**ked up the gearing!!

BlackMac wrote:Just back from my first ride on the new bike. For a guy that has kept himself pretty fit I am gobsmacked how hard it was. Had to give up on a couple of hills, especially when i f**ked up the gearing!!

Getting caught in the wrong gear is a bitch isn't it?

Change down as early as possible but use the gears to try and maintain the same pedal cadence the entire way up the hill.

Make sure the seat is at the right height for hills as well otherwise your quads will really suffer on hillier rides. Leg should be nearly straight at the bottom of the stroke with your foot flat and your hips shouldn't wobble as you pedal.

Mat the Expat wrote:Puncture proof tyres are the go here - Aussie roads have so much glass on.

Tell me about it! Two flats in a month when I lived in Canberra. Two in a year is the most I've had here.

BlackMac wrote:Just back from my first ride on the new bike. For a guy that has kept himself pretty fit I am gobsmacked how hard it was. Had to give up on a couple of hills, especially when i f**ked up the gearing!!

Good job, keep at it and big improvements will come, you need to ride at least three times a week to get meaningful gains. Just remember that cycling is about learning to suffer, to quote the legendary Jens Voigt "..it doesn't get any easier, you just get faster..."

Spyglass wrote:

BlackMac wrote:Just back from my first ride on the new bike. For a guy that has kept himself pretty fit I am gobsmacked how hard it was. Had to give up on a couple of hills, especially when i f**ked up the gearing!!

Good job, keep at it and big improvements will come, you need to ride at least three times a week to get meaningful gains. Just remember that cycling is about learning to suffer, to quote the legendary Jens Voigt "..it doesn't get any easier, you just get faster..."

Maybe that's if the peloton is dictating the pace you ride at, but I've found after getting back on the bike the last 4-5 months that it gets both. I'm cruising up climbs now that were murdering me back in March/April, and set a PB on Strava yesterday up one that nearly had me walking when I first tried it.

Jeff the Bear wrote:

Seez wrote:

Apposite wrote:How hilly is the route?

With my very limited knowledge of cycling I'd say you are going at a decent pace, even though your route is short enough.

If you're reasonably fit and you are pretty bollocksed when you arrive that is a non-scientific way of determining that you are going at a decent speed.

Why not change the knobblies for semi-slick MTB tyres? You'll be amazed at the difference.

In that case, 21km/h sounds very good. Switching the noise converters for slicks is the easiest way of making a big gain.

To work out watts per kg you need a powermeter or something that simulates one like TrainerRoad.com. Then you do a painful test called a CP20. If you want to do one without buying any kit you should be able to find a coach or uni sports science lab with a Watt Bike or Computrainer near you that will let you do one for a few quid. Test itself takes about an hour with warm up and cool down. The key (and hurty) part is a 20 minute interval where you try to hold the highest constant power you can sustain for 20 mins. It is difficult to get the pacing right on the first few goes, you tend to save yourself a bit too much and spike at the end or bury yourself early on and blow. The result of that test will give you your critical power for 20 (CP20) and 60 mins (CP60, which is 95% of CP20). CP60 is also known as your FTP or functional threshold power. Then you divide by your weight in kg.

Sounds intensive. I thought I'd be able to calculate it using some equations given that I knew my average speed and weight, but it doesn't seem to be possible.

JTB - to give you a reference point.

I'm 50 years old, 6'1" and 175lbs, I got into cycling three years ago and got serious about it this year. I train 3 times/week, generally structured intervals, etc. and ride with a club on weekends. My current FTP is 275 watts using the CTS 2 x 10 minute test. I ride a Specialized Tarmac carbon road bike and my typical average moving speed for a 60 mile weekend ride, on a reasonably flat circular route with typically a 10mph wind is: 20mph solo and 22.5mph in a group.

DOB wrote:

Spyglass wrote:

BlackMac wrote:Just back from my first ride on the new bike. For a guy that has kept himself pretty fit I am gobsmacked how hard it was. Had to give up on a couple of hills, especially when i f**ked up the gearing!!

