YeaWhatever's cycling thread

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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:29 pm

As many of you know already, when I am not sending lads on safari, or otherwise being a pain in the ass, I compete in a number of sports. One of them is ultra-marathon cycling. This coming Fall, there is a 500 mile race that I plan on being in. A number of fellow baiters have expressed an interest in my training leading up to the race. This thread, inspired by Scam Patroller's biking thread, will serve as my training blog for this year.

My ultimate goal in cycling is not to be in the 500 mile race. This race is merely a stepping stone for my real goal, to compete in the <a href="http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/" target="_blank">Race Across America (RAAM)</a>. But to get into RAAM, you need to qualify first. The race this Fall is a RAAM qualifier.

The 500 mile race is one of four different races that are all taking place at the same location. During the 500 mile race, there is also a 6, 12 and 24 hour race. The folks in those races are trying to log as many miles as possible in the allotted time. The staggered start times for the other races inject new riders onto the course at 6 or 12 hour intervals.

I had heard of RAAM many years ago but never gave it any real serious consideration until June of 2007, when I met another cyclist who had actually competed in and finished the 3,200 mile race. The one thing that really struck me about this guy was that he seemed to possess a mental toughness that I had rarely seen in anyone else. Physically, he did not seem like anything out of the ordinary. In fact, he actually looked like someone the might only rarely get on a bike. Being the massively competitive person that I am, I immediately thought that if this guy could do it, why couldn?t I?

Training

I have never done a 500 bike race before. I knew full well that it was going to take some serious time and focus to prepare for it. I wasted no time starting. On July 1, 2007, I started training for the 500 mile race. I figured that 14 months of prep time would be enough to get ready.

I started riding my bike to work. If there was any sort of errand that I needed to run, I would take my bike. If I got a free minute anywhere, I would take the time to ride. Then, of course, I had my planned workout time as well. In July of 2007, I logged nearly 600 miles. Not a bad start, but nowhere near the type of mileage that I would need to work myself up to. Most ultra-marathon cyclists will ride a minimum of 300 to 400 miles per week. I was only doing half that distance.

Finding the extra time to ride was, and still is, my biggest problem. I am a 42 year old father of 4. My youngest is only 6 years old. I have a full time job as a software engineer, I am a competitive swimmer, swim coach and of course, I have other interests like scambaiting. The crappy Midwest winter does help matters either. We got the second highest snowfall on record this year so I have been forced to spend a huge amount of time on my trainer and in the weight room.

To be prepared for September, I am obviously going to have to make some sacrifices. I plan on cutting down my swimming to only two days a week. I will also cut back on how much I am coaching. This should free up just enough time to get at least 300 miles per week in.

Equipment

To help in my training, I have a Garmin Forerunner 305 with a built in heart rate monitor. The cool thing about the Forerunner is the reports that it spits out. For any given ride, it will chart out in extreme detail my speed, heart rate, elevation, the grade or road I am on, my exact location, as well as a few other neat pieces of information.

It will also calculate your average speed, not only on your most recent ride, but on all of them combined. With these reports, you can see where your strengths and weaknesses are really quick. These reports can be viewed with Garmin's free software. You can download it <a href="http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=835" target="_blank">here</a> if you are interested. On occasion, I will post the report files and you will be able to view them the same way that I see them through Garmin?s software.

My bike is nothing fancy. It?s a Specialized Allez. I have made several tweaks to the various components to achieve the highest level of comfort that is possible for an all aluminum frame.

As my rides get longer and longer, I am still discovering things that need to be addressed. For instance, my saddle needs to be replaced. Its fine for rides less than 6 hours long, but anything more, and it becomes impossibly uncomfortable. I am also going to be adding some padding to the handle bars. After more than 4-5 hours, my hands are starting to fall asleep.

Workouts
As I train, I will try to keep my workouts posted. I have not decide the format in which I will do it yet, but I like the simplicity of Scam Patroller's format. Maybe I will do something along those lines.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:45 pm

Well, if you get bored after the race, feel free to come vist us Texan folk out west! (most importantly me!)

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:52 pm

Is the New Hope church something fellow baiters have set up to encourage you to keep going lap after lap? Every time you pass doing a handstand you get a number. After 10 laps put them together in the correct order and you get your water bottle refilled.

I look forward to seeing your progress. It's amzing what we can achieve when we put our minds to it. I think you hit it right on the nail when you mention that guys mental toughness.

