Road Bike Racing - Would like to start Racing next summer/spring.

Well whenever Road Races start in 09' in Oregon. I have only been riding about 3 months now. I commute 30miles a week to work, and have been going on 30+mile rides on the weekends. I am going to start riding weekdays after work now instead of just leaving long rides for the weekends. I was wondering what a good milage per week would be to start with? I was thinking of starting with a goal of 100 miles a week for the next four weeks and increasing slowly. How much do you guys ride/train that race? Currently averaged 15.2mph on my last 35 mile ride so I know have a lot of riding to do.

Also do you guys ever do loops for your rides instead of heading out for 50+ all over town? I have a pretty decent 12% grade hill right next to my house that kicks my ass so I mapped a 5.5mile loop including that. Its 643 feet of acent in 1 loop. I am going to try and to 6 loops today after work which i assume would give my just under 4000 ft. of climbing? Is that how you guys compute that or do I need to climb a 4000ft. mountain? From what I have been reading lately it looks like climbing would be the best way for me to get stronger for now.

After this for a few months I am going to find a group ride and proceed with what I have found using the search tool.

Any other advice would be much appreciated.

1) Start the Group rides now.

You may not be ready to hang with the local fast guys, but you should be a ble to find group rides that are appropriate for your current fitness, and you can work up to faster groups.

2) Find a club/ team and start talking to other riders on the club/team about what you should be doing.

(to find a club, go to the USA Cycling web page, talk to guys at your LBS, talk to people on group rides, PM some of the people on here from Oregon.)

Read the thread botto started - click here (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=380788)
And no offense but 15.2mph on my last 35 mile will promptly get you shelled off the back of a cat5 race. 100 miles a week then building is a good plan, you need to get some base miles in over the winter. Riding loops is fine, just get out there and ride. Also it's important not to go all out every ride. Recovery and long slow distances are important. Get the Cyclists Training Bible by Friel, good info in there. I wouldn't wait to do a group ride, I'd find one right now.

Good luck!

You'll need to plan for at least 1,000 hours of a year, all focused training. It's the only way to survive.

Loops are fine. Your climbing calculations are correct, though it is preferable for most to be on one continuous climb I believe. The difficulty is that many do not have the luxury of having this kind of climb near home. If you are in Portland, you actually might have some decent climbing within driving distance.

As for group rides, I would start with the "B" ride in your area and see how you do. It may be too social for you, but I would not jump into an "A" ride if you are averaging 15mph over 30 miles.

I don't see a problem with your 100 miles per week theory, though as you learn more, most people don't talk about mileage when they train - they talk about hours. Start thinking about how many hours a week you are going to put in, and don't worry so much about the miles. I would guess for your estimated speed that perhaps 5-7 hours a week would be a good target. Find Friel's bible and ask questions if you don't understand.

Now is a great time to prep for next year.

Good luck

Loops are fine. Your climbing calculations are correct, though it is preferable for most to be on one continuous climb I believe. The difficulty is that many do not have the luxury of having this kind of climb near home. If you are in Portland, you actually might have some decent climbing within driving distance.

As for group rides, I would start with the "B" ride in your area and see how you do. It may be too social for you, but I would not jump into an "A" ride if you are averaging 15mph over 30 miles.

I don't see a problem with your 100 miles per week theory, though as you learn more, most people don't talk about mileage when they train - they talk about hours. Start thinking about how many hours a week you are going to put in, and don't worry so much about the miles. I would guess for your estimated speed that perhaps 5-7 hours a week would be a good target. Find Friel's bible and ask questions if you don't understand.

Now is a great time to prep for next year.

Good luck

Oh Jeez Will, just slow the F down.

I think that your training describes a classic error made by beginning racers - that of average speed over peak speed. Your first race may average 18 or 20 or 22 mph, but the peak speeds will probably be at least 30 mph on a flat road, 35+ mph if there are some ringers around (expert mountain bikers, triathletes, etc). Those are the speeds that shell new racers, not the average.

