Training: The Fourth Bridge
Before the New Year, it was my ride up Haleakala. At present, it’s Keepers Tour: Cobbled Classics 2013. Before Haleakala, it was one of the various Cyclocross races and before that the Zoo Hill Time Trial. The targets change, but throughout my life as a Velominatus, there always seems to be a goal looming over the horizon which spurs me on. Training, for its endless nature, is like painting the Forth Bridge in Scotland: it takes a year to paint and you have to paint it every year.
In contrast to my opinion of painting a bridge, training is something I fundamentally enjoy. Lucky for me, I love training for the sake of training; I don’t feel any compelling need to do a particular ride in any particular time. What I do feel, however, is the need to do any particular ride in a better time than I have previously. I’m fortunate to delight in the process of finding form and fitness, of getting better. I love seeing the improvement; I love setting incremental goals and reaching them through the elementary process of working towards them.
Cycling, in this way, presents me with an incredibly rewarding outlet for that bit of my nature that lives on seeing marked progress. In every walk of life, things are complicated. The deeper we wade into any endeavor, the more embroiled we become in the mechanics of staying afloat – to say nothing of actually moving towards an end. Yet, Cycling is simple; put in the work and the results come.
The more complicated my life gets and the more conflicted my priorities, the more I find I love Cycling for its elemental simplicity. Set a goal, make a plan, follow it. There is no one to look to but yourself. There are no external dependencies. There is only the endlessness of The Work.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
@gaswepass
I’ll weigh 150Kg and smoke Camel Straights before I get on rollers or an indoor trainer ever again.
@Chris & @frank:
It’s been almost three weeks since I last got on the bike. I’ve been doing a pretty solid weights regimen (which is actually shrinking, rather than growing the guns””which is good, because the BFGs can get unwieldy big). Lots of squats to grow the power, while core and stabilizing exercises ensure I’m not making a mess of the body in general. As a result, I’ve been fortunate to avoid knee pain and other aches, etc. Cardio is coming, but the power is most definitely there. The Hell in the Great White North Cogal on February 24 will be interesting. Power there; fitness? probably not. Not nearly enough time in the saddle, but that will come as the weather improves…
@scaler911
then I want the rollers back
@Buck Rogers
Right now I am 7kg over my lowest weight last summer. I don’t think I will go that low this year though, so probably need to lose 3-5kg. With the temperature being mostly sub-freezing recently, my riding schedule has been very sporadic. I have been hitting the gym 2-4 times a week since November, so hopefully it is some muscle. My friend who is really into lifting heard me complaining about how heavy I am so we started a two-week “cutting” cycle: no carbs whatsoever, just meat and fruits/veggies. I will probably allow myself some carbs for longer rides though. I do feel much stronger since working in the gym though.
Wow. I just had a fabulous ride. And it’s all because of you people. I was on the verge of pussying out and doing chores around the house, and instead, all because of this thread, I went out for two hours and beat myself to hammered shit.
I love you all. Come here. Gimme a hug. I mean it.
@strathlubnaig
Just as an addendum to this pic I posted earlier, the DOPE station is an acronym for Dropped Object Prevention Equipment which really does sound like a euphemism for, well, dope, I guess.
@strathlubnaig
Hemostats?
I’m excited about training this year as I have some real goals to attain this year. I have filled out my Cyclist’s Training Bible Worksheet. My first ever race is going to occur at the end of March. I’ve been working hard in the gym on core strength this winter, as well as putting in time on the trainer. I’m looking forward to getting out on the road again soon.
I have been back “training” for only two and a half years, I am blessed to have a fantastic 40km loop with around 700m of climbing where I live. I ride this at least twice a week, it has three, or four in the longer version, good climbs, a good fast descent through a valley with a couple of power climbs, there will be a wind, but its a loop so you get it back at some stage, I love it cause it has it all, the climbs are my “intervals” , the valleys where I make time, I ride it cause its fun, it still hurts just as bad but what used to take 1:33 I knocked it out today in 1:14, from 25.5 kmh to 30.5kmh in speed, 15kg lighter but could definitely drop a few more, hell the bike even dropped 2.5kg, this steady and incremental progress has been a bonus and perhaps a reward for the effort, can’t ride slow, train correctly, just go out and try and ride whatever conditions are in front of me as fast as I can, cause that’s the way I like it, there’s the buzz, that’s why I ride.
