new to cycling

[valvan]

Ok so i am soon going to invest in a road bike, i have narrowed it down to the scott speedster s40 and i plan on racing in the 2010 season.
So far i have been doing lots of hills and base miles i can do 35-40miles. I feel that i am ready to start actually training with hills, intervals, and watts and i want to create a training plan to guide myself, I want to get in a little better shape before i go out and join a group ride, plan on joining that around January. i know about two different groups so i can ride with groups 3 days a week. my schedule is school from8-1pm and then i am free after that so i plan on training between 1:30-5or6 and a short 1-3mile run in the morning. the average race length for a cat 5 in my area is 40miles long with some at 30 and the longest being 58 miles. So any tips on what my training schedule should look like or something to give me a guideline would be great.
thanks -jamie

 

[fergie]

Gidday Jamie

Welcome to the sport. Many of us here have been indulging our love of racing for a fair few years and still get a buzz being in the action even if our shot at the big time never eventuated.

If I recall the S40 is the Tiagra/Sora model. If racing I would suggest you look for at least a 105 equipped bike like the S20. That being said we have some guys here that have raced their Tiagra bikes for years.

Training wise I think a power meter would be overkill at your level. Point is whether you have power or not the training doesn't change. You want to race well on hills you train fast on hills and if you want to ride fast TTs then practice on sustained efforts on the flat.

Power meters provide you with the specific data on how you are progressing but being new your progress will be rapid and some timed rides on 2-3 courses (relative to your goal events) should provide you with enough feedback.

Is there a group ride in your area that welcomes new riders. This would be a great opportunity to find others to ride with and learn the ins and outs of group riding. This would be a good lead into racing. I would combine this with a training programme so your gains in technical skills will increase as your physical ability does.

A basic outline for racing would be...

Mon Rest Day after a hard weekend
Tue Sprint Day working on speed and power on the bike
Wed Hard endurance day, find 5-10 min climbs or 5-10km sections of flat road and do 2-4 hard efforts.
Thu Long endurance day, aim for 1-2 hours of solid hard tempo riding.
Fri Easy ride
Sat Group ride and eventually road racing
Sun Long easy group ride (main effort on weekend should be Saturday)

Good luck

 

[valvan]

the bike shop i plan on buying my bike from has no drop rides on Sunday and that is were i plan to start. Next year i should be able to do some meet the team rides unfortunately they end this month and i was unable to join due to schedule, plus showing up with a walmart bike or my dads old Schwinn varsity would seem kind of odd.

As for the s40 im on a college budget and most bike that come with the 105 are out of my price range so i plan to upgrade components as time goes on. My buget to start is 1,300 and thats for the bike, new tires(ive heard stock tires aren't that great), shoes, clothes and racing license.

Unfortunately my 28mile loop got closed due to the possibility of a dam breaking so they put up a wall there. I have plenty of hills to train on around my house so training should have lots of nice scenery and challenges.

 

[fergie]

Scott's are great bikes and the S40 will serve you well. I have gone back to study for my 2nd degree this year and the subsequent tightening of the belt associated with it.

Not sure how cold it gets in your neck of the woods but it's winter so wrap up real warm or consider a gym membership and use their spin bikes or at worst the exercycles to keep the legs ticking over if the weather is real bad.

 

[valvan]

don't need to bother to much with the gym membership the college im at has a cardio room that is open to all students