Good job, keep at it and big improvements will come, you need to ride at least three times a week to get meaningful gains. Just remember that cycling is about learning to suffer, to quote the legendary Jens Voigt "..it doesn't get any easier, you just get faster..."

Maybe that's if the peloton is dictating the pace you ride at, but I've found after getting back on the bike the last 4-5 months that it gets both. I'm cruising up climbs now that were murdering me back in March/April, and set a PB on Strava yesterday up one that nearly had me walking when I first tried it.

The point he's making is that if you bury yourself on every training session/ride you get faster (up to a point), so the suffering is constant. Since I have started taking my training seriously, it's now all FTP based. Every 6 weeks you reassess your FTP (hopefully up) and the target power for your intervals, etc. goes up correspondingly. So your RPE (rate of perceive exertion) stays the same.

However, if you’re riding the same route at the same speed, then yes it will get easier.

blindcider wrote:

BlackMac wrote:Just back from my first ride on the new bike. For a guy that has kept himself pretty fit I am gobsmacked how hard it was. Had to give up on a couple of hills, especially when i f**ked up the gearing!!

Getting caught in the wrong gear is a bitch isn't it?

Change down as early as possible but use the gears to try and maintain the same pedal cadence the entire way up the hill.

Make sure the seat is at the right height for hills as well otherwise your quads will really suffer on hillier rides. Leg should be nearly straight at the bottom of the stroke with your foot flat and your hips shouldn't wobble as you pedal.

The bike was properly fitted so it should be fine, it is just getting used to being back in the saddle and correctly using the gears again. I think the problem was that I was changing down too much when the hill (barely) started to bite. Suddenly found I was putting in a lot of effort for very little gain and tired pretty quick.

Going out rowing tonight just to reassure myself that I am not an unfit lump!!

Spyglass wrote:However, if you’re riding the same route at the same speed, then yes it will get easier.

To a point, and then you'll stop improving.

Three times a week on the turbo trainer started today. I'm trying to get some legs so I don't get stuck somewhere too f**ked to get home, and I'm also trying to control the heartrate very strictly for the first few months. Read some interesting stuff the other week about cardiac output training, and the adaptations to various forms of exercise. Convinced me that for the sake of my heart, cycling was the way to go, with a few nice easy months of sessions around 45mins - 1hr at approx 140bpm. That's where I'm at cardio-wise, looking for improvements in left ventricle volume and muscle wall thickness.

The progression works in the way spyglass is talking about, over time it will require more work to get and keep the heartrate at that level. The 'distance' (turbo trainer though) travelled in 1hr will increase.

Longer term, the aim is to have a crack at the Cat and Fiddle in 2013, so will need to get on the road in the spring.

Nieghorn wrote:

Mat the Expat wrote:Puncture proof tyres are the go here - Aussie roads have so much glass on.

Tell me about it! Two flats in a month when I lived in Canberra. Two in a year is the most I've had here.

It's insane, when you start looking at the ground

Mat, it makes me think of this song every time I spot sparkly broken glass ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgJ6soX18R8



And for something completely different, check out the cyclist getting nailed with snowballs in 1896! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfofqcvOObw

Jeff the Bear wrote:BOOM! Got my time into work down to under 27 minutes, that 5 minutes knocked off my time from the start of the summer...I'm hoping to crack the holy grail of sub 25 minutes by the end of the summer.

BOOM! KAPOW! BOOM! Came in this morning in under 25 minutes (the App actually said 25.12, but given that I have to turn the app on, put phone in bag, zip up bag, put bag on back, put clips around chest and stomach, and then get on the bike and move, and then do the opposite when I get off at the other end...it equals a good 15-45 seconds of time, so I'm claiming a sub-25 minute time!).

