Ric is my forum hero....enemy of the noob!!
Have you noticed how this sport seems to attract people with some of the most misguided, bizarre and plain old crazy ideas on training and fitness??? Some posts have to be read to be believed....I think I replied to one in cyclingforums.com with "Are you drunk???"

BE WARNED:

Got fukn busted last night in me car by one of them parmanent speed cameras that are stuck in an intersection.

It was on Alexandra Parade, at the George St. or Smith St. intersection

LOL.....have you seen the peckerhead that wants to push a 60-11 gear?....sic 'im ED!

He got all uppity one day when someone called him "Ric Stearn"



When I started riding back in about 1986, all the old "heros" told me that the only way to train was to spin a high gear with no intensity for miles and miles. Even though I was only 19, I ended up telling one bike shop guy that he was an idiot

Like I told him, at least he's motivated

...wot????....is this wrong???? (Hmmm maybe have to reassess 50,000km per year in 53-14)

Ooooops, I meant "high spin in a low gear": 42/15, or something

"Spin, grin, and win" is permanently etched in my brain. Thank you all you old Italian roadies I grew up with when I was a teenager. Fortunately, I've deduced that everyone has a natural cadence, and being able to accellerate is a combination of being about to push AND being able to spin. I love big gear ******s - I can blow past them up hills, despite my 90kgs. Bring it on Mr.60:11.

Anyway fellas, I'm now officially a real noob roadie, rather than a mountain biker imposter. Just got the hair ripped outta my legs *RRRIIIPPPPPP* The chick at the salon doing the waxing was frikken 17. 17! I'm sure that's illegal in most US states.

Was she hot?

there was a bloke who was a bit famous in Melb years ago who used to ride around in some ridiculous 58 x 12 or something.....fat, bald, slow and totally eccentric. He was crapping on to me one day (as I took 8 pedal strokes to his 1) that his chainrings were custom-ordered ex-factory from Miche in France.


Nuts.

there's one on Dandy Rd at the intersection of Wiliams Rd or Glenferrie Rd or one of them....ticket for speeding and a ticket for running the red as well!!!

They didn't realise it, but they got their fitness from racing 2 or 3 times a week, not from spinning a 42/16 at 26kmh for four hours a day.

G'day,

But 'new age' training has a lot of "42-16 for 4 hours a day" type workouts in it. These days a training program is likely divided into 'sections' with different goals & workouts in each section. For instance, someone at the start of their program (base)...will ONLY do that type of workout....virtually no intensity at all. As the program moves on thru the 'Build' phases, more intensive workouts are introduced. The "42-16 for 4 hours a day" is an important 'recovery' tool after hard workouts. You can't train hard all the time,

cheers,

hitchy

^

Correct.

Personally, i think they got their fitness from eating spaghetti and lugging 24lb Colnagos up the hills. God those things were heavy. Don't get me wrong, I really don't give a ***** about weight, but god those old Colnagos and Viners weighted a tonne. They had a pretty good 'Old School Euro trash' look about them back then, too.

*****, you can't train hard all the time?!?! Faaaarrk. And here I was pushing a 60:11 every day for 4 hours!

....and you'd likely be right!....what was probably happening was that these guys were still doing 'hard' workouts followed by 'recovery' sessions cos that's how their bodies felt....there wasn't any real structure like we have today, but they may well have been getting similar results just by 'listening to their bodies'. Of course the fitness levels are all relative to those around you.....I'd guess that those old guys on a structured program of today would have been significantly better!....those heavy frames woulda created a great 'strength' work out!

hitchy

Now yer talkin'!!! Real bikes.....Columbus SLX Viners, Colnagos, Masis, Rossins all with Record and Mavic GP4 tubular rims.....Riders like Soukhourochenkov, Ekimov, Aboujapaorv, Ludwig, Grewal, Argentin, Criquelion, Vanderaerden, Planckaert etc etc


Enough of this carbon, Ti, alu, magnesium talk.....let's get back to road racing 1980s, Eastern Bloc-style!!!


[phew....got a bit excited there....]

the 'vintage cycling' thread is on the other page!......

Mods need to PM me a warning!!


Didn't see you at the gym, mate.....or did my disguise fool you? (gut, receding hairline, sweating like a racehorse after only 2 sets of squats???)

Wot...never had a P.M warning from a mod?...you're not trying hard enough!....I've got more warnings than P.M's LOL.....didn't make the gym......was still feeling a bit 'butchers', & need to have a hard road session tonite (seeing as I ain't been on the bike since sunday!)........intervals at the airport...what fun!

hitchy

Sprints along Melrose Dve, or slamming it up and down the Bulla cutting??

nah...'Operations road'...runs past the old Ansett maintenace base, around to the control tower. No traffic, good surface, no stopping, about 4km each way. cos its always windy (like you being a Sunbury resident wouldn't know that!), do hard intervals, push 4km into the wind, then recover coming back. The 'airport' is Nth west cyclists mecca during winter. Only inhabited by lovers, druggies, 'plane spotters' & cyclists!.........i love the smell of 'av' gas in the evening!

hitchy

Yeah....I know that road. Got lost out there one day coming from Glen Iris (a "new" way...) trying to find Wildwood Rd. Talk about exposed!!!

I guess the "lovers" out that way are of a different orientation to those you'd ocasinally startle on Kew Blvd...LOL.

Love 'wildwood'......the place to be once daylight saving starts...big bunch leaves Westfield Airport west at 5pm on tuesday nites over summer.......some good hills out that way....& now that they've actually fixed one of the bridges ya don't fall thru, (as much). We used to race wildwood, but to many of the 'Beach road' clubs had a sook cos they reckoned it was to hard. then the bridge fell down, then we lost the permit....still good training ground though....sunday morning boys occaisionally head that way, down 'Mad max's hill' off lancefield road,

cheers,

Hitchy

that pick a plank was dodgy.