Comeback after 15 years off....?

einriba

Hi all,

After watching the Tom Hawkins memorial on the weekend I've been inspired to reconsider racing. I've continued to train and race - just in other sports (e.g. triathlon and running)

I've been considering racing again, but this weekend really made me start the wheels rolling.

What concerns me is that when I last raced it was all about miles....miles miles and more miles. I've now got young kids and a full time job, and don't have the time i used to. I reckon now I could get 3 - 4 sessions per week max. Week days would be 1 - 2 hours, weekend would be 1 ride of 3 hours.

That doesn't seem enough to me.

I used to be fairly handy as a junior (6th in the national crit, a few wins in junior TT's and crits etc, regular top 10 placings) but as I said i had a lot more time to train (was about 14 hours per week)

Is it realistic to expect to be able to race with some sort of success on such a small amount of training? Or should I hold off till the kids are grown up? I think I have a fairly high level of natural fitness

danlikesbikes

Short answer - Yes.

If you have a good base of fitness then its a good starting point and your looking at what 6 hours total a week (think my maths is correct) should not be that difficult for your to get your programme up to speed.

As for what level of success you will have that might be a different thing, but most races tend to be about race tactics as much as out and out fitness. Take that either way, as you could get your fitness to a good level and use your racing knowledge and ability to wipe the floor with some people or your fitness could be excellent but your race craft letting you down and you end up getting beaten.

You might want to look at a turbo trainer for some of your weekday training so you can be very specific and look at temp, interval type sessions. See http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/indoorCy ... nav=search for some good free sessions. Though to be fair i do some on rollers or on the road so not an issue, but if your are deadly serious and have a limit on time would seriously consider a turbo as a good bench mark for setting your training and also monitoring your progress.

Plus you never know you might also be able to sneak in another session or 2 if its only 1 hour and in the garage.

einriba

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Short answer - Yes.

If you have a good base of fitness then its a good starting point and your looking at what 6 hours total a week (think my maths is correct) should not be that difficult for your to get your programme up to speed.

As for what level of success you will have that might be a different thing, but most races tend to be about race tactics as much as out and out fitness. Take that either way, as you could get your fitness to a good level and use your racing knowledge and ability to wipe the floor with some people or your fitness could be excellent but your race craft letting you down and you end up getting beaten.

You might want to look at a turbo trainer for some of your weekday training so you can be very specific and look at temp, interval type sessions. See http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/indoorCy ... nav=search for some good free sessions. Though to be fair i do some on rollers or on the road so not an issue, but if your are deadly serious and have a limit on time would seriously consider a turbo as a good bench mark for setting your training and also monitoring your progress.

Plus you never know you might also be able to sneak in another session or 2 if its only 1 hour and in the garage.

Thanks for the reply

Tactically I think I'm ok - probably a bit rusty but I'm sure that would sharpen. when I've gone out with the road clubs I've not been the fittest, but for the sprints, chain gang I seem to do well.....I know racing is different but as a bench mark it seems ok.

I have a turbo already and some of the coach Troy DVD's! hate and love it at the same time. hate doing it, love the results. I'll look at that site, thanks for the link

imposter2.0

Realistically, not much has changed in the last 15 years and racing still hurts the same now as it did then. If you still have good endurance and aerobic pace, then the only thing possibly lacking will be your top end/high intensity work - which is relatively straightforward to bring on if you already have a good base. Assuming your general diet/fitness and weight is ok, then I doubt if you will have too many problems getting back on the pace..

danlikesbikes

Plus the other thing to take into consideration is when/where you race.

In MK we are quite lucky to have a summer series of circuit racing during the week, plus the same again for LVRC riders (40yrs+) and I know a lot of riders that use the midweek racing as a training session.

If you can get on a chain gang and hold our own then your in a good position.

Being a bit of a nerd if I were you I'd work my training backwards. So work out what races you are looking to do and the distance/time then do a quick test race on your turbo to see what you can do. That should give you a base point to start from and and end point of where you want to be. Then just structure your training towards that looking at endurance, sprinting, threshold etc.

