Dragon Ride Training

Barkiesnake

Hi all

I am a reasonably fit 45yr old male who, until now has just done charity rides of around 60miles a day.
I have been talked into doing the Dragon ride (120km) next year with a friend and am looking for some advice on training plans.
Not only have I not covered that distance before but i am not a strong climber.
Also is there any kind of gym training i can do in the winter as well to build strength, what are the best exercises for cyclists?

I do commute 5 - 15 miles every day on my bike and try to get out at weekends for longer as well as doing at least 1 ride in excess of 40miles every month but this is not always possible in winter.

Any help welcome.

Tref.

skavanagh.bikeradar

You will probably get a lot of good advice on this site, but to start you off with my tuppence worth ride a lot, rider longer and longer over time and ride lots of hills. Lots of hills.

Good luck.

fuzzynavel

Is 60 miles not about 100K's? you will only be riding and extra 20k's over what you have done previously. just try to get lots of miles on the road and find and nice steep hill to do hill repeats in the middle of a decent ride.

guv001

The Dragon Ride is a really good event and the hill are long but are not that steep. This ride is one of the most enjoyable I've done. 2 years ago I went to do the short rote but felt fine so did the long one instead (200km). I felt a bit tired towards the end but easily made it.

GeorgeShaw

The Dragon has climbs (Bwlch and Rhigos) that are more like alpine climbs than the usual ones here. They require a different approach, no grunting over these ones, they are long but don't have a severe gradient. You just need consistent and controlled power output over 20 or 30 minutes. For that, I've found that two things helped. Firstly, find a long 6-7% hill - not a 10+% steep hill - and do repeats up that. Secondly, do long flat repeats, something like the famous 2x20s. Aim for consistency, feel the lactic and learn to cope with it.

Barkiesnake

What are the 2x20's?

fuzzynavel

Barkiesnake wrote:

What are the 2x20's?

interval training

GeorgeShaw

Barkiesnake wrote:

What are the 2x20's?

Two intervals of 20 minutes, 5 minutes spinning between intervals. The idea (to my somewhat uneducated mind, I'm still a newbie) is to do both intervals at the maximum consistent effort that you can do for the period of that interval. You should be at your limit at the end of the interval. It's easier with an Heart Monitor or Power Meter. Bear in mind that, if you use a Heart Monitor, your pulse will rise slowly through the interval for the same power.

It's designed to push your sustainable power upwards. If you're like me, you'll get it wrong the first few times, and either undercook the intervals or blow out. But you'll soon work out where your current limit is. If you do them over a standard route, then you should be able to check your progress (allowing for weather changes, of course).

I wish I'd done more this year. In mid-summer I lapsed back into the usual tempo rides, which are never hard enough to make any progress.

Gavin Gilbert

Barkiesnake wrote:

Also is there any kind of gym training i can do in the winter as well to build strength, what are the best exercises for cyclists?
Tref.

Coppi wrote:

ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike

At this stage of the game you need to get out as often as you can for long gentle rides. There's no need to overcook things by going mad with speed or intervals - just concentrate on steady paced hours in the saddle. As a general guide you shouldn't be riding that hard that you can't hold a conversation. Then as winter slips into spring focus your riding more towards hill work - there's lots of options in the Chilterns within easy reach of NW London.

I'd also suggest you think about joining a club ride - I believe the CTC still meet at Ruislip tube station for a very gentle ride each Sunday morning, the Willesden CC hold a popular run at an easy pace from Shanes Nurserys on the A40 at Denham (beware joining the very fast group that also meet at this point at the same time - it's easy to tell them apart), or there's my lot: www.archer-rc.cyclists.co.uk (no club run this Sunday however - we're working for Future Publishing at the circuit)