Archive for category: What’s On

20 of the most beautiful and challenging climbs out there, just waiting fro you LINK

Thursday Turbo Sessions

Begin on the 22 October at Stafford Rugby Club 7:30pm. For anyone who has not been before will find these provide you with a great mid week (1hr) fitness session in a safe warm environment to build on your current fitness through the the winter. They are suitable for all abilities and cycling interests/disciplines, all you need is a turbo. Cost £10/ SRC member one off payment and £20/non SRC member. We can accommodate approx 25 people and classes normally do not exceed 18 so we are happy this year to open it up to non members.

Session details
This year we are going to do a bit of fitness testing in week one, first week in January and the last session in March. This will allow us all to see initially what our current fitness levels are which will help you judge your efforts over the the coming weeks then in the New Year and at the end of the 21 week programme see how much you have improved.

The test is a simple one, usual 20 min warm up then the test begins. Ride with a resistance that feels like you are riding into the wind. One where you can maintain 90 cadence but is requiring you to work to keep your speed and cadence at a good tempo and constant. For those of you who know your own levels it’s 80% of either your MHR or FTP. For anyone who does not know their own levels it’s where your respiratory system starts working and you become conscious of your breathing. It should not become deep and laboured, you are pushing too hard if it does. It should be moderate and rhythmical and you could still talk but sentences would have to be broken for you to take and extra breath. Then after 20 min we will hit our lap buttons again and we will be able to see what our average HR, speed, Cad, power was for the session and your HR when the session finished. This is what we will use then as our base data.

For this test to work correctly we need to ensure that your tyres are pumped up to a set pressure, you make a note of the gears you used on the bike and resistance settings on the turbo, do not eat for 2 hrs before the test and ensure you are properly hydrated. So in January and March when we repeat the test we can ensure that all those things are constant, the only thing we may have trouble controlling is the room temperature and your day’s activities.

Up until Christmas we will split the remaining 7 weeks into a 4 and 3 week block. First block will consist of interval work and the second 3 week block tempo with sprints. I’ll give you all the details on the night.

So hope to see a good turn out this year and hopefully a few new faces. Please feel free to give me a call if you are interested but want to know a little more.

Equipment needed.

Bike with clean chain (or it will leave oil on the floor!)
Turbo, ideally magnetic, although fluid turbos or rollers will also work
Bike computer linked to rear wheel sensors if using a turbo.
Heart rate monitor or power meter, if available.
Fan as you will get hot with no cooling effect of the wind being indoors, not essential but at £20 from Argos a good investment, I would not be without one
Towel
Water bottles X 2
Sports drink for afterwards

See you all on the 22nd

Doors open at 7pm, sessions start at 7:30 so arrive early so you can set up and be ready to go for 7:30 please.

Starting this week (7 Oct) I will be leading a training ride that starts at 6pm from the bus stop outside the old Police HQ on the A34 at the top of Radford Bank.

The training ride is ideal for anyone wanting to fit in a mid week short ride and suitable for all abilities. The chosen route will be the same each week taking in 8 short climbs. You can ride this in any way you like, steady and just come along for the ride, big gears low cadence, attack them out of the saddle or my prescription will be in the saddle all out effort. We should be back into Stafford before 7:30 as it only takes me about and hour and 20 mins to ride it normally. So not long, but for those that want a good work out, if you empty your legs on the climbs, it will be far enough !

The route is down the A34 and turn onto Camp Rd (Cannock Chase) just after Brockton cross roads. There we start the first from the driveway of the house on the left up to the Deer road sign (approx 70 sec). The second climb is just after the crossroads at the German cemetery and begins at the Hendesford sign and stops at the metal gates at the telephone tower (approx 2 min). At the staggered junction at the top of the climb we turn left and head down Birches Valley toward the Forestry Commission centre and Swynnerton Cycles. On the way we take third and short climb (90 sec) which we hit at speed on the decent from the telephone tower. The climb starts at the entrance to the small car park at the bottom of the hill and finishes at the cross road sign at Marques Drive. From there we descend into Birches Valley turning around as soon as the road levels off. Here we will turn (when it’s safe to do so) and start the fourth climb at the metal boom gate at the forest road on the right hand side of the road. This is a 4 min climb all the way up to the wooden fence around the house at Marquees drive cross roads. Then a short recovery as we descend towards the telephone tower and hit the 5th climb at speed which again starts where climb 3 did at the entrance to the car park at the bottom of the hill. From there we climb up to the large wooded Welcome to Cannock Chase signs near the telephone tower (approx. 3 min).  Here we will turn in the road (when it’s safe to do so) and repeat climbs 3, 4 and 5. We can then meet up at the garage at the top of the hill before riding back to Stafford via Pottal Pool as a group.

I intend to ride each week up until 16 Dec whatever the weather, it will be just freezing conditions that stop me. So hopefully we will get a full 11 week of rides in and by using your lap button to record each climb, each week, we will all see a progressive rise in our speed and or power and a reduction in HR at any given speed.