Cycling UK Forum

That is so ugly. And what's going on with the saddle?

Many thanks everyone.

I will go back to the cardiologist, but probably not for a few months - I think I'll give myself the opportunity to experiment and get fitter first. I am certain he was being pretty conservative and interestingly he did use the 220 minus formula, so if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me.

Lots of moving parts in this though - my HR is much higher in the cold anyway.

There's some black ice on the roads around here, so I'm off to set up the turbo. GRRR!

Hi all, and apologies in advance for the essay.

I was off the bike for a few months while a heart condition was investigated. Turns out that it was much better than initially suspected - I have a mild case of genetic HCM, which will need monitoring but no other treatment other than a low dose of tablets to keep my slightly raised BP in check.

My cardiologist, a cyclist himself, is happy for me to keep riding. When I asked if there should be any restrictions, he scratched his chin and said no racing (I don't) and to keep my HR below 150. After the initial euphoria, I realised that there could be a catch, and so it has proved. I'm a natural 90+ KG and I am struggling to keep my HR to 150 going uphill. On the flat it seems fine and it's OKish going up modest gradients, but if the road gets slightly steep, I am at sub walking pace which is incredibly frustrating when the legs are capable of a lot more.

I’m a classic MAMIL – 46, ride at weekends, turbo in the week and do 2 or 3 sportives p.a. I'm really after some training tips to help get me back to where I was. My own thoughts / observations:

1. The 150 felt like a pretty arbitrary figure, albeit borne from years of experience. I won't stress too much if I'm at 155 for a couple of mins, but will fundamentally stick to the 150.

2. I have some basic fitness to recover from the months off so that will help. To what degree I have no idea, but I was able to do some lightish turbo stuff during that period.

3. Lose some weight. I will try to drop a few kilos, but I really am at my normal fighting weight. I'm a natural 90KG, not an overweight 70KG merchant

4. I am going to have to be patient and climb a lot of hills. Slowly.

5. I'm much more of a masher and the evidence so far seems to prove the adage that spinning raises the HR much quicker. So, when using the turbo, should my emphasis be on improving my mashing power so that I can ride further up hills in a higher gear, or should it be more towards addressing the real weakness of high cadence / high HR stuff? My unscientific thoughts are both - initially concentrate on the mashing, and as that levels off introduce more of the cadence work, intervals etc.

6. For those that know the Surrey Hills, I used to ride Box Hill on something like 50-25 while I'll puff and pant my way up Whitedown in my lowest 34-28. Dread to think what the HR was for the latter!

7. Half the fun of riding is tackling the hills, so I am prepared to do pretty much what it takes.

Any help will be appreciated.

BOAB

Paul, good luck with your venture. But please don't underestimate how hard many regular cyclists would find 9 days.

As you mentioned your weight I hope you don't mind me picking up on it. Could be a statement of the blinking obvious, but it's most likely to be a factor when the road heads upwards....Cornwall, Devon, Lake District & much of Scotland. Getting the miles in is good advice, but 100 miles through the flat Midlands is one thing, 50 through undulating Cornwall quite another. So I'd suggest hill training should be a central theme in your training as they have a nasty habit of appearing 70 miles into the day when you're tired, wet and fed up. You're in for a miserable time if you can't cope with those. You can tailor your route to limit climbing, but that adds miles and whichever way you go you can't avoid the hills completely. I'd also get out as much as possible over the winter, because almost certainly at some point you'll find yourself battling headwinds and rain.

You do ride yourself fit but you need to have the right base for that to happen, any kilos you can shed beforehand really will pay dividends. The good news is that during the trip itself you'll be burning so many calories that you'll be scoffing continually to keep fuelled! Or was that just me?

Hope this doesn't sound too negative, it's not meant to be. You can do it, but might need to be quite disciplined and focussed in your training. Other fitness work off the bike will also help, mainly in breaking up the monotony of hours in the saddle.

Bikewise, comfort should be your no 1,2 and 3 priority, but 9 days or so is fast so something road or CX based sounds sensible. One last word, please get your position on the bike properly sorted out (thinking especially of knee issues) well before you leave. The only pain you should ever feel on the bike is burning thighs.

Good point about the mental aspect thirdcrank.

At some point most end to enders will suffer a rough patch that tests their resolve. I developed a mantra of "Keep the pedals turning" (quite often with added asterisks!) to get me through. Seemed to work.

Sounds like you're fit but not fully cycling fit yet, which will only come with hours in the saddle. Others are right that you may well have bonked on this occasion - that's easily resolved by sorting out your food/ fluid intakes.

Wind is the cyclist's worst climatic enemy. Your 40 miles may well be the equivalent of 60 in benign conditions. But parts of your JOGLE (generally anywhere north of Carlisle) will be in less than ideal conditions so be prepared for it.

Don't be too alarmed by what's just happened to you but please don't under estimate what you've signed up for either - 8 days is a very ambitious target, do-able but not without a lot of miles in the legs. Once you've established your base cycling fitness a bit more, regular 5 or 10 mile increments should be perfectly realistic, just not on every single ride. From my own experience it won't be too many months before you'll be able to do your first century. BUT you need to string 8 of those together back to back and that's the tough bit. Training hard 2,3,4 days in a row will help you immensely as will some painful hill work so that you're not fazed by the road heading upwards after 90 miles on the fifth day when it's raining.

Any form of fitness will help you, but maybe substitute some gym sessions for spinning classes.

Good luck!

Sounds like you're looking at 80 / 90 miles per day. As far as your time allows:

1. Promise your wife a decent holiday when it's all over, but in the meantime explain that you've got some serious training to do....

