AT Cycling Log - 100,000 miles done! Next stop ???

[mechBgon]

If you want to raise your cadence, try this: after you're warmed up, take your cadence up to where you're not very comfortable... starting to get jerky and bouncy. Maintain that for 15-20 seconds, then give it a break, then do it again. After that muscle-memory drill, see if your legs are now OK with a moderately higher cadence than you were using. For me, after revving off to 110rpm for a couple of drills, my legs are more willing to do 95 smoothly. My own "sweet spot" seems to be in the high 80s for highway cruising, 70-80 for climbing. But it all depends.


I missed reporting my miles lately, but they weren't very exciting. Lessee here... about 25 miles of commutes and errands this week. Plus tonight I did a training ride after work, not super-long (20 miles, 17.8mph average) but with three good climbs at decent intensity: http://app.strava.com/activities/57407264 Considering I've been slacking off all week, that wasn't too bad.

I also scored possible karma points by scooping a baby robin off the centerline of the highway and carrying it off into the woods. Dunno if it'll make it or not, but its chances were pretty grim on a 45mph highway.

Total: 35352

 

[drteming]

27 miles.

Total: 35,379

 

[KMc]

Riding the 17 mile cycling leg on a triathlon relay team next Sunday. Saturday, I rode the 8 miles from my house to the course and then did a 95% effort on the course. Even with 15-20 mph winds, I was able to beat my time from the last time I did the event, so I figure that's not too shabby. 33 miles.

Total: 35,412

 

[drteming]

23 miles.

Total: 35,435

 

[mechBgon]

32 miles including some hill climbing after work: http://app.strava.com/activities/58298140 I wasn't very consistent, but whatever... it was enough for some training effect.

Two months to my target event.

Total: 35,467

 

[lotus503]

biking in tomorrow and have a question on "efficient cadence" I recenlty added a speed/cadence sensor and noticed that I seem to do 70RPM on longer solo rides.

reading up on this I appears I should be more in the 80-100RPM range so that I use more of my cardiovascular system vs muscular. some of you ride quite a bit and probably train, what are your thoughts? I'm 5'10" on the heavier side, dropped 20lbs biking so far this year but am looking to get fitter.

Cadence is individual, I used to ride about 80 and have trained myself to ride closer to 90.

when at 70 cadence the pedal force required to produce power is greater than the pedal force required to spin a gear at 90rpm at the same power output or speed. Placing more stress on the muscles and joints.

Just for examples sake, lets say you want to go 19mph, you can achieve that by a gear ratio and 90 cadence or you can go with a harder gear at 70rpm. at 70rpm your pushing harder than 90 rpm where your going faster.

I think personal variance from say 80-90 is within reason, is your at 70 it would be beneficial to train yourself to a higher cadence. a good set of pedals and clipping in make higher cadence easier to maintain. after training myself to hit 90, I often find myself over 100.

 

[lotus503]

If you want to raise your cadence, try this: after you're warmed up, take your cadence up to where you're not very comfortable... starting to get jerky and bouncy. Maintain that for 15-20 seconds, then give it a break, then do it again. After that muscle-memory drill, see if your legs are now OK with a moderately higher cadence than you were using. For me, after revving off to 110rpm for a couple of drills, my legs are more willing to do 95 smoothly. My own "sweet spot" seems to be in the high 80s for highway cruising, 70-80 for climbing. But it all depends.


I missed reporting my miles lately, but they weren't very exciting. Lessee here... about 25 miles of commutes and errands this week. Plus tonight I did a training ride after work, not super-long (20 miles, 17.8mph average) but with three good climbs at decent intensity: http://app.strava.com/activities/57407264 Considering I've been slacking off all week, that wasn't too bad.

I also scored possible karma points by scooping a baby robin off the centerline of the highway and carrying it off into the woods. Dunno if it'll make it or not, but its chances were pretty grim on a 45mph highway.

Total: 35352

If your finding yourself bouncing with higher cadence its a good indication your seat is too high.

 

[mechBgon]

7 miles yesterday, I stayed late at work. I'm hoping to do some hills tonight after work, the weather is great this week.

Total: 35,474

 

[mechBgon]

4 miles to work and 32 miles after work. I got my dose of hills on the way home from work, in the form of two longer ones (>10 minutes each), plus some steady highway hammering.

Total: 35,510

 

[drteming]

62 miles cycling event. Followed by burritos and ice cream.

Total: 35,572

 

[_Rick_]

31 flat miles at close to 19 mph average. Didn't feel in the mood for a mountain :-/

35603

 

[KMc]

17 miles biking around town with my wife Saturday. Hit the farmer's market in the morning, rode across town and up the bike trail to a pub for lunch, then back home after. She's new to biking this season, but she put in more miles this past week than I did!

18 mile bike leg on a triathlon relay team Sunday. Didn't really train as much as I wanted to, but still managed a 21 mph average, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Total: 35,638

 

[RichieZ]

Cadence is individual, I used to ride about 80 and have trained myself to ride closer to 90.

when at 70 cadence the pedal force required to produce power is greater than the pedal force required to spin a gear at 90rpm at the same power output or speed. Placing more stress on the muscles and joints.

Just for examples sake, lets say you want to go 19mph, you can achieve that by a gear ratio and 90 cadence or you can go with a harder gear at 70rpm. at 70rpm your pushing harder than 90 rpm where your going faster.

