Training program

gravelmuncher <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Is there a downloadable program available for a road rider who works 5 days per week? I've
: recently put the mountainbike in the shed and bought a new Trek, so i'd like to get started.

To do what exactly? Do you want to train to race, ride to lose weight, ride to develop aerobic
fitness, ride to develop endurance or just generally ride to be faster than you are now? Answering
this will identify a goal which you can work towards.

If you go over to Coach Carl Cantrell's website you can spend many hours reading useful information
and ultimately work out a program that suits your needs: coachcarl.comcoachcarl.comOpen ↗

I'm in no way affiliated with Carl but have found many gems of cycling wisdom there.

Cheerz, Lynzz

Thanks for the reply...in answering your question - all of the above. As soon as I gain a little more fitness/stamina i'll be joining a cycle club nearby and would like to be as competitive as possible. As i mentioned, i'm holding down a fulltime job...but surely many competing cyclists are in the same boat and i'd like to gather some advice on how to manage both activities. Thanks again for the link - i'll look into it.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Lindsay Rowland
gravelmuncher <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Is there a downloadable program available for a road rider who works 5 days per week? I've
: recently put the mountainbike in the shed and bought a new Trek, so i'd like to get started.

To do what exactly? Do you want to train to race, ride to lose weight, ride to develop aerobic
fitness, ride to develop endurance or just generally ride to be faster than you are now? Answering
this will identify a goal which you can work towards.

If you go over to Coach Carl Cantrell's website you can spend many hours reading useful information
and ultimately work out a program that suits your needs: coachcarl.comcoachcarl.comOpen ↗

I'm in no way affiliated with Carl but have found many gems of cycling wisdom there.

Cheerz, Lynzz

"gravelmuncher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

As soon as I gain a little more fitness/stamina i'll be joining a cycle club nearby and would like
to be as competitive as possible.

Why wait until you're more fit? Join a club now. It will do wonders to motivate you to get out and
do more miles, both training and racing, and you'll find you get a lot fitter, faster, than you
would otherwise.

Quoted message said:

As i mentioned, i'm holding down a fulltime job...but surely many competing cyclists are in the
same boat and i'd like to gather some advice on how to manage both activities.

Almost all competitive cyclists work other jobs. There's only a tiny fraction of racers around who
are able to train through the day. That's why you see such big bunches training early morning and
late evenings. Indeed many of us have to fit training in with working full-time and studying part
time as well. I personally find riding to work is useful, with perhaps one or two days a week where
I take the long way to work or home, along with racing on Saturdays and doing a good long training
ride on Sundays. In the lower grades, 200 or 300km per week is quite a good mileage, and it's
reasonably easy to maintain this around work and uni.

The main thing is to avoid wasting time watching that damned box (or reading those damned
newsgroups, for that matter).

Regards,

Suzy

gravelmuncher said:

Thanks for the reply...in answering your question - all of the above. As soon as I gain a little
more fitness/stamina i'll be joining a cycle club nearby and would like to be as competitive as
possible. As i mentioned, i'm holding down a fulltime job...but surely many competing cyclists are
in the same boat and i'd like to gather some advice on how to manage both activities. Thanks again
for the link - i'll look into it.

Like Suzy said, don't wait, do it now. There's nothing to make you strong/fit enough for racing like
racing itself. If you keep waiting, you might never feel ready. Someone gave me this advice when I
was in the same position as you, and they were right. Most clubs of any size have a grade in which
rank beginners can cope. You might get dropped off the bunch the first couple of times, but stick
with it and you will soon develop both the skills and the race sense to stay with it. By race sense
I mean knowing when you can bludge and when it's worth putting in a little extra effort. For
instance, in the lower grades (where I ride!) there can be a serious "spring" or yo-yo effect in the
peloton, whereby in the sharper turns, the people towards the back have to slow right down to avoid
riders in front when going into the corner, then sprint like crazy out of the corner to stay in
contact. Riding nearer the front of the bunch makes you less susceptible to this and you can
therefore make a more consistent effort. Until you have ridden a few races and feel comfortable with
the pace, avoid going to the front and doing a turn, otherwise you may cook yourself and find
yourself unable to hold the last wheel after peeling off.

Rather than raw fitness, it's probably more important (w.r.t. taking up racing) to be sure that your
bike handling skills and general road sense are up to scratch. You don't need to be able to eat a
banana while standing on the saddle or anything, just be able to ride in a straight line with other
riders (and your wits) about you and not jamming on the brakes. Following a wheel can take a bit of
getting used to - don't let others pressure you into following more closely than you feel
comfortable, and you'll soon find you can suck wheel with the best of them. There's some good tips
about this on the coachcarl.comcoachcarl.comOpen ↗ site that Lindsay mentioned.

Sorry this driveled on so long...

&roo

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Andrew Swan

Bgravelmuncher said:

Thanks for the reply...in answering your question - all of the above. As soon as I gain a little
more fitness/stamina i'll be joining a cycle club nearby and would like to be as competitive as
possible. As i mentioned, i'm holding down a fulltime job...but surely many competing cyclists are
in the same boat and i'd like to gather some advice on how to manage both activities. Thanks again
for the link - i'll look into it.