Jeff the Bear wrote:

Jeff the Bear wrote:BOOM! Got my time into work down to under 27 minutes, that 5 minutes knocked off my time from the start of the summer...I'm hoping to crack the holy grail of sub 25 minutes by the end of the summer.

BOOM! KAPOW! BOOM! Came in this morning in under 25 minutes (the App actually said 25.12, but given that I have to turn the app on, put phone in bag, zip up bag, put bag on back, put clips around chest and stomach, and then get on the bike and move, and then do the opposite when I get off at the other end...it equals a good 15-45 seconds of time, so I'm claiming a sub-25 minute time!).

Does your app not calculate your "moving time"? Strava does for me; the 1:36 ride I did the other day came out the same total on Strava and on my Cateye, which is set to auto.

Strava is not 100% accurate due to GPS.

The first time I did my standard route, I "Jesused" 2 Km across water

3rd ride of the week on Intermittent fasting

Mat the Expat wrote:Strava is not 100% accurate due to GPS.

The first time I did my standard route, I "Jesused" 2 Km across water

3rd ride of the week on Intermittent fasting

Guess it depends on signal. It was bang on again for me today.

That's what I said - last 3 identical routes:

20.6Km

20.9Km

18.5Km

All good though.

Ouchie

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=193_1347021178

That one's a shocker - hard to believe he managed to walk away unscathed. His zen-like state of flow and connection to the bike didn't do him much good there.

The most important rule when riding a bike on the roads: be prepared (in all senses of the word) to slow down.

I hope the driver of the pickup got reimbursed for any damage to his paint or bodywork. Pedals and handlebars can scrape the shit out of your finish.

Back on the bike for the first time in four months today! Hurrah! Not so much hurrah for nearly falling over when I got off it, though. Not looking forward to the return trip, either.

Bought a Caad 8 last week, first race bike I've had since my raleigh winner all those years ago. Surprised how comfortable riding drops is. Absolutely flies.

Had a ride last week up the Gospel pass just outside Hay On Wye, which at 8k is the longest climb in southern Britain. Given that our steepest local climb is the road bridge over the M69 I wasn't especially well prepared for this leg breaker, and it didn't help that my lowest sprocket was a 23 ( the deep section aero wheels were a big help ). It was, for me, brutal. The endless, short steep ramps made it very difficult to establish any kind of rhythm, and some sections were really nasty. There was no chance to work into it gradually, either, as the road rose up sharply within a couple of minutes of the start, so my decision to dispense with a warm up was particularly ill advised.

Based on a great deal of experience I thought I knew what my max HR was, but on one of the grimmest sections it rose to a disturbing 4 beats higher than I had previously seen and I began to wonder if I would survive. Mercifully, it flattened out a bit towards the top to provide some respite but even so, for most of the ascent my HR average was unpleasantly high and for long sections was within a few horrible % of max. It's a fantastic winding climb through marvelous country and when it opens out there are fabulous views all around. The road is single track but in good condition so the descent, though rarely straight, can be tackled at a good lick. There was very little traffic to worry about, but there were plenty of sheep around who always looked suspiciously like they were going to wander gormlessly into my path, but who nevertheless didn't spoil the exhilarating descent.

Latest ad from WD40 - can you spot the deliberate mistake?

Is that a genuine ad, Duke?

So it looks as though I'm surplus requirements for the school's rugby tour to the Caribbean next year, which isn't so bad as I hate the beach. I was thinking it might be a good time to visit the UK.

Questions:

1. Is it insane to think about cycling from Conwy to Cardiff in the middle of March? (Bear in mind I'm Canadian and an experienced cyclist who had no problems riding in -15 degree weather through the winter. That said, I'd rather not freeze to death or be constantly rained upon as the aforementioned riding was the daily 20 min trip to and from work, not 80kms through the rural highlands. I also do not mind hopping on a train to avoid the particularly nasty bits or if the weather is absolute shite.)

