[MozyAdam]

Hi,
As a young junior cyclist I really want to be able to race in 4th Cat next year. However my fitness currenlyt is appalling. I am planning on doing a 100 mile hilly sportive in September which I hope to be able to finish.
My question is, how do I train to race? I’ve heard a bit about getting “base miles” in and cycling a lot but in reality I have no clue. I plan on increasing my mileage over the months and trying to do 150miles a week at a comfortable pace. But I have also heard that you need to be doing intervals and “sweetspot” training.
Can anyone give some advice on how to train from now to next spring because I am completely lost in terms of what to do.
Just to give you a basic outline, I can average 15mph on 20mile rides solo. This is flat without wind. I have a road bike.
Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Topic

[crazy-legs]

You’re over-thinking it.
Ride
You’re over-thinking it.
Ride your bike – on your own, with a club and you’ll get fitter.

Don’t worry about zones and heart rates and power – if you’re unfit and gaining fitness, that’ll change so much so quickly that it’s pretty useless for measuring anything meaningful at first.
Same with kit – don’t go buying shiny new stuff at the moment, learn to ride what you’ve got.

Once you feel ready for it, find a local 4th Cat circuit race and enter it. Chances are you’ll get dropped in your first couple of races regardless of fitness but that’s to do with tactics and you’ll soon learn that.

Have a read of this too:
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/20131213-Get-into-road-racing-0?c=EN

[KirinChris]

ianrobo wrote:None but may

ianrobo wrote:

None but may look at Cat 4 next year

8|

Of course racers train with HR and power. I don’t ride to the shops without factoring it into my Training Stress Score.

But it will do bugger all if I can’t hold a wheel or keep my place.

[UAECF Elite; BC Cat 3/Masters ‘D’; raced UCI 2.2 in case you’re wondering.]

[adamtaylor]

You need fitness, it’s true,
You need fitness, it’s true, but you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to get pulled along by the bunch. What you need more of is the ability to ride safely in a fast moving, fast changing, fast cornering mass of riders. Riding with others at a club and in a chain gang helps with this.

[crikey]

See, I would disagree.
When I
See, I would disagree.

When I wanted to road race I went out and rode with the people who raced; a group of 1st, 2nd and 3rd cats with a sprinkling of old ex-pro riders. The club I was in didn’t have much of a racing section so I rode with the guys who did, graduating from training runs in the winter to the chain gangs and then on to racing with a local sponsored team.

You need to ride with others to understand what fitness you need; and most importantly, to develop the skills that keep them and you safe while riding fast. It’s not like a sportive, it’s very, very different.

Riding with others also begins to stretch what you can do; getting dropped after 100 miles with 50 still to get home tends to concentrate the mind somewhat.

I began to use a HRM after 4 years of racing, and it wasn’t all that much help to be honest. I raced abroad for a while too and that was a major step up in terms of speed and handling to learn.
Racing is a whole new skill to learn, don’t underestimate it and don’t think that you can because your power meter says yes.

[ianrobo]

None but may look at Cat 4
None but may look at Cat 4 next year myself as a ‘veteran’ what is obvious though you need the fitness first and foremost and a lot of training has to be solo.

Not saying not join a club but I am saying the basics have to be done first and foremost.

Everyone I have ridden with who cat racing (up to level 2) use their stats to judge and measure themselves with. Jeez I was on a ride in Snowdonia with a guy for 10K before he dropped me and all we talked about was w/kg, power and HR ….

[crikey]

How much racing have you done
How much racing have you done Ian?

Riding by yourself makes you really good at riding by yourself, which is not what racing is about…

[ianrobo]

crikey wrote:
Ignore the HRM

crikey wrote:

Ignore the HRM and power meter brigade; these are tools to help refine your training and will not get you out the door on a cold wet January Saturday; riding with others will.

Many clubs cancel in the winter if cold.

What gets you out is self motivation whether on your own or a club. I train on my own, gives you greater freedom to do things.

Being in the chain gang serves a purpose but if you are not fit enough to keep up, what is the point then ?

I really believe if the guy is serious and surely if he is he will target cat 3 etc as time goes on then you need to do it via HR at least. The vast majority d, with who he rides with and against. You have to measure you own performance to understand where to improve.