Can you ride to work? Or do cars in your neck of the woods hunt for cyclists?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

This is great YW! Very ambitious. I will definitely keep track of your progress. Good luck with this! Very Happy

*** BANNED *** Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 2021

You're a braver man than me mate, that's some serious punishment, all the best from me Very Happy

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:06 pm

That is awesome - are you sure some of your lads aren't sending you on a 500 mile safari for revenge? But seriously - keep us posted on how things go!

I think that if the weather is good I'll ride my bike up there to cheer for you:

edit: Cleburne is strictly drive-through country for me, that part of Texas just makes drives longer. (Apologies in advance to anyone who lives there.) Are you planning on doing any training in Texas? Even in late Sept., it's darn hot. I don't know much about Cleburne, but the Austin area would make a brutal training ground.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 1043

You seem to have a pretty clear view on what kind of training and determination you'll need which is very good and i'm sure doing this will only help in any endeavours you plan in the future.

I'm not sure if this is old hat to you. I'm quite sure you know more about saddles than me, but i remember a mod from a while ago. Basically, you cut out the middle of your seat. Nothing fancy, just a hole.
It means that when you get tired and don't put quite so much weight on our legs, the soft tissue between your sit bones won't get squashed and hurt.

A well fitting saddle will probably do this too, but i thought i'd throw the info out there.

Note, i tried posting this earlier, but i think it got lost after i clicked submit, so if i've posted the same thing twice please delete the first one.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Nice on YW, I'll be keeping a close eye on your progress as you go along, see if you can keep up with me, mate Laughing

Nice bike you got there, Specialized also make a great range of mountain bikes, they are a very good name in biking.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:33 pm

Very impressive. I never made it past 100 miles, but I have fond memories of those days. I recently sold my racing bike at a garage sale for $100. Sad

In the plus column, my house is a tiny bit larger now that it's gone. Very Happy

It will be fun to follow this thread. I hope you don't mind my living through you for a bit.

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:35 pm

@YW !

Are ypu sure this is not SP and Jojo sending you on safari? Smile

All the best with your training and final.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 26 Mar 2005 Posts: 1267

Quote:

The crappy Wisconsin winter does help matters either. We got the second highest snowfall on record this year so I have been forced to spend a huge amount of time on my trainer and in the weight room.

For us (and probably you), we actually got the highest record (aka we beat all the other records) of snow. If I'm wrong, I would love to be corrected on this because I've heard that we broke the record in early feb (or late jan).

Anyways, since you're from Wis, as am I.. we have one thing in common! I actually use to ride my bike for far distances when I was younger (50 miles in one day was considered huge for me) and I had huge leg muscles, which I've lost Laughing

.

Good luck! even though snow is in the forecast for tonight (but mid 40's tomorrow)

Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:33 pm

In case you get one of these give me a holler, I don't live to far from Cleburne. I can at least bring you a cold one. beers!

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:11 am

Good luck with the training, man. I'll be watching this one.

Trophy Videos · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:27 am

Good luck with the training and the race. I hope you qualify! Very Happy

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:39 am

As I mentioned ealier, the weather here in the Midwest has totally sucked since about November. It still sucks. Tons of snow everywhere and more is on the way. As a result, I have been spending a lot of time on my trainer.

Let me just say that riding on a trainer is about the most boring thing you can do. I try to pass the time by watching movies or listening to really loud music but that strategy only lasts for so long. After about 2 hours, you want to stop, not because you are tired, but because you are bored half to death.

Tonight was no excpetion. I rode for 2 hours. I watched Platoon during my ride. Since I have seen that movie several times, it did not have the distracting effect that I was hoping that it would have.

It is said that one hour on a trainer is the equivelant of an hour and a half on the road. When you are on the road, there are hills to go down and occasional stops that you have to make. On a trainer, there is no reason to slow down. I kept my heart rate at or above 145 for the entire two hours. I consider that sort of a recovery ride. Tomorrow I will do my sprint workout. During that workout, my heart rate will peak near 180 bpm. I will also swim tomorrow as part of my cross training. According to the heart rate monitor, I burned 1700+ calories during my two hour ride.

Time for bed.

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:46 am

I find that during "bike on trainer in the kitchen time of year" I surf over to cycling.tv on my laptop. In the free section I can pull up a leg of a recent race and ride it with the peloton.

I will be watching your training thread. RAAM would be awesome.

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:18 am

Yeah, another bike thread. I love your bike computer. Much higher tech than my $8.87 Schwinn computer. I reset the odometer on 1 January of this year and have ridden 958 miles since. Mostly at night. My first wireless computer for this bike lasted 15 days. I got the bike on 1 October and replaced the handlebar tape today. I wore it out. I can hardly wait for the weather to get nice so that I can ride more.

