New year, new season

[Valv.Piti]

How much are you guys training and what are your goals for 2018? I have been mostly running for the past 2 months, but I want to go back on the bike now to be ready for the first real rides in late February on the racer. Just going to use the MTB until then - while I have a good time on that, I just don't think anything can compare to the open road. Its just so much more relaxing, so really looking forward to that. Spring can't come soon enough... I hope to go to a few races this year, I only went to 1 last year after a pretty brutal crash I had at a time when I wanted to race more seriously.

Good new year and lets see how many kilometres we can log!

 

[May0maniac]

ATM I'm still in winter training mode, that means XC skiing, ski mountaineering and a bit of alpine skiing as winter training.
I'm not someone who usually races, I just want to get better and stronger.

 

[42x16ss]

Here on the east coast of Australia it’s been horrifically hot, so it’s been 2-3 hour base rides for now. After around 8am it’s ridiculous here in Brisbane, so I’ve kept it to about 70-80kms max for now.

 

[Jspear]

I won't be doing any races. I'll do several organized rides. A 100 K ride in May. A 100 mile ride in October (organized event.) I'll do a century or two (miles) on my own as well. I don't have time to do more century rides then that. I have to take off work for those...I'm thinking about doing a 200 mile ride this year...maybe. Besides that just my regular rides as often as I can. 3 times a week roughly.

It's been a good ways beyond freezing for a while now...still plugging away.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Here on the east coast of Australia it’s been horrifically hot, so it’s been 2-3 hour base rides for now. After around 8am it’s ridiculous here in Brisbane, so I’ve kept it to about 70-80kms max for now.

Hmm, whats better, 35 degrees or 0 degrees?

Im just doing some 1-2 hour MTB rides, sometimes on the tracks, other times I just prefer to go on the road and seek out some hard hills. The other day for example i did 661 metres of elavation gain on only 37,3 km, thats some good training regardless of how fast you are going early on the season on a MTB. Doing my first ride on my racer on sunday, looking forward to that!

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Here on the east coast of Australia it’s been horrifically hot, so it’s been 2-3 hour base rides for now. After around 8am it’s ridiculous here in Brisbane, so I’ve kept it to about 70-80kms max for now.

Hmm, whats better, 35 degrees or 0 degrees?

Im just doing some 1-2 hour MTB rides, sometimes on the tracks, other times I just prefer to go on the road and seek out some hard hills. The other day for example i did 661 metres of elavation gain on only 37,3 km, thats some good training regardless of how fast you are going early on the season on a MTB. Doing my first ride on my racer on sunday, looking forward to that!

As long as there’s no snow/rain on the roads I’d take the cold over 35+ Celsius and 70%+ humidity like we’ve been getting. You can dress for the cold, but with the extreme heat you have to eventually make alternative arrangements.

When it gets to 40 here I go to the gym and use the ergo.

 

[Archibald]

Re: Re:

Here on the east coast of Australia it’s been horrifically hot, so it’s been 2-3 hour base rides for now. After around 8am it’s ridiculous here in Brisbane, so I’ve kept it to about 70-80kms max for now.

Hmm, whats better, 35 degrees or 0 degrees?

Im just doing some 1-2 hour MTB rides, sometimes on the tracks, other times I just prefer to go on the road and seek out some hard hills. The other day for example i did 661 metres of elavation gain on only 37,3 km, thats some good training regardless of how fast you are going early on the season on a MTB. Doing my first ride on my racer on sunday, looking forward to that!

As long as there’s no snow/rain on the roads I’d take the cold over 35+ Celsius and 70%+ humidity like we’ve been getting. You can dress for the cold, but with the extreme heat you have to eventually make alternative arrangements.

When it gets to 40 here I go to the gym and use the ergo.

Same in Sydney - stupid hot and stupid humidity, along with rain n thunderstorms.
Give me winter (cough, cough) here any day...
As they say, you can always put another layer on in the cold, but you can only take so much off in the heat...

 

[King Boonen]

A big crash on my fixed gear has side-lined me for a month, possibly more, with a cast to fix a dislocated thumb that won't stay in the joint. No riding for me for a bit, except turbo. I could practice my trackstands...