To illustrate this point, I rarely average over 17 mph in training, even on flatter routes (almost no hills, but not as flat as, say, Gainesville FL). I usually average closer to 15 mph. I have trouble on group rides over 21-22 mph. But I regularly finish crits which average 26-28 mph for an hour or so, and I can place in them on occasion. My max speed is somewhere around 40-41 mph right now (I haven't done sprints regularly in a given location for a couple years now but that's about where I top out).

I'd work on increasing your top speed so that you are more comfortable when you're forced to hit 30-35 mph during a race. If you can raise your max speed over 30-35 mph you'll be much more comfortable in a race.

I think the following will help. First, a bit on increasing max speed:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-working-on-sprinting.html

Second, a bit on being ready for a mass start bike race:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2008/05/racing-worrying-about-crashing.html

hope this helps and good luck next year,
cdr

Loops are fine. Your climbing calculations are correct, though it is preferable for most to be on one continuous climb I believe. The difficulty is that many do not have the luxury of having this kind of climb near home. If you are in Portland, you actually might have some decent climbing within driving distance.

As for group rides, I would start with the "B" ride in your area and see how you do. It may be too social for you, but I would not jump into an "A" ride if you are averaging 15mph over 30 miles.

I don't see a problem with your 100 miles per week theory, though as you learn more, most people don't talk about mileage when they train - they talk about hours. Start thinking about how many hours a week you are going to put in, and don't worry so much about the miles. I would guess for your estimated speed that perhaps 5-7 hours a week would be a good target. Find Friel's bible and ask questions if you don't understand.

Now is a great time to prep for next year.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice. Hours was exactly what I was thinking on my ride today, same thing I did when i first started running, i though i would run like 3 miles a day but it was much easier to run for 30-45 minutes. I got off work late and have family stuff to do with my wife and kids tonight so I decided to go ride for 1 hour. I rode farely hard. I averaged my highest yet at exactly 16mph for the 16 miles. That is also the last time I ever speak of an average speed during a solo ride ever again. I was proud of myself to, there is one hill (i took a different root not the loop) that 3 weeks ago I only made it half way up, then had to stand up and crank very very slowly while trying not to fall over, today i cruised up it legs burning at about 10mph. I already see improvement.


Oh Jeez Will, just slow the F down.

You have so much useful information to new people like me, its sad you never share it.


I think that your training describes a classic error made by beginning racers - that of average speed over peak speed. Your first race may average 18 or 20 or 22 mph, but the peak speeds will probably be at least 30 mph on a flat road, 35+ mph if there are some ringers around (expert mountain bikers, triathletes, etc). Those are the speeds that shell new racers, not the average.

To illustrate this point, I rarely average over 17 mph in training, even on flatter routes (almost no hills, but not as flat as, say, Gainesville FL). I usually average closer to 15 mph. I have trouble on group rides over 21-22 mph. But I regularly finish crits which average 26-28 mph for an hour or so, and I can place in them on occasion. My max speed is somewhere around 40-41 mph right now (I haven't done sprints regularly in a given location for a couple years now but that's about where I top out).

I'd work on increasing your top speed so that you are more comfortable when you're forced to hit 30-35 mph during a race. If you can raise your max speed over 30-35 mph you'll be much more comfortable in a race.

I think the following will help. First, a bit on increasing max speed:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-to-working-on-sprinting.html

Second, a bit on being ready for a mass start bike race:
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.com/2008/05/racing-worrying-about-crashing.html

hope this helps and good luck next year,
cdr

Thank for the advice. I will check those videos out tonight when i get home. You know I really have not ever sprinted on the flat, I will get up and go down a hill or when i have to because of traffic but not just on a flat yet. It seems everywhere around my place i ride its rollers with 6-12% grade hill mixed in. What do you considor a "flat" ride like "Gainsville"?


You'll need to plan for at least 1,000 hours of a year, all focused training. It's the only way to survive.

umm.....

Thanks again.

p.s. I got very lucky. Today was my first ride with real gear. Shorts, jersey, (no clipless yet but soon), water bottle and cage, sunglasses. And best of all no backpack. I bought a seat pack to carry my tools/spare/and cell phone. My cell is my new Blackberry from work, I have unlimited minutes and am allowed to use it for personal use so its the only phone i have. I did not hook my seat pack on correctly to the bottom of the seat. When i got home it was hanging down just barely being held there by the seat post strap........That would have sucked.