I think personal variance from say 80-90 is within reason, is your at 70 it would be beneficial to train yourself to a higher cadence. a good set of pedals and clipping in make higher cadence easier to maintain. after training myself to hit 90, I often find myself over 100.

thanks, yea I've been reading up on this more and it makes sense. to help train during the weekdays when I don't have the 2 hours to ride to work I've added a Kurt Kinetc Road Machine and started using trainerroad:
http://www.trainerroad.com/

love the real time feedback and the fact that after I do a fitness test it raises my power output target. its kind of like an online coach. my medium term goal is to hit 3W/kg average sustainable output

 

[RichieZ]

38mi, been busy with some other things

Total: 35,676

 

[mechBgon]

Sunday I got 12 miles, and yesterday I did 30, of which 25 was an after-work training ride with a few hill attacks: http://app.strava.com/activities/59636937 19.3mph average, lots of Zone 4.

Sometime this week I'll bust out my good mountain bike with the training wheels/tires, instead of the commuter. Its position is a little different and that's the bike I'm doing my event on, so I need to get some time on it. But the commuter is so practical, having the ability to haul baggage, that it's the one I ordinarily reach for. "The One That Gets Used"

Total: 35,718

 

[_Rick_]

around 35 miles (6 to work 29 home)
Got to PBs (lower part of one climb, and descent), and got within ten seconds of my PB on the entire climb. Overall time was good, but I chose to drop by the gym and say hi to the volleyball guys I couldn't join for practice due to working late, so my reference isn't great on how I performed overall.
Was generally taking it lightly, and doing some nice highish rpm. Legs were a bit tired from sunday's ride, and volleyball practice yesterday.

http://app.strava.com/activities/59772056

Total 35753

 

[lotus503]

thanks, yea I've been reading up on this more and it makes sense. to help train during the weekdays when I don't have the 2 hours to ride to work I've added a Kurt Kinetc Road Machine and started using trainerroad:
http://www.trainerroad.com/

love the real time feedback and the fact that after I do a fitness test it raises my power output target. its kind of like an online coach. my medium term goal is to hit 3W/kg average sustainable output

Right on!!

I used a KK in the winter/fall, however I only have the mental fortitude to do 60-90 minutes on it, so I do all L4 and SST sessions. I increased my Threshold power by 45 watts over the winter on 5-7 hours per week.

3w/kg is a great and reasonable goal, its where I am now, up from around 1.6w/kg when i actually started training 2 years ago. Now im working to get as close to 4w/kg as I can, however i'm not sure where my genetic potential will put me. For the record I can't maintain the same cadence on the trainer as I can outside its about 5 lower.

http://www.cyclingforums.com/ is a great place with great people and info

Read the "Its killing me thread" when you have a spare few hours and ask Daveinwyoming or rappdaddyo for advice, they are top notch.

 

[_Rick_]

http://app.strava.com/activities/59968602

with the morning "to" miles that's 34 for today.
Took a "shortcut" that added a little bit of climb, and a descent where I hit over 70kph according to the GPS. Almost 45 mph.

Total 35787

 

[_Rick_]

only 6 miles today - thunderstorm made me chicken out of riding home.

35793

 

[RichieZ]

21mi yesterday

Total 35,814

 

[drteming]

25 miles today.

Total: 35,839

 

[RichieZ]

15mi today

Total: 35,854

 

[_Rick_]

Second "HC" climb of the season. Originally I wanted to take the route back via St. Nizier, which adds another 200-300 meters of climb, but between Villard and Lans I ran out of steam.
Been plagued by a lot of little troubles, starting from the fact, that I had only gone to sleep at 6 a.m., spent the day in my 90F flat, until at 6p.m, when I left - too late after my last meal. First bit of the climb was okay, then my right shoulder started stinging, on the second bit of the climb I had a lot of back pain, popped a gel, made the top. Recovered slightly around half-distance, and thought it was going to end well after all, but then my stomach complained, that it didn't like the way I treated it, my legs started giving out, the back pain got worse....and I took the easy way out. Still suffered badly on the way home, considering how slowly I ended up going.

http://app.strava.com/activities/60788935 - 51miles and 3k feet straight climb.

35905

edit: fun fact: Just got on the scales, and apparently I went from ~78kg yesterday morning to 75kg just a few minutes ago. While it's not highly accurate, I haven't been at 75kg for months. I guess I'm mildly dehydrated. Also got major shivers when taking a cold shower to get my circulation going again - so hypoglycemia is also well and present. Had a yogurt to tide me over until my food order arrives....

 

[mechBgon]

Today I did 30 miles, 25 of which are in this track: http://app.strava.com/activities/60831414 I felt weak after not getting much riding this week, but managed to barely reclaim a KOM that I used to hold, thanks in part to my finally taking out my good mountain bike (instantly losing about 12 pounds). But overall, it was an underwhelming ride considering it was on the fast bike and ought to have been brilliant. I need to train more consistently, there's no substitute for training.

Since posting last, I also got about 45 miles of mundane commutes and errands this last week.

Total: 35,980

 

[mechBgon]

4 miles in the morning, 26 after work: http://app.strava.com/activities/61076800 That was on the mountain commuter at about 36 pounds, and I still managed a new personal best on the long dead-end ascent, dropping it from 11:02 to 10:20. Take that, gravity!

Unfortunately the weather forecast for the rest of the week is for showers and rain, so I'll probably be making the training rides short and hilly, staying close to home.

Total: 36,010