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When do you start training?

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
I've taken a month off and my schedule begins Nov 1 to be ready for racing in mid-March. I'm really looking forward to four hour trainer sessions in December. Woot.

Anyone else have any winter training going on or goals? I think I'm gonna organize some local trainer parties. Hooray. :think:
 

ncrider

Turbo Monkey
Aug 15, 2004
1,564
0
Los Angeles
I'll be training for the first time. Same time period as you, but different discipline (DH). Haven't put everything together yet, but I have a personal trainer for strength and stretching and will mix road and xc for endurance.
 

GravityFreakTJ

leg shavin roadie
Jul 14, 2003
2,947
0
at a road race near you
I've taken a month off and my schedule begins Nov 1 to be ready for racing in mid-March. I'm really looking forward to four hour trainer sessions in December. Woot.

Anyone else have any winter training going on or goals? I think I'm gonna organize some local trainer parties. Hooray. :think:
Four hour trainer rides??? Um yeah no. I will start back Dec 1st. No way in h3ll am I doing 4 hrs on the trainer , and for that matter, why are you?
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Four hour trainer rides??? Um yeah no. I will start back Dec 1st. No way in h3ll am I doing 4 hrs on the trainer , and for that matter, why are you?
I subscribe to the Friel school of thought, lots of lame mellow long rides for the first couple of months. I think I only have 4-5 days like that, and I can split the time in half throughout the day, but yeah. Junkshow. I'm hoping for a mild winter so I can spend more time outside than in.
 
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-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
1hr on the trainer is enough to keep me off of it for the rest of the week.

Right now, in "training" mode for a 24hr in February. Not really going to have an off-season.
 

TreeSaw

Mama Monkey
Oct 30, 2003
17,669
1,847
Dancin' over rocks n' roots!
1hr on the trainer is enough to keep me off of it for the rest of the week.

Right now, in "training" mode for a 24hr in February. Not really going to have an off-season.
Unfortunately, I have to have long rides on the trainer in the winter months (too much snow, ice and cold in Upstate NY to do any long 24 hour training rides outside). I do take my mountain bike out on the trails when I can, but once the snow is too deep and isn't frozen enough not to sink in a foot, I have to hit the trainer or the rollers.

Trainer parties are a great idea. Have a plan too...I have a play list that I use for more intense shorter rides, for the longer spin rides (gotta log those saddle hours) I play Wii with my daughter, watch movies and try to mix it up as much as I can.

Also, if you're doing a 24hr. ride, make sure you are riding at any and all hours of the day and practicing your nutrition while you're training. There's nothing worse than training hard and not being able to perform because your stomach is off.
 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,860
4,154
Copenhagen, Denmark
Urghh just got back from a ride and my pulse was above 180 most of the time where its normally 168 - it think too little sleep and some red wine last night is to blame.

Last year they managed to keep the park snow free most of the winter so I was able to ride outside. I there will be times with too much snow I will just pretend its my off time and not ride at all :-)
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Urghh just got back from a ride and my pulse was above 180 most of the time where its normally 168 - it think too little sleep and some red wine last night is to blame.

Last year they managed to keep the park snow free most of the winter so I was able to ride outside. I there will be times with too much snow I will just pretend its my off time and not ride at all :-)
A night of drinking definitely fvcks up my HR for the next day.

I seriously wish I had the $$$ to drop on a nutritionist right now. Last year one of my bigger problems was eating the right stuff.

'tis nice to hear everyone else hates the trainer as much as I do.
 

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
1hr on the trainer is enough to keep me off of it for the rest of the week.

Right now, in "training" mode for a 24hr in February. Not really going to have an off-season.

Race season is a bit different in Texas.

The spring mtn bike season ends in May then restarts in September for the fall series.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
I won't be done racing till mid December. I started training late this year due to the new family addition. I'll probably start early Jan. with intentions of racing the mountain bike series this year.
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,155
355
Roanoke, VA
Right now it looks like I might have the time, money and motivation to start racing again. It's been nearly 6 years off from hi-level endurance racing and training.
I've managed to maintain a very high level of residual fitness but I have a bunch of core-strength work to do before I can really go hard again.