I was a new road rider not too long ago. Actually, I'm still a "new" road rider, I'm just closer to coming out the other side. I tried the "no training to 100 miles a week" thing when I first started riding. It can be a tall order. Listen to Dr. W and CDR, they're the grizzled vets with good advice. When I started training to race, I set myself a weekly goal of 6-8 hours of riding a week, didn't worry about mileage too much. A good thing, too; the first thirty mile ride I did in January took three hours. There were exacerbating circumstances other than just fitness, but still. Three months later, I did my first collegiate race weekend. Three races. Three top ten placings - and I didn't know where the finish line was or what lap I was on. It's all about time on the bike.

By the way, the people I ride with have told me not to worry about structure for the first couple of years. I pretty much did only base all spring last year, except for some poor attempts at intervals, which may have done more harm than good. It's worked for me so far. I don't plan on doing anything more structured than some 2x20's (I want to ride better in road races) and WRI(TM) this year. We'll see how it goes. Different things seem to work differently for, um, different people. That's the ticket.

Yes definitely group rides are the way to go. I had never really cycled before when I got a used road bike for my 15th birthday. I just intended to use the bike to commute for the most part, but I ended up enjoying just going out for rides. I spent a couple years just riding around by myself with no interest in racing. I probably never rode more than 30 miles in one day.
As soon as I decided to start working toward eventually being able to race, I immediately started going to the local semi-fast group ride. I got dropped every time for the first few months, but I slowly improved and moved up to tougher group rides and did some charity rides where I got valuable experience riding in groups. I did my first race (collegiate road race) about 8 months after I made the "decision" to start racing. I had the fitness and finished with the pack. However, I was still totally unprepared for the dynamics of actually racing in a pack. Not to mention I almost died of hypothermia since all I had was shorts and a shortsleeve jersey on a 45 degree morning. I did a lot more group riding and kept steadily improving. I only did about 5 races (one of which ended in a pretty bad crash due to poor handling skills) the whole first year of racing. By the end of that year I was miles ahead of where I had been a few months before, and have progressed from there.

The point of that little story is, there is no point in rushing anything or developing some complicated training plan or buying a bunch of bike crap you don't really need if you have only just decided to start racing. Don't go out and race until you have a little experience with other aspects of riding. But group rides are fun and cost nothing and can often be just as rewarding and challenging as any race. So get out there and do some!


That was probably pretty redundant advice but I'm just reiterating what I think is the most important (Ride a lot and do a lot of group rides).

Also whoever said to ride 1000 hours a year, hopefully that guy was joking. That's like 3 hours a day with no rest days. You can certainly do fine at everything but the top levels of racing with half that.

30miles commuting and 30+ mile rides on the weekend is a good start. Clocking up 90 or so miles will help you build a base but like you mention riding after work is paramount and the time to put the hard work in but only once or twice a week to give yourself plenty of recovery time. I usually do all my short intervals on wednesdays and thursdays to give myself two recovery days before and after a race.

Base your week on hours rather than miles as weather can seriously do your head in if its a bad week and you are down on your mileage. Ten hours is 10 hours at the end of the day. Saying that, ten hours is a good number of hours, but hard to fit in wth rides of one to one and a half hours. (I know)

I will do between 8-10 hours a week with two 40min interval sessions and 2 two hour rides at the weekend inc approx 60miles a week commuting. A 2 hour ride can be between 18-21mph average speed. This is all good enough to get me in the top ten of a regional Cyclo Cross race nearly every week (have got podiums a fair bit too)

Loops are good, they mean you can measure your ride improvemnets very easily but can get boring. Leave loops for hard, interval sessions so you can measure improvements.

Group rides are ok but can seriously mess up your progress if you are wanting to make very specific gains. Use them only for endurance stuff.

I have started a blog which will gradually build. It's really new so there may not be much there but heres my first post about racing the different disciplines. Hope you find it useful.

http://thesweetestcondition.zonecalc.co.uk/blog/Sports

Good Luck

GD

Only four months too late.