Cycle cross-training

[Huw Thomas]

40 mins 13.7k 90 rpm TE 3.1

Felt good today so started my TACX trainer free cycle limiting watts - 2 legged.

Thought I might as well get some practice at 90+ rpm as I'm limited/limiting my power at present and I've read about having some rate sessions not worrying about power - getting used to faster cadence - IDEAL

Gradually bult up to 130 watts (best yet) - of course the effort is less at this higher cadence - and it gave me no discomfort c/w 60-80 watts earler in the week



Working surprisingly "hard" TE 3.1 - well not hard but better CV training than I thought it would be - felt easy throughout

Shower then pub to meet with my usual Tuesday cycle group who are specifically coming to Milverton to be sociable!!

[Huw Thomas]

Upped resistance and time today - trying to keep cadence up.

60 mins 25.5k 90 rpm 150watts TE 4.5

No negative symptoms from hip Just did what felt comfortable
Heart rate gradually drifted up EPOC peak 199 TE 4.5, 25.5km c/w 13km in 40mins yesterday



Really nice steady CV session, listening to J.J.Cale. Some up tempo stuff really helped with the cadence

[stumpy]

Well it looks like the carb loading last night helped with that workout Huw

[strider77]

Great progress Huw-keep it up

[Huw Thomas]

Great progress Huw-keep it up

Thanks Alan

Well it looks like the carb loading last night helped with that workout Huw

More tonight I'm sure =D> =D> =D> =D>

Taking Liz for a meal at the Rock Inn, Waterow - nice

[Scoop]

I'm quaking already Huw. I think the slender advantage I was hoping to build up will be very short-lived

Seriously - hope your progress is swift and sure. I suppose being a doctor helps in understanding how fast you can build the training up

[paulgould]

Hi Huw

Good to see you are able to keep your fitness ticking over while the hip heals.
I have been doing a fair bit of cycling myself and am pretty sure the biking fitness has had a beneficial effect on the erging.
Don't have too much in the way of numbers for my rides as I don't have Tac-x trainers or Garmin trackers and all that, so just the basics.

Not too much this week so far - I did a flattish 180km route on the road-bike on Saturday, averaging 29.1 km/h.
Today - 91.3k on the MTB at 23.1km/h average.
Planning to do about 100k this Saturday on the road bike, and have entered a 110k audax ride on Sunday - as it is a very hilly route I am going to do it on the MTB, and will be riding to and from the race, to make up a total of anywhere between 170 and 200km - I am looking forward to it but I know it is going to be a LOOONG day in the saddle.

Paul G

[Huw Thomas]

Good luck on the training and Audax Paul - hope the weather's nice
Don't worry Scoop - I'll be after you on the rower ASAP - when doc lets me!

Just bought The Cyclist's Training Bible trying to optimise my training to improve my pace and performance - when I get back on the bike
Aiming to do 2 road rides/week and then 4 days with mixture of rowing and turbo through the summer - turning back to erg ready for the Autumn [-o< [-o<


More cadence training on Turbo today - 60 mins @ 90-100 rpm - I like this!
Suits me at present as I'm not worrying about power - just building up time and gluteals

Starting to get used to 90 rpm This was my default today, then periods of 2mins 100 followed by 1 min @115+
Did several of these 3 min bursts during the hour - and then settled back to 90 rpm for a rest!

Tacx Crashed at 30ish minutes so lost the read out - just restarted and did a second 30 mins. First 30 mins was the same format without 5 mins CD at the end.



FBA heart trace was ok throughout.



60 mins TE 4.2 EPOC peak 166 Av watts 150, av cadence 88 (excl cd) 30 km

Used the CD to use minimal resistance and get down to normal riding position. Getting the hip used to the degree of hip flexion needed.
Listening to JJ Cale again (with Eric Clapton) and watching Sharapova :-O

[Huw Thomas]

Quick 25 mins today on tacx, 5 mins wu, 2 mins cd and alternating 90/100/110 rpm in the middle

11.5k, 28 kph av cadence 88 av watts 141 TE 3.1
I'll try for another session later today FBA now thinks my Activity class is back up to 7.5 =D> =D>


Then this evening - absolutely crazy I know....
Loaded the TDF gps Track from MapMyTracks and loaded it on Tacx



working really hard! av Cadence 96 - big chain wheel 3/8 on backU

6:54k 11:20 av 34.6k/h max 53 kph av 199 watts :-O


TE 3.1 again -- look at that red!!!!

