RiderX

Faster #8 - Cadence

2008-05-13T03:49:00Z

Armstrong had a fast cadence, and he won a millon Tours de France, so we should all ride at a high cadence, right? If you ask 10 cyclists about the importance of cadence, you'll get 3 different answers and 7 blank looks. Cadence is confusing, but the basic fact is that riding at a higher cadence is faster, except when it isn't. High Cadence is Faster So, you went out on that hilly century to ride with some friends. You felt good and fast on the hills, but by mile 50 your legs were burning...(read more)

The unbearable suckiness of trainers

2008-03-20T03:08:00Z

During the winter, you have few choices: You can focus your training on keeping the couch from floating away, and watch much of your fitness vanish. You can ride in the cold, rain, wind, and snow You can do another sport Or you can ride inside Riding inside is the choice of many, and it's been a common choice for me, with my bike mounted on a Kurt Kinetic trainer. Some people say that riding on a trainer is tiring. Some people say it's tedious. I think that is unfair. Riding on a trainer...(read more)

Faster #7 - Heart Rate Monitors

2008-03-12T04:08:00Z

Lots of the cool guys have heart rate monitors. Should you get one? I'm going to assume that you are doing a set of structured workouts. So, if you're doing that, you need to set your training zones. You can do that by taking a percentage that you determine use 220-age or one of the other formulas, and then train based on that. But there are a few problems with that. First of all, none of the formulas to determine max hr are of much use, as there are wide variances of maximum heart rate across...(read more)

Faster #6 - Cadence drills

2008-03-01T05:07:00Z

To travel at a given speed, you need to put out a given amount of power. You can either do that by pedalling slowly and putting a lot of pressure on the pedals, or by pedalling faster and putting less pressure on the pedals. Since the more pressure you put on the pedals, the faster your legs get tired, it's preferable to pedal faster. Within reason. First of all, there is a limit to how fast you can comfortably pedal. And second, spinning generally stresses your aerobic system more, so you can...(read more)

Faster #5 - Specificity

2008-02-26T05:17:00Z

Initially, you just start riding. Perhaps you're doing it for fitness, or to lose weight, or just for recreation. And then, at some point, you decide that you want to get a bit more serious, so you start riding a bit faster, riding a bit farther. And then you plateau. You're riding harder, but not getting any better. The problem is that you're riding "sorta hard". A bit of digression into training theory... The purpose of training is to impose training stress on your body. The...(read more)

Faster #4 - Ceramic bearings...

2008-02-10T05:34:00Z

Ceramic bearings - bearings with ceramic balls rather than steel balls - are a common choice by the top-end cyclists. So, how much do they really gain you? If I can, I try to figure out what sort of maximum gains you might see when from a specific increase. In this case, we can do a decent job, as we know roughly how efficient bicycles are. The best data that I've found suggests that modern drivetrains are about 95% efficient (though it's hard to know exactly what they're measuring)....(read more)

Faster #3 - Ride with the fast guys

2008-01-26T23:30:00Z

or girls... This is probably the most common suggestion that riders give when asked how to get faster. I know that I got it, and it led me to head out on a lunch ride with some co-workers. At the time, I'd been riding for about a season, and had only done a small amount of riding with other people. The "slow warm up" consisted of a 20MPH ride on a slight uphill, and then continued through a flat section. I spent the first 20 minutes dropping off the back, chasing, dropping off the back...(read more)

Faster #2 - Light Wheels

2008-01-23T04:01:00Z

This time, we'll talk about whether lighter wheels make you faster. This last summer, I upgrade from a set of Bontrager Race X Lite wheels (which run about 1900 grams) to a custom set from OddsAndEndos (which run around 1500 grams). That's about 400 grams difference, which is about 0.9 lb. The lighter weight will have two effects. First, it's going to give me less weight to climb. With me at about 165 pounds during the season and the bike overall weighing about 20 pounds, that means a...(read more)

The ultimate food for long rides...

2008-01-18T04:49:00Z

Phatty's fictional post on how to be popular - fictional because of his delusion of popularity - reminded me of something that happened the last time that I did RSVP . I was riding with a group of guys that work at the same large software company that I do (yes, *that* large software company). The second day of RSVP starts in Bellingham, goes north and across the border into Canada, and wends its way north. After a while, it runs into the Fraser river in Fort Langley, where you will catch the...(read more)

Faster #1 - Aero bars

2008-01-15T02:41:00Z

I've wanted to write more, but I've kept getting involved in big articles, and running out of steam partway through them. Instead of that, I'm going to write a series of short articles about whether something will make you faster or not. First up: Aero bars Drag reduction is important in going faster, and aero bars definitely do it. So, put the bars on your bike, and you'll go faster... Well, not so fast (ha ha!). You have to get used to the aero bar position, which requires flexibility...(read more)

Nutrition Tips

2008-01-05T20:25:00Z

My triathlete friend Chris wrote a nice post a while back with some nutrition tips. It covers a lot of the same topics that I've been meaning to write about, so I'm going to use his post as a starting point. Carbohydrates and athletes Philosophically, my nutrition is very close to what Chris advocates - I eat one way for my normal diet, and eat differently around my workouts. As Chris notes, simple carbs are fine during exercise, but should be limited other times. The difference is because...(read more)

2007 Summary

2008-01-01T02:38:00Z

Last year I did a quick summary . And here's this year's data: Distance: 2090 miles Elevation Gain: 105,446 ft Average Speed: 14.7 mph Calories: 83,399 Time: 143 hours Heart Beats: 969109 beats That's about 500 miles shorter than what I rode last year, but given that I haven't ridden much in the past 8 weeks, that's not surprising. This doesn't contain any time on the trainer or the rain bike as I'm too lazy to track anything that doesn't show up automatically on my...(read more)

A ride

2008-01-01T02:28:00Z

Today, I went on a ride. The first ride since I got hurt. I have been on the bike since then. But, it was a very controlled ride, on my rain bike, where I found that my "leave it on the trainer" approach to maintenance didn't do anything to make the "broken-when-they-made-it" Shimano RSX drivetrain on my 30 lb LeMond Tourmalet work better, and in fact it meant that I broke a rear spoke and my bottom bracket started creaking. And my body hurt, so after about 45 minutes I limped...(read more)

Deep breath...

2007-11-05T16:57:00Z

Deep breath. Unclip. Sit up. Knee hurts. Left shoulder hurts. No pain on the clavicle. That's good. Sit for a little. Scoot left, off the trail, take off the helmet, gloves, sunglasses. Move around experimentally. Ouch. Is the kid okay? **** I've been under the weather for a week or so - skipping the Tuesday and Thursday night rides - and I really wanted to get out on Sunday. I did shopping in the morning, and then headed out for an easy 20 or so. An easy 20 because I came really close to...(read more)

Getting Faster - Training philosophy

2007-10-28T00:17:00Z

When people first start riding, they rarely have any training philosophy other than "just go out and ride". And initially, that's enough - the mere act of riding at all puts a fair amount of training stress on your system, and you therefore improve. But as you start to ride more, you'll get to the point where your body has adapted to the way that you are training. Or, to put it another way, the workouts that you are doing aren't putting sufficient stress (or, more specifically...(read more)