So love your Parcours, learn her every rise and curve, push yourself, measure yourself and reap the rewards.
@piwakawaka
That’s pretty impressive training that made the bike lose weight too. ;)
Good news – the Tour of Oman is on Eurosport and Sagan, “The Junior Cannibal” as almost no one is calling him, is looking both awesome and fantastic. He is still a douche with his line crossing antics however.
I broke down and bought a turbo trainer this winter to try and keep the stave off the blimping part of breeding and blimping. In short, I fucking hate it, but I hate it a little bit less thanks to the Sufferfest videos. Summer’s long days can’t come soon enough.
@Ron
Yeah, I hit 77.5 kilos the 1st of Feb and said, fuck it, no booze or candy until I get back down to 71 kilos even, which was my weight 19 years ago when I graduated undergrad. Bit of a wake up call for me.
@King Clydesdale
AWESOME!!! What race?
@the Engine Cross country skiing perhaps.
On a slightly unrelated matter, are you driving to the Keepers Tour?
@Buck Rogers That would be an impressive weight loss. I’ve cut out booze and am trying to limit carbs etc. Fortunately I’m not averse to a diet of Sashimi.
I was 89.5kg on 6 January. I’d love to get it down under eighty.
@Chris
Completely unrelated matter I’d say, but yes the plan is to drive down and arrive on the Thursday night.
@Buck Rogers
Which is funny, because I’d be letting booze and candy back in at 77.5kg (currently about 83kg). Hoping to be around 77 by June. But will need better weather and more time on the bike for that. It’s curious, though, that other goals notwithstanding, the number on scale is always implicitly one of them, when I’m typically less worried about weight and more worried about “feel.” I know physics plays a pretty important role in cycling, but I can feel strong at 83kg in ways where I’m not worried about shedding the next kilo before the weekend. All in all, I’m learning that patience is a pretty critical plank in any training, weight-loss, goal-setting effort.
Goals: I’m riding Paris-Ancaster, a local road, gravel, mud race (70km) in late March with my son. The goal is not to compete, but to put in a good ride with my son (he’s 15). So no targets, but part of me says to ride the singlespeed. Vermont is also looming large. But I also want to set myself an annual target. After last year’s 2much ride, I wallowed and did a lot less riding than I could have or should have. One of the dangers of goals is that there can be a reduction in riding and training after they’ve been met.
@the Engine My missus never made it in to work today, be nice to have been home and got the xc planks out too. You can almost see Chez Strathlubnaig in that pic.
@VeloVita
NOOOOO! Why didn’t you tell me this in Louisville & I could have talked you out of it? (Actually I used to ride rollers as well, I just happened to get lucky and meet a southern gal!) Take notes, I’m going to have a lot of questions if/when I hit the Breeding & Blimping stage.
Steampunk – 3 weeks & no saddle time? Ugh, I start to go batty after just a few days. Huh, weights are shrinking the guns? I’ve been riding less than I’d like & doing a bit of weights to stay in shape & I think my guns are growing. Might just be how my body responds, as I lifted regularly for many years for sports, stopped for a few years now that I’m a Follower, and now realized I was losing too much strength to even do yard work and such. Maybe my dormant muscles are just happy for the use.
Wow, are you lads fluctuating 6-7 kgs big dudes? I’m not & as soon as my pants get tight I pay more attention to what I eat. Usually that only takes 2 kgs for me, but I don’t have much surface area to spread the gain.
Alright, back to cycling. I want to go on a training ride with Forest Sagan & Teddy K.! Despite the grind of the PRO life, these two honestly seem to just be livin’ large, lovin’ life. (on the other hand, when is the last time anyone has seen Wiggins or Evans smile? Those two seem like downers.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR3qEj9AF_Q
And how about Sagan’s catch in the Tour of Oman? He rode up to the three man group, which included Nibali, and left them in the dust. That has to hurt Nibali’s confidence with Milan Sanremo looming…
Speaking of Vincenzo, check out the little dude! Sweater, collared shirt, sporty jacket for a day at the races. Nice!
