Training Question: Pre-base Training

Quoted message said:

I got back on the bike this year after a 12-year lay-off. Without much
of a mileage base or structured preparation of any kind, I've performed
OK in competition. I've decide to quit racing for the remainder of the
season and start thinking about next year.

Popular wisdom suggests that I should beging building my base in
November (for a May-September season).

How would readers suggest I use my time between now and then?

Between now and November? Get out and ride! Use a bike computer (and
HRM if you're really serious, but learn how to use it). Alternate
long rides at a steady pace with short (10-25 mile), fast rides.

The goal is to build up endurance, aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

The cycling equivalent of running's fartlek is a great workout, too.
Ride "normally" for a while, then go into a furious 20-30 second
sprint (up hill if you're feeling brave!). Then return to the normal
pace for a while, and repeat.

Make sure you rest properly between rides, and watch your nutrition,
too. (You do not want much excess body fat, and you might need to
increase your protein intake).

By coincidence I was reading an article about cycle race training
this weekend. Most of it is useless, but I'll link it anyway:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/peak33.htm

There are also lots of training articles here, if you poke around:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/

Finally, are you sure about not entering any events? Keeping yourself
motivated to train between now and next March with no external events
to spur you on will be tough.

--
jc

Remove the -not from email

Jeremy Collins said:

Finally, are you sure about not entering any events? Keeping yourself
motivated to train between now and next March with no external events
to spur you on will be tough.

What we did with rowing was use that time of the year for less serious
races: odd distances, odd teams, races that involve crosstraining (running
and cycling in our case), races in heavy boats, things like that.
The idea is to give yourself a break from monotonous serious raining
while still being active.
So how about some mountain biking? A tandem tour? A duathlon?

Roos

Thanks jc,

I use an HRM, and have a well-structured approach to my training that
has unfortunately come too late for this season. I didn't get serious
until around March and I've been mixing up lactate sessions on the
trainer with long and short rides of varied intensity on the road,
totalling about 10 hours a week.

My rationale for curtailing my season now is that after such a long
lay-off, if I want to have a really good crack at next season, and
following a racing program for the rest of this season may not be the
best approach.

You make a good point about motivation - looking to peak 7 months form
now is a little unsettling.

I guess what I'm asking is, what would others do with this 'luxury'?

DC

Roos Eisma said:

The idea is to give yourself a break from monotonous serious raining
while still being active.

A move down sarf would fix that ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

in message <[email hidden]>,

(') said:

I got back on the bike this year after a 12-year lay-off. Without much
of a mileage base or structured preparation of any kind, I've performed
OK in competition. I've decide to quit racing for the remainder of the
season and start thinking about next year.

Popular wisdom suggests that I should beging building my base in
November (for a May-September season).

How would readers suggest I use my time between now and then?

Get out on your bike and enjoy yourself. Do some other kind of cycling
you wouldn't normally think of (mountain biking, audax, whatever).
Have /fun/.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

[ This .sig intentionally left blank ]

Tony Raven said:

Roos Eisma said:

The idea is to give yourself a break from monotonous serious raining
while still being active.

A move down sarf would fix that ;-)

Not to Cambridge, it is drier in Dundee than almost anywhere else in
teh UK (bar lincolnshire)

...d

David Martin said:

Tony Raven said:

Roos Eisma said:

The idea is to give yourself a break from monotonous serious raining
while still being active.

A move down sarf would fix that ;-)

Not to Cambridge, it is drier in Dundee than almost anywhere else in
teh UK (bar lincolnshire)

Are you sure about that?

http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/rr/17.gif
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/cambridge.html
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/leuchars.html

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

Tony Raven said:

David Martin said:

Tony Raven said:

Roos Eisma wrote:

>The idea is to give yourself a break from monotonous serious raining
>while still being active.
>

A move down sarf would fix that ;-)

Not to Cambridge, it is drier in Dundee than almost anywhere else in
teh UK (bar lincolnshire)

Are you sure about that?

http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/rr/17.gif
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/cambridge.html
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/leuchars.html

That is 15 miles away, on the coast (rather than slightly inland) and
in Fife. They get worse weather than we do.

Being a) hilly and b) coastal there is a lot of local variation.

Checking the stats for the local weather station so far this year
indicates that there were 58 days when it rained more than 0.1 cm, and
83 where it rained at all (ie non-zero).

Looking at the averages you can see that Leuchars has more sunshine
than Cambridge (which seems to have gone up a lot.. where in cambridge
gets up to the dizzy height of 26m above sea level?

...d

David Martin said:

Checking the stats for the local weather station so far this year
indicates that there were 58 days when it rained more than 0.1 cm, and
83 where it rained at all (ie non-zero).

