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Training and pushing yourself harder

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Training and pushing yourself harder

Old 02-17-08, 01:16 PM
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Training and pushing yourself harder

I enjoy hurting myself during training to a point. Mixed in with fatigue, pushing myself really hard becomes joyless and I start to think that I'd be better off 'training' for sportives (or 'centuries' as they're called in the US). But I have a competitive nature and long for the day that I can win a race. Getting up to racing fitness is an entirely different ballgame than training for such 'fun' events, and I suppose it's only a small minority of cyclists that have the ability to push themselves this far, and an even smaller minority that can actually go on to win races and climb higher in the ranks.

So, in my quest to get to racing fitness I've been riding with a club that is considered one of the fastest in my area - these guys do not play around, and it's fine by me - I'm in it to better myself - to learn how much I can take and push through barriers I didn't know could be broken through.... But I want more. I want to be able to push myself harder.

My question is: what do you do to push yourself into realms beyond your known abilities? What frame of mind do you put yourself into? What is the primer that sets you off?
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Old 02-17-08, 01:30 PM
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Terrible music.

Tends to get the suffering done when there are no wheels to follow.
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Old 02-17-08, 01:58 PM
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Set goals. State them to others. Fear of humiliation (not achieving the goals) is good for drive. For instance, "I want to be the UK national TT champion."

Would work for me if I lived there.
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Old 02-17-08, 03:53 PM
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Originally Posted by DrWJODonnell
Set goals. State them to others. Fear of humiliation (not achieving the goals) is good for drive. For instance, "I want to be the UK national TT champion."

Would work for me if I lived there.
+1

Also good metal/rap music.

A combination of the music and a wattage goal on the powermeter has really helped me drive through tough efforts.
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Old 02-17-08, 03:59 PM
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Originally Posted by DrWJODonnell
Set goals. State them to others. Fear of humiliation (not achieving the goals) is good for drive.
+1 Excellent.
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Old 02-17-08, 04:17 PM
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Originally Posted by VosBike
Terrible music.

Tends to get the suffering done when there are no wheels to follow.
Yep. I normally hate, Hate, HATE electronica/techno - but during a "please let me die" interval the 160-200bpm of the music helps.
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Old 02-17-08, 05:42 PM
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Race.

The best way to train above and beyond your limits is to race.

Then when you think it's manageable to race, race with much, much better racers. As a Cat 3 (i.e. "working man's class") I had an opportunity to race in what would now be considered Continental Pro level races, i.e. kermeses full of just-below-the-best pros (each race's winners seemed to regularly sign for the best pro teams in the area - PDM, Buckler, Tonton Tapis, etc). My first race I was dropped and pulled in one flat 5 or 7 km lap. You get pulled when you lose 3 minutes. My max speed on that dismal lap was 70 kph - 43 mph. And I never passed anyone and I got pulled!

Each race (Wed, Sat, Sun) we warmed up as if we were doing a 5 km pursuit. And each race we'd go insanely fast, get dropped in the first lap, lose 3 minutes, and get pulled.

Before we flew to Belgium my teammate and I initially considered doing a point to point race during our time there. We decided against it since we had no logistical support (what if we flatted 50 k from the start? How would we feed?). After some random race in our 3 weeks, after getting dropped in the first lap, we went home, demoralized, determined to do better. Turned on the TV. And watched Phil Anderson and Dag Otto Lauritzen (both Motorola) pummel legs in some wet, dismal, early season race. When we realized that this was the point to point race we'd considered entering, we looked at each other. "Good thing we didn't enter the race."

In my 9th race in 3 weeks, I actually stayed with the main field for one 7 km lap. Got dropped on the second one but was still less than 3 minutes down. At the end of the 3rd lap I got pulled. Since 160 racers were pulled in those first three laps (leaving 40 racers to fight for 40 places), I considered this a great success.

After those races (early spring), I returned home to the normal Cat 3 races. Suddenly, if the race was going less than 33-35 mph, it felt agonizingly slow. Instead of hiding in the pack I went to the front to drive the pace, to break the spirit of everyone there. I had a great season, never actually won, but did a lot of good racing. I typically raced Tues, Sat, Sun, and often did 2 races on either Sat or Sun (I learned that if I tried to do 4 races total, the 4th race was a disaster, so I limited myself to 3 races a weekend). I'd do a very hard ride on Monday to try and create a mini 4 day cycle every week.

If you want to be better I don't think there's any way you can "train" for it. You need to race. Then you need to race faster and faster races. None of this "I'll train a bit more and then race". That's just an excuse for someone scared to race *right now* (unless it's before there are any races). If you can ride in a group safely, race. Race more. And when you're exhausted, race again, and do the faster of the races open to you. When you can go 4 days super hard in a row (for me, Sat - Tue), you deserve a short break - take a day off. Spin around for a bit. Then do it again. After 3-4-5 months of racing (i.e. racing 2-3-4-5 times a week) you'll sit down one day to eat for the 5th or 6th time that day and realize "Effing A, I'm a BAMF racer."