2. How likely would I be to obtain a ticket for the Wales v England encounter at Millennium?

[quote="duke"]Latest ad from WD40 - can you spot the deliberate mistake?


Drive train (chainrings, chain, cassette, derailleur) on the wrong side. Plus it's an old bike, perhaps that's why it needs WD40

Anyone who reads the BikesnobNYC blog will recognise that rider!

Womack wrote:Is that a genuine ad, Duke?

Apparently so - according to Morvelo, it's in one of the bike mags this month.

Spyglass wrote:

duke wrote:Latest ad from WD40 - can you spot the deliberate mistake?


Drive train (chainrings, chain, cassette, derailleur) on the wrong side. Plus it's an old bike, perhaps that's why it needs WD40

Piccie was flipped for the ad

Had about 10 rides on the new bike, furthest about 25 miles over some pretty hill terrain. What has surprised me is how devastating the wind is and how f**king terrible some of the roads are. Really enjoying it though.

A quick question, I have bought some fairly cheap shorts from Decathlon and although I am not having too much trouble, just how much benefit is there in the padding of the ones that are £50 plus.

duke wrote:

Womack wrote:Is that a genuine ad, Duke?

Apparently so - according to Morvelo, it's in one of the bike mags this month.

I only ask because of the abovementioned blog - it's a ludicrously widely-used stock photo (in fact series of photos of the same bloke) that crops up everywhere in bike-related ads, posters etc, despite the guy not exactly fulfilling the approved look for the majority of the road cyclists these ads are usually aimed at. The guy that writes the blog calls him the 'time traveling t-shirt-wearing retro-Fred from the planet Tridork'

Womack wrote:

duke wrote:

Womack wrote:Is that a genuine ad, Duke?

Apparently so - according to Morvelo, it's in one of the bike mags this month.

I only ask because of the abovementioned blog - it's a ludicrously widely-used stock photo (in fact series of photos of the same bloke) that crops up everywhere in bike-related ads, posters etc, despite the guy not exactly fulfilling the approved look for the majority of the road cyclists these ads are usually aimed at. The guy that writes the blog calls him the 'time traveling t-shirt-wearing retro-Fred from the planet Tridork'

In fairness, that probably makes him the exact cyclist that WD40 are aiming their product at.

BlackMac wrote:Had about 10 rides on the new bike, furthest about 25 miles over some pretty hill terrain. What has surprised me is how devastating the wind is and how f**king terrible some of the roads are. Really enjoying it though.

A quick question, I have bought some fairly cheap shorts from Decathlon and although I am not having too much trouble, just how much benefit is there in the padding of the ones that are £50 plus.

Yes the wind, headwind or crosswind, can have a significant effect on your speed. Around Houston we don't have any hills to mention but we have wind, so I generally try to plan my routes out against the wind and back with it. Just like hills it's a mental thing, just remember to get low/aero and shift gears to keep you cadence high. If you have a power meter or heart rate monitor it helps you keep your effort reasonably constant.

Ditch the shorts and get some bibs, much more comfortable and everything stays in place. Like everything in cycling, bibs have a diminishing returns price curve, you pay for better design 3D chamois, etc.) and materials upto a point. My experience is US pricing, but using normal exchange rates GBP50 should get you a decent pair.

DOB wrote:

Womack wrote:

duke wrote:

Womack wrote:Is that a genuine ad, Duke?

Apparently so - according to Morvelo, it's in one of the bike mags this month.

I only ask because of the abovementioned blog - it's a ludicrously widely-used stock photo (in fact series of photos of the same bloke) that crops up everywhere in bike-related ads, posters etc, despite the guy not exactly fulfilling the approved look for the majority of the road cyclists these ads are usually aimed at. The guy that writes the blog calls him the 'time traveling t-shirt-wearing retro-Fred from the planet Tridork'

In fairness, that probably makes him the exact cyclist that WD40 are aiming their product at.

