Help Parents want me to get a job after school.

[Joe24]

2 miles a week? I do around 75 :

I do 2 miles to school and back, then do 10 miles in the evening i do this 7 times a week.

Plus i go on the exercise bike so probably another 30 odd?

Im going to start cycling in the morning before school the 10 mile route i do in the evenings meaning it would work out about 29 miles a day, doing that for 5-7 times a week is around 170-210 miles a week.

Im not in a club yet, i would like to join a club before the summer hoildays by then i should be good enough to win races

Alright.
So what TTs have you done? Any races?
You might be fast on your own, or near fast, and think you will win. But when your in a group and your not sure how to ride in it, you will be ****ed. You wont be able to work as a group, wont have any tactics straight off.
Im doing about 200, 10 of those is a TT, 60-70 or sometimes more is on one day riding in a group. In holidays ill do 2 long rides that are 60+ miles, and try and do about 250miles in the weeks i have off, sometimes i do more sometimes i do less.
Also, if your riding 7 days a week, you probably arent training right. You need your rest days. If your not doing GCSE PE then you probably should do, if you can. Take rest days.
Its not about how much you do, but the quality of training. I could go out and just ride for 30 miles, and get abit from it. Or i could go out and do 25miles, or 30miles, hard-ish with some interval trainings sometimes in there, and i get alot more out of it.
Im doing less miles now then what i was last year, but im getting better TT times, and im fitter and faster.
Oh, and riding inside on a turbo will get you fit, but it doesnt compare to riding on the road.
There are people in my club that will do lotsof miles on their turbo each night, and id do less on the road, but would still be fitter. They also felt the cold more.
If your not getting out on the road and doing some good training in this weather, your mad.
Same with if you see its raining and decide not to go out at all, and just go and do abit on your turbo/excersice bike

 

[gavintc]

Just had a look at the BC Website, there is a youth series racing at Dartford Park called Summer in the Park. Racing on a closed circuit with only riders of your own age group. The next race is tomorrow night 8 May. You should check out the BC site and target a race, train for it and see how you compete against your own age group. The only way you can improve is to give yourself a realistic target.

 

[ianrauk]

Why not? The majority of clubs would welcome you with open arms

Quote:
Originally Posted by garrilla
Sam,

did you join a club yet?

No.



Clubs do weekend ride.

Quote:
Im not in a club yet, i would like to join a club before the summer hoildays by then i should be good enough to win races
If i was in a club now id only be able to go at the weekends because of shitty school

In a previous post you said you do 10 miles in the evening. So why can you only cycle with a club at the weekend?

As OP's have said you should get your head out of your arse. Listen to your parents and to those on here. You get nothing for nothing in this world. You can't expect to become a professional cyclist overnight. A professional group wouldn't touch you with a bargepole with your lazy attitude to work.
If you are serious, you would have joined a club by now and already competing, winning or near to winning junior races. You expect to be winning races without even experiencing a race enviroment. I tell you what mate, your first race.. you are going to get beat good and proper. But perhaps that is a good thing.
Get you head out of the clouds, knuckle down at school, get a job and get wise.

 

[Crackle]

I'm afraid we have our very own Walter Mitty.

 

[RedBike]

Im going to start cycling in the morning before school the 10 mile route i do in the evenings meaning it would work out about 29 miles a day, doing that for 5-7 times a week is around 170-210 miles a week.

Im not in a club yet, i would like to join a club before the summer hoildays by then i should be good enough to win races

This must be a wind up surely?
If you are serious then i'm afraid it's time to stop living in dream land. There's not a chance in hell with your current training your going to be winning races by the summer. Its qustionable of you'll be able to keep up in a beginners race.

 

[buggi]

Contacts, mentors, training, discipline, routines, committment, dedication. All are necessary, and probably more so than just talent and a dream.

Join up! NOW!

Sam... listen to what people are telling you. You need all these things, not just miles under the belt. remember the saying "train smart". it's not just about how fast you are, but working as a team and tactics. you need to learn to ride in a peleton and all the unspoken rules that go with it. you need someone to coach if you even want a slim chance of making it to the top. before you get to semi professional you need to get your CAT 1 racing under your belt, so you need to join a club pronto. You're not even gonna get a look in if you aren't in a club... where do you think pro teams look for new talent??? they don't find it out on the lonely road hun... professionals rise up through the ranks

Stop putting it off and get down there at the weekend. As said by someone else, the clubs are "out of hours" because most of the members work 9-5 so they do evening and weekend riding.

and it's not true that you can't get the miles in if you work. i work 22 miles away, and i cycle there and back a couple of times a week. so get a job a few miles away and use your bike to get to work.

the sad fact is, your parents can't keep you (or they don't want to and who can blame them) and you need back up... and money... how do you think you are going to afford equipment, travel and accommodation? It doesn't mean you have to give up your dreams, and if you are really as dedicated as you think you are then you will work it out. that's what everyone else has had to do.

so first thing you have to do right now is stop being so shy (because i presume that's why you haven't already) and look up your local cycling club on t'internet right now and phone the contact number and speak to someone and arrange to go on their next ride out. Hurry up coz its already 9.40 pm.

