July 2015 Bike Bicycle Cycling Challenge

7/01-21.19 @15.34
7/02-21.19 @15.62
7/03-21.17 @15.49
7/05-21.18 @15.43
7/06-22.12 @16.02
7/08-21.18 @16.03
7/09-30.38 @16.00
7/10-21.17 @16.24
7/11-21.17 @16.18
7/12-21.15 @15.74
7/13-19.78 @16.05
7/15-21.17 @16.54
7/16-21.17 @16.13
7/17-25.06 @15.95
7/18-21.19 @16.01
7/19-21.17 @15.84
7/20-21.17 @16.21
7/22-21.17 @16.25
7/23-21.17 @16.08
7/24-30.36 @16.62
7/25-25.13 @16.00
7/26-36.57 @16.59
7/27-21.18 @16.32
7/29-21.18 @15.62
7/30-26.00 @16.01




July MTD: 575.37
Goal: 600

distanthorizons wrote: »

Nice to have you on here @distanthorizons -- I use a Garmin and have to say that it helped change the way I ride being able to have stats like cadence & hr in conjunction with speed/distance accessible all on the same screen. I would like to invest in a power sensor but haven't taken the bite on that one yet.
What Garmin do you use?
How do you even begin to train for a 24 hour TT? What do you anticipate your distance will be in the TT?


I use a Garmin 500 it does not have real time tracking via blue tooth to a phone but some of the places I ride does not get a good signal although I think that would be a good safety feature on long night rides. At least your folks would know your approximates.

My goal is 450 miles on the 24 hour trial. A lot of miles is important to do I ride a century or over at least once a week and swim for upper body strength and balance. I also go to the experts for guidance: https://www.ultracycling.com/sections/articles/ The trick is no matter how fast you can go when at your developed anaerobic threshold (AT) you have to stay with in the previous heart zones your legs can handle as to not deplete your glycogen reserves. This is a personal area dependent on your fitness learned in training. For instance my goal is to stay at 70-75% of my max heartrate in conjunction with my resting heart rate. We can go offline to discuss these issues as this information may not be fitting to this thread.

I also thought about power meters but when it comes down to it the metric that matters on pacing is what your body can output and that is your HR. You will get in to trouble shooting to maintain watts vs real truth on physical parameters. Although power meters are a great gauge of progress but so is average speed... which in a race is all that counts...

Heart rate monitor is like the gas pump gauge in a car. It provides a indirect correlation on what your body can output at best while power meter is the exact output or the brake horsepower. For pacing, it is the best thing to slice bread once you figure out your parameters, eg Function Threshold Power. Your heart rate can NEVER give that information. Case in point, drink a pot of coffee and go ride. Any correlation to level of effort? NO!!! HR has it's uses, so does average speed, but they are subject to other environmental factors. Power tells you exactly the effort you are putting out and doesn't care if you are feeling good or bad. And, you can easily find what you are capable of sustaining which can be used to PACE any race and be used in training to improve one's abilities. It's not cheap but prices are come down.

Hi All, just started cycling again after a 3 year break (work induced!). Have picked up an old 15 mile route I used to do but started getting frustrated at the amount of people passing me on their road bikes as I struggled on my mountain bike. I decided to make a change and bought a road bike a couple of weeks ago and what a difference! My 1hr 10 mins route is down to 52 mins and the climbs are so much easier! And yet, I feel I'm working harder as the road bike encourages me to maintain the pace - I'm a convert and love my new bike! Just getting into the groove and then the aim is to go for longer rides - map my fitness app is a really good motivator. Inspired by the earlier posts, I'll try to post my progress as and when I get a chance. Best of luck to you all - love this thread!

July 1 - rode 9.8 miles for a duration of 1:07:02 (singletrack)
July 2 - rode 10:84 miles for a duration of 1:35:19 (singletrack)
July 3 - rode 5.53 miles for a duration of 00:31:13
July 8 - rode 5.8 miles for a duration of 00:45:35 (singletrack)
July 10 - rode 29.1 miles for a duration of 1:52:10
July 11 - rode 20.8 miles for a duration of 1:27:51
July 13 - rode 7.61 miles for a duration of 00:59:06
July 15 - rode 11.7 miles for a duration of 1:38:15 (singletrack)
July 16 - rode 46.23 miles for a duration of 3:15:35
July 18 - rode 17 miles for a duration of 1:30:30 (singletrack)
July 19 - rode 7.25 miles for a duration of 1:03:41 (singletrack)
July 21 - rode 8.41 miles for a duration of 1:00:19 (singletrack)
July 24 - rode 7.55 miles for a duration of 0:41:01 (singletrack)
July 25 - rode 71.4 miles for a duration of 4:51:45
July 26 - rode 8.68 miles for a duration of 0:45:39 (recovery spin)
July 28 - rode 31.2 miles for a duration of 2:00:13
July 29 - rode 12.7 miles for a duration of 0:56:12
July 30 - rode 18.1 miles for a duration of 1:20:12

July Total MIles: 311.6 July Total Hours: 27:21:38

One more day in July folks - let's hit it hard!!!!