My only goal at the moment is winning Bump And Grind(xc race) down in Birmingham, AL. In June. I have a very strong 19 year old XC pro that I am sponsoring, and I feel like I need to show him not just how to train, but how to live the PRO lifestyle, as there aren't any MTB pro's he can shadow here, just tons of CX and road guys that only race XC for fun.

I was on track to win Bump and Grind s a JR. X a LONG time ago and got pimped by some kid I didn't know that I let pass when he said he was a Sport racer.

I know who he is, and he's been put on alert that I've got a 13 year old grudge to settle.

I started working hard on core-strength a few weeks ago, and after I sort out a bunch of crap at work I'll be able to start hitting the gym to do some bike specific strength stuff to make sure I say injury free. I'll do some dynamic olympic-style lifting as well to help gain back muscle mass as well.

Right now 2 weeks on the bike gets me to the point where I can battle for Cat3 crit wins and finish mid-pack in Cat1 XC races without having to breathe hard, but it will take at least 12 weeks of base training before I get anywhere near the mitochondrial density I need to have the recovery abilities to do hard efforts in training.

I'm going to be able to take 3 weeks to stay at my parents house down South in January- I've been commuting about 200 miles a week since August, but honestly, that's more out of being broke than needing to get fit, and I haven't been able to eat well enough to build fitness off of that riding, I'm actually pretty sure that it's harming my fitness more than anything.

As it get's colder and darker and I (hopefully) have more money in the bank I will be able to reduce my compulsory riding enough so that I can ride and have the money to eat enough to maintain a positive energy balance. I'm 5 pounds above my race weight as a 23 year old, but with age I am going to need to put on a bunch more muscle mass to make up for my reduced recovery time. My target has gone from 147 pounds with 4% body fat to 160 pounds and 8% body fat.

My body will catabolize muscle mass more rapidly now that I'm older, so I am going to need some extra muscle so that I don't get too light and risk depressing my immune system. The higher fat-stores should also help me stay healthy.

While I am in down in SC I will be able to get in higher volume with better recovery as I won't have to commute and I will be able to eat as much of my Mom's awesome food as I want. I'll put in two 18 hour weeks and then take the last week as an active recovery week. I want to learn how to play golf.

From there I will do a bunch of DH skiing (5 days a week) one longer ride and one tempo ride. The mountain is only 15 miles from work, and one of my team riders is a patroller, so I can dump my gear there. I hope to be able to get in morning sessions and then spin downhill back to work to open up my legs.

By mid March I will be cutting down the skiing and will start adding in a few rides in the 5-6 hour range. In April I'll start doing some training crits and training races in 1/2 where I'll focus almost exclusively on bridging gaps and leadouts (leg speed). Late April starts the BMX season here and I'll do gates on Wednesday to further work on leg speed.

May will see me transition into a pre-competitive phase that will see a week night training crit and some weekend road racing. I will also do race-simulation training on a road course that is very similar to the mtb track in Birmingham. A one week taper and an opening week should have me in pretty good form for the race. I'm a firm beleiver that riding mountainbikes is just about the worst thing that I can do for my XC racing abilities- MTB's slow down your leg speed, rough up your body and make it hard to recover.
I try to limit myself to 3 days of XC riding per month, usually one race, an opener the day before and one or two days of testing.

Over the course of this fall I'll hopefully be able to build a few prototype XC frames to get my position dialed in as close to my road bike as possible. The fall and winter are the most appropriate time to be on the MTB, as you can keep the intensity lower and you don't need to worry as much about recovery.

Once the race in Alabama is over my training schedule will dictate my road racing, but by June I will need to be back to full-time work mode.

I'll race a training crit during the week until Mid-July, take the rest of July off until Mid August. During that time I will hopefully be able to make a DH comeback with the intention of getting my Pro license back. That will entail 2 days of lift-access riding during the week w/ training crits thrown in.

