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Race The Training Thread

I think using lubricant grease on threads is a bad idea. It's not something you'd do on a car, although vibrations are less of an issue on a bike. Anti-seize grease prevents seizing without making bolts any more likely to come lose, since that's exactly what it's designed for.

If you own a bike with any carbon bits, you need to have a tube of fiber grip and a torque wrench.
 
I'm no expert mechanic, but AFAIK there are parts that need grease and others that need thread lock. I grease my pedals and the screws affixing my cleats and would put thread locks on brake rotor bolts. I always thought the purposes of both is quite different: with grease you want to prevent seizing and water ingress, with thread lock you want to prevent screws coming off. And grip paste is different still in that it is applied to surfaces not screws and threads.

Am I getting something wrong here?
 
Thread lock is not the same as anti-seize!!!

Anti-seize can be used on any threads that you don't want to seize (like spark plugs and wheel nuts on a car), whereas thread lock is for threads that you absolutely do not want to come loose (like the bolts that hold your disk brakes on). Two different things entirely. Don't use thread lock on anything you are afraid of stripping the bolt head on.
 
I am aware of the distinction, and perhaps I worded my post ambiguously. But my point was that for bolts specifically, you commonly either add grease if you want to be able to remove the bolts more easily later on and thread lock on others that you don't want to remove by themselves (such as the screws for your brake rotors). Evidently, these two do very different things, and I think it is clear from my post that I don't see them as being alternatives to one another. It was just a comment on how to deal with bolts, namely that for some bolts you do nothing, for some you add thread lock and for some you add grease.

On the youtube videos where I got my mechanics skills from I haven't seen yet anyone arguing that one shouldn't use bike grease and only anti-seize instead. Again, I don't claim to be a great bike mechanic, but I'd be surprised to find out that I have missed something so basic.
 
Using anti-seize might be overkill for bikes, I just think it's better to use than grease. I suspect it also lasts longer.
 
Well, crap. A number of poor decisions means I'm not going to arrive on time for Motegi, so we're turning around and going home.
 
Well, crap. A number of poor decisions means I'm not going to arrive on time for Motegi, so we're turning around and going home.

Just arriving back in snow country.

Sorry we couldn't meet.

Beautiful day for it at Motegi but freezing cold early doors.

I have much to thank my mate for in helping us get the win.

Off season starts tomorrow. I'll be in line at the gym when it opens!

Andy

 
Just arriving back in snow country.

Sorry we couldn't meet.

Beautiful day for it at Motegi but freezing cold early doors.

I have much to thank my mate for in helping us get the win.

Off season starts tomorrow. I'll be in line at the gym when it opens!

Andy



Nice! I hope I will be 20 kilos lighter before next season...
 
Nice! I hope I will be 20 kilos lighter before next season...

I was heavier this year than I have been in years as I focused on TTs.

I plan to build some extra strength this winter and then skinny up in the spring.

If you are motivated to lose weight, nothing beats a pair of scales and a calendar in the bathroom. Weigh yourself each morning. Record it on the calendar.

Small steps are the way to go.

Andy
 
I was heavier this year than I have been in years as I focused on TTs.

I plan to build some extra strength this winter and then skinny up in the spring.

If you are motivated to lose weight, nothing beats a pair of scales and a calendar in the bathroom. Weigh yourself each morning. Record it on the calendar.

Small steps are the way to go.

Andy

That's actually what I had been doing for four or five months when I was making huge progress on my diet through stringent carbohydrate restriction and calorie tracking. However, I've been on a plateau for the last several months so it's hard to motivate yourself to record your weight when you aren't making steady notable process. And especially not when you're going up. But I will make a point to do it again.

I might start trying to do intermittent fasting again, too. Any successful diet is usually a combination of a bunch of small things rather than one big thing, although I would say that cutting carbs was by far the biggest element.

A few days ago, I had done pretty well to control carbs and alcohol for just a few days, which dropped my weight by something like two kilos, but I discovered that this left me incapable of finishing hard zone 6 intervals. Right now I am carrying an extra two kilos because of all the carb loading I did for the event. Sigh.
 
That's actually what I had been doing for four or five months when I was making huge progress on my diet through stringent carbohydrate restriction and calorie tracking. However, I've been on a plateau for the last several months so it's hard to motivate yourself to record your weight when you aren't making steady notable process. And especially not when you're going up. But I will make a point to do it again.