[Huw Thomas]

More relaxing day - set a 150 watt limited ride 35 mins - kept it at 90 rpm and settled into an easy middle ring, with 5x alternate 1m@90 1 min @100 rpm at the end



15km, 35 mins
av 136watts
av 89 rpm
av 26.1 k/hr
max hr 157 av 137
TE 3.5

[stumpy]

Looks like it's coming along nicely now Huw.You will soon be out on the road again. I managed to get out on the bike today ( no shoulder pain) to watch a 91 year old Tommy Godwin a London 1948 cycling bronze medalist carry the torch, A special day.

[Huw Thomas]

Looks like it's coming along nicely now Huw.You will soon be out on the road again. I managed to get out on the bike today ( no shoulder pain) to watch a 91 year old Tommy Godwin a London 1948 cycling bronze medalist carry the torch, A special day.

Sounds a wonderful tribute and an amazing man

[Huw Thomas]

Still building aerobic base over next month
Stage 2 TDF on TV

Picked 30k from the middle and rode the virtual course




cadence 83 29 kph



TE 3.4


Go Cav!!!!! Great stage win !!

[Wolfmiester]

Huw, I have no idea what all the pretty graphs mean, but it would seem you are progresing nicely
Remember not to over do it

[Huw Thomas]

Huw, I have no idea what all the pretty graphs mean, but it would seem you are progresing nicely
Remember not to over do it

Thanks Wolfie - you been on your pub-crawl cycle yet??

30 min, 12k 150w (light workout) TE 3.1
Steady 90 rpm after warm up til HR got to steady state (@140ish), then 5mins @100 rpm, then flat out 127rpm for last min - sure I can exceed 127 given practice



Just trying to get my body used to working at 90 rpm "default" and doing some sprints ideally getting these up to 120 for a couple of munutes

Second session later same day:

Ok second session on bike today.
Loaded the Stage 3 GPX into trax and Isolated the last 25.1 km and rode it virtually.



Cote de Herquelingue - Cat 4 (115m)
Cote de Quehen - cat 4 (109m )
Cote de Mont lambert - cat 3- (150m) - had a bit of a rest at the top

Aims
- not to burn out
- not to do anything stupid
- keep cadence up to 90 as per previous practice.

It was very hard, HR got up quick and stayed there!
Bit of a rest at the top of the last hill



TE 5.0 Peak EPOC 275
Av cadence 91
Peak power 250
Max HR 174



ut2 3 min
ut1 9 min
AT 14 min
TR 29 min
AN 1 min


Very pleased!
Rest day tomorrow

[paulgould]

Did my Audax ride on Sunday - very enjoyable, but quite a tough course and pretty windy and squally.
Did a total of 206km on the day, on the MTB, at an average speed of 22km/h.

This morning I had a spin on the road bike - took on some nice manageable climbs and some great descents(max speed 76.3 km/h, with some serious braking going on) - 145km at 26.8 km/h average, averaging 33.5 km/h for the last hour of riding.
was hoping to do two similar length rides tomorrow and Sunday, but I think we are going to be getting some rubbish weather so it may not happen.

Paul G

[strider77]

Great progress Huw-love the graphs

Paul-you are the MAIN MAN

[Huw Thomas]

Did my Audax ride on Sunday - very enjoyable, but quite a tough course and pretty windy and squally.
Did a total of 206km on the day, on the MTB, at an average speed of 22km/h.

This morning I had a spin on the road bike - took on some nice manageable climbs and some great descents(max speed 76.3 km/h, with some serious braking going on) - 145km at 26.8 km/h average, averaging 33.5 km/h for the last hour of riding.
was hoping to do two similar length rides tomorrow and Sunday, but I think we are going to be getting some rubbish weather so it may not happen.

