Cycling newcomer

Formosa

As the title suggests, I am new to this roadcycling lark. I have been running at a plodder level for the last five or six years, usually fairly injury prone, but finally got my first (& last) marathon completed in Cork on 4th June.

Managed to fairly cripple myself in the process so the running is on hold until late in the year at the earliest.

I bought my brand new shiny Boardman Team bike last Saturday week, 23rd June, following some research on the cycling forum. I have to say, said forum is excellent and has been hugely enlightening for me. I even bought SPD pedals & shoes (not SPD-SL mind you) and am happily cycling around clipping in and out with ease - well the clipping out is easy anyway, but that's the important bit.

Anyway, have been out five times, distances of 29, 20 , 23 , 36 & 24 kms in speeds of 25, 29, 24, 29 & 27 km/h and elevation gains of 93, 97 , 338, 212 & 334 metres respectively.

Reasonable going I suppose, but I had some bit of an aerobic fitness base from the running. I have just entered the 70km cycle of the Tour de Kilkenny ...its in 30 days from today and i'm just too windy to try the 100km, plus I don't fancy the challenge of the Woodstock climb yet!

I am eyeing up the 100km part of the Sean Kelly in Waterford three weeks after that, hopefully should be able for the distance by then.

Unfortunately I'm away to England today for a wedding and won't be back until next Tuesday night so feel that I am missing some crucial days training. I might try to get a sneaky spin in at 5 this evening before we head off for the boat!

I'm loving it so far, the bike makes some difference compared to my hybrid. Long may it continue.

Formosa

8 days since my last spin, I got out again last night. This must be the worst preparation ever for a first organised cycle. 22 days to go to my 70km!

5 tough days in the UK behind me, I did 20km last night, 30.8km/h average, 99m elevation gain.

Average heart beat high at 165 and maxed at a whopping 201 (within the first two kms)...has to be down to the beer.

I plan to get out either today or tomorrow and then get 40km + in on Saturday...wary of overdoing it too, shoulder sore after last night, nothing too bad though.

Formosa

Well when the rain eventually eased off last night I went out for a 30km spin.

Took a turn off the main road to go up a bit of a hill, nothing major. It was a very narrow and broken road and shortly after milking time so the potholes were filled with cowdung.

I felt like a pro doing Paris-Roubaix or Liege Baston Liege, whichever one has the cobbles, I have childhood memories of seeing Kelly doing it covered head to toe in muck.

30klm, 28.7 kph, 204m elevation.

Struggling a bit yet with dropping down the gears, I might put a q on the main forum if no-one reads this.

As you can't go from 11th to 10th, but rather will go from 11th to 1st and end up pedalling fresh air, what do people do when dropping for a hill? I presume going from say 15th to 5th and then adjusting up or down accordingly? It really kills my momentum when I balls it up, which is all the time.

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

Beasty

The gears on the small and big ring overlap considerably. Depending on your setup, you may find that moving to the small ring is the equivalent of dropping 2 or 3 gears. I tend to adjust up 1 or 2 gears when dropping onto the small ring

Formosa

Small milestone yesterday in that I went 50km for the first time. Got through it reasonably comfortably. I raised my handlebars 5mm before hand and that seemed to help as I have been getting a lot of niggly sholder pains, but they were lessened a good bit yesterday. Maybe I'm just getting used to the bike more.

Kept the route to a reasonably flat one. Had a strong tailwind heading out, but when I turned into it at halfway it really was a bast@rd, that was my first time to go into such a wind.

Another question, on the way out (on a main road) I caught up on a tractor. He was half on the hard shoulder and half on the road, so I had no choice but to overtake (rather than undertake) him.

1. Should I always overtake or is it OK to fly up the inside if there is enough space?

2. If overtaking as yesterday, should I sit in behind and let any cars go first? There was one car came up behind me yesterday but waited and let me go first.