I'll probably sit out CX season again next year to focus on race support.
For 2012 I'll start back to working on base work in November and will keep an eye on intensity since I will be carrying enough fitness to make it easy to do too much work.

I'll stay doing 4 week blocks of base until December and then race road and 'cross bikes for a few weeks in January and Feburary 2012 in Florida.

I'd like to have the form by mid 2012 to turn pro in XC, upon which I will promptly retire from bike racing again and just gun for a BMX title and race some DH again for fun(certainly no profit). All I know is that I owe it to myself to put in two full seasons of training to spend even a few months racing pro XC.

I set my long term goal in 1994 to make it to the Olympics in 2012 (at my endurance peak in my early 30's), and that sure as hell didn't happen. I was perma-cooked by 2002, but after loosing out on the rest of my 20's I want some closure and taking all of these years off from racing has gotten me nearly recovered from the severe cases of overtraining that added up to pretty serious nervous system imbalances.

I'm definitely not recovered yet from my back injury in 2003, and my nervous system and metabolism are still far from recovered from the overtraining bouts in 2003, 2001 and 1999.

My biggest challenge is fighting the electrical system in my body, but I'm more than smart enough to be able to conquer it. The struggle will be maintaining a lifestyle that supports training.
I don't want to finish mid-pack. I want to win and I won't accept anything less.

disclaimer-I used to coach professionally before I started the bike company, and I've been racing bikes for a long time. My plan isn't going to work for **** for most people.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Nice! I hear you on the nutrition thing. When I was a messenger I was riding 30 hours a week of high-intensity (spending most days in zone 3-zone 5 HR-wise) mashing, but it was like running in place owing to a lack of decent food. I'm still not able to get the protein I need right now owing to being broke, but hopefully on of the six job interviews this week pan out. Wish I could afford to snag one of your burly frames for winter riding. The current frame has no tire clearance at all, 25c tires are pushing it.

My 2011 plan, developed by my pseudo-coach and former Cat 1 female:

-Three four-week aerobic base blocks, topping at 22H a week on the bike in the third. Lame, mellow, long rides, mostly flat. Lots of everyday core work. Some speed and strength exercises on the bike.

-February begins to build towards racing in March. Still debating about my first race - there's a potential stage race in So. Utah, or maybe some NorCal stage racing to do with some crits thrown in.

-Current season goals are to gauge the water in my first Cat 3 race, though experience tells me that if I can stick to the training I'll be very strong. I'm hoping to bump to Cat 2 by summer (delusions of grandeur would be bumping to C1).

Of course, this is all dependent on financials. I can certainly live as a broke bike racer, but I won't be fast owing to lack of nutrition and the equipment hassles that come with a lack of funds. I'm still uncertain of my team situation for next year, though the likelihood of any sort of sponsorship beyond my current hookups is low. I'd be more interested in training partners through the winter, though it seems most around here (excluding some pros) either get distracted by winter sports, or hardly train at all in the winter. I'm understanding why all the bike racers live in CA, even though it's at sea level...
 
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SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,155
355
Roanoke, VA
If you are new to structured training I just can't emphasize enough just how important taking your recovery weeks seriously is. Stuff is periodized for a reason. Don't be macho.
 

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,860
4,154
Copenhagen, Denmark
Beans are not that expensive. I am sure you can put together a menu for cheap with all you need if you a smart about it and take the time to make the food.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
If you are new to structured training I just can't emphasize enough just how important taking your recovery weeks seriously is. Stuff is periodized for a reason. Don't be macho.
Definitely. Learned that the hard way last year. I started very late and was trying to hurry things along - skipped a couple of recovery weeks that my body and mind hated me for. Keeping from overtraining is key.

Beans are not that expensive. I am sure you can put together a menu for cheap with all you need if you a smart about it and take the time to make the food.
Hence the cupboard full of dried black beans ;). They're cheap, but not dense enough in protein for my caloric needs, as well as not being a complete protein. I really need a few huge bags of frozen chicken breast to throw on the BBQ. Cottage cheese is also rad, low-cal and loaded with animal protein.
 
