Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Don’t forget to look up for Red Kites as well.
1mph improvement
- Thread starter Martinsnos
- Start date
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Don’t forget to look up for Red Kites as well.
cyberknight
As long as I breathe, I attack.
- Location
- Land of confusion
I always wondered how i would compare to others if i had a regular day job, enough sleep, normal levels of stress and more time to train .As it is im normally a few hours short on sleep and apart from a club ride ( which i havent done for 3 weeks due to issues ) my training consists of commuting whereas they are all on zwift races and mid week chain gangs
Hacienda71
Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
- Location
- Wilmslow, Cheshire
Get low and aero. At 18mph it starts making a noticeable difference. Hoods or drops bend your arms to get lower. It is free speed.
Martinsnos
Über Member
Many thanks. I need to keep up with that stretching, I’m a bit creaky these days.
I know a PT who really delves into his subject. Apparently these days the thinking is the absolute minimum time to hold a stretch is 1 minute. My goodness it is boring but…I must tell myself of the benefit when out on the road (I count 1 and 2 and…. to 60 and I reckon I’m lucky if it is 45 seconds - must use the timer on the phone more but it’s longer!!!).
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Upping your frequency and mileage are good things but don't forget to build in rest to adapt, riding as fast as you can constantly isn't going to improve you.
Many folk though don't have time to up their frequency and mileage and you have to be smart about what you do do. Google interval based training and lots will argue it gets better results than upping frequency and mileage anyway. With interval training similarly don't forget to rest to let your body adapt. Good luck 👍
Martinsnos
Über Member
Many thanks. I’ve got 3 things to try now:
Shorten and do last third flat out.
Hill repeats
Intervals.
Punkawallah
Über Member
Not coming from a cycling background, but it boils down to work harder, or work smarter or work harder -and- smarter :-)
Being a sensible man, and thus bone idle, I’d suggest option two - buy better wheels/tyres and go ‘aero’.
Good luck!
Being a sensible man, and thus bone idle, I’d suggest option two - buy better wheels/tyres and go ‘aero’.
Good luck!
Martinsnos
Über Member
Thank you.
I know this sounds stupid but going aero almost seems like ‘cheating’ to me but I suppose what I am really meaning is get the 1mph through training harder, then go aero and get 20mph!!!
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Punkawallah
Über Member
Of course it’s cheating! Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth doing :-)
You obviously want the third option, then. So, once again not from a cycling background, but varied intensity efforts followed by ‘active rest’ will show improvements. What they used to call Fartlek training, before t’Interwebs.
You obviously want the third option, then. So, once again not from a cycling background, but varied intensity efforts followed by ‘active rest’ will show improvements. What they used to call Fartlek training, before t’Interwebs.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
One of those unanswerable questions. There’s also some fitness improvements you’ll never get unless you started in your 20’s and kept going consistently across decades. Some structural changes that improve fitness and scale over decades.
There is a study I was reading about some life long top level endurance athletes. They had changes and improvements in their muscles that even fit high level 25 year olds couldn’t match.
Very few of us ever get close to our athletic potential ‘cause real life
Punkawallah
Über Member
Even a modicum of effort yields results, though. Hardly consider myself an ‘athlete’, but regular exercise in some form or other has, according to the ‘magic machine’ in a gym, resulted in a 25% discount on my ‘temporal‘ age - YMMV, T&CA :-)
Martinsnos
Über Member
Punkawallah
Über Member
Buggered if I know - the nice man just said 'Stand on that bit and hold these handles'. "Whirr, whirr' later and out pops a piece of paper from the ticky-type. Lot easier than standing up & sitting down, I tell you :-)
Shortandcrisp
Über Member
Its no more cheating than riding a road bike rather than something more upright; besides, for most of us maintaining an aero position is hard work in itself. I doubt very much if you’d initially go any faster on that course in a more aero position, just because I doubt you’d be able to put out the same level of power until you’d got a few weeks of training in that position under your belt.
And if you really want to cheat, ride the same course tucked behind a group of faster cyclists; I’d bet you’d easily turn that 18 average into a 20+ average.
