Help me achieve my goal in 12 weeks!

silverharp

ok , I've decided to redo a cycle route I did about 20 years ago , Donnybrook to Laragh (via Enniskerry) then on to the R756/R758 then on to Blessington and back into Dublin, aiming for the Oct bank holiday weekend. Nice memories of it even though it nearly killed me at the time.:D

Up until the summer I was only using the the bike for short commutes, so last week did Sandymount to Enniskerry and back and did it again on Sat. Better the second time and more a lack of buns of steel then anything else.

What do you reckon? Ideally I'd prefer to keep to road running during the week ( I do roughly 2hrs per week) and do the cycling at the weekend.

Next weekend I'm hoping to do Enniskerry again but this time adding that nasty stretch to Glencree and on into Dublin however I reckon I'll need 2 or 3 runs at it to do it justice.

What then? should I focus on 3ish hour cycles but build up the height and speed or do I need to stretch out the routes and go down as far as say Roundwood. will once a week be enough?

Thanks in advance!

lafors

silverharp wrote: »

ok , I've decided to redo a cycle route I did about 20 years ago , Donnybrook to Laragh (via Enniskerry) then on to the R756/R758 then on to Blessington and back into Dublin, aiming for the Oct bank holiday weekend. Nice memories of it even though it nearly killed me at the time.:D

Up until the summer I was only using the the bike for short commutes, so last week did Sandymount to Enniskerry and back and did it again on Sat. Better the second time and more a lack of buns of steel then anything else.

What do you reckon? Ideally I'd prefer to keep to road running during the week ( I do roughly 2hrs per week) and do the cycling at the weekend.

Next weekend I'm hoping to do Enniskerry again but this time adding that nasty stretch to Glencree and on into Dublin however I reckon I'll need 2 or 3 runs at it to do it justice.

What then? should I focus on 3ish hour cycles but build up the height and speed or do I need to stretch out the routes and go down as far as say Roundwood. will once a week be enough?

Thanks in advance!

Surprised theres no replies to you yet!
If you keep yourself reasonably fit then you'll do it.
Do you have a time you want to finish it in?
Do up a route on mapmyride.com. It'll give you an idea of what the elevations are etc. oh and post a link to it here.
What type of bike are you doing it on?

Ryder

a standard rule is to increase your weekly distance by 10 percent.....so work out what youre doing now and what you need to do in 12 weeks and then youll know how long your long cycle should be each week. I know the route youre planning.....nice route and should be easily achievable with maybe a coffee stop in laragh. Would suggest one long spin per week as outlined. Do a 50 - 70 percent max HR or 6/10 exertion level. Do at least 1 mid week spin of 1hr with 3 10min intervals (8/10 exertion) and a 5min break between, increasing the length of the intervals by 1 min each week.

Good luck

silverharp

lafors wrote: »

Surprised theres no replies to you yet!
If you keep yourself reasonably fit then you'll do it.
Do you have a time you want to finish it in?
Do up a route on mapmyride.com. It'll give you an idea of what the elevations are etc. oh and post a link to it here.
What type of bike are you doing it on?

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/dublin/353128153103314307

Cheers, Trek 7.3 FX. No particular time in mind, more that I want to be prepared enough that I'll enjoy it on the day

Ryder wrote: »

a standard rule is to increase your weekly distance by 10 percent.....so work out what youre doing now and what you need to do in 12 weeks and then youll know how long your long cycle should be each week. I know the route youre planning.....nice route and should be easily achievable with maybe a coffee stop in laragh. Would suggest one long spin per week as outlined. Do a 50 - 70 percent max HR or 6/10 exertion level. Do at least 1 mid week spin of 1hr with 3 10min intervals (8/10 exertion) and a 5min break between, increasing the length of the intervals by 1 min each week.

Good luck

Good advice, 1 cycle mid week should be fine, I'll see how I get on over the next week or 2 adding the extra height in.

silverharp

did Dublin to Enniskerry on to Glencree over the malitary road and back to Dublin this morning, was passed by everyone:D and it was just at my limit for now. Positive as its half my distance and 2/3 the height I'll need to cover.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/dublin/977128178256328099

51km & 557m ascent


Next few weeks I think I'll just try to focus on backfilling and try to cover similar distances but try to get the time down

silverharp

did the same route yesterday to Glencree as last week. Huge improvement, finished with energy to spare compared to previous week and knocked about 25min off the time. Even did a small workout and run this morning
Will try the same route again next weekend to see if I knock another bit of time off and then I think I'll try go for a longer route, possibly down to Kippure.
I must say the buzz after a nice cycle is great. I get out of the house by 7am so I more or less have the roads to myself for the first couple of hours.

silverharp

did the route above to Glencree again, was 10 minutes ahead by Enniskerry so thought it was going to be a good one, however there was a cold NW wind in my face especially past Glencree so had to push it for the last 10km just to hold on to a 15min time improvement i had set for myself.


