Topic Title

hi all
been reading the threads and makes for some good reading.IMO the reason i struggled in some races last year was because until the actual racing started i was training on my own so i really had only myself too compare against.Any improvments i made were all filed but i couldnt go to my wife and bore her so too have like minded racers training together and swop or discuss any methods ideas and actually put them into practice would be good.
I cant understand why people are having disagrements about this topic because some people r interested and some arent FULL STOP.If u dont want to do sportives u dont.If u like cafe rides u do them.If u like racing u do it and what better way than doing it as a team/club.If i hadnt joined the club i would not have raced .
Timj
i

am away the weekend but will try make it for 8 on sun if its definately on

Sounds good, I'll try to be there.

I'll be there too.

How did the meeting go?

Six of us there, plus emails from five others who couldn't make it but want to be kept informed. We agreed we'd kick off weekend training rides on the first weekend of 2010 (Sat 2nd / Sun 3rd) with both setting off at 9am. I'll ask Cath to put something in the e-Update on the run-up to it. We also said we'd do another pub night in January once the various race calendars are finalised and available.

I'm waiting for a response from John Gray following a meeting with him last week to discuss what YSJ could offer the club. He's looking at a short seminar series (picking up on some of the stuff that was done a couple of years back but focusing more on "making the most of available time") followed by opportunities for testing and advice on strengths/weaknesses. Will report to next week's committee meeting and post on here.

We touched on the idea of getting coaching advice for those who wanted it but also acknowledged that there's quite a bit of experience within the club and maybe we just need to ensure this is available to those who want some support on the way into racing.

This all sounds really promising. I wanted to pop along to the meeting however prior commitments prevented me. As for the ideas put forth so far, the training rides sound right up my street and some kind of "scientific" advice from YSJ would also be really useful.
Mark I

apologies i couldn't make it back in time. those rides sound good, will have to get fitness up in preparation!

Fascinating thread; glad I’ve just stumbled across it! A couple of things spring to mind training ride wise:

Firstly, a reminder that the “Clifton Wednesday Night Training Ride” takes place every, ahem, Wed. night and may be of some use to those training for racing? Last night for example, 4 of us turned up to do the “hilly” Sheriff - Bulmer route. I elected to use my singlespeed for “extra training benefit” and we covered 30 or so non stop miles, riding tightly, performing impromptu through and off manoeuvres (I think that’s what they were – forgive me but I’ve never raced – not “formally” anyway!) and averaging over 19mph. Not too bad a pace for unlit, slimy country roads. It would be great if we had more riders for these runs, so all racing snakes of course more than welcome.

Secondly, the H group on Saturdays already goes out at 9. Riding is reasonably tight and disciplined, regrouping stops are pretty minimal / sometimes non-existent and we often average around 19 – 20 mph (in summer anyway) over perhaps quite demanding terrain and for up to 100miles or so. Again, wouldn’t this sort of ride be of any use for racing training? Perhaps we could rename the café stop the “feed station”? Would that help?

Or at least if there is a separate training ride, we could all set off together with the non stoppers peeling off at some convenient point?

Again, as I’ve said above, I’ve never (yet) raced so forgive my possible ignorance of specific road racing training ride requirements

Secondly, the H group on Saturdays already goes out at 9. Riding is reasonably tight and disciplined... if there is a separate training ride, we could all set off together with the non stoppers peeling off at some convenient point?

Hi Howard - good suggestions! This thread is a bit hard to find...
Having taken part in one H ride this year I can confirm that it is good hard riding, with (almost) no hanging around. It is probably bit far for racing training, but the idea of racers peeling off before 2hrs and heading straight back is an excellent one.
cheers,
tom (and I still owe you an inner tube...)

hi Howard,

The problems with the H ride as training for racing is are

a) It's too long
b) It's got a cafe stop
c) It's probably too hard on the hills and not hard enough on the flats.

3-4 hours non-stop tempo is a far, far better way to train for a race.

Setting out together seems ok, but has the major disadvantage of making the group bigger. If you want a decent training ride, time on the front is what matters.

The H ride is a good thing, works well and is popular. Trying to make it a training ride as well isn't a good idea for anyone IMO.

Cheers for the suggestion Howard but I'm with Arthur on this. I think there will be sufficient numbers for a cafe ride and a non stop training ride on a saturday which set off as 2 separate rides. My view for what its worth is the training ride does 3 hrs max and sticks to the same route each week. That way there is no messing about, everyone knows what they are doing and where they are going. We were doing this 5 or 6 years ago and it worked superbly. Once you get into Feb and riders are fitter there is potential to extend the ride a bit and start a line out for the last few miles. Keep it simple.

but the idea of racers peeling off before 2hrs and heading straight back is an excellent one...

On further reflection I can see that I was mistaken. I meant to say "the idea of racers peeling off before 2hrs and heading straight back is clearly bourgeois romantic sentimentalism which will only act as a drag on the indomitable spirit of the Cliftonites." Thanks to comrades Clunevich and Mussenko for setting me straight on this matter.

tomf - maybe you can see why people who want to race and train might feel put off with replies like that?

Arthur: not really. It may not have been funny, but it was definitely a joke!

But just in case, a more serious version. I liked Howard's original suggestion for two reasons: tagging on the H ride would give us extra riders (for half the way), but more important, provide a kind of gateway to 'race riding' for the more confident 'sportive' riders. Having the training bunch work with the H bunch for an hour or so could encourage some people to cross over, and give the racing side a bit more visibility to the uninitiated.

However, I'm persuaded by the counterarguments - *if* we have a decent quorum, then keeping the training ride flat + predictable + compact outweighs the advantage of teaming up. Although if you take the 'time on the front' principle all the way, we'd ride in pairs... In fact if we did really find the training ride getting too big we could split it into lead + chase groups to keep the work ratio up. Not something to worry about for now.

Tom