You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

A_Sober_Paddy

Were to start...

Well I've started logs like this one before but they fell away but after seeing this years Tour de France, the first tour I actually took interest in...I decided to give cycling a proper go...but quiet a few things got in the way...

Firstly bad weather mixed with dangerous road conditions, followed by the bike breaking down and not having the money to get it fixed followed quiet nicely with a job. This job gave me the money to make the repairs to my bike...But as with jobs my spare time became limited and with bad weather the bike got pushed to the side. But then I got motivated again and get a few weeks cycling and then only to get hit with sickness(Bronchitis, Pluralis, Flu & Pluralis again)

So I decided to get a bike trainer...One of these Tacx ones

So I decided to ease my way back into the cycling, decided to use 2 routes Route A & B

Week 1
Starting Weight 80KG
Day|Distance|Time|Average Speed|Average Watt|Watt\KG|Average HR|Route
Sunday| 20.51 | 35.27 | 34.71 | 219 | 2.73 | 175 | A
Monday|20.51|34.25|35.74|242|3.03|168|A
Tuesday|20.51|35.54|34.26|217|2.71|156|A
Tuesday|20.51|34.20|35.84|244|3.04|166|A
Wednesday|26.13|41.37|37.67|246|3.07|161|B
Thursday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Friday|20.51|33.27|36.77|252|3.15|166|A
Friday|20.51|33.19|36.98|256|3.20|159|A
Saturday|26.13|40.53|38.34|254|3.18|162|B

Hit it fairly hard in my first week, as I'm working 45 hours this week, so hoping to balance it out

Any and all feedback greatly appreciated, will updated my second week back in training Saturday evening

Beasty

Those average speeds are very impressive. Are you cycling alone or in a group? Have you done much cycling before? Have you done much on the VR?

I can't see the Mapmyride routes, as they are private - I presume they are pretty flat - are you using a normal road bike or TT bike?

Anyway, good luck with it

A_Sober_Paddy

Beasty wrote: »

Those average speeds are very impressive. Are you cycling alone or in a group? Have you done much cycling before? Have you done much on the VR?

I can't see the Mapmyride routes, as they are private - I presume they are pretty flat - are you using a normal road bike or TT bike?

Anyway, good luck with it

Sorry mate, all those training spins are on the VR(trainer), as with work going out on the road is not an option for many reason's mainly for my own safety

Beasty

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Sorry mate, all those training spins are on the VR(trainer), as with work going out on the road is not an option for many reason's mainly for my own safety

That explains the speed then. Are you uploading your own courses, or using some of those provided by Tacx?

A_Sober_Paddy

Beasty wrote: »

That explains the speed then. Are you uploading your own courses, or using some of those provided by Tacx?

Uploading my own mate...The routes should now be public...

I'm uploading the routes from bikely, as the routes on mapmyride don't seem to work.

As I said I'm trying to ease myself back into the cycling so taking it fairly handy:p

smacl

Great results on the VR. I use the tacx flow myself 3-4 evenings a week, and have struggled to get 3w/kg on it, albeit on slightly longer hill courses (30k-40k). And that's after a year and buckets of sweat.

Cheers for the info on bikely, just signed up! Haven't uploaded any of my own routes as yet, but would love to compare my VR performance with my real performance for the same route. I've no faith in the tacx stats as things stand and am interested in a real world calibration. Dublin-Sallygap-Laragh-Sallygap-Dublin would be brilliant to have on the VR.

A_Sober_Paddy

smacl wrote: »

Great results on the VR. I use the tacx flow myself 3-4 evenings a week, and have struggled to get 3w/kg on it, albeit on slightly longer hill courses (30k-40k). And that's after a year and buckets of sweat.

Cheers for the info on bikely, just signed up! Haven't uploaded any of my own routes as yet, but would love to compare my VR performance with my real performance for the same route. I've no faith in the tacx stats as things stand and am interested in a real world calibration. Dublin-Sallygap-Laragh-Sallygap-Dublin would be brilliant to have on the VR.

Is that a known route?

smacl

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Is that a known route?

Not especially, just handy for where I live, and you tend to see more cyclists around the Sallygap than cars most weekends. Lots of climbing options from different angles, and some great scenery.

Sample route; http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=479477

Hmmzis

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Is that a known route?

I'd say it's well known allright. There are quite a few options how to get up to Sally Gap and once you're up you have the choice of more climbing, rolling or downhill terrain.

A_Sober_Paddy

So after my first weeks training I was quiet happy and also managed to drop 2kg(probably need to invest in a better weighing scales).

The second week was going to be hard, with doing a 40+ hour week in work for the first time in nearly a whole year.

So I had a few more days off from training in week 2, but work really took its toll on me and I didn't nearly get as much time or miles on the bike as I'd hoped.

I added two new routes to this weeks schedule, Routes C & D, with A & B still on the roster

Week 2
Starting Weight 78KG
Day|Distance|Time|Average Speed|Average Watt|Watt\KG|Average HR|Route
Sunday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Monday|20.51|32.41|37.65|266|3.41|165|A
Tuesday|26.13|40.35|38.62|259|3.32|166|B
Wednesday|7.15|20.33|20.86|233|2.99|161|C
Thursday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Friday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Saturday|59.93|1.46.19|33.82|228|2.92|167|D

So as you can see Week 2 not nearly as good as Week 1, but I didn't want to push myself too much, with being so wreaked from work during the week I don't fancy running my body through the mill and getting sick again...

Lets hope Week 3 is a little more productive

A_Sober_Paddy

A couple of poor weeks, with a mix of being sick and doing a ton of extra hours in work...

Week 3
Starting Weight 77kg
Day|Distance|Time|Average Speed|Average Watt|Watt\KG|Average HR|Route
Sunday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Monday|26.13|39.13|39.98|286|3.71|167|B
Tuesday|26.13|39.43|39.47|274|3.56|168|B
Wednesday|19.15|32.32|35.31|201|2.61|132|?
Thursday|32.73|50.29|38.89|274|3.56|162|?
Friday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Saturday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Week 4
Starting Weight 77kg
Day|Distance|Time|Average Speed|Average Watt|Watt\KG|Average HR|Route
Sunday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Monday|26.13|39.52|39.33|275|3.57|165|B
Tuesday|26.13|40.41|38.53|258|3.36|163|B
Wednesday|29.38|40.41|34.64|212|2.76|160|?
Wednesday|7.15|20.58|20.45|222|2.88|165|C
Thursday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Friday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
Saturday|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

For next week I think I'm going to rest up and try and shift this cold and really focus on my diet...The extra hours, weather and over training mix with my current diet is all coming together to make me sick.

Just wondering if anyone could help me out with advice on core work specifically for cycling?