Faster for no money?

richrock

My budget is zero. I only have a road bike, and tried a 10 mile TT yesterday - which was awesome. Now until I get my pocket money next month, I have zero budget to add lighter bits to the bike for the next one.

I want to know if there's anything I can do to the bike apart from removing the inner chainring (they're steel :shock: ) as I only rode on the larger one, and would literally cost me nothing. :oops:

jibberjim

The chainring will make almost no difference.

You can change your position to be more aerodynamic and that will save you more than any paid for improvements anyway almost certainly.

BrianTrousers

Eat fewer crisps and train harder. Save money, get faster.

AntiShaver

Serious?

Ride more, eat better, hydrate, good sleep etc.

Save your pocket money.

Stuy-b

Train more, get more aero, eat less/better.

What time did you get?

danowat

Positioning and specific training can be free, and VERY effective.

richrock

Thanks, I'm cutting out the crisps already - although I do treat myself occasionally (once a week). My time was 29.44 which was way lower than my guess of 40mins.

@danowat - what would specific training be? Probably being dull, I've never trained for anything, just get on the bike and ride, never warmed up, nothing.

I commute to work so I'm doing 15 miles a day, plus a 15/25 miler on saturdays, rest on sunday. Gonna play around with the saddle setup this weekend, and aim to spend more time riding in the drops to/from work. Maybe sweet-talking the wife (her who controls the flow of finance) into an early payday for some aero bars

Hopefully next time I try it, I'm aiming to get closer to 28mins. Which is the same as my 7 mile commute... :?

danowat

Add some intervals into your commutes, 5, 10 and 20 min intervals are good for 10 mile TT's

Alot of it is down to getting as aero as you can, so wearing as tighter fitting clothing as you can helps, take anything you don't need off your bike, although I'd leave the front rings alone!!, if you are wearing a helmet with a load of vents, tape them up.

Get your frontal area as small as possible.

Anonymous

Get low and keep riding in that low position.
As already mentioned, turn a couple of your commutes into interval sessions.

SBezza

You can get aero bar extensions from £30 so don't need to spend mega bucks. In fact I still use my Token extensions on my TT bike, but they were originally purchased for the road bike.

If you are going to just be doing 10m TT's do some 5 minute intervals at over TT effort, and do about 4 of them with equal rest period. I would do these a couple of times a week. I would suggest warming up for a 10 as well, just so the body if ready for the effort.

Pacing is a free way of going faster, don't start off too hard. Even if you maintain the same power for a 10, the first 1/2 mile will seem incredibly easy, and it is so easy to push too hard here, and then suffer towards the end of the TT (well you should be suffering towards the end, but you should still be able to do one of those 5 min efforts for the last 5 mins power wise).

ju5t1n

Join a club. Other members will give you tips and may even help you out with free upgrades (especially if you're a junior) - someone's bound to have an old set of aero bars they can lend you

markos1963

+1 for interval training, More than anything I have bought or done, doing 5,10 and 20 min intervals have had a dramatic effect on my speed.

I also have a set of Token clip on bars, excellent value for money(shop around and you'll find them for about £30) Very adjustable and easy to get a comfy fit.

peejay78

you should be able to drop the stem below the spacers if you have a look. this make you a bit flatter.

get used to pushing bigger gears.

train hard, ride more, rest more clearly.

ozzzyosborn206

with regards to your position, for me, you may be different but i think i am more aero with my hands on the hoods with my forearm level resting on the bars than i am in the drops, then if your arms can take it resting then in the middle of your bars pretending you have tri bars will be yet more aero but a bit sketchy with cars and a rough road. Like others have said when you are going to and from work and training rather than just tapping along at the same speed to some intervals. If you have a speedo try to stay at 40kph for as long as you can maybe do this once a week and make a note of how long you managed and wind conditions etc, the longer you can do it the closer to 24mins you will get, then hopefully to the other side of it!

richrock

@ozzyosborn206 - I naturally found myself riding holding the tops of the hoods as you described, I think it was like putting my arms into that 90degree tuck, just unable to get my arms in. There's some nasty potholes on the route, plus the flippin' cateyes they put on the left side of the lane (I hit a few of those )

Definitely try the intervals. Will do some research this morning seeing as the wife got me up too early :x

secretsqizz

richrock wrote:

Thanks, I'm cutting out the crisps already - although I do treat myself occasionally (once a week). My time was 29.44 which was way lower than my guess of 40mins.