I don't know how to get better than that.

cdr
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Old 02-17-08, 05:52 PM
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"You've got to get angry son!" - Patches O'Hoolihan

I find anger works the best for me. If I've got to do anything above threshold, I try to focus on something that's happened recently that really pi$$ed me off, and that usually gets the job done.
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Old 02-17-08, 09:43 PM
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fear of doing all this work for nothing. Because I am new to racing I am trying to learn how to suffer more without "painkillers."
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Old 02-17-08, 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted by ekimeno
My question is: what do you do to push yourself into realms beyond your known abilities?
I just embrace the pain. It's like pulling a staple out of your thumb. Just grab on and pull it out. Not too fast -- savor it a bit.

Originally Posted by ekimeno
What frame of mind do you put yourself into?
I get pretty spiritual about it. Not religious so much, just spiritual. I look inward to find the rage. Honestly, I think it comes from just behind my heart, in front of my spine. That seems to be the core.

Originally Posted by ekimeno
What is the primer that sets you off?
Like others in this thread, it's anger. If I'm sprinting next to somebody, and starting to loose ground, I'll say something like "You think I'm going fast now motherf#cker? You think I'm going fast now?" This is out loud. Verablizing it gives me a shot of adrenaline, and kind of states my goal as DWJO says above -- I'm now accountable for going fast because I'm trash talking.
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Old 02-17-08, 11:07 PM
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Ditto on the race to train harder. I rarely push myself as hard as I can in a race.
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Old 02-18-08, 03:04 AM
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Originally Posted by carpediemracing
Race.

The best way to train above and beyond your limits is to race.
Yes, this is the first barrier I need to get through and did race for the first time in December last year (the first time in 10 years...) and then I did a Reliability Ride yesterday (like a training race - probably something similar to Pcad's Nyack rides), so I'm getting there. I also have 1-2 races planned every month from March to September, which is going to be tough in my current situation. There is also a planned trip with the club to Tuscany in Italy come June to do a couple of continental races - should be interesting if I make the cut of riders who get chosen - this is one of my goals.

Thanks for the inspiring stories of your racing in Europe - those guys are insanely fast!
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Old 02-18-08, 03:20 AM
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Originally Posted by waterrockets
I just embrace the pain. It's like pulling a staple out of your thumb. Just grab on and pull it out. Not too fast -- savor it a bit.



I get pretty spiritual about it. Not religious so much, just spiritual. I look inward to find the rage. Honestly, I think it comes from just behind my heart, in front of my spine. That seems to be the core.



Like others in this thread, it's anger. If I'm sprinting next to somebody, and starting to loose ground, I'll say something like "You think I'm going fast now motherf#cker? You think I'm going fast now?" This is out loud. Verablizing it gives me a shot of adrenaline, and kind of states my goal as DWJO says above -- I'm now accountable for going fast because I'm trash talking.
Your staple pulling analogy is rather familiar... I crashed quite hard on some ice early on during our training race yesterday and ended up with some pretty painful scrapes and bruises. The first thing that went through my head was that I now had an excuse to stop the ride and go back home, but I ended up pushing past that 'feebleness' and carry on - making my suffering even worse, but at the same time savouring it, thinking that the pain was 'good'. By the end of the ride I couldn't even feel my injuries - the burning in my muscles from exertion was far worse.

I often hear other riders verbalising their pain - usually in the form of swearing or gutteral animal or primitive cave man-like sounds. During a chase to get back to the main pack after my crash yesterday, whenever I went to the front for a pull, I kept telling the club mates who waited for me that we were going to catch those mofo's and kick their asses - this seemed to help. The anger element definitely works.

Last edited by ekimeno; 02-18-08 at 03:27 AM.
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Old 02-18-08, 06:33 AM
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Originally Posted by ekimeno
I enjoy hurting myself during training to a point. Mixed in with fatigue, pushing myself really hard becomes joyless and I start to think that I'd be better off 'training' for sportives (or 'centuries' as they're called in the US). But I have a competitive nature and long for the day that I can win a race. Getting up to racing fitness is an entirely different ballgame than training for such 'fun' events, and I suppose it's only a small minority of cyclists that have the ability to push themselves this far, and an even smaller minority that can actually go on to win races and climb higher in the ranks.

So, in my quest to get to racing fitness I've been riding with a club that is considered one of the fastest in my area - these guys do not play around, and it's fine by me - I'm in it to better myself - to learn how much I can take and push through barriers I didn't know could be broken through.... But I want more. I want to be able to push myself harder.

My question is: what do you do to push yourself into realms beyond your known abilities? What frame of mind do you put yourself into? What is the primer that sets you off?
Ride angry.
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Old 02-18-08, 07:52 AM
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My back/hip is my limiting factor - some days I just can't push at all.
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