50km, 30km /hr, 296m elevation.

t'bear

thats a very handy avg speed over 50km, well done

Formosa

Lovely evening for it tonight, exceptionally mild. Hadn't planned to go out after the RTE forecast last night, but they were way out, in my area (Kilkenny) at least.

Did 31.3km, 28.8k/hr, 269 m.

I need to get to find more hills around the place now, time to up the climbing ante a bit.

Formosa

Well I found a hill tonight, nothing on the scale of the Sally Gaps etc that a lot of you around here seem to take in your stride, but enough to have me gasping for air.

I see on Strava "segments" that it is 1.8km, 6.1% avg grade,and avg speed was 15.3km. Anytime I looked at my speed on it I seemed to be nearer 11 or 12 to be honest. Not knowing the road didn't help at all, I was getting notions about getting off and walking if the next bend didn't bring some relief, which thankfully it did.

I'll have to go at it once or twice more before the T de KK, build up the old strength a bit more!

Overall, 24.2km, 284m elev, 26.1km/h.

Formosa

Out three times since my last post:

Saturday, 50.2km, same route as my 50km the week before, nearly identical time too but a lot more consistent as there wasn't any breeze to speak of. 30.1 km/h.

Monday, short route with one nasty climb that had me wheezing. 17.3km, 26.2km/h.

Last night, first time for me to get lost. Had mapped out a route (and had travelled the roads before) but there was a diversion on the country roads, I ended up going along a narrow road with high ditches, not knowing whether I was going N, S, E or W and unable to see any landmarks. Typically I went 6 or 7 km without meeting a soul to ask where the hell I was.

Eventually I came along a bridge over the river and the flow of the water gave me an indication (of course it could have been a bend in the river going the opposite direction!) and I came back onto familiar territory shortly after. Ended up doing 10km or so less than I had originally intended.

First time to wear bib shorts also, they felt weird for a while but grand then.

37.3km, 29.7km/hr.

Am now debating whether to do the 100 instead of 70km in the T de KK, think I'll stick with 70 as it's my first, can always do 100 in the Leinster Loop or Sean Kelly in the following weeks.

Formosa

I've been very quiet in the last week, only two spins. Last Friday, having been inspired by a thread here about early morning spins, headed out at 5.40 on a glorious morning. Great having the road to myself as I headed out towards Johnswell for some tough climbing.

46.6 kms in 27.2 km/hr

Short one this evening with the tough little climb at Threecastles.

17.4km in 26.2 km/hr.

Forecast seems decent for tomorrow evening so I will be tempted but should go easy with my 70k on Saturday morning...am also strongly considering heading down to Wexford for 80k Sunday morning...or should I just do 100k in Tour Kilkenny instead? Decisions, decisions.

Formosa

Haven't posted here for a while so a bit of a backlog of activities to catch up on:

4/8/12, Tour de Kilkenny 70km, I commented on it in the event thread so won't go into it again. 69.7lm, 2hr28m34sec, 660m, soaking wet.

5/8 short one, 17.5km, 40m40s, 237m

7/8 20.2km, 42m 35 sec, 166m

9/8 37.7km, 1h27m49sec, 447m

11/8 59.3km, 2h 7m 42s, 551m

13/8 28.8km, 1h 2m 44s, 379.

Trying to add them all , 233.2km in 8 hrs, 30min, 4 secs (I think!), 2440m which gives a pace of 27.41 km/hour.

Two of them (9th & 11/8) were very early morning spins which are fantastic when it's a bright morning, as these ones were.

I have entered Sean Kelly 100km on Sunday week and will do one of the three on this weekend, at the moment I'm leaning heavily towards the Tipp one ahead of Portlaoise or Leinster loop.
I will Only do the 90 or 100km distance in whichever one I pick, but as I say Tipp is leading because:

1. It's closest to me
2. NCBI is a good charity
3. They give a jersey, don't think the others do at just €10 less.