Cycling Workouts: Discussion/Encouragement/Sharing/Banter

[<Tommy>]

My sort of premo fighting weight if you like is maybe 75kg. A month or so back I climbed onto the scales and I was 80kg. It was a bit of a deflating moment if I’m honest. Because it was a reflection of a lack of training / diet / added fat rather than added muscle of course. And when you pick up a 1kg bag of sugar from the cupboard it’s brings the reality of what that means when you’re going up a 9% + gradient for extended periods.

But I don’t like to diet. Rather than try not to eat in excess and find the level I need in terms of energy to get through the day. So I cut out sugar )apart from alcohol of course). And I made a real effort to drink lots of water every day. And luckily when I weighed myself the day before we left, I was down to 77/78 kg. Which isn’t ideal, but at least I felt I was in a decent place without sacrificing to many energy reserves which I personally believe eating at a deficit brings. Now I’m back I weight 76kg as of this morning. But I think that should go up a little in the next few days. And then hopefully drop as a big to train again.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

There’s a local hill and I managed a PB of 4 mins 4 seconds in June 2020. Then fitness drifted during pandemic till got back on it end of 2021. Today I managed the hill in 3 mins 54 seconds, first time ever under 4 mins. It’s clearly a bit of a VO2 max test, given duration. Very pleased with the new PB, which took another 3 years to manage.

 

[CXRAndy]

Y,all did really well Tommy👍.

Tough going riding consecutive days, with long days in the saddle.

Saw Bob, was super smart- gearing down to MTB ratios. Well done

 

[bobinski]

I won't add much to what Tommy has said. It was a great trip. I knew i was not really prepared for it but planned to avoid chasing the strong boys and just tap away. It meant i rode alone for much of the time, either up or down and along the valleys or gorges to get to the next climb. But that didnt bother me. I am used to being Bobby no mates. Some dark moments, often after really poor sleep, especially on the Tormalet, in mist and cloud, and then on the Gau after 150km and running out of carbs with another 12km of climbing to come. Bits of the body not wanting to work. But also inevitably, some quite beautiful moments, the views, the ridiculously enjoyable long descents, the ever changing landscape especially so as we went over the Gau and descended towards the Med.
I highly recommend Marmot tours who were great. They had to organise us on military style lines just to ensure we finished within the 100 hours. In between they provided great friendly support and banter and attended to all our needs without fuss. We were a disparate group. There were far too many early retirement monied Canadians ( and early retirement Brits) for my liking but i warmed to some of them. We just had to avoid politics. Glad to have T, Lee and Ns to occasiionally ride with.Pics on my strava but i will throw the Tormalet one in coz i love it And the certificate.

 

[Norry1]

3 hours endurance for me yesterday - nabbed quite a few Veloviwer Tiles (there is another thread about them) and saw quite a few roads I'd not been on before - including the centre of Coventry and the A45 coming out

1hr recovery today and then the 3 x 15 min Threshold horror on Sunday.

Well, the Threshold session went well. Here is Roy's feedback..

"Oooh....I like that one. Increasing HR for each session and really pushing for the last one - excellent. Going to extend these a bit more....."

Getting worried now 😱

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Did 28 mins of VO2 max intervals today. That’s 7 x 4 mins, with 2 min recoveries between. It went okay today, managed to push right through last interval. Got some strength endurance work tomorrow.

 

[Norry1]

Did 28 mins of VO2 max intervals today. That’s 7 x 4 mins, with 2 min recoveries between. It went okay today, managed to push right through last interval. Got some strength endurance work tomorrow.

Ouch

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Ouch

My VO2 work is once a week. I couldn’t nail it more frequently. I mostly do it after a rest day, but this week was after a Z2 day.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Low cadence big gear work completed. Legs feeling strong.

