Clifton CC Discussion Board

The place to discuss racing and training.

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by willhub Sun Aug 10, 2008 11:45 am
Well its been discussed in a thread allready abit but I took that thread off the rails and sorry for that.

Anyway, its a BIG problem, and maybe its what has caused other cyclists to quit for a long time before?

Over the past weeks I've been doing the sunday rides, and odd aturday ride instead like yesterday, and I have noticed I am finding it harder to do long miles, basically seems my endurace is going down the drain.

Now yesterday I went on howards saturday ride, 46 miles in we stopped for a cafe stop and I felt perfectly fine still, I also thought I was doing pretty good and would find it no problem as it was chucking it down with rain and was around 15 degrees maybe less.

Anyway from there we went up to dalby forest and into the forest drive, I was doing fine for abit but thats when it started going wrong, I was getting slower and slower and feeling so tired, really it was at one point I instantly felt like I was doing ok then suddenly felt crappy.

For the rest of the way home I was just thinking I just cant wait to get home now, felt tired and crappy, lost all energy, that was like 40-50miles aswell, into a headwind I was struggling and it calmed down abit so I tried to keep on the back wheel of howard and that but I could not, fell back quite a way, could not put in any power to the pedals at all.

Now I was really dissapointed and if this keeps happening I dont want to continue doing these rides as I know I cant do them at the moment, I could I could clearly see I lost all power as on the way home I was going really smooth and no matter what the weather usually is like thats where I can usually keep putting loads of power in and get home pretty fast, because its the end of the ride and I'm tired and want to get home. There was parts where I felt I could put a little bit of power in but never lasted long.

Anyway I dont know what to do, if its still due to overtraining or what.

Today I'm not going anyway, and maybe it would be wise to take the whole week off cycling untill like saturday, I want to get back what I used to be able to do so I can do the tan hill in 2 weeks time.

anything udner 50 miles I'm fine, I am alot faster than I used to be so I havent lost speed when I want to go fast, just cant do as many miles, infact around 80 miles yesterday is where I used to feel around 120-140miles. so I'm doing really badly at the moment.

And yesterday I was eating snack bars regular and had fish at cafe stop and drank plenty of water.

And given the high winds that are everyday next week apparently apart from one day If I was to go out on a day with high winds no matter what into the wind I would be pushing hard as that cant be avoided unless I walk so should I take the whole week off cycling?

by MichaelCarter Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:38 pm
Short answer... "so should I take the whole week off cycling?"
YES

Longer answer...

Will you sound really fed up with it, don't be! I'm no expert but you've done fantastically well so far this year, but it seems your body is screaming "REST" at you!

It's complex and there are thousands of different plans out there but what I think you are suffering from is not resting long enough. It's not easy to force yourself to do it but you will reap the benefits. Last time I was out on the bike with you I felt really good, then did another few decent rides the following week but found myself slowing down.

That was about 10 days ago, and I've rested tons and now I'm raring to go again, I feel rested again. Don't log your monthly miles, but (unless you are training for something specific) log your weekly hours and make sure every 4 weeks you have a week where you take it easier.

Hope that's a help (but as I said I'm no expert!)

Michael

by willhub Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:28 pm
Last week I cycled just over 13 hours total, this week I cycled just under 12 hours.

Maybe the weather is trying to tell me to rest too, supposed to be heavy rain every day this week and super windy, not something I want to go out in. I'll try my best to take the whole 5 days off, just I wonder want to gain weight, I do eat quite abit tbh, I have a huge appetite, if I wanted to fill myself up at the cafe stops I'd have to spend about 10-15quid all on food when I only fill up 5 quids worth every time, sometimes I get more for my money sometimes I get less, its just like petrol stations lol.

On an empty tank it takes 15 quid worth :P

I'm hoping other people will reply too, maybe people who have been in a similar situation to me before and nearly quitting cycling, not that I am.. yet.

I just dont understand it, either tommorow or the next day after I know I'll be feeling really good and want to get on the bike and go for a 20+miles spin and proberbly not feel much different when I get home, then that is something that makes me feel I must have recovered, but saturday/sunday rides tell me otherwise. Allthough I feel my legs are ok today after sitting down for a while though they get abit stiff and got abit of pain in my right one at the moment.

