Big ring blues

try 2 intervals of 20minutes each at your 1 hour time trial pace. recover for 5-10minutes in between.
this workout will help increase your lactate threshold, and you will be able to hang in the group longer.

shorter intervals at a harder pace are also good to do. such as,
5 x 5 minutes at your 20min time trial pace.
just make sure you are fully recovered and rested before these workouts.

i believe intervals are the most important workout.

If you cant turn the big wheel you may not be up to intervals. Intervals would normally come after a base, im thinking if you had a good base then the big wheel should not be a problem. some things I would need to know before I really tackled this would be, how long you have been riding, how many Km you have done in the past 3 months, what pace you train and what pace you are getting spat...
I would geuss (and it is only a guess) that you may have good fitness but poor leg strength.....If that is the problem it isnt too hard to fix.... I do agee though that intervals are one of the most important training sessions, but mabey later

Thanks for your replies.
I have logged over 600 mi. since Dec. of 03. At least one ride a week is a fourty minute interval session. This is done to Troy Jacobs spinerval video NO SLACKERS. Two of my rides are done at TT pace for at least 30 min. Sometimes I push that to an hour. I ride at least 25mi. on those days. I do one club ride a week which is 30 to 40 mi. Last Saturdays ride was 40 mi. with avg. HR at165.
My max is 198.
Max HR on the ride was 188.
At the 25mile mark is where I burnt out. After dropping off and waiting for some other riders I did fine at a little slower pace, but was still able to hold a 20MPH average.

Ok, you seem to have alot of tech info handy 🙂 , but I think mabey your running before you can walk. You have done 600Mi in 3 months... thats 200 a month or 50 a week. I have just started riding again myself and I do between 200 - 400 mile a week and will do for 12 weeks (about 3000MI or 5000km). once I have done that I will access wether I am ready to start quality work. I would not consider even attemting intervals untill I have a minimum of 1500 Miles base. This base, done at about 75% max Hr or roughly about 15 - 18 MPH in a very small (39 - 17 mabey) gear. The idea of this is to give you a base to launch from...like anything in the world the foundation is ALL important. If you do your miles dureing the week at a quite relaxing pace and race once a week you will find that you legs recover enough between "punishments" to build strength. If you try to do quality work (ie intervalls) without a base you will constantly erode your legs leading to tired saor legs with no strength.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by bryanquinn
Hi everyone,
I rode with a more advanced group of riders this past Saturday and found I haven't the strength to stay in the large chain ring.
I was doing fine in the small until the pace picked up to a point where I could no longer stay there. Soon after shifting up, my legs would wear out, and I would start going into o2 debt.
Could someone tell me what specific work out I could start to manage this?
I have another question also.
I lowered my stem around 1/2 inch about 2 weeks ago. All seemed well until about 5 days ago when my TMJ flared up. Could lowering my stem put the right kind of stress on my upper body to cause this to happen? I raised them back up yesterday hoping this will solve the problem.
All comments welcome.
TIA,
BQ

This is perfectly normal. If you go with the fast group once a week, I bet you'll be staying with them in a few months.

During the week, just keep riding. Go into the big ring when you feel like it and the load isn't too great. Use some effort, but stay aerobic and leave your hard effort for Saturdays. It's not going to happen overnight, so just enjoy your training and be assured the speed will come to you.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by dhk
Go into the big ring when you feel like it and the load isn't too great.

Disagree strongly here, Stay out of the big ring unless its a race.....

Thank you for all your input. I knew I had to have a base millage to start from but never knew what that was. At least now I know it's some where around 1500. I guess I have been trying to run before I walk! I will stay away from the intervals for a while and concentrate on building millage during the week at a lower intensity. Thanks again. All input is welcome!
BQ

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Fixey
Disagree strongly here, Stay out of the big ring unless its a race.....

Please clarify for me. Are you saying he should only use the big ring on the fast Saturday group rides, and never in training?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by dhk
Please clarify for me. Are you saying he should only use the big ring on the fast Saturday group rides, and never in training?