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SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,155
355
Roanoke, VA
Beans are not that expensive. I am sure you can put together a menu for cheap with all you need if you a smart about it and take the time to make the food.

Being self employed in the bike biz is totally awesome, I swear. If it wasn't for our strong local food economy and copious amount of hippies and commies things would be damn hard over the winter!

Time sir, is money. Money is also money. I've been living off of $700 a month(when I can afford it) for the last three years, and that has to cover food, rent for home, electric, clothing etc, basically anything that can't be expensed through Spooky.
After covering the expenses I need to be domiciled there is only about $6 a day for food. That doesn't leave very much money for high-quality fats, leafy vegetables, readily absorb-able vitamins and clean proteins.

When I'm training I need about 2600 calories a day at the least and that's wicked hard on my budget!

I just traded a MTB frame for a side of beef last week, or so it looks like, and I've been getting eggs and chicken out the back door from a local farmer from the last 3 months.
We've got good supply of local greens and potatoes but it's really hard to get a consistent supply of high-quality fats and cholesterols that doesn't blow the budget. I just scored 2 gallons of Olive oil, and I'm beyond stoked on that!

This harvest I've manged to round up a bunch of squash and potatoes and greens will come in pretty well from the hydro farms this winter, but good fat is hard to find and we don't really have any local sources that produce useful fats, the closest being Emu oil, but that stuff sucks to cook with and I'm not really into swigging fat from flightless birds, know what I mean? The meat is darn good for ya though. Back bacon is in plentiful supply for cheap and there's a pig farm close by owned by bike riders, but it's nutritional profile isn't exactly ideal to use as a cooking fat, let alone an ingredient...

The one thing that really kills me is bread. There is so much good bread around here, but a quality loaf is in the neighborhood of $6 so it's a pretty rare commodity in my apartment and most of the bakeries are run by pretty lame silver-spoon kids who just don't get what Anarchism looks like in practice.


I feel so lucky to live in a part of the US that has a strong local-food economy, and I'm damn lucky to have enough skills of various types to earn myself food without capital exchange, that's for sure.

I've never once asked myself if living like this is worth it. Any way you slice it, the world is about to end as we know it, and I'm glad I'm getting a head start learning how to eat what we can grow in our communities and building relationships with the people who's food I eat.
Hell, I've watched the last 6 animals that I've eaten die in front of me.
-m
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Being self employed in the bike biz is totally awesome, I swear. If it wasn't for our strong local food economy and copious amount of hippies and commies things would be damn hard over the winter!

Time sir, is money. Money is also money. I've been living off of $700 a month(when I can afford it) for the last three years, and that has to cover food, rent for home, electric, clothing etc, basically anything that can't be expensed through Spooky.
After covering the expenses I need to be domiciled there is only about $6 a day for food. That doesn't leave very much money for high-quality fats, leafy vegetables, readily absorb-able vitamins and clean proteins.

When I'm training I need about 2600 calories a day at the least and that's wicked hard on my budget!

I just traded a MTB frame for a side of beef last week, or so it looks like, and I've been getting eggs and chicken out the back door from a local farmer from the last 3 months.
We've got good supply of local greens and potatoes but it's really hard to get a consistent supply of high-quality fats and cholesterols that doesn't blow the budget. I just scored 2 gallons of Olive oil, and I'm beyond stoked on that!

This harvest I've manged to round up a bunch of squash and potatoes and greens will come in pretty well from the hydro farms this winter, but good fat is hard to find and we don't really have any local sources that produce useful fats, the closest being Emu oil, but that stuff sucks to cook with and I'm not really into swigging fat from flightless birds, know what I mean? The meat is darn good for ya though. Back bacon is in plentiful supply for cheap and there's a pig farm close by owned by bike riders, but it's nutritional profile isn't exactly ideal to use as a cooking fat, let alone an ingredient...