If pro’s do then Cat 4 can and should do.

[Simon E]

As crikey says, 4th cat races
As crikey says, 4th cat races are brimming with choppers these days – plenty of ‘attitude’ and carbon, not so hot on group riding skills.

Don’t be one.

[crikey]

Riding with other people is
Riding with other people is the most important thing to do. Junior and 4th cat racing is full of people who are ‘fit’. It is not full of people who can ‘race’, because you only learn how to race by riding with others and racing with others.

Racing is not about horsepower, nor is it about watts/kg, it is about being intelligent and capable and competent to be able to use the fitness that you have to your advantage without endangering others.

Ignore the HRM and power meter brigade; these are tools to help refine your training and will not get you out the door on a cold wet January Saturday; riding with others will.

TL:DR; join a club and listen.

[KirinChris]

MozyAdam wrote:Thank you all

MozyAdam wrote:

Thank you all very much for the advice! I have a speed and cadence computer and I can average about 16mph for an hour easily.
I hope to join a chain gang come time soon.
I am from Preston, in Lancashire.
So what I intend to do from now to Jan is cycle as much as I can at a moderate intensity so that I can sustain it for the whole ride.
Then from Jan start doing some intervals and focus on sweetspot etc?
Thank you all again. Much appreciated.

That will certainly get you to the point where you can think about going onto a race in terms of fitness.

But to echo what everyone is saying, you should also be looking at joining a club. Not just for the training but for the group riding skills.

Racing is mostly about position. If you are in the right position you will save energy and have matches to burn when you need them.

Riding in groups with a club will help give you awareness about when and how to move. For example, what someone looks like when they’re about to lose contact, so you can be ready to get around them in a fluid move. If you get stuck, lose speed then have to surge to catch the wheel you’ve burned a match for nothing.

The flip side of that coin is that if you don’t have the fitness you can’t maintain the position. It’s the unfit riders who slip back a few metres on a short climb that lose their place and then use more of their energy.

[ianrobo]

You have to remember if
You have to remember if racing in one hour crits or 5 hour races what you are able to sustain so you do not blow out. From that perspective speed is less important.

It is important to work out your threshold HR etc so that you take everything else from that. Course you can do it by feel but remember in any race you have to judge what you are capable of.

[MozyAdam]

Thank you all very much for
Thank you all very much for the advice! I have a speed and cadence computer and I can average about 16mph for an hour easily.
I hope to join a chain gang come time soon.
I am from Preston, in Lancashire.
So what I intend to do from now to Jan is cycle as much as I can at a moderate intensity so that I can sustain it for the whole ride.
Then from Jan start doing some intervals and focus on sweetspot etc?
Thank you all again. Much appreciated.

[ianrobo]

Whilst I would not disagree
Whilst I would not disagree about a club there are other methods available.

If basically starting from scratch then you need to look at your weight and try and lose excess (not Chris Froome like). Certainly a HRM is a must but not a chest one, wrist ones far better) and if you can a power meter.

In fact it does come down to cost and what are you prepared to pay. Some may say that this is not needed but I would disagree.

Sign up to training Peaks is a must IMHO.

The most important thing is time and working how many hours a week you can do then base your training on that.

A turbo trainer as well.

[Scoob_84]

Riding in crits is a little
Riding in crits is a little different to riding solo for a couple of hours. They tend to be a more a series of hard sprints followed by light pedalling followed by hard sprints etc. rather than riding at a relatively constant power output for 2 or 3 hours. Other than joining a club, my advice would be to include a few short sharp climbs into your rides and use strava leader boards to monitor your improvement. Once over the hills, ensure that you keep pedalling after rather than grind to a halt.

Everyone will tell you to get comfortable riding in a group first too, this is sound advice but not always an option for everyone. I hadn’t done any group riding before entering my first couple of crits. Just make sure you read up in advance about racing etiquette so you don’t end up being that div who gets constantly shouted at for not keeping their lines in corners, too trigger happy on the breaks or worse, causes an expensive pile up.

[Iamnot Wiggins]

Ensure your bike handling
Ensure your bike handling skills are up to scratch as you will need them in a 4th Cat bunch.

I’ll echo what everybody else had already said – join a club. Where abouts are you based?

[Author]

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