Like Suzy said, don't wait, do it now. There's nothing to make you strong/fit enough for racing like
racing itself. If you keep waiting, you might never feel ready. Someone gave me this advice when I
was in the same position as you, and they were right. Most clubs of any size have a grade in which
rank beginners can cope. You might get dropped off the bunch the first couple of times, but stick
with it and you will soon develop both the skills and the race sense to stay with it. By race sense
I mean knowing when you can bludge and when it's worth putting in a little extra effort. For
instance, in the lower grades (where I ride!) there can be a serious "spring" or yo-yo effect in the
peloton, whereby in the sharper turns, the people towards the back have to slow right down to avoid
riders in front when going into the corner, then sprint like crazy out of the corner to stay in
contact. Riding nearer the front of the bunch makes you less susceptible to this and you can
therefore make a more consistent effort. Until you have ridden a few races and feel comfortable with
the pace, avoid going to the front and doing a turn, otherwise you may cook yourself and find
yourself unable to hold the last wheel after peeling off.

Rather than raw fitness, it's probably more important (w.r.t. taking up racing) to be sure that your
bike handling skills and general road sense are up to scratch. You don't need to be able to eat a
banana while standing on the saddle or anything, just be able to ride in a straight line with other
riders (and your wits) about you and not jamming on the brakes. Following a wheel can take a bit of
getting used to - don't let others pressure you into following more closely than you feel
comfortable, and you'll soon find you can suck wheel with the best of them. There's some good tips
about this on the coachcarl.comcoachcarl.comOpen ↗ site that Lindsay mentioned.

Sorry this driveled on so long...

&roo [/B]

Thanks for the excellent reply, it's good to read this kind of advice as there is noone else in my town who even posesses a bike more than about 20 years old! The roads within a 100 km radius are in pretty bad shape around here, and really narrow too - which makes riding to work a bit risky. I guess i'll just have to move back to the city to reap the benifits of daily riding.

Thanks again for the reply
Joe

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:q001b.199> > Like Suzy said, don't
wait, do it now. There's nothing to make you

Quoted message said:

strong/fit enough for racing like racing itself. If you keep waiting, you might never feel ready.
Someone gave me this advice when I was in

Why oh why didn't you guys write this 4 months ago?! I had 2-3 months off due to broken bones and a
holiday overseas and then got stuck in this awful catch-22 of "I'm not fast enough to race..." "I'm
not racing, why train?" "I'm not training so I'm not fast enough to race..." "I'm not racing, so why
train?" etc etc etc!

Anyway, I still haven't raced since March, but at least I'm training again... lets see if I can't
race sometime soon!

hip

hippy said:

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:q001b.199> > Like Suzy said, don't
wait, do it now. There's nothing to make you

Quoted message said:

strong/fit enough for racing like racing itself. If you keep waiting, you might never feel ready.
Someone gave me this advice when I was in

Why oh why didn't you guys write this 4 months ago?! I had 2-3 months off due to broken bones and
a holiday overseas and then got stuck in this awful catch-22 of "I'm not fast enough to race..."
"I'm not racing, why train?" "I'm not training so I'm not fast enough to race..." "I'm not racing,
so why train?" etc etc etc!

Anyway, I still haven't raced since March, but at least I'm training again... lets see if I can't
race sometime soon!

hip

There's an inspirational post on rec.bicycles.racing (don't ask me to find it again) about how
anyone who turns up and races is already a legend just for putting their ego on the line (the start
line!). That sure helped me get up for my 5:45 alarm this morning, even if I did come about third
last (in an all-grades ITT)! :-)

&roo

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:NSA1b.488

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Like Suzy said, don't wait, do it now. There's nothing to make you strong/fit enough for racing
like racing itself. If you keep waiting, you might never feel ready.

Anyway, I still haven't raced since March, but at least I'm training again... lets see if I
can't race sometime soon!

It turns out that there was a race on today, would you believe? Unfortunately, I got a puncture...
... .... on the way home... after WINNING it! :-D

Okay, so it was a win by default with one of the juniors beating me across the line. But because
there was a specific junior race on that day, I was the first across the line in D grade - and that
was with me spending considerable time out the front, including half the final lap. I just didn't
have the legs in me for the half bike-length I needed across the line. Going out last night for my
gf's birthday probably wasn't the best prep either :-P (hiccup)

I'm so glad I finally raced again. Thanks guys/gals! hip

hippy said:

It turns out that there was a race on today, would you believe? Unfortunately, I got a puncture...
... .... on the way home... after WINNING it! :-D

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I'm so glad I finally raced again. Thanks guys/gals! hip

Hey well done hipster - where did you race, what was the event, how many entrants, etc.?

&roo

"Andrew Swan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:gNW1b.731

Quoted message said:

Hey well done hipster - where did you race, what was the event, how

many

Quoted message said:

entrants, etc.?

It was a Blackburn CC criterium, held at METEC (motorbike training ground) in Kilsyth. There was
probably 10-15 people racing in D grade I guess.

hip