The one thing that really kills me is bread. There is so much good bread around here, but a quality loaf is in the neighborhood of $6 so it's a pretty rare commodity in my apartment and most of the bakeries are run by pretty lame silver-spoon kids who just don't get what Anarchism looks like in practice.


I feel so lucky to live in a part of the US that has a strong local-food economy, and I'm damn lucky to have enough skills of various types to earn myself food without capital exchange, that's for sure.

I've never once asked myself if living like this is worth it. Any way you slice it, the world is about to end as we know it, and I'm glad I'm getting a head start learning how to eat what we can grow in our communities and building relationships with the people who's food I eat.
Hell, I've watched the last 6 animals that I've eaten die in front of me.
-m
Jesus, I'm jealous of your food access. In Santa Cruz when I was mess'ing I also worked at a bakery. It made life SUPER easy when it came to good bread. I also diligently gave away the gate code to local miscreants for access to the day-old bread bins, as well as fed the messenger company. Working the farmers markets gave me a steady supply of free fresh fruits and vegs, sometimes meat. Sadly, the food here isn't quite so easy to come by. I'm hoping my volunteering at the bike collective will help with access to some.

I wish I had a big enough backyard to raise chickens. Having a constant supply of eggs would be fantastic.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
The nice thing about living in farming areas is the access to food. Our Saturday market is full of lots of cheap fruits and vegetables. I don't have the money woes that SuspectDevice does though. I'm impressed you can live on $700 a month.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Unfortunately yes - I have tried to be very structured and even with kids and work I do get a good amount of training but of course nothing like SD mentioned.
Yeah - no spawn here, so I get off easy :D

The more regimented my training gets, the more other things in life seem to work more smoothly...it's an interesting phenomenon.
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,155
355
Roanoke, VA
Unfortunately yes - I have tried to be very structured and even with kids and work I do get a good amount of training but of course nothing like SD mentioned.
I assure you, I probably get to ride far less than any of you guys who post here over the last 4 years. It's hard to consider commuting real bike riding, even if it is up and down some of the very best roads in the whole country!




(pictures by Miliman for Rapha)

I take no pleasure in commuting, only satisfaction.

Before August I hadn't ridden more than an hour and a half since March, hell I didn't even have enough parts to build up anything other than my BMX bike!

When you are depressed and broke bike riding can feel like a real struggle.
Having the best riding in the country at your finger tips, or better yet riding straight through it every day without having the freedom to leave the beaten path is a bitch.
Bicycling blueballs aren't worth it to me any more man, so it's a real bummer to look in the shop window too much, so to speak, and my mind has tricked me into believing that if I'm not going as fast as I used to that I suck and that it's "just not worth it" to go riding just for fun, ****s and giggles.

I spent the first half of the year snapping my bmx bike into corners in flat dirt parking lots, slap-chopping the hell out of things making big ruts dust storms and skid marks. It was cathartic. Sprinting through the streets and launching curbs as made me realize that if I'm can get stoked I can find pleasure in unknown places. No bike is too small, the riding is just too big, at least when it comes to riding on the edge. College kids on 12" wheels is firm proof of that.

Before I knew it I was comfortable enough on the bmx bike to shred around town for an hour and a half or so full-tilt boogie, sweat flying and head pounding-straight up F***ing roosting through the corners, S**t man I was two wheel drifting corners and scraping my pedals through corners at 20...
A real F***ing hoot and a half and all of a sudden i'd rediscovered bike riding.
I was good at something new, another sick discipline of bike riding.

All I had to do was realize that I was riding Bicycle Motocross. Tricks and jumps ain't **** if you don't have that sweet roost, that all bicycles really are the same.

It's all from the hips, the center of the body, Newton said so, physical mass projection, completely subliminal.
I spent hours carving on flat ground, driving my hand down into the ground, following through with my hips and snapping my chest around to bring it all back over.
Bicycle longboarding, or some **** like that.
Hardcore locomotion of a new type, hot-dog I was stoked.

Shredding, Carving, Roosting and Railing all rolled up into one, with the bald tires to prove it. All killer, no filler, 100% Stoked. Sweet lord hallelujah.

