What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

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Alex Simmons/RST
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby Alex Simmons/RST » Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:55 pm

trailgumby wrote:Can the AIS or Paralympic committee provide any assistance with speeding things up?
<spits out drink when he reads this>

I'll let you in on a little secret:

The AIS / Paralympic side of things are not in any way remotely interested in the general disabled population, sport access etc - they are only interested in gold medal contenders. To be frank, their actions at times can be quite disheartening for those wishing to compete in a sport but who are not in their eyes gold medal prospects. Indeed at times you get the impression they'd rather you went away. I thought I was being paranoid at times but over the years I spoke with enough people to realise I wasn't alone in experiencing this. Just like the CA High Performance Unit, their funding is tied to gold medal outcomes. Paralympics is an industry where benefits to the general disable population are somewhat intangible - the quadrennial exposure to the general population who go - "wow aren't they amazing" and in their minds it normalises disabled people, to those a bit fresh on the disabled scene who see it as something to aim for, but too bad if you find out you're not up to world standard.

I had a further disheartening interaction with the bureaucracy today, rather depressing and anxiety provoking to be honest. Don't really wish to discuss it much more. Not for now at least.

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Derny Driver
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby Derny Driver » Wed Nov 01, 2017 5:19 pm

Alex Simmons/RST wrote:
I had a further disheartening interaction with the bureaucracy today, rather depressing and anxiety provoking to be honest. Don't really wish to discuss it much more. Not for now at least.
Alex what you have endured physically emotionally and mentally, and overcome ... puts the rest of us and our little inconveniences into sober perspective. You are one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I hope this latest issue is sorted quickly for you.
Marcus

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trailgumby
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby trailgumby » Wed Nov 01, 2017 5:40 pm

Alex Simmons/RST wrote:
trailgumby wrote:Can the AIS or Paralympic committee provide any assistance with speeding things up?
<spits out drink when he reads this>

I'll let you in on a little secret:
Yeah, I've seen the critiques in publications like RIDE concerning CA. Didn't realise AIS was in the same bucket, but suppose I should have as they have the same funding model. There's enough smoke on this issue to form the view that there's definitely a fire at the base. I just thought (hoped) you might have had some connections ...
Alex Simmons/RST wrote:I had a further disheartening interaction with the bureaucracy today, rather depressing and anxiety provoking to be honest. Don't really wish to discuss it much more. Not for now at least.
Sorry to hear that mate. Wish I could do something to help. :(

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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby Cyclophiliac » Wed Nov 01, 2017 6:53 pm

g-boaf wrote:
Calvin27 wrote:
trailgumby wrote:What are your biggest cycling fitness or training pain points?
When you miss a session or fell you didn't try hard enough (hayfever around this time of the year is usually my suspect) and you go out hard next time. Real hard. Usually results in injury. With endurance sports like cycling, it's very easy to overcook.
I don't tend to do that, but getting adequate sleep is very important. My weak link has tended to be achilles injuries. So I'm mindful of that. But it's all relative, so can't complain.
familyguy wrote:+1 for time.

I just cannot get out enough to keep at the level I was at this time last year. I've started looking at rollers, a smart trainer, or even joining a gym (as a last resort, I seem to have a growing dislike of gym staff egos) to at least try to keep the fitness up.
Get a smart trainer and then read up as much as you can on training with power from the likes of Joe Friel. GCN even has some reasonable videos about that. Be methodical about it. Don't overtrain, allow time to warmup. I don't like traditional gyms much myself. Last time I went to one seemed to be people hanging around machines chatting. Just get on with it and be done with it. :roll:

Otherwise, the best training is riding in mountains up to 2000m+, that works better than anything. Do a week of that, then come back to the "real" world (unfortunately), have a few days off and then you'll be riding quicker than you've ever done. Aside from being good training, it's like some meditation, getting away from all of the normal world. You forget everything else.
Amen to that! :D I wish I was still in the Alps. I really badly want to ride up to Passo dello Stelvio again (not to mention various other cols). I've managed to maintain the increased fitness level I had after I returned, though, which I'm happy with.

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MattyK
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby MattyK » Fri Nov 03, 2017 12:47 pm

Motivation to make time. I'm not a morning person, I'd have to be up at 5 am to get in a session before 7am. At the other end of the day it's usually 9 pm before the kids are in bed/settled, and all I want to do is sit on the couch. Lunchtimes are sometimes free but that's about it.

That an my freakin knee hasn't stopped aching for 3 months after a meniscus tear... Can ride OK on it, but still too nervous to run hard on it for fear of more damage.

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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby Calvin27 » Fri Nov 03, 2017 12:52 pm

MattyK wrote:That an my freakin knee hasn't stopped aching for 3 months after a meniscus tear... Can ride OK on it, but still too nervous to run hard on it for fear of more damage.
This is why I am pro-drugs in sport. I want the drugs everyone else is getting so I can fix my knee lol. I had to take off 3 months off the bike and that meant a slobbering 8kg gain and then idiot me decides to ride the same climbs I did at the same pace. did not end well.
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Alex Simmons/RST
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby Alex Simmons/RST » Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:09 am

Derny Driver wrote:
Alex Simmons/RST wrote:
I had a further disheartening interaction with the bureaucracy today, rather depressing and anxiety provoking to be honest. Don't really wish to discuss it much more. Not for now at least.
Alex what you have endured physically emotionally and mentally, and overcome ... puts the rest of us and our little inconveniences into sober perspective. You are one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I hope this latest issue is sorted quickly for you.
Marcus
Many thanks for the kind words DD.