 

[HLaB]

I kinda knew this would happen but I'm a glutton for punishment I had a quite good ride with my usual paceline group on Wednesday and I joined one of the faster local rides to night. Whilst I need to be up early I'm still buzzing 🙃

The face hides alot of pain, but after tonight I’m grinning ear to ear as I perversely enjoyed the Paradigm Cycles Chaingang and the intensity (especially the last lap) was high enough to stop my hands from going numb

I had 14 miles into a headwind with start/stop traffic to get out of town so I burnt a lot of matches just to get there. I then burnt the rest with too many sprints on the early laps to close gaps when folk didn't go through :-) So the last circular lap felt like 90% head wind that's not now circular laps are supposed to work

Oh and last night's if anyone is interested:

 

[IrishAl]

Hi chaps. Just checking in having realised it was ages ago since I last posted. I’ve been lurking 👀 for the past few weeks.

Great to see everyone is sticking to the programme and training hard. Also great to hear about Tommy and Bob’s Pyrenean adventures.

I’ve stuck to the training plan I was following on Garmin connect. I set a target race in September- I don’t actually plan on racing but it’s giving me structure and building me up and have to say I’m still enjoying it, fitting the training rides in with my commutes. You might recall at the start I’d said that I’d never really trained to power outdoors and initially I was having bother running into traffic mid-effort etc. I’ve now got much better at planning my routes and also edited the workouts to allow some free ride time before an effort starts so I can time it to when I know I’ll get a clear run at an interval.

I’ve more or less quit the running training plan I was following in parallel - I’d picked up a hamstring injury so enforced rest set me back. I’m back running once or twice a week to keep my hand in for the winter.

I’ve also been back to Mallorca on a family holiday and got my training rides done early morning before the heat got up as well as the family got up (photo of me and the grandkids on hols below … yes grand kids!!!). One longer ride up Sa Batalla and Sa Calobra which was nice.

Anyway good to check in and I’ll try and post up more regularly.

 

[mjd1988]

Hi chaps. Just checking in having realised it was ages ago since I last posted. I’ve been lurking 👀 for the past few weeks.

Great to see everyone is sticking to the programme and training hard. Also great to hear about Tommy and Bob’s Pyrenean adventures.

I’ve stuck to the training plan I was following on Garmin connect. I set a target race in September- I don’t actually plan on racing but it’s giving me structure and building me up and have to say I’m still enjoying it, fitting the training rides in with my commutes. You might recall at the start I’d said that I’d never really trained to power outdoors and initially I was having bother running into traffic mid-effort etc. I’ve now got much better at planning my routes and also edited the workouts to allow some free ride time before an effort starts so I can time it to when I know I’ll get a clear run at an interval.

I’ve more or less quit the running training plan I was following in parallel - I’d picked up a hamstring injury so enforced rest set me back. I’m back running once or twice a week to keep my hand in for the winter.

I’ve also been back to Mallorca on a family holiday and got my training rides done early morning before the heat got up as well as the family got up (photo of me and the grandkids on hols below … yes grand kids!!!). One longer ride up Sa Batalla and Sa Calobra which was nice.

Anyway good to check in and I’ll try and post up more regularly.

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That's a class photo. Glad to hear you are enjoying riding as well.

I think next year I'm going to aim to race outside as well - similarly if it never happens at least something to work towards. Need something to get a bit more disciplined with diet and exercise

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Four hours of Z2, with the last 1.5 in thunderstorms and rain. Just a windproof over shirt as still warm even in the heavy rain.

 

[IrishAl]

That's a class photo. Glad to hear you are enjoying riding as well.

I think next year I'm going to aim to race outside as well - similarly if it never happens at least something to work towards. Need something to get a bit more disciplined with diet and exercise

Are you doing much outdoors Michael? Any sportives planned. Would be good to catch up IRL some time 👍

 

[mjd1988]

Are you doing much outdoors Michael? Any sportives planned. Would be good to catch up IRL some time 👍

Got an almost 3 month old so literally nothing outdoors this year so far! (Aside from the odd short jaunt on the hybrid). Hoping to start commuting a bit if I can though. Might book some leave and just take off towards the Mournes some day too

Yeah definitely should! Normally do lap the Lough but not signed up this year, are you doing any?