Coming home from a ride on the street with gravel in your front pocket sweat-soaked and stoked brought back some of those old feelings of "really" being a bike rider. The ability to find pleasure in the mundane, as scaled by wheel size and contact patch, riding flat out on any tool you are given isn't a skill as much as it is a way of thinking.

Confidence isn't the right word, and neither is ability. It's the perfect balance between challenge and skill, or as sports psychology calls it, "flow".

Being a bike rider, a real one, a pro, is a sacrifice. Bikes are too wicked a creature to be mastered by anyone less than a demi-god. Sports writers talk about "heroic efforts" and it's true, real Pros are ****ing heroes, big hulking men like Achilles with hollow hearts and brutal tendencies. Dudes who lash and flay and smash and stultify the minds and wills of the men they face. I'm not and never will be one of those guys, so I have to work harder to stop being a pussy.

The "Professional" title doesn't just apply to salaried dudes with sunglass tans, it applies to those who perpetually seek flow, and that pretty much necessitates a specific lifestlye, one that elevates the sensations you get when riding to the top of the priority list. It's a life of comfort and privlidge, no doubt.
Once, I was on the cusp. I could taste the blood and believed in the glory of all the suffering.
The blood turned into bile and I turned bitter, yet I remained a true believer in the heroism of heros.

I now see myself as a hobbyist, and amateur, a doppelganger passing in the wind, not the "almost-one" anymore and not the "never-was" my self talk has often implied.
I'm hoping just to be the guy who is pretty good at riding bikes, is stoked and likes to shred.

I won't be at all surprised if I manage to find some courage, I'll find more success than I've yet seen as a racer.
I still haven't found the steel reserve to force the shoes on to my feet and go out and roost like I'm supposed to.

This is why they call the overlap of Heroic and Enthusiastic sensations as being "stoked". You need to build the fire constantly until the steam moves the shaft with enough force to overcome friction, and the more stoked you get, the faster you can go.

So, um, yeah. I've got to go get stoked to get stoked to get stoked now.

I'm going to try to eat my vegetables and look for gravel parking lots to roost in to stay sharp enough to slay a giant.

-m
 
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Transcending to a new identity.

Anyway, training plan is in full swing. Mondays are my day off. The trainer/improved diet/solid rad employment) has caused the loss of 10 lbs/a fat infant (6'0 and 165 at the end of Sept and the season, down to between 155-157 as of now), as well as feelings of being powered by a Saturn V rocket at low revs on climbs. Smack dab in the middle of base...Build begins in February. Gonna rip some legs off come March. Stoked.

Picked up a metric ****ton of PI winter gear, and some Zipp 300 krabon standard cranks the other day. Glad to be rid of the compacts, the 53t is my baby. Next inconsequential improvement is some self-built aluminum tubulars wrapped in Conti Sprinter Gatorskins, standard drop bars (thinking TTT Rotunda), and an 11cm -10 degree stem. Trying to get my name on the list for a Skeletor (hear that, Mickey?), much as I wish I could afford one of the new Spooky Zona steel frames for winter training/commuting as well. Riding to race, train, and commute on the same bike is hard on stuff.

Beginning to think I was meant to be Belgian. Riding in snow is a joy. HTFU has become life motto, and a freakish definition of happiness.
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,155
355
Roanoke, VA
I just built myself a training bike for the winter- I probably will just leave it unpainted and wipe it down with WD40 after every ride, as you need to wash bikes after every ride in the winter anyway if you want to be PRO. As soon as I finished cabling it up It started snowing- so I'll wait to cut the steer tube (and stick on a -17 instead of the -10) on Saturday morning. I made the bike with smaller OD tubes to make it feel a little zippier when I'm doing tempo work. I basically built it for my weight right now (142) instead of what my race weight will be this season(~157-162). I went with heavier tube walls than normal too so I can ride it as recklessly as my aluminum bikes.
I also threw on a pump peg, chain hanger and higher bottle cages for a quick reach to the bottles. I like steel bikes, but not when the get too light or too stiff. Light steel bikes are ****ing scary man.