I got a new bike and started tracking then.

7/16 - 8.72 miles

7/21 - 25 miles

7/28 - 17 miles

7/29 - 6.36 (it started storming)

Question: are y'all trying to ride a certain speed? I ride with others who are very focused on getting faster. I ride a bike because I blew out my knee running, always trying to be faster. So I am taking a different approach with my biking. I just don't want to go back there. Does that make sense?
All of my rides are 13-15 mph average.

czymom123 wrote: »

I got a new bike and started tracking then.

7/16 - 8.72 miles

7/21 - 25 miles

7/28 - 17 miles

7/29 - 6.36 (it started storming)

Question: are y'all trying to ride a certain speed? I ride with others who are very focused on getting faster. I ride a bike because I blew out my knee running, always trying to be faster. So I am taking a different approach with my biking. I just don't want to go back there. Does that make sense?
All of my rides are 13-15 mph average.

Personally, I always push for a new PR. Not every single ride, most of my evening rides are just for cruising but that's because I go all-in on my time sensitive commutes. On the weekends I am def trying to hit a new PR for higher average speed for whatever ride I am on. You are on a bike so risk to knee damage is much lower but if your group is pushing you past a comfortable pace, drop down to the next level.

m1xm0d3 wrote: »

czymom123 wrote: »

Question: are y'all trying to ride a certain speed? I ride with others who are very focused on getting faster. I ride a bike because I blew out my knee running, always trying to be faster. So I am taking a different approach with my biking. I just don't want to go back there. Does that make sense?
All of my rides are 13-15 mph average.

Personally, I always push for a new PR. Not every single ride, most of my evening rides are just for cruising but that's because I go all-in on my time sensitive commutes. On the weekends I am def trying to hit a new PR for higher average speed for whatever ride I am on. You are on a bike so risk to knee damage is much lower but if your group is pushing you past a comfortable pace, drop down to the next level.

Purposeful training. The biggest bang for you buck is Sweat Spot training (88-93% of threshold) which improves the aerobic engine and power. One should be able to on that for 30 minutes to three hours in duration. Typical starting block is 2x20 minutes intervals with 5-10 rest in between starting. (I'm working on breaking the 40 minutes continuous barrier @ 90% of FTP, so far I can do 2x40 SST with 5 minutes rest in between.) You should have a HRM or power meter (preferred) to help gauge the intensity. When I was using a HRM, I like to based off the LTHR rather than max HR. I would highly recommend that one build up their aerobic base first (one or two seasons depending where one is coming from and time availability). The best bang for pure aerobic conditioning is Tempo training (80-87% of threshold and hold almost indefinitely). You will not get a new PR each training session but it's working on the foundation for a higher peak. Also periodization is important so include rest days and weeks, typical is 4 week cycle with one week as light/rest (i.e. 10/12/12/7 hours of training per week). And, if you have plenty of time on your hand, miles builds champions; you don't need to step the intensity as high all the time.

I like to use my Saturday group rides as a test how I'm measuring up against the more fit riders. It more like a practice race.

Note: % is based of power and there is slight difference for HR

Solid month and a new PR. Not sure I'll hit 850 in August but I'll try for 1,000 before my daughter returns to school in September and my morning schedule changes again.