I received an acknowledgement from the bureaucracy who recognised some of their nonsense which was nice battle to win although I suspect I'll lose the war. In any case I'll get a new leg hopefully before Christmas and then I'll hope it fits well and my pain will subside. When I'll be back on a bike is anyone's guess. At least I have a busy summer ahead working on cycling events.

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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby g-boaf » Tue Nov 07, 2017 11:32 am

Alex Simmons/RST wrote:
trailgumby wrote:Can the AIS or Paralympic committee provide any assistance with speeding things up?
<spits out drink when he reads this>

I'll let you in on a little secret:

The AIS / Paralympic side of things are not in any way remotely interested in the general disabled population, sport access etc - they are only interested in gold medal contenders. To be frank, their actions at times can be quite disheartening for those wishing to compete in a sport but who are not in their eyes gold medal prospects. Indeed at times you get the impression they'd rather you went away. I thought I was being paranoid at times but over the years I spoke with enough people to realise I wasn't alone in experiencing this. Just like the CA High Performance Unit, their funding is tied to gold medal outcomes. Paralympics is an industry where benefits to the general disable population are somewhat intangible - the quadrennial exposure to the general population who go - "wow aren't they amazing" and in their minds it normalises disabled people, to those a bit fresh on the disabled scene who see it as something to aim for, but too bad if you find out you're not up to world standard.

I had a further disheartening interaction with the bureaucracy today, rather depressing and anxiety provoking to be honest. Don't really wish to discuss it much more. Not for now at least.
I can only express my regret at reading that last bit. It's infuriating to read it and to know how badly this affects people. I've always had the attitude of trying to break down bureaucracy where and however I can. Unfortunately there are some who fail to recognise the errors in following regimented procedures and processes, or that it has been bullied into them and they are afraid to go outside of the square.

I really hope everything works out well for you.
Last edited by g-boaf on Tue Nov 07, 2017 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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trailgumby
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby trailgumby » Tue Nov 07, 2017 12:20 pm

Alex Simmons/RST wrote:I received an acknowledgement from the bureaucracy who recognised some of their nonsense which was nice battle to win although I suspect I'll lose the war. In any case I'll get a new leg hopefully before Christmas and then I'll hope it fits well and my pain will subside. When I'll be back on a bike is anyone's guess. At least I have a busy summer ahead working on cycling events.
I'd like to echo Derny Driver's sentiments. I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting you, but I'd like to some day soon. The investment of your time to assist people here and provide quality information without ego involved speaks to your character.

I hope the new leg is and improvement and that we'll see you back on two wheels soon.

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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby Mububban » Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:43 pm

And another week off the bike thanks to catching another cold my kids brought home from primary school. Just as I'd been feeling really good about balancing some commuting, a bit of gym/physio stuff and weekend group ride.
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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby thatmdee » Sat Dec 02, 2017 9:41 am

I've been riding 10-12 hours per week, all on Zwift. I've seen a good increase in my fitness since I got my Neo back in May, and have followed a few training plans.

The main pain points have been 5 day flu, where after a 1.5 hour ride, the symptoms came on extremely quickly (within a few minutes, it seemed) and I required a week sick from work. About a month or so later was a stomach bug, so another 3 or 4 days off the bike.

My main concern is overtraining. I've mostly been following training plans in Zwift, but the last couple of months I've just been picking random workouts in the 1.5 - 2 hour range. I use the training load, training status, etc on my Fenix 5 -- but they're just little more than guidelines. I think I need to learn to recognise the signs of overtraining, or at least if I'm going to maintain the current volume, be a bit more disciplined and have actual 'recovery' rides which I find difficult on Zwift. Not that it's accurate, but I've noticed my VO2max estimate in Garmin Connect just bounces between 44 and 45, which may (?) be an indication I'm not recovering properly. I try to pay attention to my body, but find it a little difficult to distinguish between the normal aches etc from a solid workout versus what is likely to be overtraining / fatigue.

Yesterday was quite scary.. a 2 hour erg session. About half way through I felt a stomach cramp (stitch?) come on. I stupidly tried to ignore it and managed to complete the workout. For the entire day I was in considerable pain. After I got home from work, I basically just fell asleep. No issues today (yet). I'm hoping it was just a severe stitch and nothing more serious -- but it lasted for over 12 hours, which is worrying (stitch became apparent around 7am, I was still in pain around 7pm).

I've just picked up a copy of The Cyclist's Training Bible, and while I've only read a little, it seems more suited to people training to race. I don't have a great FTP, and I'm more interested in endurance riding -- so I'm unsure how applicable it will be to developing a training plan. I've only been riding a little over a year, and the general consensus seems to be just keep riding to improve, but I'm wanting to be a little careful and not overdo it.

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Re: What's your biggest cycling fitness or training pain point?

Postby enduro2 » Mon Dec 04, 2017 2:02 am

My left knee ... initially diagnosed as menical tear by two physios but anither and I feel it is more muscular and ITB related. That cost me 7mo off the bike at a time when I was reachjng peak fitness.

Oh well, back to 30km rides until I get my fitness back again.

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