Originally Posted by ZappCatt
Um6970,
1) I used a heavy gear because I CAN NOT SPIN!!! When I did my first TT, my butt was bouncing all over the place because I was spun out....
2) That gear was ONLY used for the TT, I rode 49x15 for the actual sprint tourney.
3) As I have said many times, I am old, fat and out of shape. I have put under 100 miles in on a bike this year. I am 6'3" and 220.
4) I have owned a road bike for less than 2 years, and probably have a total of 250 miles in.
5) Did I tell you I am a fat guy who can not spin?
6) My road bike has 180mm cranks...my track bike has 170mm cranks...have I told you that I can't spin yet? I have probably put in a total of 70 miles on the track.
7) Who is coaching me? No one....I get to the track a couple of times a month(10 times in my life)...have been on my road bike once this year(5 miles or so).
HI again...
The spin problem is easy to fix... rule number 1... "DO NOT USE CLINCHERS NO MORE!!! GET TUBULARS!!!"... get tufo tubular clinchers if u cant afford new wheels. The jumping problem over the seat will start going away as the season goes by.
Second advice... use your road bike as a fixed gear... take the crancks out and put the 170 mms in the road bike. Again... USE TUBULARs/tubular clinchers. Do distances using 42x18 (listen to me OK?)... ride 30 mins in the road and then come back to your house (1 hour total), 1 hour is more than enough. Do that like for 1 week... Everything will hurt because u have to get used to the cadence... do not force yourself OK?? do it quietly... for sure u have a cateye device so control your pedaling using it, using 42x18 (or similar) easily u can get 80/100 rpms (i sugest try to stay that hour at 80 rpms). The trick is get your body used to high cadence.
Second week... the same but longer time (1.5 or 2 hours)... Oh go to the road 3 times per week that's all, u need to rest (believe it or not).
3rd week... I want u to change the 18T cog for a 17T cog... the same stuff again... 2 hours... blah blah. Dont worry if u feel that u arent developing strengt OK? thats natural... strengnght is developed with the time and after all is more efficient sombody who can stay pedaling for hours at high cadences than a super slow tank!.
4th week I want to do sprints... but sprints seated... i mean changes in the cadence.. start accelerating little by little... so u'll do a progression... go out for 2 hours and do 4 times the sprint stuff. 200 meters "sprints"... once the sprint finished u have to continue pedaling as usual... 80/90 rmps... do that for 2 weeks...
6th week... if everything went ok u'll be faster for the 7th week, and u should be thinner aswell.
Go to the track time to time, but do not abuse of the gears... try to ride light... maybe 50x16 but no more than that... u lack of 2 things, agility and power... and to have power u have to work agility 1st u know...
This is the way u train a newbie (and kids) basically, old school training i must say too. If u have more questions let me know... hope this could help other people. I'm just letting u know a very basic traning plan because traning plans depends of the rider and other factors. As an example I used to weight 65 kgs (do the math ok?) when I retired from racing i was 68 kgs, now im like 85 kgs or so (maybe more) but I still have a lot more cadence than a people who might be traning everyday. I learned to spin the way I told u... sadly and this is the most shocking thing for many people who wants to try racing... is that when u think that your spining is very good and u race for the very 1st time, then u realize that u arent because 1 thing is traning other one is racing... but well that is something people has to learn the hard way....
Good luck