@danowat - what would specific training be? Probably being dull, I've never trained for anything, just get on the bike and ride, never warmed up, nothing.

I commute to work so I'm doing 15 miles a day, plus a 15/25 miler on saturdays, rest on sunday. Gonna play around with the saddle setup this weekend, and aim to spend more time riding in the drops to/from work. Maybe sweet-talking the wife (her who controls the flow of finance) into an early payday for some aero bars

Hopefully next time I try it, I'm aiming to get closer to 28mins. Which is the same as my 7 mile commute... :?

:shock: when the thread started , I thought this was a 14 year old talking.....now it seems you are a senior management accountant for deLoitte

richrock

Hehe, nah I'm just a mid-30's web developer. I'm a bit crap (read: very) at managing finances - if it were up to me, I'd upgrade the bike and wonder how I'm going to eat

My wife however, could easily work for deLoitte.... :shock:

P_Tucker

Have you considered pedalling harder?

Chip \'oyler

The key to cycling faster is structured training. This will give you the biggest gains. After that some clip on aero bars would be a good upgrade

Stu Coops

All the bling is fantastic and there is nobody worse than me for shedding grammes off my bikes and better positions but in reality save ya dough for now get in to a club train with strong guys who do lots of TT's as these are the one's who will push you hard for that 10 effort but you still need the base miles say work up to a 50-60 mile ride once a week.
Club run ideal for this as if you tire you can sit in but still turning the pedals, honestly the best way to motivate yourself is a club but pick one that has plenty of guys racing as opposed to your more family friendly clubs which are more social than anything else.

It doesn't matter what you ride at the moment you can have carbon everything but if the engine "YOU" ain't strong enough to push it what's the point, I have seen so many guys already riding decent bikes make the mistake of buying the very top end kit lots of debt kidding themselves in to thinking it will shave off that extra minute.

The only thing that will do this is Legs & Lungs so just keep training and those times will fall and then when you do get a decent machine you will feel all the benefits of it.

P_Tucker

Why in the name of Raptor Jesus would a beginner need to ride 60 miles in order to train for a 10?

derbygrimpeur

P_Tucker wrote:

Why in the name of Raptor Jesus would a beginner need to ride 60 miles in order to train for a 10?

aerobic base

will3

Pump up your tyres and oil your chain?

Anonymous

derbygrimpeur wrote:

P_Tucker wrote:

Why in the name of Raptor Jesus would a beginner need to ride 60 miles in order to train for a 10?

aerobic base

I do 10s, I think I've done a ride longer than 30 miles six times this year. One was a social ride, a couple of chaingangs, a couple of races and a hilly TT. I didn't do any 'aerobic base' training for these events. Not least because I don't have time.

You don't need long easy rides to train for a 10. At all. Just intervals. 60 mile rides are good for pleasure or sportives but no good for 10s.

danowat

Christ, if I had to do 60 milers to train for a 10, just think of the mileage I'd need for a 50 or 100!!!!.

Incidentally, I am doing a (my first) 50TT at the end of June, the longest targeted session my coach has given me is a 2hr tempo ride......

Stu Coops

So many experts in such a small place I'm impressed

Anonymous

Stu Coops wrote:

So many experts in such a small place I'm impressed

This is the race section on one of the biggest cycling forums in Britain. What did you expect?

sub55

Faster for no money?

riding position
finding the right tyre pressure , harder not always better.
pacing , dont go off to hard in the beginning.

the above you can do now .
beyond that , more training and train smarter.
theres two sorts of people on here, those that dont do any training and those who do 50 hours a week and their all lying to you.

P_Tucker

derbygrimpeur wrote:

P_Tucker wrote:

Why in the name of Raptor Jesus would a beginner need to ride 60 miles in order to train for a 10?

aerobic base

The 70s just called and they want their training back.

nmcgann

danowat wrote:

Christ, if I had to do 60 milers to train for a 10, just think of the mileage I'd need for a 50 or 100!!!!.

Incidentally, I am doing a (my first) 50TT at the end of June, the longest targeted session my coach has given me is a 2hr tempo ride......

That's the meat of my 50TT training too - 2h tempo rides. (plus harder 1h rides)

I still think the long(er) rides have a place though. I find my endurance suffers if I don't keep a few 60 mile+ rides in my training program. They are good for general cycling fitness and weight control, even if not specific for a short race.

danowat

The bulk of my winter mileage was 100 and 200k Audaxes, I really think that base work over the winter has helped.

I rarely do rides of more than 30 miles now though