I might start trying to do intermittent fasting again, too. Any successful diet is usually a combination of a bunch of small things rather than one big thing, although I would say that cutting carbs was by far the biggest element.

A few days ago, I had done pretty well to control carbs and alcohol for just a few days, which dropped my weight by something like two kilos, but I discovered that this left me incapable of finishing hard zone 6 intervals. Right now I am carrying an extra two kilos because of all the carb loading I did for the event. Sigh.

In winter I train at night. The reward for riding rollers on the veranda in a snow storm (nowadays zwifting in the garage - must be going soft) is a hot bath, cold beer and the appetite this induces.

In the spring I train before breakfast. Breakfast fills the whole. And then I go to work. This is when the weight comes off for me. Low intensity volume at this time of year also seems to help.

Everyone is different. But maybe periodizing training through a yearly cycle, ie. put on a bit here, lose it here, maintain it here, is something to think about?

Andy
 
In winter I train at night. The reward for riding rollers on the veranda in a snow storm (nowadays zwifting in the garage - must be going soft) is a hot bath, cold beer and the appetite this induces.

In the spring I train before breakfast. Breakfast fills the whole. And then I go to work. This is when the weight comes off for me. Low intensity volume at this time of year also seems to help.

Everyone is different. But maybe periodizing training through a yearly cycle, ie. put on a bit here, lose it here, maintain it here, is something to think about?

Andy

The funny thing is that for years I tried to get up in the morning to ride/train before work, since through much of the year I often didn't have enough daylight left after getting off work and doing freelance work. I think I may have actually done it once. I can barely get up early enough for work! So doing Zwift at night (typically around 7:00 p.m.) is actually a perfect fit for me, regardless of the season. Rollers never did it for me, but this does.

I agree with periodization. There's no harm in fluctuating between a trim racing weight during the season and a slightly heavier but healthy weight during the season. But I really need to lose another 35 pounds just to be a normal weight for my height, much less a respectable race weight. All that mass doesn't just affect climbing, it also affects acceleration.

That said, with the advent of smart trainers and Zwift I suspect that more and more people will just stay fit all year round. Eventually it becomes less an issue of motivation (I train because I enjoy it as much as for any other reason) and more an issue of how much time you have.
 
Why is riding at night such an issue? With proper lights it is very safe. I just wouldn't hammer down descents with the same ferocity, but for training you don't necessarily need that anyway.
 
Ah, I see. While we do have regular bear sightings here, too, I don't think it'll be a problem as long as I stick to the bigger roads. But clearly, that risk assessment depends very much on your locale.

In all seriousness I don't particularly like riding in the dark, even with a decent (700 lumen) light. It's sort of disconcerting to do 21+ MPH with just a headlight.
 
In all seriousness I don't particularly like riding in the dark, even with a decent (700 lumen) light. It's sort of disconcerting to do 21+ MPH with just a headlight.

If I ride in the dark, I prefer early morning to late at night. Less traffic and maybe drivers who are more switched on.

Andy
 
In all seriousness I don't particularly like riding in the dark, even with a decent (700 lumen) light. It's sort of disconcerting to do 21+ MPH with just a headlight.
Phew, I thought you were serious about bears. (We have some here, and I have seen one myself once. Even on one university campus, we get regular reports of sightings. So it didn't even register as a joke to me.)

I'll do anything to get my cycling fix in. Before the birth of my child I used to ride a lot after work, i. e. usually in the dark. That's because I like to take my time in the morning. But I've adjusted my schedule and now I am mostly riding in the morning: I get up before my wife does, and when I come back, she is just getting up. And while I love the fact that I lose very little family time this way, I'm not really a morning person and never will be.
 
If I ride in the dark, I prefer early morning to late at night. Less traffic and maybe drivers who are more switched on.

Andy

Definitely. I don't mind starting an ultra-long ride in the dark as long as the sun will come up during. The worst thing would be to have your light die while you're up a mountain at 9 p.m...
 
Five days off the bike due to being busy with work. I was hoping to do a double session since the last two sessions in my current workout program were very short, but Zwift blocks you. So I rode around a bit and ended up setting a new maximum power record: 1,700 watts!

I still need to get a power meter to verify the numbers, since my smart trainer number's are known to be a bit iffy during maximal sprints. I'm curious how high I can get them!
 
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