We are less than 60 days from our ride around the Cabot Trail. The group has been very active - increasing distance to 55 km for morning rides, grades to 7+% for hill repeats and making lots of connections between the indoor and outdoor efforts in my classes.
We closed the opportunity to join us last week so that we”™d have a consistent group with whom to train over the next two months. Twelve people will ride the Trail. At a maximum we had 17 people on one of our Sunday training rides. As word got out, friends of friends started to attend and we welcomed their interest. They will be invited to re-join us for some weekend jaunts this fall.
Here are some highlights relevant to the indoor/outdoor cycling interface.
We did a quick reconnaissance of the route last weekend and some of the descents are daunting. As I negotiated the road in a car I became painfully aware that no amount of indoor cycling can help people learn how to descend. We have been working on those skills outdoors but can”™t reproduce the Trail experience nearby. I have contracted a Can-Bike educator to give the group a lecture and clinic. Meanwhile we”™ll content ourselves with the knowledge that less prepared people ride the Trail every year and none of them have ended up in the ocean.
The transformation of individuals from bikers to cyclists is noticeable. I am most thrilled by Judy who panicked and bailed on her first attempt at a road ride last fall. She was the first to buy a new bike this spring, always turns in her training logs and is now one of our strongest riders. Better yet, when the group organizes its own trips during the week, she consistently chooses the one that will give her the greatest challenge. I am writing up an interview with her which I think will interest you as she describes the indoor to outdoor experience.
I teach in a facility with a mixture of non-power and power bikes. That precludes classes which are entirely focussed on power. Recently, though, I have been able to let everyone re-visit their FTP (60 min). The numbers range from 1.4 to 1.9 watts/lb (measured over 20 minutes and corrected for 60 minutes (x .90)) for the group who is doing the Trail. Remember - these were non-exercisers/non-cyclists a few months ago. They have all seen a huge increase in their power over that period. Better yet, their results are completely consistent with what they see in one another on the road. The power info has really helped the weaker riders understand the connection between indoors and outdoors.
You can read my earlier posts about preparing a group of Indoor Cycling students for our trip to ride the Cabot Trail here.
Originally posted 2012-07-04 05:38:16.
- Taking the Indoors Outside - October 28, 2020
- What's holding you back? - August 12, 2017
- Take the Trail – Preparation Continues - May 7, 2017
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Go Christine.
You are providing a rare but wonderful and I bet quite fulfilling experience for your riders. Congratulations. As much work as it is to get them all going the satisfaction of watching them buy in and flourish must be worth it.
Your comment, “…painfully aware that no amount of indoor cycling can help people learn how to descend.” is so true. I’m taking what few references to descending I use out as of today. No sense putting incorrect and perhaps risky ideas into anyones head.
I am enjoying the training saga of your group. Keep ’em coming.
Ditto Chuck’s comment…
I’ve printed this out to keep in its own file along with your other (and future??) reports and, also, commiting some of your insights to memory for use in the short term.
I particularly like the notion of being “…closed out of the opportunity to join…” and “…invited to re-join….” for someone who’s basically turned up late for the party and missed out on absolutely necessary preliminaries.
And about that descending…. I like to sit up as much as I can, apply my brakes 110% and if I could attach a parachute and put my feet down to effect a bit o’ slowing, I surely would!
Vivienne
Thanks, Chuck. It has been fulfilling and that’s the answer my partner in this project and i give when people shake their heads while asking “Why?”
Here are a couple more anecdotes that warmed my heart this week.
The group has independently developed a data-driven challenge for July. Nothing can make a data geek like me smile wider than people collecting and assessing metrics that relate to their performance.
I offered the group a choice of rides this week. People who had whined about small hills in a local subdivision a few weeks ago chose the 42 mile, 3100 feet of climbing (two hills) option for this Sunday.
Vivienne – I wish I could just tell them to use their brakes 110% but there would be nothing left at the bottom of the first climb, with several more to follow. There’s a weekend warrior in one of my classes who has a bad burn on his hand from touching his rim after one of the hills on our route (he obviously undertook the journey without the preparation we are delivering!)
Well, you’re no fun Christine!
In fact you sound just like my daughter minus the expletives when I’m riding with her and using my brakes too much (I’m the sort of person who’d like to get off the bike and walk down the hill and catch up later…)
Going to be seeing her soon out in CA for just over a week (only two more times to bed, in fact) and she’s already got a few rides planned for me ‘n’ Daddy.
I have me a few yarn projects on the needles (is that like being *on the rivet*?) to get me there……and I’m sure you’d me happy to be in my neck o’ the woods as I appear to have next to no snakes in the garden ;)….you remember who I am now, right??
Vivienne
Vivienne –
Of course I remember you – I didn’t forget you!
Don’t get the idea that I’m a daredevil. Frankly I wish all roads went up, never down. But when I go over the top I want to know that my brakes (and those of the people who are with me) will do the job when I most need them.