Indeed I am... From what I have read from him he has not achieved a sufficiant base to do quality training, attempting to do so would be counter productive. My advice to him was to do slow miles in a small gear untill his strength improves enough to do quality training. I think a cadance of 80 - 100 is best and I doubt, from what he has posted, that he could achieve that cadance in a big gear.
I am aware of a "Big Gears for Power" Theorie and while it seems to have some merrit (SOME) even that does not suggest youing big gears before a base is achieved.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by bryanquinn
I knew I had to have a base millage to start from but never knew what that was. At least now I know it's some where around 1500.
BQ

Somewhere around is the operative word, everyone is VERY differant, take into account I have raced for 20 years (on and off) and my age, size and riding style and I would be supprissed if you and I needed the same 🙂 You will know when you get there (sounds very spiritual doesnt it). you will suddenly feel lest "tight" in a race, will recover faster and be less soar from ride to ride. All you have to do is take into account that if it less than 1200 and more than 2000 you may have missed it 😉
good luck

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by dhk
Please clarify for me. Are you saying he should only use the big ring on the fast Saturday group rides, and never in training?

G'day,

gotta agree with Fixey here......you should never be training in the big ring unless you are doing something 'power' or 'pace' specific, which would be minimal for someone like the thread starter anyway. On training rides, spinning or 'Heart rate' specific riding should be all that is required,

cheers,

Hitchy

I will agree with fixey also. I spent 3 1/2 months on the small chain ring getting base mileage before I even saw the big chain ring. Reason, all the guys I know that ride Pro and other wise told me start small go to the gym and after a couple 1000 miles then try going into the big chain ring. Man did that work out well. But don't think I didn't try going to the big chain ring real early and I ended up learning a valueable lesson and that was (listen the wise cycling people). In this case Fixey.

Get the miles in, then after a 1.5k or so, try giving it 1 hour of your LSD ride on the big ring till you can go out no bother on the big momma

a fixed wheel is alwaysgood for building leg strength and also increasing your cadence. I have found i can hold a much higher speed after training on the fixie twice a week.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by byron27
a fixed wheel is alwaysgood for building leg strength and also increasing your cadence. I have found i can hold a much higher speed after training on the fixie twice a week.

I dont disagree with this at all, as an old trackie I grew up on the fixed wheel for training and short (40km) road races. However, I do believe it may be a bit "lively" for the guy that started this thread untill he has got a good base under him. The fixed wheel can be abit hard on the body after a couple hours also.....think I would stick to the roady for now.

Hey there!

I'm a beginner and I've been riding around 1200 miles with small ring. What would be the next step?

Thanks,

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by sooray02
Hey there!

I'm a beginner and I've been riding around 1200 miles with small ring. What would be the next step?

Thanks,

That would depend on how long you did these miles over, what you want to achieve, what else you do (ie how often you race ect) and mabey how old you are.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Fixey
That would depend on how long you did these miles over, what you want to achieve, what else you do (ie how often you race ect) and mabey how old you are.

Hi,

I'm a brand new rider and I started riding late Jan. or early Feb. and avg. is around 19 mph. I ride pretty good without getting tired on flat but I hate climbing. It just kills me.

I'm 6'00", 20 year old and 165 lbs.

I hope these info. helped.
Thanks,

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by sooray02
Hi,

I'm a brand new rider and I started riding late Jan. or early Feb. and avg. is around 19 mph. I ride pretty good without getting tired on flat but I hate climbing. It just kills me.

I'm 6'00", 20 year old and 165 lbs.

I hope these info. helped.
Thanks,

Going by that I would say it is time for a structured programme. you have averaged about 100 - 150 miles a week which should put you in a position to "Start"

I would start with a 16 week programme.
I personally would do it like this:
week 1; 100 miles, small gear about 15 - 17mph
week 2; 125 miles, same as above
week 3; 150 miles
week 4; 175 miles
week 5; 125 miles small gear 17 - 19mph
week 6; 150 miles
week 7; 175 miles
week 8; 200 miles
week 9; 150 miles, add 2 days of intervals (say 5 min hard with a 4 minute rest 3 times during a ride)
week 10; same as 9
week 11; 175 miles with same intervals
week 12; same as 11
week 13; 150 miles with short intervals (ride hard for 15 seconds then 10 second burst 30 second rest 10 times then ride hard for 1/4 mile streight after last sprint)
week 14; same as 13
week 15; 125 miles really quite
week 16; 100 miles quite.

that would lift you I think. thats really basic and non specific (ie not training anything like sprint/hill climbing ect) but a good general start. be aware that for the first few weeks your performance would go down...also worth noting it is good to train by hours as opposed to miles but easier to explain in miles....