[quote author=Lab_Rat link=board=18;threadid=924;start=15#8159 date=1025141527]<br />Dr Jack Frost, <br /><br />Thanks for the heads-up, I will keep it in mind. One thing I failed to mention is that I keep my cadence up while riding up these hills. If I find I start labouring, I will change down. Does this change anything?<br /><br />GG, and Goat.<br /><br />Yup, that's the fella, no, he chats to his mates while I'm riding at close to my max. I think I have a few more base miles to do, (like about 10 000) before I'll be able to consider myself worthy of even trying. Nope, I'm afraid, I'm still a relative newbie to the sport. (I've only been riding for just over two years and half of that was as an absolute novice not knowing my backside from my elbow.) Not that I've progressed much since then. I now just ride early enough to start, and hopefully end a ride with the serious guys. <br /><br />ps. . . I'm riding this afternoon so I'll update details tomorrow.<br />[/quote]<br /><br />Hi, Just been reading this seems interesting. If you're telling that the guy is happily chatting while you're close to the max, that doesn't only have to do with with the fact he's a top racer. Actually you can get a long way building up a decent base. From reading your training data, it seems to me that you the base volume of your training is too low and that you push yourself too much.<br /><br />To give an example, my little brother (15 years on 11 november) just decided he wants to start racing. Since the spring he's been busy building his base, not very intensive riding but lots of kms (maybe 300 to 400 a week) and he's only going to start with the 'nieuwelingen' in Belgium. During the winter he'll maintain his aerobic fitness and will start doing more intense intervall training half januari.<br /><br />It's also quite important that you can maintain a high cadence during your base training, making sure that you develop enough aerobic capacity, conditioning your CNS and ensuring that you have enough capilaries going through your muscles. This conditioning may take years and pushing yourself too hard too early will only be detrimental in the long run.<br /><br />I just picked up biking again after a being inactive for a couple of years and forced myself not to use the big gears at all. I only used my big chainring after 3 months training at low gears in order not to destroy too much muscle tissue. It's not always easy to see those guys passing by at high gear grinning at your 'oude wijven' (old women) gear as we would say in Flemish, but in the end, next year I'll have the capacity and then they'll see me passing by at a higher gear and with a cadence they can only dream of<br /><br />Anyway, I always wonder why everone wants to use the big gears while upping your cadence can be much more effective and is certainly less tiring (the less lactic acid the better)<br /><br />Niek
