ModeratedUser150120149

Yep, got in a couple good rides today. First was a 29 mile ride throgh the hills with a local mature rider group. Then, when I got home I found my partner was out running around town so we decided to meet at our local park for lunch. The round trip was another 15 miles.

The two rides together took me over 1000 miles since the snow left in April.

Two nice rides and lunch with my best friend made for a wonderful day.

Allegheny Jet

kr32, You could probably ave 20 mph with just a little focused training. Being able to sustain 20 mph over an extended time is a matter of muscular endurance. Probably the easy way for you is a diet of Z3 riding and Z4 intervals. The intervals could be 22 mph efforts for 4 to 5 minutes followed by the same time riding at 16/17 mph as recovery (don't sacrifice recovery at a faster pace just because riding is easier). The first one will put you in a hurt but you will find them easier to complete and recover. If you find you can easily complete the intervals @ 22mph you can either increase the pace or extend the duration. Doing the intervals once a week or three times every two weeks will start the training process.

The Z3 riding is accomplished after a good warmup. Just take the effort to mid-Z3 or higher and sustain it with no breaks for 1 hr, then 1.25 hr, 1.5 hr etc... It will sort of hurt because the muscles are being taxed but not beat down and your mind and body will adapt to continue on while riding is uncomfortable but sustainable.

As a result of the higher paced riding (22+ mph efforts) and increased time in Z3 your riding pace will increase. What will happen is that the speed that you ride while in the Z3 HR will creep up due to the strength derived from riding faster and the increased muscular endurance from the Z3 rides to hold the speed.

kr32

Thanks again Jet,
This sounds doable but I will need to get a base of my HR first. Also a monitor with HR and Cadence would be good too.
I have been able to ride 22mph for a mile or so and even higher. It seems my average tails off at the end of the rides. I look from time to time and have had 19 avg at 25 miles but that might be 4/5 of the way or 1/2 of the way and by the time I get home it is 17.5. Also all my posted times are from garage to garage with all stop signs and red lights in there as well. so maybe I am not that bad after all.

Phil85207

Shey Loop 70 Miles

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/41531106

Phil85207

Oops My mistake, that was the wrong one.
This is the Shey Loop.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/41531106

madone47mr

Nice day, a little warm but the 25 miles felt good. Tomorrow is hammer time and I hope its not as humid as today.

Allegheny Jet

Recovery day, 12.7 miles with an ave of 15.9 mph.

cervelo-van

Planned to ride the full 180K of the Ironman Canada course in Penticton, BC together with tri club members as part of an Ironman training camp. After a swim workout in the beautiful Okanagan Lake, off we went. It was a hot day, and we had to adjust our route due to forst fires in the area. Then disaster. 4 flats!!! I haven't had a flat in about 18 months and I get 4 in one ride, on the same wheel!

As a result, since we were covered by a support vehicle for all by the coach, had to cut it short to 148K, but did get Richters Pass and Yellow Lake. Whew, can't imagine doing a marathon after all that. Due to Ironman Canada coming up soon, there were lots of cyclists out every day. A veritable Cervelo bike show. Glad I got to ride it though.

MinnMan

I think I'm a lot like kr32 - I aspire to increase my speed and endurance, but I don't have Allegheny Jet's or Hermes' discipline to adopt a regular training schedule or to do focussed intervals. I don't have or want a HRM, and I know that without that kind of information, I'm never going to get the most out of my rides. However, my recent approach is to do lots of hilly rides. Of course, Minnesota doesn't have the kinds of spectacular climbs that many of you enjoy, but what we do have is lots of opportunities to design rides of say, 30 miles, with 8 or 10 climbs of 100-250 feet each. If I attack each of these hard, I tell myself that these are close to an undisciplined rider's intervals. Certainly, I feel them in my legs and lungs.

BikeWNC

I used to be very disciplined, had a coach and never missed a workout. But after three years it became very stressful trying to balance family and my need to train. So I backed off. I'm not nearly in the shape I was a couple years ago but I enjoy my rides as much. So now I work in my rides when I can but for me family has to come first. I still get out for rides way more than most guys my age so I can't complain at all.

LAriverRat

41 miles, sunny, 78 degrees.

kr32

Went out yesterday and did 36 miles. I was thinkingh about what Jet told me and after about 8 miles I pushed myself for a minute and rode at 24 mph then rested at 18-19 for 5 minutes. I did this 5 times. Not really knowing what my heart rate was what I did was to really push myself and let the preceived load tell me where I was. I have to say each time got a little harder and the last one I did not make the minute, came like 5 seconds short.
This was my first time doing some sort of intervals and I think I will keep at it every Monday, have to pick a day somewhere so why not. I may do another day later in the week thinking about it because Sundays are my long ride days.
So I have begun. Oh I did a few sprints later on too. I dropped a few gears and took off for a short burst, man I was winded . Not sure if any of this had anything to do with it but I did average 18.1 mph for the 36 miles.

Allegheny Jet

You should be able to hold the fast pace longer next time. If so, increase the interval time not the pace. You are on the way to faster riding. One tip, don't overcook yourself but keep in mind that failure is the option when doing intervals. Planning to do 5 repetitions and making only 4 1/2 is better than only doing 3 or doing all 5 and saying to yourself "that was easy, I must be getting stronger".

Think of doing intervals as "today I'll cry by myself so I can crush souls later". That is what gets me through the agony.

BikeWNC

Went out this evening for a nice ride up to 6000' elevation. It was so wonderfully cool up there. I did several climbing intervals on the way up. Here's a pic from the top.

