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How far can you go?

Edogawakikkoman

Maximum Pace
Jan 14, 2007
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To what extreme should we ride...?

For me, I'd ride everyday if the weather was good and I didn't have to work...
that's cause I'm lazy.

This is the first year in 7 that I haven't entered a race... I've done less mileage than I had planned as well...

I know I want to improve, ride faster, further, longer and enjoy more and more...
but how far can I go without giving up something else...and actually putting in a bit more effort. The year off racing may have been good or bad...will see.

Was just looking at our team's best rider...he has a full time job, 3 kids and should have no more spare time than I have...yet he competes in most of the top races in Japan and trains 25/30 days at least a month. A day off for him may include 800 sit ups...

How do you motivate yourself?

Look at his stats for Oct!!!
【2010年10月】
走行距離 1741km
走行時間 60時間50分
練習日数 25日

・腹筋 6400回/8日
・ランジ15kg 940回/7日
・脚上げ15kg 500回/5日
・レッグカール15kg 520回/6日
:eek:

I envy the stats but he must be missing out on something somewhere?

I know some of you guys train as much? Far east? or More?
 
Yes, I'm also amazed at the self-disciplined who balance work/family/social life with a full slate of training every month. It just doesn't seem humanly possible!

I also decided to limit racing this year, with only one measly start to my credit.
Alas, that was my downwfall motivationally speaking since it's hard getting out of bed for the 6:00 am ride without that fixed goal of racing in mind. Work finishing late doesn't help, but at the end of the day is it just another excuse?
It's an interesting yet sometimes annoying mind game.:bike:
 
Alter Ego aiming to keep "Blue Belt"...

24fl18w.jpg


This "Belt Prognosis" helps me motivate myself...

At least 13,000km/year or 250km/week...more is virtually impossible for average week-end cyclists like myself :(.
The important thing though is to cut back on junk miles and chalk up as many high-octane toge miles as possible...:D
 
Personal: 2 kids, semi-fulltime job, working wife.

There is a lot of myth about doing the big number rides. In a nut shell it all comes down to what you do in the time you ride.

At the beginning of the season I did a lot of LSD rides (long slow distance) these were to burn fat and getting me spinning. I also did a lot of indoor training on the rollers to perfect my pedaling technique.

Once the season kicks in beleive it or not about 70% of my riding is done right here in front of the PC or TV on the rollers doing high intensity interval training that takes between 30 - 60 minutes to complete done on average twice a week.

Also in the mornings I ride about 30km at 75% of race speed using redlights for sprint training or pace training behind motorbikes.

I might get one 100+ km ride in every 2 or 3 weeks but again mid season these aren't so important as my intervals and those will change depending on the races Im training for.

Here are my stats for October:

Count: 8 Activities (4 of which are races)
Distance: 721.37 km (add another 500km for the daily training rides Total= 1,221km)
Time: 21:32:52 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 8,338 m
Avg Speed: 33.5 km/h
Avg HR: 135 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence: 91 rpm
Calories: 31,082 C

Note: I've stopped recording a lot of my morning and afternoon training rides as well a my interval training as I only require the HR monitor and a timer.

Also to add I think that cycling is a bragging sport, with so many numbers to drop on your fellow riders people tend to be oneupmanship, this as you are already experiencing leads to lack of motivation to train or race, Don't let other peoples figures effect you, focus on your own goals.

Also note that an average of 500km over 4 weeks is very short distances that take around 22minutes of riding time to complete. So don't think that you need to do several big rides as many small rides at 80% of capacity will build your wattage output up faster than anything else!

The off season for me will focus on pushing larger ratios at the same cadence Im famous for (Imagine 53-11 at 120rpm ;) ) as well as climbing on standard cranks rather than on the compacts.
 
True story: my ex boss had a book entitled "Time Management" gathering dust on his desk. "Is it a good book?" I asked. "Dunno, never have time to read it…."

Personal: 1 kid (1 more coming soon), full time job and evening job 2/3 nights a week, working wife (including Saturday's – ouch!)

Routine is the key I think.

Basically I can train when my wife and child are sleeping. This means asaren morning training during the season, and nights on the trainer / cross training in the winter.

I find if I train at the same time each day it doesn't take much motivation as it just becomes something you do like getting up, eating breakfast, going to work…. Also just do be doing something I love doing is motivation enough.

Other motivation for asaren? Friends to ride with, get your training out of the way early, beat the heat in summer, watch the sun come up...

Motivation for night training? Good music, a hot bath and beer as a reward!

Agree with Tom and James about the junk miles. For me solo rides are mostly in the hills and group rides are riding through and off on the flats. Intervals and TT efforts are also a great way to "do more with less".

Also, there's nothing better than having a race on the horizon to plan your training for. This year I aimed for one race a month and picked ones that I could "sell" to the family such as Kusatsu, Norikura and the Japan Cup.

Happy riding!

Andy

www.jyonnobitime.com/time
 
Training

More and more study's show that using your time wisely is more affective. Periodisation is key in any sport. Weight's in the off season (starting with low reps low weight moving to greater weight keeping low reps increasing explosiveness, slow base build in the pre season, then intervals and goal race distance matching one or two times a week. Stretching is a key component and healthy intake of food, obviosly. I consider myself a professional mechanic, and have worked many professional races and am certified by USA cycling as a mechanic, but a pro rider I am not, just a Cat 4 in the US(beginner). I have gathered my info from many books, athleates and the computer. Really though everyone is different and will respond differently to training.
Tapering before a big race (lowering your training voulume) and peaking no more than twice a season is affective for some.
Some are just built to win races and there is no training that can change your genes!
Just my opinion, Like I say, I'm no pro!
great subject and great to read about what others are doing.
I love reading about FarEast and his escapades and its nice to see a family man make it, keep up the good work sir..... hope you made safe from Cameroon havent cought up on the blogspot yet
 
Im coming from an odd place where I was brought up with the European model of Master and student..... no reason given for doing anything you just did it.

After I had knee surgery and was given the all clear I went and had a session with a Lemond Master Coach and we went through many scientific training methods that worked very well with me.

Did pedal scan and had near perfect pedaling technique, why? Cos I was told to only use rollers by my Master back in the day.

I was told to focus on core training and not long millage spin, spin, spin. Now the big names in cycling science are proving that high cadance is more economic and gives riders that can spin high rpm's an advantage. Short rides with high intensity is now the proven way to improve wattage output.

This off season I plan to go back to the track, get as many miles as I can in on a single speed fixed gear track bike and ride round and round and round. Why? well ou just need to look at the big names in the Pro Peloton to answer that!

As for time.... I would love to be able to train for 4 hours a day which is what the pro pretty much do (Well the ones I spoke to) 2 hours in the morning a nap and then 2 hours in the afternoon.

But family comes first and I'm very, very luck to have a partner that full supports me in the sport I love and actively gets involved on the support side.

Sad thing is I just got a call and asked if I would be part of the squad to race in the UCI Tour of Madagascar but can't afford either the flights or the time off work :(
 
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