Moving on...down the road.
Well here it is 2006 and I'm still riding and doing better and better. I've now gotten my average speed up to 17-18 mph on the flats, and I just got a new rolling hills speed record of 16mph. I had been gradually improving the month of Sept and the speeds kept creeping up. I also tighened up my turn arounds and kept the pressure on the whole ride and then on 10/23/05, just two weeks after my 55th birthday, I hit 16mph average speed. Most of that ride, I'm seeing 19-20-21mph on the speedo, but at the turnarounds one through a parking lot and one at the end of a dead end road, I have to almost stop to turn around. So the average speed is probably higher.
I finally got a trainer to replace the fly-wheel bike, a fluid trainer from Performance bikes and it's great. I can ride for an hour in my study, watch TdF vids and really crank the rpms. I've now been riding it for about three months and I'm spinning up at about 95 rpm for 15 min intervals in my 48x16 gear on the MTB (trek 7500FX) and recently went up to that from 48x18 which now feels too easy.
I've been off the road for a month or two and riding indoors because of the bad weather, but I'm about ready to go out again. I've been doing four sets of 15" on the trainer to get an hour riding time and this month have been getting daily rides of an hour every day. I'm hoping this intense spinning (no coasting) will improve my road spin, but it's just not as physically demanding on the trainer as on the road, so I'm not sure where I'll be when I go back out.
Had a peak ride on 12/29 on the trainer and upped the intensity and gearing to the next level ending in a tough sprint haha, riding along with the 'boys' up the Tourmalet...in tour 04, stage 11-15.
My mileages have been in the 70 mile range for the week on the trainer, getting 90, 80, 60, 50 in December.
My weight had gone up a bit, after getting down below 230 for a while in the summer, but the muscles are looking good. I just look like the typical clydesdale on the road, I guess, a bodybuilder on the bike. If I could ever get down to under 200, I'm almost sure my wattage could get up to nearly 4watts/kg and be able to ride with the team. I've hit close to 300 watts for about 20 minutes several times, using the online calculator, and really need to do a couple rides up the Saunders-Monticello trail to test that out.
I finally got a trainer to replace the fly-wheel bike, a fluid trainer from Performance bikes and it's great. I can ride for an hour in my study, watch TdF vids and really crank the rpms. I've now been riding it for about three months and I'm spinning up at about 95 rpm for 15 min intervals in my 48x16 gear on the MTB (trek 7500FX) and recently went up to that from 48x18 which now feels too easy.
I've been off the road for a month or two and riding indoors because of the bad weather, but I'm about ready to go out again. I've been doing four sets of 15" on the trainer to get an hour riding time and this month have been getting daily rides of an hour every day. I'm hoping this intense spinning (no coasting) will improve my road spin, but it's just not as physically demanding on the trainer as on the road, so I'm not sure where I'll be when I go back out.
Had a peak ride on 12/29 on the trainer and upped the intensity and gearing to the next level ending in a tough sprint haha, riding along with the 'boys' up the Tourmalet...in tour 04, stage 11-15.
My mileages have been in the 70 mile range for the week on the trainer, getting 90, 80, 60, 50 in December.
My weight had gone up a bit, after getting down below 230 for a while in the summer, but the muscles are looking good. I just look like the typical clydesdale on the road, I guess, a bodybuilder on the bike. If I could ever get down to under 200, I'm almost sure my wattage could get up to nearly 4watts/kg and be able to ride with the team. I've hit close to 300 watts for about 20 minutes several times, using the online calculator, and really need to do a couple rides up the Saunders-Monticello trail to test that out.
posted by Max Johnson | 9:59 AM
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