Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi Comedian, I was out there this morning though late due to the early rain, had a shocker. Overtook many and saw a couple pulled over catching their breath. Did a 11:48

Hope to get under ten for the challenge.

Inwood and I were out there this morning.
I did an 11:10 then 12:18. Happy with that.

11:10 is a smashing new PB by nearly a minute.

Sounds like there is some judicious peaking going on out there. Keep it up.

11:07 for me, new PB here too. Probably because I had jasonc pushing me up the hill most of the way Went through a cloud this morning it was so humid. Pretty happy given I was sleep deprived and powered mostly by the few kg of chips and chocolate I've eaten in the past week. Since climbing cootha a lot, I've been unable to stop eating crap. Especially if its salty. I'm talking full family sized packets of chips, or a whole box of shapes in one go, then repeat the next day...

Saw about 100 young people dressed in floppy hats and strange clothes SKIPPING up the mountain. Explain that! An o-week thing for UQ maybe? Saw the police twice too, so don't speed...

Second time up I took it easy and did 13-something. Weird thing is, that I wasn't particularly puffed but my legs were starting to hurt when I was going slow, yet when I go fast my legs don't hurt (but obviously I'm puffing like a steam train). Why do my legs feel it more when I go slow? Is it because the cadence is too low?

Inwood wrote:11:07 for me, new PB here too. Probably because I had jasonc pushing me up the hill most of the way Went through a cloud this morning it was so humid. Pretty happy given I was sleep deprived and powered mostly by the few kg of chips and chocolate I've eaten in the past week. Since climbing cootha a lot, I've been unable to stop eating crap. Especially if its salty. I'm talking full family sized packets of chips, or a whole box of shapes in one go, then repeat the next day...

Saw about 100 young people dressed in floppy hats and strange clothes SKIPPING up the mountain. Explain that! An o-week thing for UQ maybe? Saw the police twice too, so don't speed...

Second time up I took it easy and did 13-something. Weird thing is, that I wasn't particularly puffed but my legs were starting to hurt when I was going slow, yet when I go fast my legs don't hurt (but obviously I'm puffing like a steam train). Why do my legs feel it more when I go slow? Is it because the cadence is too low?

Yep... cadence too low. I've tried to explain that without much success I think. That's why people with higher gearing really need to go fairly quickly. If you think your cadence is too low doing a 13 then I reckon you've got a standard crank and a 12-25 on the back?

Having said that, doing a big gear climb is probably quite good for strength so good timing for that. I did a 13 the other week in fifth gear (standard at the front) for that very reason.

Inwood wrote:.... Since climbing cootha a lot, I've been unable to stop eating crap. Especially if its salty. I'm talking full family sized packets of chips, or a whole box of shapes in one go, then repeat the next day...

....

That's your bodies way of taking care of you. It will make you fat so you go slower and slower and eventually give up the whole idea.

notwal wrote:

Inwood wrote:.... Since climbing cootha a lot, I've been unable to stop eating crap. Especially if its salty. I'm talking full family sized packets of chips, or a whole box of shapes in one go, then repeat the next day...

....

That's your bodies way of taking care of you. It will make you fat so you go slower and slower and eventually give up the whole idea.

Imagine how fast he'd go if he ate decent food!

Inwood wrote:11:07 for me, new PB here too. Probably because I had jasonc pushing me up the hill most of the way Went through a cloud this morning it was so humid. Pretty happy given I was sleep deprived and powered mostly by the few kg of chips and chocolate I've eaten in the past week. Since climbing cootha a lot, I've been unable to stop eating crap. Especially if its salty. I'm talking full family sized packets of chips, or a whole box of shapes in one go, then repeat the next day...

Nice improvements inwood. age? weight? 53 and 85kg here.
My PB is 11.45 and doubt I'll ever go faster than 11.00 but who knows if I get my body fat down from 19% to 10%.
Interestingly, I dropped a lot off my PB by not doing regular climbing, but regular lactate threshold TTs and faster intervals on the flats.

