Clyde needs century trainig advice - Page 2

Actually, since my Sunday morning rides are at 6am, I have breakfast after that ride and that is EXACTLY what I eat. 3 whole scrambled eggs with whole wheat toast. I even throw the bacon in there to add sodium since I don't get much in my diet.

I'm not a cyclist in the purest sense so my diet is more like a bodybuilders diet. I try to get 125-175g of protein per day to retain muscle mas since I also weight lift.

You're right, getting the first Century under my belt took down a huge psychological barrier.

A few common problems with riding indoors are:

1. Lack of cooling
2. Boredom
3. Not being used to really maintaining a hard effort constantly for a long period of time.

Solutions:

1. Big fan. There is no substitute. If you are dripping sweat every second or two you're too hot. A big 16"+ fan at lower speed moves more air than a 12" fan at high speed and doesn't incur the annoying fan noise. Always have a drink handy too. Water is good. I do alot of training indoors and find that a large 32oz cup 3/4 filled works nicely. Cups are much easier to clean than bottles and if you can't manage to drink out of a cup while sitting up during a break then you have other issues

In addition to the big fan you should have 'the big towel'. A beach towel works great as both a sweat catcher when layed out across the bars and top tube and for drying you off during rest periods. Don't waste you cash on a fancy 'sweat catcher' when you already have something better

2. Music... Some people watch TV. I find both distracting and avoid them unless I have nothing specific to train for. I have a big picture of a mountain road that reminds me why I want to increase the w/kg.

3. If you're beat after 25 minutes, try doing 20 minutes and resting for 5 minutes (just pedaling easy) and then try another 15 to 20 minutes. Since you never get to relax on the trainer as you would on the road it is a more brutal but effective way of training. All those little stops at the traffic lights and freewheeling around corners do help in keeping you relaxed. If you start to feel like you're having to try too hard then pop it in an easier gear. If you need to take it easy every 10 minutes to just stand up on the pedals and shake out the legs then do so.

Riding on the trainer may highlight some problems with your position too, as you no longer have the "supporting effect" of the wind. Even at 17mph when riding on the tops or on the brake lever hoods you catch a fair bit of wind which in turn takes a fair bit of weight off your hands, which of course you don't get when riding indoors... So if you do start noticing that you get a bit of arm/shoulder/neck ache that you normally don't get then don't worry too much. Make sure that your top tube is level. If it isn't then having it sloping up is better than sloping down.

With a large base of indoor training you can sucessfully complete long distance rides. Between Sept of last year and April of this I don't think I trained for more than 90 minutes per session with very little of that outdoors (3x25 minutes with 5 minutes rest). May brought several weekends of 3 hour rides at a high tempo pace. In June I completed my 'goal' ride for the year - the 198 mile, Alta Alpina Challenge, which went over 8 high mountain passes and took in 21,000ft of climbing.

I'm not the lightest person either - so one point for you too remember is gearing. As a point of reference I was ~174lbs during June and had an FTP of ~345watts but I still had a 30x32 bottom gear as I knew there were some sections between 130 and 180 miles that had sustained 10 to 12% grades with some hairpins reaching 20+% and I didn't want to go over 275watts for more than a minute. I have 'back issues' too so that further increased the desire to keep the gears low and legs pedaling easy... Having a bail out gear can be useful. I was faced with the fact that the last climb of the day which finished at 180miles started with 7.5miles of 7.6%. Gear accordingly and you'll be a happy camper like I was...

If you know the course that your ride is on you can use Analytic Cycling and the power/speed calculators to figure out how fast (or slow) you'll need to go in order maintain a sensible effort on the hills. There's no prizes for being the chump that's overgeared on the hills but there's lots of satisfaction to be had for riding past people who either fell over sideways or had to get off and push...

Spiddow! 100 kilometers miles done and done. Didn't get "hard" until mile 50, At 55 it took everything I had to keep from crying. But I didn't cry and I didn't quit...Hooray me!

Thanks for all the advice. Not going out too fast was key, as was keep eating and drinking.

Craig
6'1" - 250 lbs