Looking at my plants it certainly hasn't rained enough in Dundee while I
was on holiday 🙁

Roos

David Martin said:

Tony Raven said:

David Martin said:

Not to Cambridge, it is drier in Dundee than almost anywhere else in
teh UK (bar lincolnshire)

Are you sure about that?

http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/rr/17.gif
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/cambridge.html
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/leuchars.html

That is 15 miles away, on the coast (rather than slightly inland) and
in Fife. They get worse weather than we do.

The map would seem to indicate otherwise with Leuchars being drier than
Dundee. Do you have comparable average rainfall specifically for Dundee
or are you speculating?

Quoted message said:

Being a) hilly and b) coastal there is a lot of local variation.

Checking the stats for the local weather station so far this year
indicates that there were 58 days when it rained more than 0.1 cm, and
83 where it rained at all (ie non-zero).

Looking at the averages you can see that Leuchars has more sunshine
than Cambridge (which seems to have gone up a lot..

That'll be the effect of the longer summer daylight hours.

where in cambridge

Quoted message said:

gets up to the dizzy height of 26m above sea level?

TL 431 596 (just west of Churchill College) has a 25m contour round a
reasonable area and there is a spot height of 26m on Huntingdon Road.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

You cats fancy carrying on your conversation at sci.geo.meteorology

DC

Tony Raven said:

David Martin said:

Tony Raven said:

David Martin wrote:

>
>Not to Cambridge, it is drier in Dundee than almost anywhere else in
>teh UK (bar lincolnshire)
>

Are you sure about that?

http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/rr/17.gif
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/cambridge.html
http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/sites/leuchars.html

That is 15 miles away, on the coast (rather than slightly inland) and
in Fife. They get worse weather than we do.

The map would seem to indicate otherwise with Leuchars being drier than
Dundee. Do you have comparable average rainfall specifically for Dundee
or are you speculating?

Local records began almost exactly 2 years ago. These will not be to
the same standard as the met office data but will be reasonably close.
After all the rain falls on the just and unjust alike [1]

Yes and no. The last two years (to date) have seen 203 wet days (>1mm
rain) or an average of 102 per year. 2004 on its own had 117 wet days,
August 2003-Dec and Jan 2005-to date had 86. There was a very wet
period last august that caused a number of floods.

Total rainfall was 1312mm over that perid, of which 795 was in 2004,
leaving 517 in the other year.

Yes 2004 was unusually wet. August in particular saw several days with
more than 10mm rain.

So broadly speaking there are on average more dry days in Dundee than
Cambridge (263 vs 259) and teh rainfall is about the same.

I don't have more than 2 years local data available electronically.

So it isn't just speculation but is backed up by Real Data (tm). This
makes it a reasonably nice place to cycle as one doesn't get rained on
so frequently. <drags conversation back on topic>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Being a) hilly and b) coastal there is a lot of local variation

Checking the stats for the local weather station so far this year
indicates that there were 58 days when it rained more than 0.1 cm, and
83 where it rained at all (ie non-zero).

Looking at the averages you can see that Leuchars has more sunshine
than Cambridge (which seems to have gone up a lot..

That'll be the effect of the longer summer daylight hours.

where in cambridge

Quoted message said:

gets up to the dizzy height of 26m above sea level?

TL 431 596 (just west of Churchill College) has a 25m contour round a
reasonable area and there is a spot height of 26m on Huntingdon Road.

The Cambridge Alp...

...d

[1] the rain it falleth every day upon the just and unjust fella
but more upon the just because the unjust hath the justs umbrella.

Simon Brooke said:

Get out on your bike and enjoy yourself. Do some other kind of cycling
you wouldn't normally think of (mountain biking, audax, whatever).
Have /fun/.

What Simon says. Don't worry about doing "training" until November. Just ride
your bike and do other stuff if you want (walking, running, weights, whatever).

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
The struggle of people against power is the struggle
of memory against forgetting - Milan Kundera

David Martin said:

So it isn't just speculation but is backed up by Real Data (tm). This
makes it a reasonably nice place to cycle as one doesn't get rained on
so frequently. <drags conversation back on topic>

Would be nice if the wind was a bit less, mind... Seems to have got a
lot windier the last few years, though that is personal perception and
isn't backed up by anything substantive.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

David Martin said:

So it isn't just speculation but is backed up by Real Data (tm). This
makes it a reasonably nice place to cycle as one doesn't get rained on
so frequently. <drags conversation back on topic>

Would be nice if the wind was a bit less, mind... Seems to have got a
lot windier the last few years, though that is personal perception and
isn't backed up by anything substantive.

It's not the wind per se but the wind resistance. Probably something to
do with too many chocolate muffins..

...d

David Martin said:

So it isn't just speculation but is backed up by Real Data (tm).

I rest my case ;-)

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

Tony Raven said:

David Martin said:

So it isn't just speculation but is backed up by Real Data (tm).

I rest my case ;-)

Not there, that bit floods and it'll get wet..

...d