So anyway I'll have 5 days off hopefully and see how I feel.

I would like to to a club ride at the weekend still though, think I should do the saturday one again or have a go at the sunday again? They tend to be shorter than the sunday ones but faster I find.

by Dr Dave Mon Aug 11, 2008 12:02 pm
Will, Michael is right - you need a period of rest. You won't lose fitness by having a few days off. Just chill, put your feet up, eat sensibly and after a week you'll have recovered your enthusiasm and energy.

As for doing longer rides, you are going faster now so it isn't surprising that you find it harder to do long rides at a higher speed.

by willhub Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:17 pm
Dr Dave wrote:Will, Michael is right - you need a period of rest. You won't lose fitness by having a few days off. Just chill, put your feet up, eat sensibly and after a week you'll have recovered your enthusiasm and energy.

As for doing longer rides, you are going faster now so it isn't surprising that you find it harder to do long rides at a higher speed.


Well it ended up slower lol, averaged 16.3, thats slower than all of them really apart from the 160miler a couple of weeks back, allthough up to pickering I think it was like 18mph average this was due to a tailwind and the fact I was behind other people, I'm sure it was like a chaingang the first bit blasting along at 25+mph for such a long part then thrasing it up bulmer bank, I guess even though I felt good I havent been doing that speed for such a long time before so its shocked my body maybe.

I went for a spin on my bike today, like 3 mins not much, only went on it really to check how my gears are as I've spent hours cleaning my bike today after saturday with the rain and all the rubbish that got on my bike.

Got this cool little gadget called a powerball today, hopefully that will strengthen my forearms and even further up abit which should help me on parts of some rides.

by Arthur Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:33 pm
Why do you want to train you forearms? Expect for MTB'ing or track sprinting, arm strength isn't that relevant to cycling.

Do your arms ache after long rides?

by MichaelCarter Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:39 pm
Stop staring at your speedo Will. If you can train yourself to listen to what your BODY is telling you rather than your SPEEDOMETER then you will greatly improve.

Maybe to monitor progress try and do one ride a month, same course, try and get the same conditions and time it. That will be a far better indicator of progression than comparing rides which are completely different.

by willhub Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:52 pm
Arthur wrote:Why do you want to train you forearms? Expect for MTB'ing or track sprinting, arm strength isn't that relevant to cycling.

Do your arms ache after long rides?


I dont want to train it like you think, this powerball I got for abit of run really, you just gotta rotate your wrists but this thing spins up to like 10,000+RPM and you gotta get it higher and it gets harder, world record is like 26,000RPM, its all human powered, but It will train my forearms and all that abit, not that it might be that helpful for cycling but you never know, sometimes up hills my arms do get abit tired like if I am going up a long steep climb.

MichaelCarter wrote:Stop staring at your speedo Will. If you can train yourself to listen to what your BODY is telling you rather than your SPEEDOMETER then you will greatly improve.

Maybe to monitor progress try and do one ride a month, same course, try and get the same conditions and time it. That will be a far better indicator of progression than comparing rides which are completely different.


I dont always stare at my speedo, I try and keep it on clock and Cadance most of the time now.

1 ride a month same course seems good, up to cycle heavan, riverside, then back onto bishothorpe road and same way I came, should be good I guess.

by MichaelCarter Mon Aug 11, 2008 4:38 pm
"1 ride a month same course seems good, up to cycle heavan, riverside, then back onto bishothorpe road and same way I came, should be good I guess."

Try and pick a circular route which doesn't involve any stops, right turns or traffic lights. Maybe try the route we've done in the evening on the intro chain gang?

