Being a teenage road cyclist

[Velostage]

Hi,

A friend and myself have decided to start a new blog that covers life as two teenage cyclists trying to make their way into racing. Everything from kit to trying to wake up in the morning is covered. In our quest to try and fit racing and training into education and work, we'll post reviews of everything we find, hints tips and tricks.

Worth checking out just for the quality stories of falling off.

http://velostage.wordpress.com/

Thanks.

Since it's a new blog, any advice/questions given would be highly appreciated.

 

[rtmonahan]

Me, being a serious junior cyclist in highschool, think that this is an amazing idea. Maybe stuff about how to explain to people what you do and why you shave your legs would be nice. After three years of riding I still can't figure out a way to tell people that.

 

[todayilearned]

I was about to say this is a fantastic idea... then I remembered I haven't been a teenager in... quite some time...

Now I'm just sad.

 

[Velostage]

Originally Posted by rtmonahan .

Me, being a serious junior cyclist in highschool, think that this is an amazing idea. Maybe stuff about how to explain to people what you do and why you shave your legs would be nice. After three years of riding I still can't figure out a way to tell people that.

Thanks for the comments. I was thinking of a piece to do about shaving of the legs as one of my first ones

Originally Posted by todayilearned .

I was about to say this is a fantastic idea... then I remembered I haven't been a teenager in... quite some time...

Now I'm just sad.

Chin up, we all get old

 

[vspa]

if the guys have trouble waking up then there is lack of motivation, it is not your normal school day,
it is Sunday ! the day for which you have been training so hard all those weeks and months.
the ones who over sleep in weekends are the college and university guys, not a cyclist

 

[Velostage]

Originally Posted by rtmonahan .

Me, being a serious junior cyclist in highschool, think that this is an amazing idea. Maybe stuff about how to explain to people what you do and why you shave your legs would be nice. After three years of riding I still can't figure out a way to tell people that.

Shaved legs post will be up at about 1PM GMT tomorrow

Originally Posted by vspa .

if the guys have trouble waking up then there is lack of motivation, it is not your normal school day,
it is Sunday ! the day for which you have been training so hard all those weeks and months.
the ones who over sleep in weekends are the college and university guys, not a cyclist

Not matter how much I want to ride, I find it hard to ride in the morning if I'm not doing anything else that day. Don't know why.

 

[Rych]

Mate I love your style, good reading, especially your shaving blog lol. Will follow this even though I'm not a teen

 

[Velostage]

Originally Posted by Rych .

Mate I love your style, good reading, especially your shaving blog lol. Will follow this even though I'm not a teen /img/vbsmilies/smilies//smile.gif

Thanks.

A new blog about the longest, hardest ride I have ever done is up.

http://velostage.wordpress.com/

 

[Velostage]

New post will be up in an hour.

 

[Velostage]

Hey guys, new site is up and running. Check it out at

http://velostage.com/

or

http://velostage.wordpress.com/ <---- automatically re-directs now.

If you find any bugs, please inform us.

 

[danfoz]

This is awesome dude! You can't imagine how lucky you are getting into racing now. I'm 43 and started riding hard back in the 9th grade in '82, me and my friends knew jack **** but we rode a lot on our crappy bikes. We did ok once in awhile - I came in 2nd at Bear Mountain and my team mate won the Harlem Crit. But back then nobody knew what bike racing was in the US and absolutely no respect came our way. Nowday's there are high school teams and even cycling scholarships to College. It's amazing! With this sort of motivation I'm sure you are likely to succeed at whatever you do.

 

[bgoetz]

cool site man!! I got as far as dropping your 10 mile TT by 5 minutes though and realized you are truly just starting cycling or you have really unrealistic expectations. 5 minutes in 10 miles is HUGE even if you are just getting started. Just my opinion, but you should be more realistic with your goals or your goals should be based off of a real effort, because if you shave 5 minutes in a year then what you are basing it from is not a real TT effort. Just my $.02, other than that best of luck to you..............

 

[alienator]

Nice blog. Let me give you a few hints, though:

1. If you like double rainbows, move to Arizona. We got lots of 'em here. We seem to have the more than occasional sun dogs and solar halos.
2. Take hint from the Drunk Cyclist ( http://drunkcyclist.com/ ) and include a healthy supply of nudity, links to ****, or both. Cycling, nudity, and sex are the true Holy Trinity.
3. Music videos. Revolting Cocks, Butthole Surfers, and Gogol Bordello all provide great soundtracks for cycling blogs, as well as important lessons for life.

 

[Velostage]

5 Minutes off of a 28 Minute 10-mile TT isn't impossible at all. Thanks for the comment though.

 

[alienator]

Originally Posted by Velostage .

5 Minutes off of a 28 Minute 10-mile TT isn't impossible at all. Thanks for the comment though.

It's certainly no impossible taking 5 min off a 28 min, 10mile TT. That is a big jump (21.4 mph avg to 26mph avg), so don't expect it to happen over night. Also, don't be disappointed when it takes longer than expected and if/when you hit plateaus and can't seem to get anywhere for a while. In terms of power (assuming your body position doesn't change and you're using the same bike, same kit, and etc), such a jump in velocity would require a 1.79x jump in power output (power varies with the cube of the velocity, so, for example, to double your speed, you have to increase power output by a 8x) over that 10 miles, a 79% increase. Thems ain't small taters. I would suggest that you at least find your way to the Cycling Training and Power Training sub-forums to at least get a feel for what you might need to do to make such an increase.

 

[Velostage]

Thanks for that, certainly given me some food for though. I know how much of a task it is. But I'm certain that I can get there, eventually. I'm currently on a standard road bike. Once I plateau out a bit, I'll start the upgrade process of the bike, but I'm hoping to get the most of the decrease in time from increase in performance. I've only been training for a year.

 

[bgoetz]

It is somewhat more realistic if you will be going from a standard road bike to a good TT setup, but 5 minutes is still a lot to ask for and will likely take multiple years of training, unless you really bombed your 1st effort. It is good to have goals, I typically set 5 or so attainable goals specific for every season, anything beyond a season while great to think about is more of a dream than a goal. My suggestion was to merely look at the 5 minute goal in more detail and assess if it is a realistic goal or more of a dream, if it falls in the dream category I would set a goal that is more attainable.

For perspective I did our local club short course TT (9 miles) in 22' 30" back in April using my road bike with aero bars, a couple of weeks ago I did the same course with the same setup in 21' 30", shaving a minute off of my previous time. While I am somewhat aero my setup is not great (I am reaching quite a bit and have difficulty shifting on the rollers). So next year I will be throwing some actual TT bars on my backup road bike and hope to shave time that way, this coupled with an aggressive training regimen in the off-season I hope to break 20' 30" next season on the same course. Sure I really want to break the course record that is somewhere around 19' flat, but setting that as a goal for next year is not realistic.

Again your blog is a neat idea, especially if you keep up with it throughout your progression, I just noticed the 5 minute goal and figured I would try to help with a bit of perspective.

Best of luck to ya!

 

[Velostage]

New Post : http://velostage.com/wordpress/?p=579

 

[alienator]

I would think that if one is on a limited budget, a helmet camera would be considered a luxury, not one of the things necessary to cycling.

 

[Velostage]

Originally Posted by alienator .

I would think that if one is on a limited budget, a helmet camera would be considered a luxury, not one of the things necessary to cycling.

I was knocked off on the second day I got my bike. There was CCTV, but the police "Lost it" along with my statement. The driver was never tracked, thus making me pay for the repairs out of my own pocket. I had 4 days in hospital.

For that, I always ride with it on now due to not trusting other drivers and the police now.