[webbo]

turbo workouts from pete reads book.
10 min warm up
5 mins on 1 min off xbetween 6 and 10 efforts h/r between 70 and 85%
10 w/down

10 min w/u
25 mins h/r 60%
20mins h/r 70%
20mins h/r 80%
10 min w/d
do one of these twice a week plus a 3 hour ride at the w/e and you'll be in good shape bto start proper training come january.
then come january
10 min w/u
1 min 1 min off x 10 h/r up tp 95%
10 min w/d

10 min w/u
15 secs on 15 sec off x3
1min rest
x5 x7x9x11x9x7x5x3 h/r 95%
10 min w/d

then
10 min w/u
1 min 53x18
2 min 53x17
3 min 53x16
4 min 53x15
5 min 53x14
6 min 53x13
7 min53x12 h/r off the scale
10 min w/d

enjoy
  
 

[Yossarian]

afan. i'd rather have gone to cwm carn, but in the end we had a lot of fun. that bike though - it's bloody heavy. i think the wheels are responsible for about 12 - 14lb...

[webbo]

i am quite concerned that it is nearly turbo trainer time again. i wonder if in years to come that particular instrument of torture might go the way of bear baiting and corporal punishment and get banned. i think i might try illuminated mountain biking as an alternative.

although i'm a big fan of turbo training as its the best way to get strong and fast.its got to be the most mind numbing,painful experience known to man kind.i find it really hard to warm down after a session cos i'm so desperate to get off the bloody thing.

i don't know what the set i was on when i did threshhold test but it sounds similar plus i had the added benefit off 2 mates bellowing encouragement as just about puked.

have you ridden an srm ergo? if a turbo trainer is like being beaten with an iron bar for 40 minutes, then the SRM is like organ removal without anaesthetic.  Once the power level is set it won't let you drop below it.  If your legs slow then the resistance increases.  And doing a max test on it is unspeakably awful...

[fatdoc]

oh god, i'm going to die...

[Yossarian]

my recipe for making it more bearable is fixing bike on turbo in front of projection screen and then watching tour de france dvds. it is essential (in my experience anyway) to try to watch previously unseen footage, as otherwise you know what's going to happen and your mind wanders. back to the boredom and pain of the turbo. it is possible to actually get quite a psyche on. but only really with 2x 20s and stuff. you may as well put a black bag over your head when doing intervals.

i tried pr0n once, but the trouble is that it messes with your breathing rhythm...

[chappers]

50 miles   
it hurts, not now, but last night i was shattered. i loved it. the climb out of buxton up to the roaches was ace, must have gone past about 50 riders, really pushing ourselves, and yes it was I who always breaked down the hills, 40mph seems way to fast, dave was clocking way over that, nutter!

[fatdoc]

34 miles, not as far as i hoped..but there again 2hrs 20, and i had to get on with spotting my son at the plantation for the rest of the afternoon.

but the climb to abney / gliding club was top notch... then i found curbar gap a bit of a shocker to say the least . really pleased though, didnt think i'd get up it. Interestingly my HRM has self destructed..i just used pain as a determinant for gear choice - which was very very low!!

felt a bit jaded on the ride in to work today I have to say, my left hamstrings are well tender!! (spack foot on tht side no doubt not helping )

Good effort on the distance chappers, your base fitness  / lack of fat is obviously far better than mine!

[Percy B]

Didn't get out on my bike this weekend, due to being out the grit both days in Yorkshire, but am psyched for getting some miles in towards the end of the week.

Going back to the concept of how much motivation you can get to push really hard from the people you ride with, I was lucky (?) enough to get on a wheel of a pair of blokes between Matlock and Bakewell a few months back, and even though I was going well at that point I could not muster the energy to do a stint on the front, which I thought seemed a bit odd. In fact, nor could the bloke in front of me, who was just hanging on to the wheel of the lead bloke for grim death. The bloke at the front (bear in mind all I could see of him was an enormous pair of calves) was an absolute monster who just put his head down and churned out an amazing pace for a good 6 or 7 miles before they eased off coming into Bakewell just enough so we could have a chat before they did a u-turn and went back to Matlock. Turns out the big fucker at the front regularly does 10 mile time trials in 19 minutes, so it was nothing to him, whereas his buddy who had been getting a free ride on his wheel was destroyed and said that every training run with the big lad was like this - he never got on the front, just tried to keep up for as long as possible! Absolutely awesome to ride with someone like that though - not much good on a long ride but for a quick 20 mile blast an absolute machine. I can't imagine going for a 20 mile ride in the Peak and being back home within 50 minutes! Awesome.

Then there's the tale of a local club full of strong youths going out on a sunday with some old bastard called Malcom Elliott tagging along. Aparently the youths heard this Elliott dude used to be good, so going up Froggatt hill they all gang up on Malcom and try and leave him behind. After 5 minutes going flat out and just when the group thought they'd dropped the ancient one, Malcom rides past the whole group no-handed, putting on a rain cape, and then announces that the spurt of pace from the group was a nice warm up and leaves everybody for dead! The lesson here is beware the knarly ancient roadies - many of them can still do a bit...  (not that Malcom Elliott is ancient by any extent of the imagination)!