Exactly, WD40 doesn't go anywhere near my bike

BlackMac wrote:Had about 10 rides on the new bike, furthest about 25 miles over some pretty hill terrain. What has surprised me is how devastating the wind is and how f**king terrible some of the roads are. Really enjoying it though.

A quick question, I have bought some fairly cheap shorts from Decathlon and although I am not having too much trouble, just how much benefit is there in the padding of the ones that are £50 plus.

I use dhb ones from wiggle.co.uk, they've got very good quality padding for the money. You can get chamois cream as well, basically its ballbag lubricant, works a treat.

Spyglass wrote:

BlackMac wrote:Had about 10 rides on the new bike, furthest about 25 miles over some pretty hill terrain. What has surprised me is how devastating the wind is and how f**king terrible some of the roads are. Really enjoying it though.

Yes the wind, headwind or crosswind, can have a significant effect on your speed. Around Houston we don't have any hills to mention but we have wind, so I generally try to plan my routes out against the wind and back with it. Just like hills it's a mental thing, just remember to get low/aero and shift gears to keep you cadence high. If you have a power meter or heart rate monitor it helps you keep your effort reasonably constant.

If I have to choose between hills or wind on any given day, I take hills every time.

But I am noticing that to maintain speed into the wind, I'm often better off shifting up and hammering out a big gear. When you shift down, you start to slow down. Then you shift down again, and again, and again. Next thing you know you're doing 10mph on the small ring and getting nowhere.

DOB wrote:

Spyglass wrote:

BlackMac wrote:Had about 10 rides on the new bike, furthest about 25 miles over some pretty hill terrain. What has surprised me is how devastating the wind is and how f**king terrible some of the roads are. Really enjoying it though.

Yes the wind, headwind or crosswind, can have a significant effect on your speed. Around Houston we don't have any hills to mention but we have wind, so I generally try to plan my routes out against the wind and back with it. Just like hills it's a mental thing, just remember to get low/aero and shift gears to keep you cadence high. If you have a power meter or heart rate monitor it helps you keep your effort reasonably constant.

If I have to choose between hills or wind on any given day, I take hills every time.

But I am noticing that to maintain speed into the wind, I'm often better off shifting up and hammering out a big gear. When you shift down, you start to slow down. Then you shift down again, and again, and again. Next thing you know you're doing 10mph on the small ring and getting nowhere.

Agreed, the key is to maintain a constant effort, you can achieve this by using a PM or HRM. My knees start to complain if I start mashing a big gear at a lower cadence, so I try to maintain a cadence of 90 to 95 rpm and use my aerobic engine rather that pure leg strength to deal with wind or hills.

Basically whatever works for you.

Interesting article to show that change is a comin' in Canada ... or at least small boroughs of yuppies ... gotta start somewhere!

http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2012 ... bike-lane/

Key excerpt:

Ferrandez’s power is limited; City Hall, led by Union Montréal’s Gérald Tremblay for the past decade, has the ultimate say on major infrastructure projects. But the boroughs do have the power to determine the direction of one-way streets, and Projet Montréal has focused on creating traffic mazes that channel drivers back to such major arteries as rue Saint-Denis and Saint-Laurent. These calming measures come at a time when Montreal’s roads, sewers, and gas lines (not to mention its bridges and tunnels) all seem to be reaching their best-before dates, provoking a spate of construction that threatens to paralyze such north-south thoroughfares as avenue de Parc and avenue Papineau for years to come. The result, in the summer of 2011, was borough-wide gridlock. As Bixi riders wove around immobilized cars, talk radio callers lambasted Montreal’s most visible, and vocal, opponent of the automobile as a dictator, a Nazi, and even Satan.

“I accept that some people think I’m the devil!” Ferrandez shouted over his shoulder, making a right onto rue de Brébeuf. “For them, the Plateau doesn’t exist. It is just a place to be driven through. I don’t give a shit about these people. They’ve abandoned the idea that humans can live together.”