A few mods for night riding. The light on the left is a Task Force pushing about 170 lumens through a great internal optic. I have it mounted with a Cateye quick release. It runs 5 hours with two "C" batteries but I am running Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable AAs to be as Green as possible. As a comparison a 2 D Maglite puts out 36 lumens and has a plastic reflector.
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/771315/

The barely visible light on the right is a C-3 with a Cree Q5 LED. I can run it with either two AAs or one AA but I am using a 16500 rechargeable Lithium battery. It puts out 225 lumens in a broad beam and at a touch of the tail switch, it goes to a flashing mode that can be seen a mile away during the day. I've had cops stop me. Mounted to the steerer tube and above the top tube is my "Bento Box". Its designed to hold two Cliff Bars but I keep one bar, two jell packs and spare batteries in it. Works well. I'll post up my helmet lights when I can. When I have everything lit, I have 655 lumens in front of me. Actually much more as I pack ride and some guys and girls put out more.

Baiting Guru Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 2922

Good Luck YW!!! Smile

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Don't forget a gun. If you enter Texas you are required to have a gun or they turn you away at the border. You'll want something light obviously, but with stopping power. Perhaps a SIG-Sauer SP2340 polymer frame which you can get in .357.

Good luck.

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:50 pm

I just finished my first of two sprint workouts for the day. This workout was done in our company's fitness center, on a very nice stationary bike with variable resistance.

I rode for 60 minutes.
The first 15 minutes with progressively harder resistance to get my heart rate up to 150. After that, it went like this...

5 minutes at a very hard pace. Heart rate did not drop below 170.
5 x {20 seconds all out sprint + 40 seconds recovery}
5 minutes moderate pace, not dropping below 140 bpm.

4 minutes at a very hard pace. Heart rate did not drop below 170.
4 x {20 seconds all out sprint + 40 seconds recovery}
4 minutes moderate pace, not dropping below 140 bpm.

3 minutes at a very hard pace. Heart rate did not drop below 170.
3 x {20 seconds all out sprint + 40 seconds recovery}
3 minutes moderate pace, not dropping below 140 bpm.

2 minutes at a very hard pace. Heart rate did not drop below 165.
2 x {20 seconds all out sprint + 40 seconds recovery}
2 minutes moderate pace, not dropping below 140 bpm.

1 minutes at a very hard pace. Heart rate did not drop below 165.
1 x {20 seconds all out sprint + 40 seconds recovery}
1 minutes moderate pace, not dropping below 120 bpm.

Resting heart rate before workout: 58
Maximum heart rate: 178
Heart rate 15 minutes after workout: 58

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:41 pm

YW: Nice sprint program you did.

Were you able to program the bike for it, or manually change the setting?

Keep up posted. This is a great motivational thread for some of us. Not to mention we are happy to be your cheer leading team for the race... Smile

Go YW GO!!!

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:52 pm

After reading your posts YW, I'm completely worn out and need to lie down Laughing

Mate, you're one fit guy and I salute you. My hope is to see you in the RAAM

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:03 am

Absolutely amazing figures and recovery. Makes me tired just to read it - I am suitably awestruck

YW wrote:

Maximum heart rate: 178

And isn't this your max anyway, based on (220-age)? Or is that an old wives' tale for us unfit folk?

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:12 am

Way to go YW. Keep at it. I wonder if you can program in the climb profile for your 20 mile loop. Just a thought, I know working HR is best.
@Old No. 7. - Here's a link.
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Myth-Of-Maximum-Heart-Rate-=-220-Age&id=678707

Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:58 am

Just finshed the second installment for today. This one was also a 60 minute workout but instead of sprinting like I had planned on, I did a climbing workout.

Started with 40 minutes of squats. Maximum weight 225.

15 minute warm-up trying to get the HR to 150.

5 minute seated climb. Cadence at 80 but HR at 160+. High resistance.
5 minutes of 3 seconds seated then 5 seconds standing climb.High resistance.
5 minutes of reduced resistance but at 90 rpm cadence

5 minute seated climb. Cadence at 80 but HR at 160+. High resistance.
5 minutes of 3 seconds seated then 5 seconds standing climb. High resistance.
5 minutes of reduced resistance but at 90 rpm cadence

5 minute seated climb. Cadence at 80 but HR at 160+. High resistance.
5 minutes of 3 seconds seated then 5 seconds standing climb. High resistance.
5 minutes of reduced resistance but at 90 rpm cadence

Starting resting heart rate: 60
Maximum heart rate: 170
Heart rate 15 minutes after workout: 59

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