Topic Title

Apparently he is a training coach, dont know if anyone has heard of him, know how good he is and how much he costs, I cant find anything on the internet, on another forum they said they are surprised how I've never heard of him apparently he is only 11 miles away.

He retired around 2/3 years ago Will, his racing team still continues though and go under the name of Team Swift, there a sizeable outfit putting on approx 12 open TT's a year

He is in fact still coaching! I've been to see him twice this year for testing and programs. And not too far from you Will - he lives in Wressel (4-5 miles from Selby) I've also been to a training seminar that he did with my tri club. Honest, blunt and to the point, but very amiable and knowledgable. I can thoroughly recommend him. He has also written 2 great training manuals, "The Black Book" that takes you through a full year of training (more aimed at TTing) and "The White Book - 25 of the most effective turbo sessions"
He charges £20 per hour, and a test and chat about your needs takes around 2 hours. For a 6 week plan its another £20.

Here is his email address: pete@cyclecoaching.com (say that Richard Reynolds recommended you see him)

Thanks, I can't afford to have him talk to me or make me a trianing plan yet, maybe if he's still doing coaching next year or maybe in the holidays I'll get in contact with him this year.

Should be good to create a proper training plan to help me improve faster.

...If you give me your email, I'll send you the black book and you can print it off. Pete is a bit believer of base training, at least 100-150 hours over winter, at 65-75% max HR. Also 2 hour rides at 80%. Good turbo session for winter - 25 mins @ 70% 20 mins @ 75% then 15 mins @ 80%.

Clicking the email button under my posts can email me. Thanks

Doing that would it mean I'd have to stop doing club runs for that and take my normal rides always steadier? As on rides I can sustain 90% for ages, when I did 60miles at almost 20mph I was sustaining between 170 and 180bpm for most of the time.

... Peter also taught me that our max HRs are not 220-age. I should think that if you can maintain 90% then you need to calibrate your HR moniter (increase the max HR). I think that if you can maintain (what you think is) 90% for 2hrs +, then you were riding more around 85%. The highest I have ever seen was 93% doing 1 min ints. When riding for 2 hours, I sometimes see 87-89, but can only maintain that for 5-10 mins at a time.

It might be worth spending £20 to be tested at Pete's and then he will be able to give you an accurate max HR for you.

... I need your address so that I can send an attachment.

Well it might be wrong then actually as it's calibrated to 193 max I think but up a hill some weeks ago I managed to get it up to 197, I can keep 180 for a long time, I did 4 miles keeping it around 185.

I will go to peter read once I can afford it, will be sometime the begenning of next year.


My email is willhub@googlemail.com

If you have a turbo with power on it or go to a gym, it is possible for you with the help of a friend to do the power test yourself. All you need is a power meter of some sort/a heart rate monitor and someone to record the figures.

I personally use a step test - starting around 160 watts, depending on the athlete and increase it by 30 watts every 3 minutes. This will bring you somewhere close. Then spin for 15 minutes at the end of the test and go for the biggest power spike you can get. We normally give 45 seconds for this, but in reality you can hold it for about 5 seconds.

Really from a training point of view the first part of the test is the most important, but it is always nice to know how high your power is (or in my case low). In a trained endurance athlete as the sustainable power goes up, then the one off power should come down due to recruitment of slowtwich fibres.

Also understand, not only is HR not really age or fitness related, but mainly genetic. It is also discipline related, I can hit 188 on the bike but can hit 202 on the run and about 160 on the swim. I'm 51 so on the 220 - age I should only be able to hit 169 and that would be for running so around 157 for biking. As you see if I did my hard workouts at 90% of the 157, I would not even be at 220 - age predicted 70%.

However what tends to be fitness related is your resting HR. Although as a starting point this is also genetic and also probably gender related (womens tend to be higher than mens to start with). I have athletes who are only just below 60bpm but also have some as low as 32bpm. When calculating your percentages this needs to be factored in.

Brian

When calculating your percentages this needs to be factored in.

How?

When I'm working out my zones I do the

Max HR - resting HR x percentage + resting hr

So for 70% it would be

188 - 37 = 151
x 70% = 105.7 + 37 = 143ish.

If you didn't take the rest Hr into account it would be 131 which would be a lot to low.

When I'm tested using lactate I actually come out at about 141 so it is a better guesstermate than doing it the other way.

Brian

Well with that formula 70% for me is 149.6 with my resting heart rate @ 39 and max at 197.

I've just being emailed this black book and I'm reading through that, the first bit I've came to is about cycling at 20mph, wait for my heart rate to settle down, then take note of what my heart rate is at . And to test improvement when I next do it if my heart rate @ 20mph is a cople of beats less then the training is working, but I guess this should only be done on a turbo as my heart rate would be sky high the second time if I went out trying to keep 20mph into a 40mph headwind.