[Training thread - was Its getting cold]

[tomf]

Don't listen to them - get a Moka pot:



Spoon Phil's Lavazza coffee into the filter basket, fill the base with water, securely fasten the top, put on a medium flame and retire to a safe distance for about 3 mins! As soon as it starts spitting, pour out the coffee. Don't forget it's brewing or your kitchen may look unfamiliar when you return...

Best strong coffee, much better than plungy cafetiere slop with murky grit at the bottom... and a bargain too.

[Dr Dave]

Been using them for > 20yrs - excellent gadgets!

[willhub]

Ok I might have to have a look for one of these gadgets, we have one of those caffitiere things here if that coffee is any good?

Anyway regarding training..

Basically what I am doing at the moment to help me keep cycling is doing an 18 mile look daily, but I want to know if doing this and hardly doing anything longer is going to make it harder for me on long runs? I've extended it up to 32 miles at the moment in fear that doing short rides will kill my ability to do long distance and I miss being able to do 100+ mile rides that I feel I would struggle at now.

[pearsarn]

[quote="willhub"]Ok I might have to have a look for one of these gadgets, we have one of those caffitiere things here if that coffee is any good?

Anyway regarding training..

Basically what I am doing at the moment to help me keep cycling is doing an 18 mile look daily, but I want to know if doing this and hardly doing anything longer is going to make it harder for me on long runs? I've extended it up to 32 miles at the moment in fear that doing short rides will kill my ability to do long distance and I miss being able to do 100+ mile rides that I feel I would struggle at now.[/quote]

I've been reading with interest the ever so long discussion on training started off by Will. The majority of the comments have come from experienced but young (to me) riders. For what it's worth here's my two
pennyworth. I started riding a bike when I was about 10 years old, nearly 60 years ago, progressing to time trials when I was 16. I gave up cycling when I joined the Navy and didn't start again until I was 26. From 26 to 38 I raced for the Navy (in between ships and foreign postings) doing everything from time trials (10 mile up to 12 hour), road racing and track.
I stopped racing at 38 when everyone starting to call me Grandad and didn't start again until I moved to the York area and joined the Clifton at the age of 54.
When I first started time trialling all I did was the Sunday club run, mid week time trials and football nearly every day. I still managed a 24 min 10 and a 59 min 25 at the age 17. When I returned to cycling it was full time, no football to distract me. I used to train 6 days a week and do a minimum of 300 miles a week, including the racing. the only day off was usually the Monday after road racing on the Sunday. Training consisted
of one hard day (80 mile plus) followed by an easier day (around 40 mile)
usually by myself. Wherever I've lived I have always had circuits varying from 20 to 50 miles and I would test myself on these. The training started
on the 1st of Jan and I had to do 2000 miles by the end of February and would start racing in early March. I used to enter the highest quality race I could get into depending on my cat, as I varied between 2nd and 3rd depending on whether or not I had been away at sea. I used to think the higher the quality field the easier the race was as there were no slackers, everyone wanted to win and there were fewer accidents. The racing would continue to October and then off the bike totally Nov and Dec. But in November, December and January I would be in the gym 3 or 4 times a week, doing mostly leg strength and core exercises. I must admit that it was probably easier for me being in the services as everything was laid on for me, gym, time off for training and travelling etc but it was still hard. That regime seemed to work for me and most of the riders at that time did something similar, lots of hard miles was the key.
When I returned yet again to cycling at age 54, it seems that riders do only half the miles and have twice the rest, but then again I'm not doing any road racing, but Im sure all the top riders must do something similar to what we did in the 60s and 70s.
In my opinion cycling at the lower levels has gone too technical when all you have to do is pedal a bigger gear at a faster rate than the rest of them.

[nickb]

Another 'real' coffee addict here!

I did use one of those espresso gadgets but found they don't last that long-the rubber seal wears out and the middle filter bit eventually distorts. You also have to keep an eye on it and if you want to make 2 coffees it's a bit of a fiddle to change the coffee and rinse out without really burning your fingertips! I've gone back to the cafatiere and if you use good quality beans and grind them yourself the coffee is just as good. (Nero beans are my favourite!)
Every yr i keep saying ill get a proper pump driven machine, maybe the next january sales...

[tomf]

I did use one of those espresso gadgets but found they don't last that long-the rubber seal wears out and the middle filter bit eventually distorts. You also have to keep an eye on it and if you want to make 2 coffees it's a bit of a fiddle to change the coffee and rinse out without really burning your fingertips!

Agreed, I bought mine (a stainless steel 6-cup; where 'cup' seems to mean 'thimblefull') about 8 years ago and bought a pack of 3 replacement rubber gaskets and a filter screen with it. Just got the last gasket left now... dismantling it while hot isn't comfortable, but I really like the coffee it makes. Since my wife isn't so keen on 'thick' coffee we also have a filter machine with a thermal carafe - an brilliant invention which keeps the coffee warm and drinkable for 2 hours. First one up brews the pot.

Coffee forum coming up? Why doesn't it surprise me that cyclist turn out to be coffee nerds too... bring on page 10.