Paul G

Magnificent Paul

Crosstraining like that will help your rowing too

[Scoop]

Amazing from both of you.

Huw for recovering from injury by doing the 'Tour De France' (or similar)

Paul for doing the 'Tour d'Angleterre' on a weekly basis

[Huw Thomas]

Amazing from both of you.

Huw for recovering from injury by doing the 'Tour De France' (or similar)

thanks Scoop

more training today:
More training - 40 mins easy spinning then a long climb - virtually:

Starting from Puerto Soller, the Puig Major ascent is 24 km long. Over this distance, you climb 1492 meters. The average percentage is thus 6.2 %.

Managed 23k of 42k total of Tacx ride
Mallorca -hill profile



Was at the bottom 3k into the 13k Puig Major itself - Mallorca - when I realised I had another hour at my 9km/hr climbing speed - fairly steady 8% - which was good enough for me to say the 65 mins already done was enough :-O

Good CV session anyway, maintained 90 rpm and no hip pain
Tacx didn't save session - so I'll have to do it again

[paulgould]

Thanks Huw

I am definitely making improvements on the rower, and a lot of it is due to the cross-training effect.
The Tac-x looks an amazing bit of kit - couldn't even contemplate a 1492m ascent, even virtually
The biggest climbs I have ever tackled(survived) have only been 600-700m ascents, back in SA, probably 5-7% gradients, and I found those pretty tough.

Paul G

[Huw Thomas]

Thanks Huw

I am definitely making improvements on the rower, and a lot of it is due to the cross-training effect.
The Tac-x looks an amazing bit of kit - couldn't even contemplate a 1492m ascent, even virtually
The biggest climbs I have ever tackled(survived) have only been 600-700m ascents, back in SA, probably 5-7% gradients, and I found those pretty tough.

Paul G

There art plenty of 1-2 km climbs round here with max gradients 10-20+%
The alpine climbs are less (6-10%) but go on for Km and KM so need stamina ++ - which is what I'll be working at

My session - Recovery day: pt1

30 mins of low watts recovery building up both resistance (160w) and cadence (95rpm)
Quite sweaty - still trying to do some time in proper riding position
Still hurts at full flexion a little (to be expected). TE 2.2 ut2 session :-O max hr 145

second session later - intervals:

8x 1 min on (2% climb) 1 min off (0%)


TE 3.3


Went well Peak power 366 av 180 watts (240w on on segments @110 rpm) Peak cadence 120 :-O

Happy easier day tomorrow

[paulgould]

Nice riding Huw =D> =D>
Let the weather get the better of me Saturday and Sunday so no riding
Did quite a bit of erging including a 60 min PB and 2 failed HM's(about 50km in total over the 2 days).

Had a good ride on the road bike this morning - 92.8km @ 29.2km/h.
The heavy traffic over the last 20km back into Reading from Basingstoke robbed me of a 30+ km/h average though .
Was quite pleased to average 28 km/h for the first 35k or so into Newbury over Greenham Common into quite a stiff wind - definitely getting stronger.

Paul G

[Huw Thomas]

Nice riding Huw =D> =D>
Let the weather get the better of me Saturday and Sunday so no riding
Did quite a bit of erging including a 60 min PB and 2 failed HM's(about 50km in total over the 2 days).

Had a good ride on the road bike this morning - 92.8km @ 29.2km/h.
The heavy traffic over the last 20km back into Reading from Basingstoke robbed me of a 30+ km/h average though .
Was quite pleased to average 28 km/h for the first 35k or so into Newbury over Greenham Common into quite a stiff wind - definitely getting stronger.

Paul G

Great riding Paul - and fast!!

Istarted today planning a hard session. - Loaded the stage 9 TDF Time trial into the tacx
There were several hills - a 17% at one stage which was horrible

Profile
Distance 40.74km
Time 1:34:13 (25.9 km/hr)
Cadence av 91 max 113
Watts av 157



Kept the workrate high - had to take on water at one point: TE 5.0 epoc 290



UT2 02 min
UT1 10 min
AT 39 min
TR 38 min
AN - under a minute! Phew!

[strider77]

Bradley would be proud Huw-keep it up =D>