My First 50

[Chrisc]

Ligament damage - sounds painfull Take it easy mate and hope you get the miles in although not too many big hills they'll come in time

Cheers! Badly strained the right knee in Nov and have been steadily working back up to speed. Living in the hills means I have no options so bought some rollers to get some time in the saddle under controlled conditions. Been great for rehabilitating the knee and keeping moving!
Have done the big climb a few times recently with no problems touchwood, so should be good to go for a bigger ride before too long!

 

[HLaB]

Well done again kfinlay. I've just been out for a 36 miler in the Cleish hills, just down the road (not as steep, only 14%) and its still very white and icy there. I remember one bit where I was just freewheeling/ gliding on the ice up hill and I was just praying I had enough momentum. Decided to come back the main road and my average speed came up from 11.9mph to 17.1 ;-)

 

[kfinlay]

Well your quicker than me HLAB, I did a wee 24 miles around Loch Leven and averaged 17mph dead - it's not TT course flat but hardly hilly either

Did Cardenden, Scotlandwell, Milnathort, Kinross, past Kelty, to Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly then back to Cardenden. Plan on using this as a route to do some intervals and speed building so 24 miles, 1hr 23 min although it was hindered slightly as I was still sore on the saddle from my 50 miler. Hope to get that down to 1:20 for 18mph ave and 1:12 for 20mph ave. One of these a week along with a longer ride in the hills should hopefully see some improvement. Makes me jealous of those 25 mile TT guys that do it under a hour and how much I need to improve!!!

 

[HLaB]

Sounds a good route, I like to do something similar but I cut in by Benarty Hill (Ballingry) and Kelty Bridge

 

[Seamab]

Congrats on the 50 KFindlay!

That's a route i know well - but you won't catch me on it or up Cleish Hill for that matter until the ice age departs. The nasty hill out of Dunning seems to be referred to as "Dragon Hill". You won't meet anything like that on the Etape Caly.

It's good to have targets but i wouldn't get too bogged down by averages - every route is going to be different. I think your strategy is good though - speedwork through the week and long distance at the weekend - follow that through and i'm sure you'll improve.

My weekend route was 40miles with a measly average of 13.8mph. Lots of hills, a fair bit of traffic and downhills on pretty poor roads that had to be taken cautiously - but it was certainly a good workout.

 

[kfinlay]

cheers Seamab, I agree with you about averages but just want to use it as a general giude to how I'm progressing. I mean I'm not too serious about my training (yet) as I don't have a heart rate monitor or turbo trainer etc. My bike cost £300 and I've only been cycling since Sep 09. I'm just loving being out on the bike and the Dunning route was just a day I decided to go out that way as I've toyed with the idea for a month or so. The main thing stopping me was my saddle issue that I've mentioned before.

Also you may notice I'm doing a couple of other events as per siggy so the better I get at hills the better I'll enjoy those events. But all in all I'm just enjoying my cycling which is what it's all about eh

 

[hobbygirl]

cheers Seamab, I agree with you about averages but just want to use it as a general giude to how I'm progressing. I mean I'm not too serious about my training (yet) as I don't have a heart rate monitor or turbo trainer etc. My bike cost £300 and I've only been cycling since Sep 09. I'm just loving being out on the bike and the Dunning route was just a day I decided to go out that way as I've toyed with the idea for a month or so. The main thing stopping me was my saddle issue that I've mentioned before.

Also you may notice I'm doing a couple of other events as per siggy so the better I get at hills the better I'll enjoy those events. But all in all I'm just enjoying my cycling which is what it's all about eh