2. Ride on consecutive days. Riding with fatigue in your legs, as you will be, is very different to riding a sportive with a week to recover before your next ride. This is probably the single most important thing and the more of that you can do the better, especially in the month or so before you leave. It may also get you divorced, but you'll be in for a miserable trip if you can't string back to back days together.

If you are really struggling with road time you can extend this principle to the rollers. But remember you'll be riding 7/8 hours per day on the trip, not just blasting for an hour.

3. Find the biggest hills in your area and make a point of tackling them, particularly when tired. You can cram a lot of hill work in to an hour.

4. Do a couple of rides a fair bit longer than your intended daily mileage. If you'll be doing 80/90 miles a day, it'll give you great confidence to know that you can actually ride 20 miles further than that if needs be. I know this doesn't exactly fit in with time starved, but it's just lengthening your Sundays a smidge. See 1.

5. Ride in the wet and the wind. It's hard, but benefical. You'll encounter some bad weather somewhere along the way - be ready for it.

6. All fitness is good, and mixing it up will stop you getting bored. However there's no substitute for hours on your bike and miles in your legs. Find any excuse you can to get out there.

Good luck!

Hi all,

Looking for a new set of wheels for my Madone. Veering towards hand builts but still looking at some factory options, in particular Campy and Fulcrum. The ones I'm considering have Shimano freehub options that would be compatible with my 105 set up, and my question is simply whether or not these would still have the typical loud Campy clicking noise which I dislike (yes, I know I'm a heathen.......and a not very technically adept one at that).

The web has just confused me and I'm sure that people here will be able to tell me what I want to know in words of one syllable!

Cheers

I've run an Edge 500 for a while which always gave me consistent distance readings.

I've now paired it with a duotrap and the distances are slightly longer. I think the duotrap distance is automatically recorded in preference to the GPS reading - and before you ask the correct wheel circumference was loaded into the Edge at outset.

I rode a course a couple of weeks ago which has always been recorded around 26.2 miles which is consistent with the Bike Route Toaster measurement. With the duotrap it came in at 26.6 - I drove it today and that also gave 26.6.

Yesterday I rode a course that was recorded at 51.4; pre duotrap it was always 50.8 which is the BRT measurement. Today I rode a course that was 27.9 pre duotrap; today it was 28.2 which agrees with BRT!

Easily done, but I'm confused.....these aren't material discrepancies, but they're irritatingly big enough. What should I believe?

Going slightly off topic that flipping bridge was the scariest part of my LEJOG. Chucking it down, blowing a gale, freezing cold (or August as they call it north of the border....) I rode the first few yards but the bridge has quite low sides and it was a complete no brainer to get off and walk.

The Forth Road Bridge was a complete piece of cake in comparison. Once I actually found my way on to it that is!

andrewwoods wrote:My wife can accompany me on some rides, and the last 10 miles into JO'G

Andrew, this comment caught my eye even though it's nothing to do with your actual question. I'm not sure whether you mean that your wife would join you on training rides or during the actual trip. Nonetheless...

May sound overly sentimental, but I found the roll in from Wick to JOG to be a very personal experience, just knowing that after all those miles, all the training and all the planning that I had done it. Near the end you'll have conflicting emotions of pride yet sadness that it is all over and I took those last few miles pretty slowly, savouring my personal thoughts and reflecting on some of the incidents along the way - there will be plenty! I would not have wanted to ride across the finish line with anyone who had not peddled every single yard alongside me. I rode solo, but Mrs BOAB supported me all the way and was at JOG to welcome me.....that suited us, but then again, she's not a cyclist!

But that's just me & you may see it differently. It's a long way off and seemingly a minor point, but might just be worth a few moments thought. I really wouldn't have changed that last hour and a half for anything.

Good luck!

Thanks all. I'll be in Liverpool on business in November & will pop in to Dolan to have a look at the bikes then. Had a couple of very helpful & prompt email exchanges with them already - instinctively they feel like people I'd like to do business with.

The new Tuono SL looks stunning, but I'm not quite sure if the budget will stretch to the spec I want. I would need to be very nice to Mrs Bearonabike to be in with shout of that!

rickwiggans - have you any pics of your Hercules SL? I've only seen marketing pics & can't make up my mind what I think about it.....I'd be interested in some "real" pics. With regard to your wife's Mythos, how prominent is the carbon weave pattern? In some pics it looks overwhelming, in others virtually invisible - what's the reality?

Many thanks.

Fair point, but I was really getting at how our actions affect our relationship with drivers. As for my pavement usage, it's much more occasional than my post suggested. Only ever for short stretches at low speed if the path is clear.

Yesterday I was in a queue at a red light when another rider ignored it completely & sailed straight through. Due to the road layout, it was reasonably safe to do, but surely it's that kind of blatant disregard for the rules of the road that turns car drivers against us? I instinctively thought "pillock", caught up with the guy (a few years past MAMIL) and told him that the lights are for us too.

Now I'm not totally averse to diving onto the pavement to avoid roadworks etc, but overall I take the view that I have to share the road with cars & that I'll come off worse if i have an argument with one. I'll acknowledge a driver who holds back & overtakes me safely and wave them through when I can see the road is clear for them. Sometimes if the road is narrow I'll pull in to let them overtake.

Am I being sensible or prissy?

Hi all,

Considering one of these as my new steed, but comparatively few reviews out there.

Has anyone got any experience or opinions on them?

I'm looking at either the Mythos or more probably the Hercules SE, which I think is a lovely looking bit of kit.

Any comments welcome

Thanks