Re hunger, same thing happened to me when doing regular multiple Coot-tha repeats mid last year. I think it comes down to climbing being very intense exercise compared to typical flat course riding. And no doubt it causes more tissue microtrauma which is a stimulus for muscle and cardiovascular adaptive responses. So your body wants more energy to repair the damage, and build new muscle. There's probably a lot of weird stress hormone stuff going on like increased cortisol, which can increase appetite and inhibit use of fat as an energy substrate. Further, when I was doing 2-4 loops early morning, I needed a kip in the middle of the day. Could hardly keep my eyes open.

The other thing that contributed to big improvemetn in PB in a short time, was a longer warm up. Over Jan hols, I was riding an hour from Sandgate to Coot-tha, and then climbing. Maybe I benefited from extra fluid intake and the longer warm up. Negative fluid balance, ergo insufficient blood and interstitial fluid, are a significant handicap for climbing. Further, a lot of studies have been done on the relationship between circadian rhythm and athletic peak performance; and early morning has never yielded PBs in a variety of strength and endurance sports.

Good stuff PP. I've started doing spin classes and I think they could have some benefit for this because it gets you used to running at higher heart rates. For some reason I'm this crazy dude dressed in bike gear with a bike and 1m of surrounding floor covered in sweat amongst a sea of ladies prettily and gently peddling... LOL I'll do a few more of those before the challenge.

I did a 10:19 on yesterday. However when I got to the top I was in relatively good shape. I could talk and breathe... there were lots there who weren't in a good way. I always seem to keep a little in the bag but I'm going to have to attack it a bit more I think.

Comedian wrote:Yep... cadence too low. I've tried to explain that without much success I think. That's why people with higher gearing really need to go fairly quickly. If you think your cadence is too low doing a 13 then I reckon you've got a standard crank and a 12-25 on the back?

Having said that, doing a big gear climb is probably quite good for strength so good timing for that. I did a 13 the other week in fifth gear (standard at the front) for that very reason.

Inwood and I run a compact crank with 12-27

jasonc wrote:

Comedian wrote:Yep... cadence too low. I've tried to explain that without much success I think. That's why people with higher gearing really need to go fairly quickly. If you think your cadence is too low doing a 13 then I reckon you've got a standard crank and a 12-25 on the back?

Having said that, doing a big gear climb is probably quite good for strength so good timing for that. I did a 13 the other week in fifth gear (standard at the front) for that very reason.

Inwood and I run a compact crank with 12-27

So what cadence do you climb at?

Comedian wrote:

jasonc wrote:

Comedian wrote:Yep... cadence too low. I've tried to explain that without much success I think. That's why people with higher gearing really need to go fairly quickly. If you think your cadence is too low doing a 13 then I reckon you've got a standard crank and a 12-25 on the back?

Having said that, doing a big gear climb is probably quite good for strength so good timing for that. I did a 13 the other week in fifth gear (standard at the front) for that very reason.

Inwood and I run a compact crank with 12-27

So what cadence do you climb at?

not high enough. haven't been monitoring it lately. just going as fast as i can.

Every man and his dog was on the hill this morning.

Comedian wrote:Every man and his dog was on the hill this morning.

Yep, and it felt like every one of them passed me while I stopped to hack up a lung on the side of the road! First attempt up the back this morning and it kicked my arse. I just ran out of puff and gears. I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Anyways, gotta start somewhere I guess. Will try again in a day or two.

BrisVegas wrote: I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Your bike probably also weighs ~2.5-3kgs less than mine.

I think the term used around here is HTFU. But I won't say that to you.

jasonc wrote:

BrisVegas wrote: I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Your bike probably also weighs ~2.5-3kgs less than mine.

I think the term used around here is HTFU. But I won't say that to you.

For sure, I need to HTFU and also need to get my weight down under 100kgs too. As I said though, it's a start. Better than staying in bed and doing nothing hey.

BrisVegas wrote:

jasonc wrote:

BrisVegas wrote: I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Your bike probably also weighs ~2.5-3kgs less than mine.