 

[Dan B]

I dunno, I had when I was his age

... pocketa ... pocketa ... pocketa

 

[dellzeqq]

well, I'll not name him and save him some embarrassment, but we have one teenager on this forum who does 200 miles a week during the week, plus a shedload of miles at the weekend, some of which is with a road club, and he's also got time to do his A-levels, and, as far as I can tell, is heading for good results before heading off to uni....

So, Sam, what now?

 

[peanut]

Well as some of you are aware in my other topics, that i want to go for the Tour De France.. Well my parents want me to get a job after school and i dont want a job because i want to full time cycling.

Im stuck on what to do.

Training for Tour De France = Life training and no time for job.

Any ideas on what to do and what to say to parents?

Later on they want a talk about it, about me getting a job when i leave school.

And i dont want to talk about it because i know i dont want a job.

Im guessing my parents dont take me serious enough for how much i want to do cycling when im older.

Your parents want to know that you have some sort of plan for your future.
They want the best future for you as do all parents.

If I were you I would draw up a 5 year plan with your goal at the end.

Year 1 could be cycle round Europe or across the USA as a year out providing that the following 4x years show some sort of plan and structure and goal at the end of it.
ie year 2 local tech college on a foundation art course
year 3,4 & 5 University

You could decide to do a number of constructive things as part of your cycling year for example a photographic blog or aim to write a book of your travels OR work in a kibutsk or at a US summer camp etc .

Maybe you could do a sponsored round Europe ride for a local charity ?

As long as your plan has some structure and a realistic goal at the end I'm sure your parents will support it.

 

[Will1985]

Err - aren't you 13 or 14? There's plenty of time before you need a job, even if you quit school at GCSEs. Languages will be very important...

Oh yeah, and the Tour is just one event in a massive calendar of races globally...

 

[CyclingSAM]

Im 15, nearly end of year 10.

 

[montage]

Sam, the fact you have not joined a club is dissapointing.....as this is the single most important piece of advice that has been given to you.

Also, GCSEs matter, do them and do them well. School/college can be done well and you can do alot of cycling - I have just about balanced that!

I have been doing between 150 and 300 miles a week (I work in 4 week cycles, 1 week easyish, then up it next week, then up again the next etc). I am also at college, which believe me, is a hell of alot harder than GCSEs... I didn't work hard for my GCSEs and came of lucky, fluking my way to alot of As.... I continued this attitude into A levels and ended up flunking them, so I changed my subjects and decided to give it another go. Ontop of this I was fairly into running, and seriously training for the Royal Marines. I was niave in thinking that I would just end up in the marines no matter what, so A levels weren't that important (thought I could just get three Cs and get through officer training....pffft..)

I am now repeating my first year...and working f&cking hard. I am aiming (and on track) for 4 A's ..... training for the marines AND doing all this cycling. Like you, I would like to aim big in cycling, but realistically, am I willing to give EVERYTHING up for it?....aswell as my ambition to join the Marines....I doubt it.

Ok...so why am I now working so hard at college when it appears to be pointless? Well for a start, I would like to go to uni....more life experience ...hopefully more cycling, especially if I choose a uni near a velodrome).... fall back plan .... Lets say I loose a leg tomorrow - goodbye marines dream, goodbye any cycling ambitions....but goodbye life?...No...I plan to have a cushty degree and A levels beneath me so that I could build an alternative life should that be the case.

What will you do if you loose a leg?
What will you do if you simply are not good enough?

My advise, chase the dream, but be a realist.



and join a mother****ing club ffs. now.





Good luck

 

[barongreenback]

SAM - I'm new to this cycling lark, having moved here from the fine world of running. The advice is exactly the same. You don't join a club to win races straight away, you join to benefit from their training and experience. It sounds like you've got real determination and you probably think we're a bunch of old farts that don't understand your dreams. However, until you join a club we can't take you seriously. Please don't think people are being patronising - it's just very, very good advice.

 

[bonj2]

Sam - two pieces of advice:

1) Step up your cycling by joining a club and stepping up the training to aim for being a top cyclist, but convince your parents you are going to go get a job as well, and actually do.
Then they are much more likely to support you in your cycling than if you simply rely on that as a profession. You've got to treat cycling as a hobby until it's completely obvious that it's more than that - and by 'when it's obvious' I mean when the £££ are actually rolling in - but up until then you can be as serious a racer as you want by training and competing in your SPARE time.

2) Enter some sportives (or one, to start with). They effectively ARE a race, but you don't have to be a member of a club, you don't have to be a certain standard to enter, you'll get valuable experience of group riding, and more importantly it might be a bit like a taster of what riding a stage of the TdF could be like - possibly as close as you'll get at the moment anyway.
They're normally about £20 to enter. I've done two now and they're such good fun I've entered a load more.
What's more you can pretty much guarantee that you'll be neither the fastest nor the slowest there.

 

[dodgy]

It sounds like you've got real determination

I beg to differ!