I can do dorps to falt.

That knee's never going to get stronger tip toeing through the dandelions. 

After my patellar tendon replacement the surgeon had me out hammering (road) hills in the puke zone as soon as possible.

No dorps to falt though.

Posted by: chupacabra

Posted by: syncro

My link was intended as instructions for chup to be able to up his climbing game.

Thanks Syncro. My climbing game has always sucked. I didn't know a lot of this but I have seen it in action. When I use my elliptical trainer more regularly my climbing ability really increases even though I don't push myself on it very hard on it and stay below my AeT for 45 minutes. Ironically this is a good argument for an e-bike, but the catch is that you would still need to ride your "acoustic bike?" as well (I'll probably just keep calling them bikes), and I don't have the cash to maintain 2 high end bikes, especially with the wear you put on e-bike drivetrains. I always know I am about to be overtaken by e-bikers from their casual conversations, so they must be below their AeT.

I turn 50 this year so I decided to hit the trail more often and I am climbing better than I have in probably 10 to 15 years. Still not great though.

A HUGE part of getting better at climbing - or anything really - is consistency. That's part of why I'm endeavouring to be such a sarcastic ass on here all the time, it translates well to real life charm. Besides consistency tho, being willing to suffer a little bit is also a prerequisite for getting better. You have to work at least as hard or a little bit harder than what you are used to in order to improve. I've suggested it a few times on here, but if time is an issue and you can't get out for an mtb ride, even getting out for a quick 20 min spin around the neighbourhood at a fast pace or a short hill climb (even a short run will help) will pay big dividends come the weekend when it's time to ride. If all you ever do is only climb once per week, you can be guaranteed that your climbing prowess is going to be meek like a kitten instead of roaring like a lion. You do want to be a lion right?

So we're doing a stationary bike 10k challenge on the ship, basically on a set level go as hard as you can for 10k and post up your time. 

I need to beat my watch keeping engineers time and my plan of attack is to increase the difficulty  by an extra level of resistance for a couple days and then sandbag on the lower level. That should work right?

You can be fit and also ride an eBike.  Those are not mutually exclusive things.  I use mine for recovery rides when I am beat from riding my regular bike.  Or when I want to do an afternoon ride in the desert heat (empty trails rock!)

But I have encountered many eBike riders who focus on trying to make everything as easy as possible.  More power, bigger batteries.  When I am on my regular bike, I do resent them for a minute when they blow past me while I am grinding up a climb.  Haha.

Posted by: Adam-West

So we're doing a stationary bike 10k challenge on the ship, basically on a set level go as hard as you can for 10k and post up your time.

I need to beat my watch keeping engineers time and my plan of attack is to increase the difficulty by an extra level of resistance for a couple days and then sandbag on the lower level. That should work right?

Hmm, that sounds like a good sneaky way, might work? When I used to do running races I did all my training in soft grass and felt supercharged running on asphalt race day.

Hmm, what else... When we used to race all the PR's were set on the A-races, when training periodization peaked our fitness unsustainably, but you don't have time for a whole training block. Any training you do won't see physiological benefits for 11 days.

You can take 2 days before off completely though, sleep well, and do a quick spin the day before to activate your muscles.

Whenever I've watched pro road racing in person I'm always amazed how long they warm up on the trainer before a stage. I watched Vinokourov attack the stationary bike for 45 minutes before a 5 minute prologue.

Eating the right food before hand might help. Nino only eats plain white rice before races. Something short like this just a banana probably . Drink electrolytes too.

Caffeine is a proven performance booster.

Is it possible to drag in an extra fan to keep yourself cooler, or soak your shirt in ice water or something? Temperature makes a massive difference.

Last thing I can think of is most world records are set with negative splits. That doesn't mean go out easy so much as it means keeping in mind you'll be turning yourself inside out the second half of that 10k.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: chupacabra

Posted by: syncro

My link was intended as instructions for chup to be able to up his climbing game.

Thanks Syncro. My climbing game has always sucked. I didn't know a lot of this but I have seen it in action. When I use my elliptical trainer more regularly my climbing ability really increases even though I don't push myself on it very hard on it and stay below my AeT for 45 minutes. Ironically this is a good argument for an e-bike, but the catch is that you would still need to ride your "acoustic bike?" as well (I'll probably just keep calling them bikes), and I don't have the cash to maintain 2 high end bikes, especially with the wear you put on e-bike drivetrains. I always know I am about to be overtaken by e-bikers from their casual conversations, so they must be below their AeT.

I turn 50 this year so I decided to hit the trail more often and I am climbing better than I have in probably 10 to 15 years. Still not great though.

A HUGE part of getting better at climbing - or anything really - is consistency. That's part of why I'm endeavouring to be such a sarcastic ass on here all the time, it translates well to real life charm. Besides consistency tho, being willing to suffer a little bit is also a prerequisite for getting better. You have to work at least as hard or a little bit harder than what you are used to in order to improve. I've suggested it a few times on here, but if time is an issue and you can't get out for an mtb ride, even getting out for a quick 20 min spin around the neighbourhood at a fast pace or a short hill climb (even a short run will help) will pay big dividends come the weekend when it's time to ride. If all you ever do is only climb once per week, you can be guaranteed that your climbing prowess is going to be meek like a kitten instead of roaring like a lion. You do want to be a lion right?

I don't mind the suffering, it's finding the time in between the weekly rides that is always the challenge.  As you say, consistency.  And for the record I am a lion.  Male lions don't do shit.  They just roar a lot.  :)

Posted by: Adam-West

So we're doing a stationary bike 10k challenge on the ship, basically on a set level go as hard as you can for 10k and post up your time. 

I need to beat my watch keeping engineers time and my plan of attack is to increase the difficulty  by an extra level of resistance for a couple days and then sandbag on the lower level. That should work right?

I don't know if a couple of days/rides will do much except maybe tire you out...  I can't speak for cycling, but I know when I was training for running events (10k's, half marathon, marathon) we did a variety of different training runs - some of which included increasing resistance or intensity (like running hills, or doing track ladders or what have you), but we'd also incorporate long slow runs. And recovery runs.  But all these things are done over several weeks and we would ramp up and taper down the training so as not to do too much, too soon, or be completely worn out come race day.

How much time do you have to prepare?

I'm still on ship for another 3 weeks. I just  have to shave a minute off my time and I'm probably  not as serious about it as you guys all are haha.

If you've got another 3 weeks then doing a HITT workout that last about 12-15 minutes every third day and having a full 3 days of rest before the day of the test will give you the most improvement. 30-45 seconds of 100% effort with 90- 120 seconds of rest in between.

Funny when I shared a house with a professional triathlete, he said every workout is a HIIT workout lol. He threw in at least one hard effort on *everything*. His training partner at the time was Macca, who had just won his second Ironman Worlds.

Posted by: Adam-West

I'm still on ship for another 3 weeks. I just  have to shave a minute off my time and I'm probably  not as serious about it as you guys all are haha.

Do what Syncro says and you should be golden.

This seems suspiciously bike related.

Hi putty! Hi!

I used to live for getting out of breath and pushing my body to the edge but since covid I have become a lazy slob. 

I used to be a chainsmoking alcoholic who could finish ultramarathons. Now I'm a sober non-smoker who's overweight and nearly puked barely finishing the sun run in almost 90 minutes. 

I'm fucking pissed. I thought I would turn into some kind of super athlete when I finally cleaned up my act considering what I could do as a slow burn junkie but I sober me has no desire to exercise ever. Give me some weed and beer and headphones and I'll go out and run 30k by myself for fun.

^^^

You stopped doing those things and got old. You can't just start back up like nothing's happened.