Getting to put in 12 hour weeks on a brand new custom bike that I built for myself just to ride for 4 months is probably the one job "perk" I'll get all year. While I'm down there I should be able to build up a proto of one of our new stock steel race bikes.

I'm leaving on Friday to head down to South Carolina for four weeks of base training in dry relatively warm weather. I've been on my ass for about a month now and I miraculously need to put on 20 pounds over the next 2 months.
The base work will have a bunch of strength work mixed in, both to ward off injury and also to build up some muscle mass that I catabolize as the season progresses.
Since I'll be at my parents house I'll be able to eat insane amounts of healthy food. I'm going to shoot for 3k calories a day to begin with, including 300 calories an hour on the bike.
My primary training goal for this period is general pre-season preperation.
I've always trained too hard in the winter and ended up burning out fairly early into the summer. With a few years off from training I'm going to assume that my form will take longer to come around- and I think that might be a good thing.
 

SteezyWeezy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2006
2,436
1
portland, oregon
low-cal and loaded with animal protein.
soy is a perfect protien and meat free :rolleyes:

this winter will be my first year of "structured" training. was planning on a mix of interval training and long 3+ hours endurance sessions. now learning i might benefit more from base miles and learning to control my breathing rather than hardcore interval trainings and trying to work on vo2. any input? training for xc mountain biking mostly, but after the spring i race short tracks and cx in the fall.
 
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-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
1 week after getting on new diet, I catch a nasty cold. Not sure if Mickey could tell in my voice yesterday, but I felt like dying. Not really. Just felt ****ty...sinus infection, I guess. From what others have told me. Never have actually been dx'ed with one.

Anyway, I've introduced a Computrainer into my training for when I need a shorter, higher intensity ride (but not intervals)...aka, climbing. The cold has really been getting to me...not sure if that was the onset of the sinus issues, or what. Sustained 15mph winds plus temps in the 30s and 40s is apparently my weakness. Actually, it's the rides that start in the high 30s and end in the high 50s to 60s that are killers.

This || close to buying an SRM for my SI cranks. But probably shouldn't since I just purchased a new cross frame.
 
soy is a perfect protien and meat free :rolleyes:
No, and it's also calorie dense. In order to meet protein/caloric needs as a vegetarian I'd need to spend a lot of dough on supplements and powders. Balancing a veg diet with a small budget and lots of time constraints is another stress not really needed. If I were shooting for solid Cat 3 status, it'd be a consideration...but I'm not.

Anywho, 4 hours pounded out on the trainer. Surprisingly mellow...Einstein and Religion is a good read.

Speaking of SRMs Dustin, a training buddy has a few sets of 7800s he's trying to unload...really contemplating snagging a set, but I just got some new Zipp 300s that I'm really liking. Decisions, decisions. Definitely leaning towards the SRM setup over a PowerTap - really like not having to swap wheels out and deal with that crap.
 

SteezyWeezy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2006
2,436
1
portland, oregon
No, and it's also calorie dense. In order to meet protein/caloric needs as a vegetarian I'd need to spend a lot of dough on supplements and powders. Balancing a veg diet with a small budget and lots of time constraints is another stress not really needed. If I were shooting for solid Cat 3 status, it'd be a consideration...but I'm not.
most people find being a veg cheaper... and if it's "calorie dense" then wouldn't it be easier to meet caloric needs with soy? when looked at in its entirety, soy protein isolate is equal in terms of quality as the best whey and milk protein isolates, maybe you need to reevaluate.

what sort of supplements do you find necessary when not eating meating compared to eating meat? just curious...
 
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golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
I haven't stopped... and wont unless it gets too cold to ride. But I have taken the intensity and the volume down a couple of notches since the season ended. I'm also taking 1-2 days off a week. During the race season I only take 1 day off a every 2 weeks and half the time they are rolling recovery days.