Main goal this season is 300 miles in 24 hours on my fixed gear. There's a big bunch organised to do it but I think I'll probably be the only fixed rider.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

A big crash on my fixed gear has side-lined me for a month, possibly more, with a cast to fix a dislocated thumb that won't stay in the joint. No riding for me for a bit, except turbo. I could practice my trackstands...

Main goal this season is 300 miles in 24 hours on my fixed gear. There's a big bunch organised to do it but I think I'll probably be the only fixed rider.

Ah man! Sorry about the crash. Hope for a speedy recovery.

An awesome goal! What time of the year you thinking?

 

[winkybiker]

Nice enough here in Vancouver. Great for riding at the moment. Temperature is between 4 degrees and about 10 degrees. A little damp, but we expect that here. At least there is no frost or ice. Rode my first ascent of Cypress for the year (just under 1000m of climbing, starting from from sea-level) on Sunday. Bizarre weather with a huge inversion. Climbed out of cold fog into sunshine and 10 degrees at the top. I'm into my "long commute" pattern where take in some extra hills to and from work, and it is is going pretty well. A little scare with a knee I tweaked skiing a few weeks back, but riding seems to be helping it, rather than aggravating it. Days are lengthening quickly now.

Biggest goal is probably the Dirty Kanza in June. 320km on gravel in a day. My wife thinks I'm mad. Also doing a couple of fondos, then going to Europe for 3 weeks later in the season. Pyrenees, Dolomites and the a triple ascent of Ventoux.

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

A big crash on my fixed gear has side-lined me for a month, possibly more, with a cast to fix a dislocated thumb that won't stay in the joint. No riding for me for a bit, except turbo. I could practice my trackstands...

Main goal this season is 300 miles in 24 hours on my fixed gear. There's a big bunch organised to do it but I think I'll probably be the only fixed rider.

Ah man! Sorry about the crash. Hope for a speedy recovery.

An awesome goal! What time of the year you thinking?

Appointment on 7th February to take the cast off, hopefully that’ll be that.

There’s an organised ride by a guy who’s fairly well known around Scotland. It’s mid-June so hopefully get some decent weather. There’ll be a big bunch. I’m fully aware it’s going to be really tough, I do like a challenge though!

 

[Valv.Piti]

Finally got my ride in on the racer. The two guys I was supposed to ride with bailed, so I had to go on my own with a little hangover and very cold feet. It was still incredible tho and I really felt the training I have done has paid off, I don't usually average 30 km/hour on my own this early in the season.

 

[Jspear]

Bi-polar weather here. We've had upper teens/lower 20's (F) and then today we have 60 degrees! Of course I went on a ride. Awesome time. 41.2 miles. 19.9 mph avg. Felt great! I'm sure things will go back to freezing soon...

Side question: so is this the new "where did you ride your bike today" thread?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Bi-polar weather here. We've had upper teens/lower 20's (F) and then today we have 60 degrees! Of course I went on a ride. Awesome time. 41.2 miles. 19.9 mph avg. Felt great! I'm sure things will go back to freezing soon...

Side question: so is this the new "where did you ride your bike today" thread?

This probably wasn't very well thought out.... I don't know, really.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Bi-polar weather here. We've had upper teens/lower 20's (F) and then today we have 60 degrees! Of course I went on a ride. Awesome time. 41.2 miles. 19.9 mph avg. Felt great! I'm sure things will go back to freezing soon...

Side question: so is this the new "where did you ride your bike today" thread?

This probably wasn't very well thought out.... I don't know, really.

So sticking strictly to the thread title, I use this thread for the month of January and then go back to the other thread.

 

[Pennino]

I'll start my road season on Gran Canaria in two weeks with an 8 day training camp. Hope to do about 100-150km per day there. After that the roads around here will be decent enough to take the bike out again. Enrolled in a 225km cyclo in the hills of southern Limburg for the end of may.

In general I will be happy if I can do about a 400km per week in the april-october period. Last year I slammed the 7500km barrior, would be nice to reach about 9000 this year. Mainly because I think I can do much more 100k+ rides because I live very close to work now . Let's get the spring started...

