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Sunday 20th Dec base ride
Unfortunately myself nor any of the racers can make this Sunday to lead a base ride, if anybody wants to lead a long steady ride out please post here and let people know.
On another note I've had a think about how this ride will change of the next couple of months and will possibly include some specific training rides. These will be based on pushing a harder effort for an hour or so in the ride, keeping it steady at around 300 watts and working as a group, so when you're on the front you push a bit over 300 and when you drop back a little less. It's an over/under sort of effort aiming to finish with a high average power for that hour. I'll talk more about specifics nearer the time but will probably start these sessions beginning of Feb/end of Jan depending on weather. Safety first!
They would be something like riding around easy for a couple of hours then on a racing circuit (maybe whitwell) breaking the group into groups of 4 or so and playing a bit of cat and mouse. The benefit of riding on a circuit is that if it's too hard for some people you can drop off and ride backwards round the circuit till the effort is finished or more likely (with whitwell in mind) ride down to Emily's and have a cake and coffee and wait for the rest of the riders to finish and join you.
It's important that if you intend on doing a bit of training like this that you come along on a few of the Sunday rides to get used to riding at constant effort and make sure you're confident in riding on wheels in tight groups. It can be a tad hairy if you're not sure of the people you're riding with in this sort of ride.
There are lots of things that you can pick up from this sort of training, learning to ride properly in a break being one of them and not pushing too hard up the hills. There's a reason that most 3/4 cat races finish in bunch sprints, the breaks are often blown apart by a couple of keen riders who smash it up the hills and split up a group of 6 or 7 riders into several groups of 2 which will never stay away. If you're looking to ride in some road races this year this ride could be very helpful training.
On another note I've had a think about how this ride will change of the next couple of months and will possibly include some specific training rides. These will be based on pushing a harder effort for an hour or so in the ride, keeping it steady at around 300 watts and working as a group, so when you're on the front you push a bit over 300 and when you drop back a little less. It's an over/under sort of effort aiming to finish with a high average power for that hour. I'll talk more about specifics nearer the time but will probably start these sessions beginning of Feb/end of Jan depending on weather. Safety first!
They would be something like riding around easy for a couple of hours then on a racing circuit (maybe whitwell) breaking the group into groups of 4 or so and playing a bit of cat and mouse. The benefit of riding on a circuit is that if it's too hard for some people you can drop off and ride backwards round the circuit till the effort is finished or more likely (with whitwell in mind) ride down to Emily's and have a cake and coffee and wait for the rest of the riders to finish and join you.
It's important that if you intend on doing a bit of training like this that you come along on a few of the Sunday rides to get used to riding at constant effort and make sure you're confident in riding on wheels in tight groups. It can be a tad hairy if you're not sure of the people you're riding with in this sort of ride.
There are lots of things that you can pick up from this sort of training, learning to ride properly in a break being one of them and not pushing too hard up the hills. There's a reason that most 3/4 cat races finish in bunch sprints, the breaks are often blown apart by a couple of keen riders who smash it up the hills and split up a group of 6 or 7 riders into several groups of 2 which will never stay away. If you're looking to ride in some road races this year this ride could be very helpful training.
Comments
If you wish to ride at a different pace/without mudguards then feel free, but this ride is a FORUM ONLY ride not one that I would advertise on the club website. It's not for everybody, but there are other rides that do cater for everybody.
The reason I started this ride is purely because CCA is proud to cater for cyclists from all areas of cycling. As the racing secretary I'm purely putting a ride on that caters for the racer's winter needs. And as for mudguards, the only time I want to ride in the wet is when it's raining, it's purely my preference and as I'm the one that's organising the ride then I'm going to state that I don't want to get a soaking on a nice dry day. Those that have ridden with me in the winter know how much I whinge about lack of mudguards, at least it'll stop me bleating on about that. When you consider how much money we spend on bikes, an extra 20-30 quid on a set of mudguards that will fit every bike is nothing, and if it means that you can enjoy an extra load of training over a period of bad weather without soaking yourself and everybody around you, then in my eyes it's a worthwhile investment. I have nothing against those that don't want to stick mudguards on, but you will have to put some on if you'd like to do some base mileage with this group.
If you feel like you need to whinge to the LBS about it, at least come and ride with us first to see what the ride is about. You never know, you may like it.
CCA is a very welcoming club and these days we are getting interest from people who want to join our club specifically so they can race, we now have a strong bunch of racing cyclists, the last thing we really need is to put people off with silly gossiping.
I'll try and make it out for a a few hours too - 3 hrs perfect for me.
Iain