7/01 - 09.01 @ 17.6 mph (AM Commute)
7/01 - 13.20 @ 17.8 mph (PM Commute)
7/06 - 32.24 @ 19.5 mph
7/07 - 07.07 @ 17.2 mph (AM Commute)
7/07 - 13.10 @ 17.5 mph (PM Commute)
7/08 - 07.08 @ 17.6 mph (AM Commute)
7/08 - 13.10 @ 17.8 mph (PM Commute)
7/08 - 12.13 @ 14.6 mph
7/09 - 07.09 @ 18.0 mph (AM Commute)
7/09 - 13.02 @ 18.1 mph (PM Commute)
7/10 - 09.11 @ 17.3 mph (AM Commute)
7/10 - 13.15 @ 17.8 mph (PM Commute)
7/11 - 35.56 @ 19.2 mph
7/12 - 11.00 @ 22.0 mph (Trainer)
7/12 - 26.79 @ 17.8 mph
7/13 - 07.13 @ 18.7 mph (AM Commute)
7/13 - 13.10 @ 17.7 mph (PM Commute)
7/14 - 09.73 @ 18.8 mph (AM Commute)
7/14 - 13.12 @ 18.4 mph (PM Commute)
7/15 - 09.02 @ 17.5 mph (AM Commute)
7/15 - 13.05 @ 17.7 mph (PM Commute)
7/15 - 11.11 @ 16.8 mph
7/16 - 07.03 @ 18.3 mph (AM Commute)
7/16 - 13.17 @ 17.9 mph (PM Commute)
7/17 - 09.03 @ 17.1 mph (AM Commute)
7/17 - 13.10 @ 18.2 mph (PM Commute)
7/17 - 15.34 @ 16.3 mph
7/18 - 38.59 @ 16.5 mph
7/18 - 11.00 @ 16.5 mph (Trainer)
7/19 - 33.45 @ 16.2 mph
7/20 - 09.03 @ 18.6 mph (AM Commute)
7/20 - 13.08 @ 18.6 mph (PM Commute)
7/20 - 15.15 @ 17.2 mph
7/21 - 09.06 @ 17.3 mph (AM Commute)
7/21 - 11.34 @ 18.3 mph (PM Commute)
7/21 - 28.78 @ 17.3 mph
7/22 - 09.02 @ 16.5 mph (AM Commute)
7/22 - 13.08 @ 16.6 mph (PM Commute)
7/24 - 50.44 @ 17.0 mph
7/25 - 37.93 @ 17.7 mph
7/25 - 11.17 @ 15.3 mph
7/26 - 38.61 @ 18.2 mph
7/26 - 10.44 @ 17.4 mph
7/27 - 07.11 @ 16.6 mph (AM Commute)
7/27 - 13.11 @ 17.8 mph (PM Commute)
7/28 - 09.03 @ 16.6 mph (AM Commute)
7/28 - 10.03 @ 18.8 mph (PM Commute)
7/28 - 23.00 @ 18.4 mph
7/29 - 09.04 @ 16.9 mph (AM Commute)
7/29 - 13.33 @ 18.7 mph (PM Commute)
7/29 - 12.77 @ 13.9 mph
7/30 - 09.03 @ 17.5 mph (AM Commute)
7/30 - 13.19 @ 18.6 mph (PM Commute)
7/30 - 10.08 @ 14.7 mph
7/31 - 09.04 @ 17.4 mph (AM Commute)
7/31 - 13.12 @ 17.5 mph (PM Commute)

GOAL: 400
MTD: 852

Soul...

czymom123 wrote: »

I got a new bike and started tracking then.

7/16 - 8.72 miles

7/21 - 25 miles

7/28 - 17 miles

7/29 - 6.36 (it started storming)

Question: are y'all trying to ride a certain speed? I ride with others who are very focused on getting faster. I ride a bike because I blew out my knee running, always trying to be faster. So I am taking a different approach with my biking. I just don't want to go back there. Does that make sense?
All of my rides are 13-15 mph average.

Pay attention to your injuries, muscle pain is great but when over done it may lead to joint failure. Acute joint pain is to be avoided at all cost. Ask your local physical therapist to help you develop other exercises for strengthening your knee area. Your wonderful machine, bicycle, should last you a long time with good maintenance. Your symbiotic adjustment to it will take months and as you develop as a cyclist to your desired level all the important factors such as bicycle fit, comfort, and nutrition for you will become self evident and will outweigh all external influences.

I'm new to this area of the forum but have really picked up cycling for weight loss and it's really become a passion for me.

I track on my Garmin 510 and go for a weekly goal of 80 miles. I finished this month with 481 miles.

I use a power meter so I really don't focus on average speed and try to ride to a steady power. I seem to be at a point where my weight loss is stalling but I'm getting faster all the time and my thighs are definitely larger and more defined.

Best of all, I started at 210 lbs with high cholesterol, triglycerides, high bp/resting pulse, and signs of being pre diabetic. Only four months later I'm at 173, my cholesterol and triglycerides are all fantastic, my resting hr is 48bpm and my bp is now down to 96 /62. I can really say that cycling has changed my life

Hi all can I join for August? I use an excercise bike indoors

cunnaner wrote: »

Best of all, I started at 210 lbs with high cholesterol, triglycerides, high bp/resting pulse, and signs of being pre diabetic. Only four months later I'm at 173, my cholesterol and triglycerides are all fantastic, my resting hr is 48bpm and my bp is now down to 96 /62. I can really say that cycling has changed my life

That is fantastic cunnaner!

clairedover I think anyone can join in. Doesn't seem to be a lot of input from what I see just post your goals and stats.

8/1 5 miles