Conditions you want to try and make the same for each comparative monthly ride:
1, Same route (obviously!)
2, Body equally rested (maybe have a couple of days rest before doing it)
3, Dry roads
4, Low wind
5, Same effort level (low) on your ride out to the course

by willhub Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:28 pm
In the english weather that seems unlikely, it will be hard to achieve.

by Helen Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:43 am
Will

Getting fitter is a bit like dieting - up and down during the weeks but over 6 months you will see a huge improvement from your start position.
As I said back when you first came out you have to build up your cycling legs
and endurance and that means putting in the miles and getting through your first winter.That does not mean grinding yourself in to the ground it means
getting out on your bike and doing a fair number of rides which leave you working within your limits, so you arrive home feeling you have been for a ride, but not worked over.Those sorts of rides will build up your base miles
and build up your cycling legs.If you want to have a go at racing up the hills make sure the rest of the ride is one that is well with in your limits.
Remember my advice about looking after your legs and leaving enough so you can ride home at pace.It's true that sometimes means, like on our last ride, that doesn't happen but you get to arrive home in good shape.

Nutrition - I can't believe you had fish and chips at the cafe.
After all we have said about carbs etc.Howard can he is older and will know how to look after himself.Fish and chips do NOT provide enough carbs no wonder you came home on an empty tank.
In the cafe choose pasta or something with beans.If neither are available or cost to much have a look at the puddings and go for pie or sponge with custard.

At the moment you should be concentrating on getting ready for Manchester not bothering so much with the cycling.You will need to get
settled in quickly and sort out things like budget because other wise you will not have the time or the money to ride let alone train

Helen

by willhub Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:00 am
I was going to have jacket patato and beans and cheese again, I knew about the chips, thought fish was ok and because it was going to be a shorter ride than the sunday ones, but it ended up been 116miles.

I am concentrating on manchester, its all confusing but everything is in to place to flow smoothly with my loans and all that and I'm moving in on 15th september so I might do a saturday ride that weekend as I still want to cycle to manchester and parents take me stuff in the car, its no fun going in a car, it only take 1 hour.

I havent done any cycling this week as of yet but really there is nothing else to concentrate on for manchester, apart from insurance which I cant do untill I am there and search for a part time job.

My budget is sorted, asda/tesco value, some finest food, pasta and noodles, lots of cold super milky coffe and vimto/water.

So should I decide to do a ride maybe tommorow but not push myself to the limit I was planning on doing totally nothing this week apart from to town on friday as I need t and thats only like 20mins ride total.

to be honest I was wanting to do as much riding as I liked before I went to manchester as I know I will not have much time to cycle when I get there due to college and hopefully a job which I need.

by Helen Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:01 pm
Will - no riding till Friday

Use the internet to look up employers in the area.
Email local retailers,cafes,pubs etc to find out if they will be recruiting and
send on your CV before you start.Lots of students will be job hunting so its worth starting early.

If bored have a go at a cooking

Helen

by willhub Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:30 pm
I havent even finished my CV yet, I got like education and interests done but I have no other skills so dont want to send a CV off incase it aint good enough.

I went and cooked me some scrambled eggs so am learning slowely.

by willhub Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:38 am
Sorry for bumping this thread but it's the only place of close relvance.

Basically my legs are messing up now and I've had over a week off cycling now and no change.

I'm taking omega capsules, multi vitamines and glucosamine tablets, I've got some glucosamine gel on the way too.

I'm finding I'm sitting here and it just comes on, my right leg suddenly feels like I've done a 100+ mile ride, but after a while it goes away. My knee hurts, pushing makes the bit just under the knee hurt, also when on the bike, high, low cadence, what ever, my calf muscles sieze up almost to the point of cramp sometimes, this has not always happened.

Just below my left knee is bruised, this is because I fell off round a corner at about 18-20mph and rammed my knee into the tarmac, I think that will heal it's my right lef thats done for.

The doctors havent done anything, they say just rest thats all you can do, I've booked like the 5th doctors appointment for Monday 5PM, I'm going to try get Physio but my parents think I'm wasting my money if I get that, I said the doctors will take weeks to refer me.

Some people seem to think I may have tendonitis or something, some people seem to think I might have calcification or w/e that siezes my legs up.

Seems to ease when I keep my leg up and straight.

So dont know how long I'm going to be off cycling but it's going to hit my fitness too, I'm hoping maybe I might be able to feel better by Friday as I gotta cycle home then thats 75 miles.

I'm hoping the Glucosamine gel will work, but I dunno. Seems like a bad summer for my training this year :\

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