[Simon S]

Then there's the tale of a local club full of strong youths going out on a sunday with some old bastard called Malcom Elliott tagging along. Aparently the youths heard this Elliott dude used to be good, so going up Froggatt hill they all gang up on Malcom and try and leave him behind. After 5 minutes going flat out and just when the group thought they'd dropped the ancient one, Malcom rides past the whole group no-handed, putting on a rain cape, and then announces that the spurt of pace from the group was a nice warm up and leaves everybody for dead! The lesson here is beware the knarly ancient roadies - many of them can still do a bit...  (not that Malcom Elliott is ancient by any extent of the imagination)!

Yeah, the green jersey in the tour of spain definately counts as being good!  One of the UKs best riders in recent years.

On the subject of the dreaded turbo training and power outputs etc, Cippolini could produce a whooping 1200 watts for a full 10 seconds when on form  

[chappers]

the only shite thing that did happen on the ride was the self destruction of my saddle bag as i went over a cattle grid at about 30mph. back to the shop with it tonight!

[Yossarian]

That's quite hardcore.  Looking back at my last Wingate test, I managed a max of 1063W, and over 1000w for er, 4.5 seconds. It took me 1.5 seconds to get over 1000W, so not exactly explosive, but I was still quite pleased with myself.

[webbo]

due to bicep injury i got out both days at the w/e did 3 hours on sat and 1885 cals h/r upto 184.2 hours40 mins sun 1440 cals h/r 178.i tend to o out over the hills[ yorkshire wolds] for the first bit of my ride the drop down on to plain of york for the last hour and give it some in a big gear.
i've raced against some of those ex pros in vets events.they don't seem to lose it with age. 

[Houdini]

Is there any way of doing plenty of road riding and not gaining massive thighs?

Talk to me about cadence.

[webbo]

whether you will get big thighs depends whether your body type is one that puts on muscle.you still get big thighs even if you pedal fast i.e. track riders.

[Houdini]

Slabs and jump problems from now on then...

(I heard about this Finnish ex-speedskater (ice) - all the hardest dyno's in Finland are his.)

There has to be some way of losing thigh mass...  Running on the flat?

[webbo]

get a wheelchair.

[fatdoc]

my thighs are noticably getting bigger... i'll need a harness with adjustable leg loops at this rate.

[Yossarian]

i think this leg strength thing is a bit odd. there was a thing i quoted a few pages back (i think) from rick stern - here it is again http://www.cyclingforums.com/t126133.html - which suggests that hypertrophy from actually riding a bike (maybe not track sprinting) is extremely low, and that hypertrophy in general is to be avoided.

"[in reply to] Some additional leg size/strength at least could be helpful in powering the cranks.

This just isn't true, unless you have a functional disability or are e.g., a frail old lady. the force requirements are low to moderate in endurance cycle racing, such that virtually anyone can meet them.

elite endurance cyclists are, on average, no stronger than untrained, sedentary, healthy, age, gender and mass-matched controls.

the average force requirement of *both* legs over each pedal rev can generally be met by anyone. for e.g., approximately, the force required for the *top 5 riders* in the recent Mont Ventoux mountain TT would have been ~ 250 Newtons (or 25 kg). Pretty much anyone can generate that. Obviously, sustaining that for the hour long period is a totally different matter -- but, that's not a strength issue, but to do with the factors that affect endurance performance, such as VO2max, and LT."

the fastest guy i've ever ridden with is pete tadros (top 10 national 10mile and 25 mile tester) and he's a scrawny little chap...

i thought my legs might have got a bit bigger earlier this year, but i don't know if it wasn't just fat loss that was making them look more muscely. and as far as calves are concerned, anyone who's read arnie's education of a bodybuilder will know how difficult it is to add calf muscle mass, even with huge weights.

of course, this man has big legs, but i'm sure that's from squatting 400lb rather than riding the etape...

[Percy B]

And a pretty impressive camel toe too!

[fatdoc]

well, my legs are getting bigger... right much more than left (spack foot is on the left)

they have been this big before, 18 months of MTB XC 3 times a week with one 40km at least a week ride. i had power then... stopped XC and then got into freeride (aka regular A&E attendances), legs went small. maybe it's just muscle tone... something i'm not accustomed too!!

[chappers]

i felt the effect of sunday last night at my regular running training.
4 x 400m with 1 min rest, 4 sets. every lap under 75 seconds.

i felt that i was running in sand in the 14th, 15th, and 16th lap. MORE REST NEEDED!!!

however, i did feel positive effects on the cardio side, recovery between sets was much quicker. 

[Houdini]

get a wheelchair.

I'm undecided.  Is it



or maybe



?

[webbo]

you'd be better off with an electric one.

[Houdini]

 



Sexy little number innit?

[webbo]

i think i'd worry a few of my friends if i started calling my bike/wheelchair edna.