here is what I hope to do next weekend , down to Kippure 72km and an ascent of 840m ,

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/dublin/292128301944586702

from next week I will be bringing one of my kids to school on a tag along bike, its ony 5km but it is uphill so I will take advantage of the extra 20kg on the back to get a bit of aerobic work in.

silverharp

did this yesterday afternoon. Dublin - Roundwood - Ashford and back to Dublin via Newcastle. 96KM 600m Ascent. I thought the good weather would last until Saturday so thought I'd go for something longer but more gentle and wanted to try out the cycling shorts I had got (huge difference). It looked like the rain had passed by 2pm so headed out, but an hour and a half in I was in a misty rain for about 3 hours which was more like a hike in Nov, last time I use the Met rain radar.
I had a homemade smoothie lunch before I left and brought just under 1000calories with me and 2ltrs of water with apple juice, had to stop about 5 times to pee so I guess dehydration wasnt a problem.
the profile of the route was different to what I was used to. Cant say I noticed the decents, and I missed the near free wheel you get coming back into Dublin from the wicklow mts and the roads are busier coming into Bray, but overall ok and would do it again if we get some nice weather.


http://www.mapmyride.com/edit_route?r=800128349667883517

Beasty

That ride you did yesterday is only just short of the distance and elevation of your "target" ride, and you should be perfectly capable of doing that now.

Of course, it's OK to try and speed up before you attempt it, but I don't think there is much else you need to do other than maintain your current level of fitness.

Now you have the fitness, you presumably want to keep and build on it. Perhaps now it's time to start thinking of new, more challenging targets - perhaps next year's Wicklow 200 for example?

silverharp

Beasty wrote: »

........Now you have the fitness, you presumably want to keep and build on it. Perhaps now it's time to start thinking of new, more challenging targets - perhaps next year's Wicklow 200 for example?

cheers, I will be fine for my target. At the start I had no idea how long it would take to build up the fitness. I'll still leave the "official goal" for the end of October but will focus on getting the speed up a bit in the meantime
Youre a bad man suggesting the Wicklow 200 , I read a few blog entries today on it today and it looks bloody tough. its hard to imagine doing 2 rounds of what I did yesterday plus the extra height involved, Its intriguing. It might be a motivation to keep up the cycling fitness over the winter.
Thanks for the suggestion!

Beasty

silverharp wrote: »

Youre a bad man...

Me?:D

When you're in your eighties, and still able to get your leg over (the bike I mean, but who knows what else you may be up to!) you may fondly look back at the time you started taking cycling a bit more seriously ...

Oldlegs

Did I see that Beasty is "forcing" you to look at the WW200 for 2011

Let me know if you are interested, as this is one that I am looking to set up as my key goal to keep me going thru' the winter.

Basically getting back into some regular training after too many years of intermittant attempts. Regular Karate now augmented by some cycle spins (up to 80km/600m over the wicklow hills), some swimming (up to 1.5km sea) and some running.

Would be great to work on a WW200 plan.

If the weather is good this weekend might even be tempted to push myself onto the 98km Joe Loughnan starting in Bray. Are you interested or is the West Wicklow-100 grabbing your attention ?

silverharp

Oldlegs wrote: »

Did I see that Beasty is "forcing" you to look at the WW200 for 2011

Let me know if you are interested, as this is one that I am looking to set up as my key goal to keep me going thru' the winter.

Basically getting back into some regular training after too many years of intermittant attempts. Regular Karate now augmented by some cycle spins (up to 80km/600m over the wicklow hills), some swimming (up to 1.5km sea) and some running.

Would be great to work on a WW200 plan.

If the weather is good this weekend might even be tempted to push myself onto the 98km Joe Loughnan starting in Bray. Are you interested or is the West Wicklow-100 grabbing your attention ?

Yeah, I have in mind now, 9mth should be enough to train for anything. my plan for the next 2 weeks is to do 70-75km at the weekend and then I might do the spin down to Ashford again and see if I notice an improvement.
I want to lose about 8kg by the end of Oct and then another 5kg over the winter. At that stage I might inflict myself on the cycling public:D

I'll be interested to follow the forum to see what people do over the winter. I assume people focus on speed work over shorter distances? we are blessed to have some decent "hills" less then an hour away!

silverharp

I did 70km / 800m ascent this morning, down towards Roundwood and over the Sally Gap (first time). Was quite tired after Roundwood but picked up again at Glencree. Great weather today and the westerly wind wasnt too bad. Had a breakfast smoothie, the total batch was about 1000 calories and took the remaining with me for 2 snacks breaks on the way, and took 1ltr of water with some juice added. Seemed to be the right amount of food and liquid. As I'm trying to lose weight as well I want to find that balance of not taking too much extra calories on board. Had a nice omlette for lunch and feeling good now.

My cardio seems fine and never felt out of breath, just need the legs to catch up:D


A lot more cars around on a Sunday, Saturday morning is much quiter on the roads.




http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/dublin/292128301944586702