@Ron
It would have been too late as I had already bought the trainer. I have rollers as well, but am not skilled enough to go hard on them, stand, etc. so for intervals I figured the trainer to be a better way to go. I definitely envy your southern location, though I guess I didn’t pick up on your VMH’s southern accent if she had one. Certainly a lovely gal though – definitely a keeper if she was willing to stand outside for 6+ hours in to cold to watch guys (and girls) ride around in the mud!
@VeloVita
I am no maniac on the rollers but find I can do a sufferfest on them. I don’t stand up for efforts, but can otherwise get a very good interval workout. They are twitchy, but got more manageable when I adjusted the wheelbase–you might want to try this, key is to get the front roller directly below the front axle. You might want to check this. It’s much more bearable than the resistance trainer.
@Steampunk
Man, I wish I was in the position to be upset at being ~80Kg. If I’m the recipient of a miracle, I might be down below 90Kg by this summer! (Also had to take a sabbatical from booze)
@Steampunk That race/ride sounds AWESOME!
Do you nordic ski? It is an AMAZING sport, totally kicks ass and can be as brutally hard and tiring as cycling. It used to be what LeMan and Phinney Sr and a bunch of others did in the off season. I have been getting in about 3 to 4 skis a week and it is such an amzing workout. You really should try it if you do not already do it, esp with all your snow!
I hear you about the post-goal let down, though. After P-R and the 2Much on 100 I just could not get motivated. Felt like I had achieved all the year’s goals in t weeks.
@Nate
I am definitely in the minority here but I actually love my rollers. If it weren’t for my Doc’s orders I would be riding them at least twice a week. I love setting up a youtube vid of an old pro race, usually in Italian or French and turning on the fan to cool me down and spinning. I ride for hours on them and it really doesn’t bother me.
@Nate
I’ll have to try that one too. My front roller is a little farther forward. Maybe that’s why I can’t stay on the damned things. Yeah, I’m sure that’s the reason. Haha.
The medic offshore just did the electonic body mass / fat % test on me yesterday, and withut going into the nitty gritty it would appear I am in the ‘healty’ range but I could drop 3 to 4 kg and be at the bottom of the range, so at least I know what is possible and have a target. Will re-test in a few months see if progress is being made.
@Sauterelle
Having your front axle slightly behind the roller axle is typically the recommended position. Having the axle directly on top puts your bike at a slight upward angle – your rear wheel rests on two rollers so is slightly lower than an axle placed directly on top of the roller axle. However even when directly on top, the handling is still fine.
Any handling problems with the axle slightly behind wont be the fault of bike position (one guess as to where the problem may lie if it aint the bike) – the handling fun only begins when you start getting your wheel axle ahead of the roller axle!
Best thing to do to improve handling skills on rollers is practice doing things like taking one hand off at a time then the other, etc etc. You should find your core engaging more to balance the bike instead of your hands – which is what you want. And whenever you are fucking about on them trying to improve balance, try riding faster, the faster you ride, the easier rollers are to balance on…
And you don’t necessarily need to stand up to do hard intervals on a trainer! Only time I ever stand up on rollers is to give my arse a short break. And I dont stand up too high…
Disclaimer: I have fallen off rollers. It fucking hurts.
@Buck Rogers
Get the LeMond Revolution as well Buck. Combine them with Kreitlers and you have everything you need other than good weather and dry roads.
I’ve fallen off rollers once too, OT goal in a hockey game & I got excited. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad.
VeloVita – Even though she was born and raised in eastern NC Caroline somehow has only the slightest bit of Southern accent. I’m not sure why, maybe because her and her mother watched so much damn BBC? Someone she came out of there normal. She has friends from that area who did things like compete and beauty pageants competitively. She is definitely a keeper, as I’m not the easiest to get along with and she takes (most) of my antics in stride. I still haven’t convinced her to let me hang bikes in the new house though, but I’ll keep at it. For now they sit in my very own bike alcove, so I can’t complain too much.