It certainly what I have done in the past for my tri/du racing.

briantrumpet

einriba wrote:

After watching the Tom Hawkins memorial on the weekend I've been inspired to reconsider racing. I've continued to train and race - just in other sports (e.g. triathlon and running)

I've been considering racing again, but this weekend really made me start the wheels rolling.

I was sorry I couldn't get to see the race, but I'm glad you enjoyed watching. I know the club will be pleased to know that it wasn't just the racers who had fun.

displacedaussie

Nick Noble did it last year: http://road.cc/content/news/66865-king-mamils-overweigt-heavy-smoker-mid-40s-goes-cat-4-elite-racer-just-eight.

He was obviously talented when he was younger and admittedly did a _lot_ of training last year, but it's still possible to race again successfully.

So long as you train smart and make the most of your time, you'll be fine.

For what it's worth, I'm 30, work full-time and have a 4-year old. I've only been cycling for a couple of years and did my first ever race at Easter last year. The amount of time I was able to spend cycling last year was as follows:

Jan: 28 hours
Feb: 24 hours
Mar: 27 hours
Apr: 31 hours
May: 36 hours
June: 45 hours
July: 40 hours
Aug: 35 hours
Sep: 39 hours
...

Based on your post, it looks like you should be able to manage a similar amount. I did my best to fit training around the family, which sometimes meant a 4hr ride at 5am before work. I'd often put my boy to bed at 7:30pm and then go out for 90 minutes or so for a quick blast around the lanes during the week.

If you're near Wellington, just get out to Ilton for a circuit race and give it a shot. You won't really know until you've tried.

einriba

Thanks again.

I live in Cornwall (was visiting the in-laws) so the Merryfield crits are a no go....I used to do those religiously as a junior! Tuesday nights on the airfield!!!

That's good to see that your training similar to mine and you're racing......I'll defo give it a go. I'll need to do some bike work soon as my fitness hasn't been bike specific.....

displacedaussie

I won a few races and reached Cat 2 on those hours and I've been overweight and unfit my whole life. You won't have any problems.

ric/rstsport

i've coached a few people with such time restrictions or worse. so long as the training is suitable for your goals (and your goals are realistic) you should be fine. If you need some help, then give me a shout.

ric

einriba

Ric/RSTSport wrote:

i've coached a few people with such time restrictions or worse. so long as the training is suitable for your goals (and your goals are realistic) you should be fine. If you need some help, then give me a shout.

ric

Thanks ric, much appreciated. The difficulty will be making each session count - i'm well out of date in terms of quality training...!

ric/rstsport

einriba wrote:

Ric/RSTSport wrote:

i've coached a few people with such time restrictions or worse. so long as the training is suitable for your goals (and your goals are realistic) you should be fine. If you need some help, then give me a shout.

ric

Thanks ric, much appreciated. The difficulty will be making each session count - i'm well out of date in terms of quality training...!

We can help with some coaching, should you want any. just give me a shout on ric@rstsport.com

DHTT

Cornish Series Crits are on again this year. Ranging from Perranporth, Portreath and a couple of other circuits, plus theres the Newquay Velo RR's. I reckon you'd be ok racing at Perranporth in 3/4s considering the range of guys that have raced it and some times it doesn't really get going till last 15 mins. If you don't mind me asking when and where is the chain gang you get out?

einriba

Cool - I don't think I'd be fit enough to do it in the next 2 - 3months

The chaingang is run starting in Plymouth. I haven't done it for while. Normally there's a good bunch from Plymouth Corries.

DHTT

If you ride with Plymouth Corinthian, it would be worth talking to Adrian Sluman, I pretty sure he did a comeback last year or at least to racing and now he's a 2nd Cat, first time he showed up in the race I had no idea who he was, pretty sure he won his first race back, no-one could keep up in the sprint!