Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - first 1000 fixed

one of the strongest riders i know subscribes to a "first thousand fixed" training methodology. absolutely no coasting in the base building period of the season before completing 1k miles fixed. i aspire to take that challenge this year, starting in december.

i'm in the middle of what i call "fat november" now, my riding season is pretty much done, and this is a rest month for me before i start long, slow base miles for next season in december.

any other roadies subscribe to this method or similar?

Sounds cool to me.

So at an average of 20mph, that's 50 hours of riding? Outrageous.

Well let's say you ride 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. It would only take you ~6 weeks to complete.

...any other roadies subscribe to this method or similar?

Back when I was doing a lot of long road races, I did that with a gear in the low 60s. It helps get your spin back after a long season of pushing big gears.

Well let's say you ride 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. It would only take you ~6 weeks to complete.

Except that you don't average 20mph doing it in a low 60s gear. More like 16 mph average. You typically ride longer, though, about 3-4 hours per day.

Except that you don't average 20mph doing it in a low 60s gear. More like 16 mph average.

Ah, that makes much more sense.

So: 1000 miles/16 mph average = ~63 hours of riding. If you rode 4 days a week, 2 hours per day, it would take you 2 months.

...and if you had a normal schedule of 6 days a week, 2 hours per day, you could get it finished in a little over 5 weeks.

yea, i ride 48x19, which is pretty spinny for around here.

Ah, that makes much more sense.

So: 1000 miles/16 mph average = ~63 hours of riding. If you rode 4 days a week, 2 hours per day, it would take you 2 months.

this will likely take me a bit longer, i'm going to start in december, hope to have the base miles in by the end of March, so roughly half the riding per week you mention.

No problem. I'm sure you'll have a great time.

...and if you had a normal schedule of 6 days a week, 2 hours per day, you could get it finished in a little over 5 weeks.

More like 3-4 hours per day and 4 days per week. Anyway, it was typically done in about 6 weeks. After that, I'd get on my geared bike, but initially limit my max gear to 53 x 16, even in sprints, during early season races.

i'll track my progress in this thread just for kicks.

i actually destroyed my old wired computer a few months ago on my kona, so i'm going to buy another basic wireless computer in a few days and start at 000.00, and go from there.

I read it as a consecutive ride. My bad.

Not as outrageous, but still pretty beast.

I would love to have the time to do that.
Because of time constraints, I chose to begin threshold intervals during my first base week, which was last week.
Two days of 2x20's on the trainer, increasing by 10-15 min of z4 time during each "on" week.

The remainder of my week is composed of one long ride on the weekend (3-5 hrs), one day of pedaling drills and one day on the fixed gear.
During rest weeks, i'll only ride the fg, probably 3-5 times.

Tomorrow will be a steady hour on the fg, probs in the 42/15.
I have an 18t fixed cog on the other side of the wheel for reaaaaallly easy days or cadence workouts.

I may just be insane, but my weekly commute is roughly 80 miles cumulatively, and I do another 75-100 on top of that on a lazy week in season. So, an average lazy week is 160 miles, I'd have that done in six weeks. NBD.

I may just be insane, but my weekly commute is roughly 80 miles cumulatively, and I do another 75-100 on top of that on a lazy week in season. So, an average lazy week is 160 miles, I'd have that done in six weeks. NBD.



Rode the 42/15t around for an hour starting at 5:45 with the intent of doing tempo riding. Turns out I should have just spun along in my 18t as the legs just didn't want to be pushed this morning, and I didn't force it because an aerobic workout wasn't the primary goal of my ride this morning. Still, it was an enjoyable ride.

yeah, i do about 1k/mo on fixed gear... and i still have a belly.

edit: except been traveling too much the past 6weeks, huge beer belly is huge

new computer installed, ready to rock:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PiNyzqOilF4/TsJpIiZJ9cI/AAAAAAAAAO4/kZHoVyKdwys/s1600/IMG_0133.jpg

yeah, i do about 1k/mo on fixed gear... and i still have a belly.

edit: except been traveling too much the past 6weeks, huge beer belly is huge

So you ride your fg 250mi./week?

That's a good amount of riding. I'll be lucky if I hit that for my highest volume week before the 2012 season.

I ride 48/17, I might have to gear down to get the "benefit" from doing this. Hmmm...

So you ride your fg 250mi./week?

That's a good amount of riding. I'll be lucky if I hit that for my highest volume week before the 2012 season.

yeah, i've been very lucky to have a lot of free time this year....

I ride 48/17, I might have to gear down to get the "benefit" from doing this. Hmmm...

I'm going to spend an hour tomorrow morning zipping along in a 42/18t before a hard day sat. (team ride).

Just spinspinspinspinnin' along.

I picked this practice up from some old school racers who are in their 70's and still going strong... they did not think that many people still followed this practice of riding 1000 fixed miles before getting on the geared bike.

Used to average 40 miles a day / 365 days of the year and more than half of that was done on a fixed gear as all my winter riding was on the fixed gear as well.

Would come into spring in some pretty fine shape as winter riding is hard work.

On the rollers count ?