BlazingPedals

OK, I'm a few days late on reporting it, but I teamed up with my riding buddy to do the Avita Water Black Bear as a relay team. We placed first in our class and 5th overall, out of almost 300 finishers. Our combined time for the 100 miles = 3:59:09 (without a draft.) My average speed was 25.7 mph.

kr32

34 miles after a day of rest yesterday. I took it easy and felt like I was just cruising and still managed 17.5 mph, my usual avg. I think I still have the feeling of a cold coming on. Hasn't happened yet but it is there.

DnvrFox

Good on you!

Two of the 4 ahead of you were recumbents, including the fastest. Interesting.

LAriverRat

31 miles, started one mile sprint repeats, all from standing start, slight incline at start of marked level mile. Slight head wind. Best time 2minutes 30 seconds. Top speed 29.1 mph. Faded last 300 yards on all of them. Spent Monday laying out the most level mile in my area.

MinnMan

You did that 31 times? Phew.

kjc9640

Today’s ride as seen through the eyes of my bike… 7/27/2010 36 miles


Julie (my wife) and I drove to St Petersburg on Monday evening to spend a couple of days with my daughter and get some ride time with her. Tina (my daughter) has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off from her job so it makes for some good riding time for us.


Upon arrival in St Pete, Tina told me that she was having a problem with the back wheel of her bike dragging against the break pad, so I started to do a little investigating and discovered that the rim was starting to split at the holes where the spokes came through the rim. Two of them were bad enough that the spoke was about to pull out of the rim causing the wheel to wobble. We had to put our Tuesday morning ride on hold and make a trip to the LBS for a new rim. We purchased a generic wheel and put a cheep cassette that I had on the wheel to get her going short term. I plan to take her damaged wheel and cut the Campy hub and cassette out of the wheel and have a new one built for her when I get back to Orlando. Not wanting to ride in the hottest part of the day we decided to do an evening ride into downtown St. Petersburg.


With a new rim and everything in repair we rolled out about 6:00 pm and headed south towards the Sky Way Bridge and Pinellas Point. After a swing thru Maximo Park at the southern most point of the Pinellas County mainland, we started riding north towards downtown St Petersburg. Tina has been riding a well marked ride called Share The Road route over the last week or two. This 60 mile route is marked by the St Pete Bike Club and takes riders thru some very nice areas of Pinellas County and St. Petersburg, we road past The St Pete Country Club and the Boyd Hill nature Area then thru downtown then north towards the Gandy Bridge. Most of this route runs alongside Tampa Bay to the right and some very expensive homes/real estate on the left. The route takes you past Albert Whitted Air Field and Progress Energy Park (formerly known as Al Lang Stadium) in downtown St Pete. This baseball stadium was used as a spring training facility for some Major League Baseball team’s years ago before they started moving much of spring training to Arizona. A short distance north of the airport we road by the construction site of the new Salvador Dali Art Museum. Salvador was one of the world’s most famous and controversial artists. His extraordinary works popularized the art movement known as Surrealism. Next was St Pete Pier that has been a land mark tourist attraction in Pinellas County and St Pete for decades. Time has taken its toll on this location and there is a lot of discussion about tearing it down and just utilizing the park area around it. A little further north we passed the Morean Arts Center where the Chihuly Collection is on display through the end of next month. Dale Chihuly was blind in one eye and created all of his art by blowing glass. A short distance up the road is the world famous Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club. Just north of the Vinoy the route starts to turn residential again with beautiful homes on our left and boat docks and expensive boats on our right.


At about the 20 mile mark we decided that we had just about enough daylight to get us back home before dark. Both of us have plenty of lights some of which we have on even during the daylight hours, however I am not a big fan of riding on the roads with traffic after dark.


Our trip back was about the same route that we took going north with a side trip out to the end of the pier for a cold drink. While enjoying our Pepsi and the sunset we spotted two schools of dolphin swimming about fifty yards out in the bay. I tried to get a picture of them but all you can see is the dorsal fin as it breaks the surface of the water. One of the locals was fishing at the end of the pier and he had two pelicans sitting beside him waiting for him to catch something that he would share with them.


An amazing bird, the pelican it is said that his beak can hold more than his belly can. (A little attempt at humor here)


The remaining ride home was very relaxing with cool breezes and minimal traffic. We arrived home about 9:00 pm and my wife served us large bowls of strawberry ice cream to top off a great day.


I hope you enjoyed our ride…

Photos 1-3 Riding into and the view from Maximo Park
Photos 4-5 Arriving in the downtown area of St Pete. Progress Energy Field is just in front of my daughter
Photo 6 Yours truly standing in front of the art museum that was displaying the Chihuly Art Collection
Photo 7 The world famous St Pete Pier
Photo 8 Two fishermen trying to catch dinner
Photo 9 The Salvador Dali Museum under construction. When this is finished it will be a very beautiful tribute to Dali
Photo 10 The entrance to the Vinoy Resort and Golf Club

RonH

It was another hot one today so started earlier than usual. Did 28 miles.
Tomorrow its supposed to be 100F. I guess the heat index will be about 145F.

LAriverRat

No, i would be dead now. Did 8. Then got a call from my daughter to meet at my mother in laws house to choose drapery fabric. After riding there, looked at fabric, them went home. Messed up my work out plans. There will be other days.

Allegheny Jet

Nice easy 1.5 hr, 26 mile Z 2 ride, hardly broke a sweat.

Red Rider

Hill repeats -- 21 miles, 1900' of climbing. I got something under one of my contacts that I couldn't wash away so I bailed -- I'd planned on 19 more miles and another 1900' to climb. Guess I got off easy.

kjc9640

Friday 7/30
34.1 miles today.

637.9 miles this month
4117 miles this year
127 ride days LY vs. 131 ride days TY
3450 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 54.9% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
453 miles ahead of last year at this date

Got out about 8 am today the temp was already 83 with 91% humidity. When I got back the heat index was 102 with 59% humidity. This heat is rough on an old man like me.