 

[rick james]

Wasn't going to sign up for any sportives this year as we have a baby due in April, but I ended up signing up for the Queen of the highlands sportive, its a circular route starting up the Glenshee ski centre and it finished up there, I think the distance will be about 180k, its takes in the Cairn o mount climbs as well. I've done the 3 pistes sportive a few times so I know the roads well..(if anyone ever fancies a Scottish cycling challenge, do the 3 pistes sportive, its a killer. the climb up the Lecht is unreal)


the biggest issue I have right now is that I've put on a good bit of weight, so right now I'm on a health kick but the Scottish weather doesn't lend its self for good cycling just now

 

[Valv.Piti]

Horrible ride today with my roommate, extremely windy and 0-1 celsius and snow. Super cold for feet and hands, my legs felt good tho, so I wasn't hurting too much there. Never riding in such weather again..... 25 km/average, so yeah, thats super slow as well. But for +2 hours in that kind of weather its still not that easy

 

[Pennino]

Just back home from a magnificent eight days of training on Gran Canaria with a friend of mine. Our global rythm was: day 1 [intervals+longer climb], day 2 [long, easy ride], day 3 [just some short softpedaling, rest day]. Like that, we totalized almost 600 kilometres and 14,000 HM. Beautiful weather, beautiful roads, beautiful climbs, what can I say more? Just a little shame we didn't went atop the Pico de las Nieves as we kind of lost the road on 1400 metres above sea level. But overall I'm very satisfied. On the last day I attacked two climbs of around 7 km at 6,5% at a very good speed, overtaking tons of people. Getting that aggressiveness back in the legs is the most lovely feeling in the world.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Got some good kilometres in in the weekend alone, around 120 km, so thats nice. Saturday was around zero degrees and sunny which I like very much, but Sunday was foggy, windy, rainy and snowy at the same time. That was probably one of the most insane rides I have done, damn that was hard, but I need to get some decent kilometres before April. And thats kinda hard in this horrible weather in Denmark at the moment.

 

[Red Rick]

Been doing most of my training on my MTB on a bike trainer. While watching pro's doing the real riding. Doing a little bit every day and start form there. Now I'm going outside a lot more though.

 

[Irondan]

I just got outside for a ride this weekend for the first time this year. I'm starting way later this year than I ever have, mainly because I have a new job that takes up most of my time.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Been doing most of my training on my MTB on a bike trainer. While watching pro's doing the real riding. Doing a little bit every day and start form there. Now I'm going outside a lot more though.

Indoor is fine, especially during the winter, but it really gets boring in the long run IMO, altho I must admit I dont own a trainer or whatever, just have been doing spinning classes. Its like a treadmill, but good at keeping you going. But very time efficient when you have a homer trainer, I honestly wish I had one actually, it sounds cozy to watch races while spinning your legs a bit.
I enjoy outdoor more and also think I get a better training that way (when I decide I want to go hard for, say, 2 hours), its harder to keep the motivation up indoors. And the elements also play a big part, especially the cold, its simply just a lot more taxing which I enjoy. Its a great feeling when you are completely spent after a hard and long ride in such conditions.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Been doing most of my training on my MTB on a bike trainer. While watching pro's doing the real riding. Doing a little bit every day and start form there. Now I'm going outside a lot more though.

Indoor is fine, especially during the winter, but it really gets boring in the long run IMO, altho I must admit I dont own a trainer or whatever, just have been doing spinning classes. Its like a treadmill, but good at keeping you going. But very time efficient when you have a homer trainer, I honestly wish I had one actually, it sounds cozy to watch races while spinning your legs a bit.
I enjoy outdoor more and also think I get a better training that way (when I decide I want to go hard for, say, 2 hours), its harder to keep the motivation up indoors. And the elements also play a big part, especially the cold, its simply just a lot more taxing which I enjoy. Its a great feeling when you are completely spent after a hard and long ride in such conditions.

Yeah it can get kinda boring for longer durations. I like it for intervals though.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Oh yeah, its great for intervals. Are you going off watts, heart rate or just feelings when doing intervals? I would love SRM, but its too pricey. Im more of a long ride type anyways, same tempo more or less, more or less sweetspot training or just below.