I might take a couple of weeks off when it gets REALLY cold, but even then I'll be hitting the trainer. I hope to have 3 months of hard training before my first race of next year (May).
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,155
355
Roanoke, VA
During the race season I only take 1 day off a every 2 weeks and half the time they are rolling recovery days.
You need to include lots more rest into your program dude. You will be a hell of a lot faster if you let your body recover, unequivocally so.

If you are training and racing hard you should probably be taking 2 recovery days a week during peak season. I'd recommend a recovery week every third week as well, especially between big blocks of base. 1.5 to 2 hour rides that are easy as hell except for brief times riding at a pace where your sentences are kept short in a conversation do amazing things for recovery.

Don't **** up your body via over-training. I assure you, it is an experience you will not want. You can't get faster if you can't fully recover from the work you do. Simple newtonian physics really...
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
You need to include lots more rest into your program dude. You will be a hell of a lot faster if you let your body recover, unequivocally so.

If you are training and racing hard you should probably be taking 2 recovery days a week during peak season. I'd recommend a recovery week every third week as well, especially between big blocks of base. 1.5 to 2 hour rides that are easy as hell except for brief times riding at a pace where your sentences are kept short in a conversation do amazing things for recovery.

Don't **** up your body via over-training. I assure you, it is an experience you will not want. You can't get faster if you can't fully recover from the work you do. Simple newtonian physics really...
:stupid:

I train 15-20hrs a week, but it's over a 4 day period. Rest is as important as riding.
 

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
most people find being a veg cheaper... and if it's "calorie dense" then wouldn't it be easier to meet caloric needs with soy? when looked at in its entirety, soy protein isolate is equal in terms of quality as the best whey and milk protein isolates, maybe you need to reevaluate.

what sort of supplements do you find necessary when not eating meating compared to eating meat? just curious...
Google "soy estrogen", and also "soy GMO"...while I eat some soy and eat meat once a week max, I still don't think that soy is a particularly good replacement for all of the protein you need. Also, some people's bodies just can't really tolerate a vegetarian diet too well - if I'm not mistaken there are certain B vitamins in red meat that you just can't really get elsewhere, as well as lots of iron. I'm no expert on this subject but I don't think that soy is the answer to nutrition.
 

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
You need to include lots more rest into your program dude. You will be a hell of a lot faster if you let your body recover, unequivocally so.

If you are training and racing hard you should probably be taking 2 recovery days a week during peak season. I'd recommend a recovery week every third week as well, especially between big blocks of base. 1.5 to 2 hour rides that are easy as hell except for brief times riding at a pace where your sentences are kept short in a conversation do amazing things for recovery.

Don't **** up your body via over-training. I assure you, it is an experience you will not want. You can't get faster if you can't fully recover from the work you do. Simple newtonian physics really...
I don't train balls out all week. I follow a 2 week cycle until I get near a race... then I drop most high intensity stuff, and cut the interval training into very short workouts.

(1) Large volume low intensity
(2) Large volume with some long efforts
(3) Low intensity mixed with intervals/hill climbs
(4) Fun day... whatever I feel.
(5) Test day... timed runs... max effort.
(6) Low intensity spinning
(7) Day off

The next week is basically the same except the day off is a spinning day and test day is replaced with a high, but not max effort day.

Everyone's body is different... what works for you may not work for me, and vica versa. I'm definitely not new to training. I was once a national caliber swimmer. 15 years of that and I learned what my body liked and didn't like.

Many guys that I trained with did well with lots of rest, 15-18 hours in the pool per week and 6 hours of strengths... for some reason I performed better with 24+ hours a week in the water and 6 hours of strength. My body like to be pushed I guess. Also some guys did really well with short tapering periods, 1+ weeks of prep. I always required huge 3-4 week strictly planned out tapering periods to hit my peak.

I'm older now and some things have changed, but I do notice that I still do better with less rest, yet a longer taper period immediately before a race.
 
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RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
"When you are depressed and broke bike riding can feel like a real struggle."

Amen Mickey! I know exactly how you feel. It has been 50's and 60's here in Denver, and since moving here I have only biked about 3 times due to both.