Originally Posted by
jcharles00
I suppose it's possible, but I doubt it. I have no problems keeping up until my legs get tired, which seems to tell me (although admittedly uneducated) that my legs are either using up their glycogen stores or are full of lactic acid. In either case, I take this to assume that 1. I'm mashing when I should be spinning. 2. my cardio-vascular system isn't keeping up enough to allow me to spin and/or carry away the lactic acid.
in both cases, it seems like working to increase my cadence will help. please let me know if I've made incorrect assumptions. I'm just trying to improve.
Lactic acid (more properly, lactate) is fuel, good for you. That's an old tale. Probably not glycogen stores, either, unless this is happening on hilly rides of over 3 hours or so. When umd says "strong" he doesn't mean how much weight you can lift or how hard you can push. When a cyclist says "strong" he means the whole body thing: aerobically, muscularly, coordinatedly, mentally, digestively. Spinning more will probably help because it will stress your aerobic system more and that's the system that doesn't get tired. Legs get tired, never the heart.
Other than that, it takes a lot of time on the bike to get strong. Your heart has to get larger, your arteries and veins have to get larger, you need a lot more capillaries, your blood supply has to increase, you need more red blood cells in all that blood, your muscle cells have to learn to move the sodium and potassium around a lot more quickly, your connective tissue has to develop, your lower back and neck probably need some strengthening, too. Keep chasing those guys. Do what they do. You'll get better.
Oh - getting dropped in headwinds is silly. Headwinds is the easiest time, because the line is moving so slowly. When it's your turn to pull, just maintain speed for a little bit, then come off. That's the right thing for the weakest rider to do. Shows mental toughness, not weakness. When you're in the line, just stay out of the wind as much as you can. Match your cadence to the other riders. Keep the gap constant. Keep your wheel a few inches to one side of the wheel ahead of you. Pay attention. If you're behind a wobbly or unsteady rider, at the next intersection maneuver to change your position in the line. Let someone else deal with them.
Going downwind with a fast group is what's killer, because some strong person will get on the front and kick it up past the mid-twenties, and then everyone has to work that hard. No rest for the weary.
For now, when you come over the top of a climb, keep up your climbing effort. You'll be dropped, but everyone else was going hard, too, and they'll take a rest. You don't. Keep at it (hold your climbing HR, but on the drops) and you'll have them back. This will also give you a little more time in zone so you'll improve even faster. You'll also get better in the aero position. You'll get tireder than they will, but that's a good thing: you'll improve faster, too. Be sure to have a good recovery drink.