RiderX

Faster #8 - Cadence

ericgu — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:49:00 GMT

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...(read more)

The unbearable suckiness of trainers

ericgu — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:08:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Faster #7 - Heart Rate Monitors

ericgu — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:08:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Faster #6 - Cadence drills

ericgu — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:07:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Faster #5 - Specificity

ericgu — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:17:00 GMT

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....(read more)

Faster #4 - Ceramic bearings...

ericgu — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:34:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Faster #3 - Ride with the fast guys

ericgu — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:30:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Faster #2 - Light Wheels

ericgu — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:01:00 GMT

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...(read more)

The ultimate food for long rides...

ericgu — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:49:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Faster #1 - Aero bars

ericgu — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:41:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Nutrition Tips

ericgu — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:25:00 GMT

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...(read more)

2007 Summary

ericgu — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 02:38:00 GMT

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...(read more)

A ride

ericgu — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 02:28:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Deep breath...

ericgu — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:57:00 GMT

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...(read more)

Getting Faster - Training philosophy

ericgu — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:17:00 GMT

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...(read more)