smoth

I just started at a new school and joined the cycling team since I enjoy racing and there is no skiing within 500 miles of my new location. Obviously I have done some riding before but never more than 20-30 miles at ~18-19mph. Looking through all of the ride postings from the past year, I am realizing that 40-50 mi is a "short" ride, 80-100mi weekend trips are not uncommon. And to add to it, these are all explicitly drop rides. I am in a new area so lets just say getting left behind 20+mi away from home does not sound like fun. Luckily the road season is in the spring (I do not have a mountain or cyclocross bike as of now) so I have some time to prepare! Unfortunately I live in a city and do not have a car. I am a graduate researcher so I work most days until 5 or 6 meaning that if I have to go home, eat dinner, get myself out of grid lock,I would never get much of a chance to actually ride. So I am looking at alternatives.
1) running...good general exercise, not helping my technique or quite the right muscles.
2) live at the gym...stationary bike, treadmill, weigh lifting
3) get a trainer...a little expensive but doable

I need to be able to at least keep up with the pack come September so I can ride with the team
Any suggestions given my location and limitations?

Thanks for the advice

chasm54

Can ypu commute by bike? Good idea, if possible.

Running is fine for aerobic conditioning but cycling is very different. You need time on the bike.

Visit the 33 in the racer's forum and read the sticky "New to racing? Here's a tip or two". Lots of useful links in there. And since you have joined the team, ask your team-mates about training rides. Nothing is more useful than learning to ride in fast groups.

smoth

Yes, I do commute by bike to work every day however its only a half mile and take a good 10 min. Unfortunately its a lot of dodging pot holes in the bike lanes or being stopped at red lights every block or two. I'm thinking I need to find some stationary option to get me to the point where I can confidently complete a 40mi ride (about the minimum to actually get to ride according to my teammates). Would a fluid trainer with my bike or a stationary bike at a gym be more worthwhile to build up the proper muscles so I can start riding with the team without holding them back too much?

caloso

First, congrats on college and on joining the cycling team. I wish I'd done that when I was in school. Second, I'd also recommend as much saddle time as you can get between now and September and there's no better way than combining training and commuting. Remember there's no law that requires you to take the most direct route to work. Red lights are opportunities for intervals, potholes are opportunities to improve your bike handling skills.

Get a trainer if you want to do focused intervals at home, but don't shortchange the commute. I'm a Cat 3 and at least 75% of my training is on the way to or from the office.

zandoval 

That's the ticket...
And don't loose track of that smile - In other words don't let your competitiveness spoil your ride...

sorridere quando andare in bicicletta (a guy my age yelled this to me in Italy when I was 24 trying to catch up with the pack)

late

Take a look at this..

https://www.amazon.com/Base-Building-...g+for+cyclists

treebound 

Some like this and similar books:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bicy...=9780941950077

Try and connect with some of the team members, they probably have an off-season training group or program.

quadripper

Try riding before dinner? Given that it is July, here it is daylight out until ~830pm. If you work till 6, get home at 630.... there's two hours of daylight left!!!
How much gridlock do you have to ride through? Maybe you can find some routes that have low traffic to get in some miles? Even if you just get out and get an hour on the bike in the evening, that's all it takes. And some weekend days.
Good luck!

smoth

Went on my first ride with the team yesterday, about 25 miles. The encouraging news: on "hills" I can keep up no problem. I have only used cycling as an alternative to high intensity interval training in the past so doing a 1-2 mile climb is no big deal. However, I seriously struggled on the flats and this was a lower speed recovery ride (~15mph avg). Unfortunately for me, there are no real hills in the area so the majority of the riding is flat, maybe a change in elevation of 300ft over 20-30 miles.

This was an easy ride, but no easy way for me to get there on my own to build miles. I do not have a car and public transportation does not service the area. From talking to the team, there really isnt any good place to build solid miles without a car or spending 30-60 min in traffic to get out of gridlock. The team does a recovery ride once or twice per week so I will surely be hitting those up, but after getting burned on the flats, I am not feeling comfortable going on a 50-100 mile training ride quite yet.

