Perceived Levels of Exertion

Group riding etiquette can be a minefield of tradition, opinion and old tosh. Theory on paper seldom works on the road, too many variables, people for starters, then age, weight, fitness, quality of bike, route, etc, etc.

So, how do I go about choosing which group to ride in? Should I ride with The Steady Eddies, The Steadies, The Medium, or the Medium Fast group?

If you’re like me, old, old school and out of date, then you might know this bit of training theory:

Training to ‘Perceived Levels of Exertion’

This info is great if you don’t want to spend your life staring at computer screens of heart rate and power, (the new fangled obsession of sports science). I am no expert, and sports science has moved on light years in the last five years, so there will be others ‘out there’ better qualified than me to write better articles on training than me. (And I hope we get lots of brilliant articles on how to ride better, from all sorts of people).

A great quote from Mario Cipollini in this months ‘Cyclist’. “If you ride with your soul within five minutes you are in touch with your body, your muscles and your heart anyway. When I see juniors with SRMs I don’t like it. First, understand your body”. (He is talking about training at perceived levels of exertion-knowing your heart rate without having a monitor, etc).

Level One

Base training. Riding at level one is typical ‘recovery ride’ stuff. Low intensity, minimal strain on heart, legs and lungs. The sort of speed and effort that you could sustain all day if you had the stamina. This is good winter riding. You develop strength, build muscle without straining anything and can relax and enjoy the social aspect of riding. Conversation is easy, breathing is easy. Big gains in performance can be found with consistent level one and two training over the winter. It is the perfect base on which to then work on intensity training. Athletes who do high levels of intensity work without a solid base run far greater risk of injury.

Level Two

As level one, but breathing is harder, conversation still flows but may find you a little out of breath. Maybe working up a bit of a sweat. Still no real ple of hours at level three is plenty if you can manage it. Great for getting ready for race season, intervals and summer riding. Any efforts at level three ought to be focused and specific, targeting specific areas where you want to improve, hill climbing, time trialling, strength work.

Level Four

Pretty much race pace. Speaking is limited to the monosyllabic, breathing is laboured, heart, legs and lungs are stressed. Most people with average fitness will sustain this level for about twenty minutes or so. Great way to improve top end speed, hill climbing and high speed riding. Lactic acid builds up quickly at this level of riding, so your ability to ride at level four will grow as your body learns to cope with lactic acid and clear it from the system.

Level Five

This is Chris Hoy territory. Interval training. Save it for the turbo trainer. The most you’ll manage is a grunt. A minute or two at level five is all you’ll manage. You are going anaerobic. Lactic acid and heart rate will stop you going more than seconds at this level. Best way to see rapid improvement in your ‘top end’ performance.

The great thing about cycling is that studies suggest that if you put the work in, you will see a steady, consistent improvement in performance for the first five years. After that, the gains are harder to find. The greatest improvements come from riding at levels one and five. Use the other levels to polish and hone your fitness or to prepare for specific targets.

So Which Group Should I Ride In

In choosing which group to ride in, particularly over winter, you want to choose a group where you can spend most of your time riding comfortably at levels one and two: base training. It’s good occasionally to stretch yourself and see what you are capable of by moving up a group, but be ready to get dropped and left behind from time to time. Don’t batter yourself every week over the winter. Remember, cycling is a way of life, not a fad, a hobby or mere sport. Enjoying cycling for a lifetime is where it is at. Conversely, if you want a rest week, or feel tired, run down, or recovering from illness, drop down a group, chill out and enjoy the banter and the scenery.

Too many riders spend too much of their life riding round at level three and wonder why they always feel tired and never see any real improvement in their performance. It is much harder to train ourselves to ride ‘easy’ than it is to ride hard. We love the speed and we love the feeling of hard work. We are only ever going to be as strong as we are rested. The secret lies in rest and recovery.