I miss some things about winter but pretty much being able to ride outside every day of the year is livin’ large for a Velominatus.
@Buck Rogers
You should probably give lessons in how to pull this off, as most folks hate riding them. Could be a really great business. Buck’s Zen Roller Riding.
@Buck Rogers
My wakeup call was feeling skinny until I had my picture taken with a recent Giro winner. I’m not used to looking morbidly obese.
Of course, only one of us was carrying a brown paper bag full of booze.
@frank
Your real wake up call should have been your weirdly long arms. That bag should be full of bananas.
Do your armpits ever get itchy?
@Marcus
Thank you for the advice!
@Marcus
What we really want to know is if you have fallen off the rollers in front of your wife and all her friends.
Also, anyone, yourself included, who rides rollers should be banned from doing tris, on account of your bike handling skills will be too good for the field.
@Ron can’t be a Leaf fan then.
@Buck Rogers
Not to far away from you actually, starting out with the March 30th edition of this training series in Coxsackie: https://www.bikereg.com/Net/17728
Later in the summer I’m planning on doing the Capital Region Road Race and Albany Criterium the same weekend. If you are interested in any of those events let me know.
@Nate I once fell off rollers in a mate’s cinema room whilst admiring Jessica Biel’s breasts. What did I learn?
1. Riding on rollers in a dark room is a risky pursuit.
2. Admiring said Ms Biel for extended periods can move you too far to one side of rollers.
3. Puncture wounds from mate’s kid’s plastic Star Wars toy being embedded mid-thigh really fucking hurt. And get easily infected.
To be clear, I am doing one tri, and one tri only (an ironman in 6 weeks time) just to tick it off the list. At this stage it looks like i will be walking the whole fcuking marathon due to chronically fucked calves from being an old inflexible cunt.
@King Clydesdale
Coxsackie. Hilarious!
Frank – He might have caught ya with a bag o’ booze, but you caught him with Jumbo Bidons &…is that a EPMS or a hole in the wall? And while I think you could afford to gain some weight, damn, that does put into perspective how skinny the PROs are. His torso is girlish.
strathlubnaig – Actually, some of the fans of goonery are pretty excited about the Leafs this year. They’ve got some total nuts who love to stir things up, like Colton Orr. He might be the most feared fighter throwing right now.
This won’t make much sense, but I’m a Devils fan and a Sabres fan. I grew up going to Devils games (family in northern NJ who could get tickets) & all the Sabres games were on t.v. in upstate NY, where I grew up.
Marcus – ha! That’s a pretty amazing reason to fall off rollers. But, I can understand as I used to skip class during a semester abroad in Brisbane to watch “7th Heaven.”
That might be the most reprehensible thing I did as an undergrad, and the list is kind of long. Not cutting class, but watching that show, of course.
I fell off my rollers while watching my 2004 Paris-Roubaix DVD. When Museeuw and Van Petegem ride across the finish line together I always get weepy and it broke my concentration. I need to HTFU.
@Marcus Good one on the rollers, but I’m glad I don’t have your bucket list.
@frank Obviously he asked you to buy for him because he got carded w/o ID.
@Ron
Well played. But watching 7th Heaven as an undergrad? My god man.
@Sauterelle I fell off my rollers watching one of the scenes in La Course en Tete invovling Eddy riding down a mountain in the rain.
@Nate
Glad I’m not the only one. I don’t feel like such a twat now.
@Sauterelle Far from it. Anyone who claims to ride rollers, and claims to have never fallen off, is probably lying, and certainly not trying hard enough!
@Nate and certainly never done a roller derby drunk
@Marcus
Ape index. If Frank were a sport climber, he’d want to be François Legrand.
@frank I want to see a photo where Frank holds Ryder at arm’s length while Ryder attempts to punch him.
@Marcus
Why do you think they call him the Dutch Monkey?