I can build miles around town, but it makes it hard to add endurance when you are at a red light every 30-60s. I am starting to think a trainer may be a good investment for weeknight mile accumulation. Then on the weekends where I have some real time, I will try to venture out of the city and try out some of the longer routes recommended by some guys on the team as good mile builders.

I guess its good and bad, but since I currently do not have a mountain bike nor the funds to get one for this upcoming fall, I have a solid 5 months of training before heavy road focused team training begins. Should be more than enough time for me to get myself to the point where I can at least keep up with the pack.

Dunbar

No offense but you're making a lot of excuses. Try to ride 20 miles before or after work during your commute (or split it 50/50.) If riding in town is too slow than ride somewhere else. That's 100 miles during the week plus whatever you can manage on the weekends. Getting dropped on a 15mph average ride means you need to build your aerobic base. A trainer is an option but when the weather permits I'd be riding outside (I personally find trainers to be torture devices.)

valygrl

What city are you in? If you have winter there, you're going to need a trainer anyway, so may as well get that. It's a good craigslist item. Get a fan too.

TommyBing

You need to take a bike and ride it 300 miles a week. There are no junk miles at your stage. Just ride it, no computer, no Strava, just a phone, a tube, and a way to pump it up. Ride 40-60 miles a day. Push it. Do this for 12 months, non-stop, regardless of weather, then buy a Powertap wheel for $500 on eBay and get serious if you're still interested.

I was in exactly the same boat as you my freshman year in college in 1996. And there were only mountains where I went to school. I was dropped instantly going out of town on every ride for the first two or three months. I also couldn't hang with them going 16mph in the valley either while they just chatted and laughed. You know what this means? It's really, really simple. I sucked. And they didn't. And I needed to get better, so I did. Now it's your turn. It's like, the circle life, dude. HTFU.

valygrl

300 miles a week? while working and going to grad school? what world do you live in?

smoth

Ordered a trainer! I have no problem riding a stationary bike for a while or running on a treadmill so I think that should get me started. My cleat setup broke on my last ride so I need to get that addressed before I can do anything.

As a grad student there is no guarantee that i will leave the lab until its dark and this concept of having free weekends, at least for the rest of the year, is completely foreign to me. Typically I am not home and free of lab commitments until 9 or 10 pm so this will at least give me the flexibility to build miles, long stretches of miles, on my schedule.

TommyBing

The one where my PhD colleagues shut the bar down two, three, four nights a week, all while complaining how little time they have.

Also, unless you're getting an MFA in Abstract Design from Cal State-Fullerton, your stipend is your job, and at even the most cut-rate public programs there still is a strong stance against seeking outside employment.

He wants to hang with competitive cyclists, and he wants to do that in 5 weeks. The only thing I can imagine that would help is 1500 hard miles.

Besides, it's an obvious troll post, anyway. The first post referenced a day ending at 5 or 6, now a week later it's 9 or 10. More to the point, the only cities on earth which resemble the one he is describing are Mexico City, Moscow, Jakarta, and Mumbai. And in that case, his English and affinity for standard measurement are impeccable.

Dunbar

Don't discount riding in the dark until you've tried it. With a good front light, rear blinky and some reflective gear it can be safe and enjoyable. After dark there are usually a lot less cars on the road so it can be pretty peaceful out there (especially in the fall/winter.) Riding after dark is/was the only time I felt safe wearing headphones because it was so quiet on the roads.

I have to agree with the previous poster about your schedule. At first you said you get out of the lab at 5-6pm. Now your'e saying you aren't done until 9-10pm? If you're working 12-14 hour days on a regular basis I'm not sure it's realistic to compete in any endurance sport. That hardly leaves much time for anything other than sleeping and showering when you're not at school.