MICKEY CRANKS Cycling Club - First official MTB away day

THE CRANKS DESCEND ON THE FOREST 22 Feb 15

Well let me start this by saying I’m a complete Mountain Bike (MTB) novice and prior to our trip to the Forest of Dean, I had 2 days experience in the past 20 years. I’m a firm roadie but after listening to story’s of epic day out from the like’s of Craig, Ronnie, Steve and Tony, I thought there must be something in this MTB lark, so I made the decision to attend the first official Cranks MTB away day, and what a great decision it turned out to be.

It was 0600am on a cold icy February’s morning when my alarm went off and I thought what am I doing? I’m a roadie getting up early to go mountain biking at the Forest of Dean, however I picked Mick Carter up and we headed down to Cranks HQ to meet the other guys, 20 or so in all, we set off in convoy on what turned out to be a very quick transit of about an hour. When we arrived at the Peddle A Bike Away café our previous worries about parking were allayed and we lined up the Cranks convoy, slowly we teased ourselves out of the warm and toastie cars to prep the bikes and kit.

We decided to do one loop of the Verderers trail socially as one big group, herding cats was the phase I used in my Facebook post at the end of the day and it was so true, some Cranks set off, some stayed in the car park, they then set off whilst the others double back, and so it continued until we eventually met up on the trail.

The first part of Verderers is quite hilly and the switchbacks took some getting used to, but as a novice it was more than ride able and quite a good work out, the first thing I noticed was that you have to concentrate all the time on the trails and this gives another dimension to riding in relation to the road, but as it turns out it makes the riding challenging but fun. The second half of the trail is where the real fun began, whizzing through trees and bombing (not in my case) down the hills. We had great banter on the way round, mostly people shouting ‘off the brakes Murphy’ and alike, all good fun. There is something primal about riding off-road with a gang of mates that is quite special, don’t get me wrong, you get this on the road too, but this was slightly different, you will have to have a go to understand what I mean.

When we got back to the café, some Cranks went for coffee, the hardcore went to smash the red run and the others rode Verderers again, Nic B, had the best tale of the day, he had set off with the intention of riding the relaxed trail at speed, but unfortunately he got lost and found himself unexpectedly on the technical red route, and off course he then smashed it achieving some big air in the process. The whole day was all very relaxed and we had a fantastic time, unfortunately rain stopped play in the end and we headed home to tell our respective partners exaggerated tales of how we conquered the Forest.

The next trip is planned for the 19^th of April, come and join the fun and #crankitup

Is it OK for Middle Aged Men In Lycra to race?

Is it OK for Middle Aged Men In Lycra to race?

Like many MAMILs I discovered cycling later in life, I started riding due to a parachuting injury that prevented me running for the best part of 3 years. The bike allowed me to maintain my fitness without the knee pain I had been experiencing previously and I started to enjoy pain free exercise again.

Shortly after starting to ride with a local group I found a new group of likeminded (fanatical) friends and cycling became an all-consuming love affair that has changed my life in many ways, once I was smitten, separation from the bike became inconceivable!

On Saturdays I meet the other MAMILs at 0900 and we set off on what is supposed to be a social ride, now if social means you push yourself so hard your eyeballs bleed in an attempt to drop your fellow MAMILs on the hills, then our ride is very social. In our group, those who don’t race, make up for it in the group ride and to be honest I love the pain inflicted by my contemporaries.

So to my point, is it ok for MAMILs to race? Well let me declare this, I am not in any danger of winning any races but should that stop me? I say No! My reasoning for saying that is because I enjoy every aspect of racing, preparing my kit and race tuning my ride, meeting other likeminded MAMILs and having a chitchat. But most importantly it allows me to satisfy what’s left of my testosterone-fuelled competiveness by pushing myself harder than I would in any training session. That’s why its OK for MAMILs to race, life does not finish at 40 and why should we not continue to have fun and push ourselves to the limits of our abilities.

And you just never know, one day I might and I say again might…. Just win one!?

MICKEY CRANKS