I think the term used around here is HTFU. But I won't say that to you.

For sure, I need to HTFU and also need to get my weight down under 100kgs too. As I said though, it's a start. Better than staying in bed and doing nothing hey.

Absolutely. I've only done it about a dozen times. The first few times it's more mental that physical.

BrisVegas wrote:

Comedian wrote:Every man and his dog was on the hill this morning.

Yep, and it felt like every one of them passed me while I stopped to hack up a lung on the side of the road! First attempt up the back this morning and it kicked my arse. I just ran out of puff and gears. I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Anyways, gotta start somewhere I guess. Will try again in a day or two.

what time were you there? I was ther from about 6 -6:45. I did see someone on the side. . I was in red today.

I was up there this morning, went up the front side (? - the side without fifty switchbacks, nearest to the restaurant) twice. Did one lap, then rode up to the restaurant and turned round.

Not sure of my times yet - have to wait till I get home and check it out on Strava.

First time I have done it more than once on a trip - hurt like crazy, but managed to overtake a few which was good. The clip-stack at the lights coming back wasn't so good - person in front moved off their line and I ended up with no place to go but down, couldn't clip out in time... Tore a glove too - so frustrating.

Anyways - the ride up there this morning made up for me sleeping in and missing the Womble ride!

Comedian wrote:

BrisVegas wrote:

Comedian wrote:Every man and his dog was on the hill this morning.

Yep, and it felt like every one of them passed me while I stopped to hack up a lung on the side of the road! First attempt up the back this morning and it kicked my arse. I just ran out of puff and gears. I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Anyways, gotta start somewhere I guess. Will try again in a day or two.

what time were you there? I was ther from about 6 -6:45. I did see someone on the side. . I was in red today.

I started around 5:30am. You might have seen me though, I had a pink Cycle of Giving ride jersey on. Do you look like your avatar?

njosey17 wrote:I was up there this morning, went up the front side (? - the side without fifty switchbacks, nearest to the restaurant) twice. Did one lap, then rode up to the restaurant and turned round.

the timings we do are for the back, not the front. good work none the less.
the "0" point is at the intersection of simpsons rd with the top just before channel 10.

BrisVegas wrote:

Comedian wrote:

BrisVegas wrote: Yep, and it felt like every one of them passed me while I stopped to hack up a lung on the side of the road! First attempt up the back this morning and it kicked my arse. I just ran out of puff and gears. I see what you mean now about 39-25 gearing being too tall unless you're really motoring.

Anyways, gotta start somewhere I guess. Will try again in a day or two.

what time were you there? I was ther from about 6 -6:45. I did see someone on the side. . I was in red today.

I started around 5:30am. You might have seen me though, I had a pink Cycle of Giving ride jersey on. Do you look like your avatar?

Not greatly to be honest. Despite my awesome tan lines due to too much riding I've never quite been able to get that black - or funny. Might be easiest to recognise me by bike - It's a Giant defy (white/black) with durace c24's on.

jasonc wrote:

njosey17 wrote:I was up there this morning, went up the front side (? - the side without fifty switchbacks, nearest to the restaurant) twice. Did one lap, then rode up to the restaurant and turned round.

the timings we do are for the back, not the front. good work none the less.
the "0" point is at the intersection of simpsons rd with the top just before channel 10.

I think it's actually Channel 2 on the left you mean? Channel 10 is the one on the right.

got my coot-tha challenge number in the post today - 5042 I think.

jasonc wrote:got my coot-tha challenge number in the post today - 5042 I think.

When did you enter?

I heard some sordid rumour about them only having so many timing chips. I entered on the weekend.

Comedian wrote:

jasonc wrote:got my coot-tha challenge number in the post today - 5042 I think.

When did you enter?

I heard some sordid rumour about them only having so many timing chips. I entered on the weekend.

I got mine too, I entered a few days after it opened and I got a timing rfid chip. This will be my first ever ride like this so its kind of exciting and scary at the same time.