Way's you deal with the pain when you have to catch the wheel in front

RowanHarley

I don't really have any way of dealing with the pain of trying to hold onto someone's wheel after a long day in the saddle, so I was hoping some of you could enlighten me on the ways you bear the pain of having to get out of your saddle and catch that wheel.

Eamonnator

Rule 20 covers your problem.

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#20

JK.BMC

RowanHarley wrote: »

I don't really have any way of dealing with the pain of trying to hold onto someone's wheel after a long day in the saddle, so I was hoping some of you could enlighten me on the ways you bear the pain of having to get out of your saddle and catch that wheel.

Don't drop the wheel.
And practice sprinting.

Back to school tomorrow?

RowanHarley

Eamonnator wrote: »

Rule 20 covers your problem.

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#20

Rule 4 needs to be seen by my whole club, who thinks Chris Froome could win the tour de france on a 1980's steel bike.

lennymc

Strawberry flavoured bar tape

lescol

I'm on week 4 "fatigue and pain", it's a free course and pretty good, if you have the time then get some up to date science on suffering:D

"The Science of Endurance Training and Performance"

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/endurance-performance

Getting dropped is part of the game, as you improve you get dropped less, if it's a Sunday club run that leaves you on the road alone...well I wouldn't care for your club...

Lumen

Put the pain in the box, and put the box away.

greenspurs

MTFU ? or HTFU ?

Lumen

greenspurs wrote: »

MTFU ? or HTFU ?

I don't think I've ever heard a woman complain about pain on the bike. It seems to be an exclusively male phenomenon. So perhaps WTFU.

ford2600

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17465612

It's only a theory(from a rather colourful figure), but an interesting one...

It was key in a complete lunatic swimming a mile in 0C water a few years back though

fondriest

Tramadol is a favourite of a lot of the pro's.

robyntmorton

There's only one phrase you need to remember, that of Jens Voigt:

SHUT UP LEGS!

eeeee

Lumen wrote: »

I don't think I've ever heard a woman complain about pain on the bike. It seems to be an exclusively male phenomenon. So perhaps WTFU.

I moan plenty!

I remember a sprinter (track) asking me how I dealt with the pain of pursuit. I never thought about it before. Had no idea what to tell him!

Different bodies can deal with different kinds of pain I think, depending on what kind of muscles you have (fast and slow twitch, and what combination of both).

By pain are people talking about the leg burn lung scream? Just belt into it and don't think about it.
Personally, I can dig deeper and go harder when I'm already 'in pain', and find it much harder to go from cold or fresh into things. Different strokes.

By far and away the biggest impediment to my speed and ability is my head, get that on side and it doesn't matter what pain you're in!

dastardly00

I tell myself that if I put in max effort for the time it takes me to count from 1 to 20 in my head, then I will have caught the wheel in front.

So I count from 1 to 20 and put in max effort.

If I haven't caught the wheel in front, then I give myself a few seconds of rest, and repeat the same process of counting 1 to 20 plus max effort.

The counting process persuades me to put in the effort because I know it's only for a finite period of time... even though I repeat the process if unsuccessful!

Eamonnator

If you're in pain, chances are, the other guy is suffering as well.
That thought sometimes keeps me going.

cdaly_

dastardly00 wrote: »

I tell myself that if I put in max effort for the time it takes me to count from 1 to 20 in my head, then I will have caught the wheel in front.

So I count from 1 to 20 and put in max effort.

But I count reaaalllllyyyy reaaallllyyyyy sslllooooowwwwww.....

robyntmorton

Nee actually makes a good point.

How much "pain" is just the voice in your head telling you you can't go on and should stop? If you can learn to silence the doubts in your own mind, you'll keep pushing.

DKmac

Tramadol does the trick

Borderfox

I find at points like that I drop it to the heaviest gear I have (50x11) and just roll that through

RowanHarley

lescol wrote: »

I'm on week 4 "fatigue and pain", it's a free course and pretty good, if you have the time then get some up to date science on suffering:D

"The Science of Endurance Training and Performance"

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/endurance-performance

Getting dropped is part of the game, as you improve you get dropped less, if it's a Sunday club run that leaves you on the road alone...well I wouldn't care for your club...