[MichaelCarter]

"Anyway regarding training.. "

Says something about this thread that Will "notorious for taking a thread off on a tangent" Hub is bringing us all back to relevance!

Michael

[tomf]

A social scientist once did some kind of a study (on internet forums) of the average time a political discussion can run before someone mentions Nazis or Hitler (answer, only a few posts it seems).

Looking back at this mighty tenuous thread, I'm not sure what the equivalent touchstone would be for cycling discussions:

-Coffee
-Doping
-Anaerobic threshold?

Maybe Arthur can run a lexical analysis of the whole discussion board - and discover that the most popular substantive word is 'puncture'.

[willyh]

Easy this one: Mr L. Armstrong.

[justsweat]

I only didn't look at the discussion board for a week and there are more pages than most books.

I had a quick scan and will answer a couple of questions.

The first one from TomF (sorry guys I don't know who everyone is) asked about why I think cycling above 70% reduces the amount of red blood cells, however Tom you answered it yourself somewhere further down when you talked about 3 week tours lowering heomocrite levels.

Secondly I looked at the 'generic plan', which as generic plans go is pretty good. However what I argue is that people need a plan suited to what they are trying to achieve and their personal limiters. Limiters may be time, money, physical or mental.

The generic plan seems to be trying to train all the systems at once, however as Tom points out if you stop training a system you lose it fairly quickly (the 'use it or lose it' phrase) However with systems such as lactate buffering and lactate tolerance why would you want them at this time of year, unless maybe you where riding hill tt's. So why waste time training them.

I also think that I saw a mention of weights not being specific enough, however I find with a lot of athletes that one leg is strong than the other, so stuff such as single leg squats, single leg leg presses etc I find makes the muscles work equally.

So once I set my goal - RAAM under 11 days - June 09

I then using a wall planner, plan as far ahead as possible, so for me, I know I have a week in Lanzarote in December (training), 6 weeks in Mallorca running training camps, a possible trip to Iceland in May, then RAAM in June. I fill all the dates I have, coaching work, personal stuff and plan my time.

I do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opputunities & threats).

Then I am ready to work on the plan, because I know what I'm trying to achieve and what I need to overcome.

A couple of other points I liked from the discussion was from 'pearsarn'

When I returned yet again to cycling at age 54, it seems that riders do only half the miles and have twice the rest, but then again I'm not doing any road racing, but Im sure all the top riders must do something similar to what we did in the 60s and 70s.

Personally I think a lot of this is because there is a lower base level of fitness in the general public, so with the growth of cycling, and as witnessed in this club we are getting a lot of people who have not always done sport, or actually may never have done any sport. Therefore they are starting from a lower level and need to put the base that people who have always done sport take as 'read.' We are just not as tough nowadays!

[tomf]

When I first started time trialling all I did was the Sunday club run, mid week time trials and football nearly every day. I still managed a 24 min 10 and a 59 min 25 at the age 17. When I returned to cycling it was full time, no football to distract me. I used to train 6 days a week and do a minimum of 300 miles a week, including the racing. the only day off was usually the Monday after road racing on the Sunday. Training consisted
of one hard day (80 mile plus) followed by an easier day (around 40 mile) usually by myself.

Arny, very interesting post (and I'm sure I'm not the only one on this thread who enjoyed reading your "Olympic" story in the last Cliftonite as well). As one of the proponents of 'scientific training' I suppose I ought to be saying that you'd have gone *even faster* if you'd followed Modern Methods, but I honestly don't know. I can't help asking though: you obviously had the talent if you put in a :59 25 at 17; did you get a chance to test on a comparable course when you were 'full time'? How much quicker did you manage then?
According to the last Cycling Weakly an 'old school' series of TTs without modern equipment (Tri bars, aero wheels etc) is being launched, to try to compare modern riders with record-setters of the past. If the 'scientific' approach is correct, then the current crop *should* still be able to better the old times, provided I suppose that they take the time to get familiar with the traditional bikes... it'll be interesting to see.

[PhilBixby]

This thread is roaming far and wide....

"we have one of those caffitiere things here if that coffee is any good?"

It's all down to using fine ground coffee - buy the sort that's designed for espresso machines. That way you get strong stuff. Just be careful when pushing the plunger thingy down - be veeeeeery gentle with it or you get scalding coffee shot up your arm. Mind you, that'd wake you up!

[Dr Dave]

Still coming round to the idea that one's parentage is an awfully large percentage of your potential. Training can make the most of what you've got but can only compensate for crap genetics to a degree. Similarly bling bikes, aero components etc

Having said this given that we're all stuck with the genetics we're born with there's no excuse for not making the best of what we've got.

Probably most of us just need to HTFU as the Aussies say......

[willhub]

I guess we're like cars?

Cars are made but I guess we are born with different sized engines, some people have 1.0L engines but with lots of training might manage to get a turbo added to that and I guess people like Lance Armstrong are born with 5.0L V12 with a supercharger and a twin turbo in there..

I'd say I'm at 2.0L 5cylinder with the optional extra of a turbo in later life but at the moment 2 of the 5cylinders are not in operating so I'm not able to give it any power.

[nickb]

You a Volvo, willhub?