Well I'd think the same if it wasn't for the fact that it came after a long hill climb, which we pushed up it. We were messing around, with one breaking away then the rest going after them. This eventually made my legs blow

RowanHarley

Borderfox wrote: »

I find at points like that I drop it to the heaviest gear I have (50x11) and just roll that through

Too bad I don't have that 11 on the back. Makes it harder to keep up on the downhill

Chumpski

Not sure about everyone else but I find that a 52-12, 52-11 are big, big gears and i rarely need (or can!) go into them.

Granted as a junior, sometimes it would have come in handy to have a 13 rather than a 14 but you can get by just fine with 52-14 (is it 53-14??).

Borderfox

For short periods of time you can drop it into the 50-11 and just roll it through, it will take a bit of strain off your cardio system and get you back on track

RowanHarley

Chumpski wrote: »

Not sure about everyone else but I find that a 52-12, 52-11 are big, big gears and i rarely need (or can!) go into them.

Granted as a junior, sometimes it would have come in handy to have a 13 rather than a 14 but you can get by just fine with 52-14 (is it 53-14??).

Nope, sadly just 52-14... But going downhill, a 52-11 would be handy to pick up the speed on the decent. I'm confident with my decending skills so it'd suit better to have bigger gears

JK.BMC

RowanHarley wrote: »

Nope, sadly just 52-14... But going downhill, a 52-11 would be handy to pick up the speed on the decent. I'm confident with my decending skills so it'd suit better to have bigger gears

Not if the internationally accepted gear limitations for junior riders (52x14) are to be accepted as necessary; they are there for many good reasons, which any good coach could explain further.

I have known numerous riders, young and old, who believed that if they had a bigger cog on the back, this would make them better cyclists. I know of young lads of 13 and 14 riding around on bikes with 53x11 in some cases, which long term doesn't seem sensible at all if they want to become bike racers. I suppose they just ride what the parents buy for them - what the bike shop sells them.

Which all really makes me wonder out loud, how the hell is it that year in year out, every weekend, junior riders in A3 - and sometimes A1/A2 races - manage to beat senior riders, even though they are riding very different gearing? A good example was from the Gorey one year: a junior chap riding 52x14 won the 6km TT, with a tailwind, over a minute faster than myself riding 53x12 on a TT bike (I was a bit fat back then...) He has since gone on to be a decent International rider - fair play to him. I'm still pack fodder, riding 53x11 now!

If you think bigger gears will make you better, then perhaps you need to reconsider for as moment. It's an understandable mistake to make to be fair.

boege

Watch highlights of the 2014 junior world champ. Running restricted gears and yet the last lap (plus a bit) was averaged at over 50kmph. Legs spinning so fast they were blurred.....savage. Caught all the Irish lads (bar one) on the hop.

If you are a junior you should have the advantage of being able to spin faster (with training) which saves the legs. Reading back, while one problem is holding the wheel, the real damage was done on the hill and you have to look at that also (i.e. minimise going deep).

Juniors (that are lighter) often have a power to weight advantage which they can use on the hills (with training). A classic time to attack is rolling over the top off a hill after someone out in a push and everyone is looking to recover. Saving a little on the climb is the trick.

RowanHarley

boege wrote: »

Watch highlights of the 2014 junior world champ. Running restricted gears and yet the last lap (plus a bit) was averaged at over 50kmph. Legs spinning so fast they were blurred.....savage. Caught all the Irish lads (bar one) on the hop.

If you are a junior you should have the advantage of being able to spin faster (with training) which saves the legs. Reading back, while one problem is holding the wheel, the real damage was done on the hill and you have to look at that also (i.e. minimise going deep).

Juniors (that are lighter) often have a power to weight advantage which they can use on the hills (with training). A classic time to attack is rolling over the top off a hill after someone out in a push and everyone is looking to recover. Saving a little on the climb is the trick.

Always hard when you feel you could ride up that hill all day lol

lescol

RowanHarley wrote: »

Well I'd think the same if it wasn't for the fact that it came after a long hill climb, which we pushed up it. We were messing around, with one breaking away then the rest going after them. This eventually made my legs blow

mighty glad I wasn't there, getting old and watching young guys flying off in the distance is so discouraging:D

Good luck with the training:p