Originally from Cape Town, now living in Chertsey, I’m a newbie to VCT and a relative newbie to cycling!
I began this time last year for Ride London, and doing it again this year!
Looking forward to meeting you all.
Tag Archives: Cycling
Perfect Cadence
Today’s coaches corner is very unique as its a topic that covers all three disciplines: Perfect cadence.
What’s is cadence?
Cadence is simply the number of actions taken during the course of a minute. This will either be pedal strokes on the bike, strokes taken in the pool over a certain distance or number of steps per minute running.
Zwift Island
Today’s coaches corner looks once more at how to make those long rides on the training bike / turbo / WattBike more bearable.
In a previous coaches corner I gave you a number of ways to break up that long run alternate on the turbo trainer / WattBike when the weather means you can’t go outside. Yes you could ride outside in the wet conditions, but naturally there’s a greater risk of injury and therefore you might take the session too easy and negate the benefits of your endurance ride. At the moment you have to sign up and then wait for your invite. They are consistently adding new content and they have recently changed the island. Its free at the moment but I guess it will be subscription based at some point.
Brick Sessions
Today’s coaches corner is all about brick sessions. Jen Isaac wanted to know when is best to start doing them and whether there are different lengths according to what distance you are racing. Continue reading
Summer Set Backs
With the weather on the turn, this can mean only one thing – the lakes will soon be open and that the nights become longer allowing for more mid week rides. But is this a good thing?
Hills & Flat Riding
Today coaches corner is all about the merits of hills and / or riding the flats. Why and when will aid you towards achieving your goal.
Winter hills: winter is all about building that strong base. Making your legs stronger will aid you come the increase in intensity during the season. Riding hills takes practice, knowing what gear to use, what cadence range, how much power you should be generating. Either way, riding hills will make you stronger. BUT if you only ever do hills, then will lose that cutting edge which riding the faster fasts can do, (see below).
Cycling Calls
Today’s coaches corner is all about Calls when cycling.
The louder the better when riding. Shouting out information will give all those who are riding within group the correct information they might need to make adjustments in their riding.
Knowing what to shout and why is key to a safe and enjoyable ride. Never be afraid to shout loud – you will kick yourself for not shouting loud enough if something was to happen!
Gearing
Today’s coaches corner is all about gears. Simon Tacx wanted to understand more about the variations in chain rings & gear ratios.
Firstly basic terminology:
Spider: this is the five probes which spread out from the centre of the cranks. Road bikes traditionally have five to spread the load where mountain bikes typically have four due to the smaller circumferences.
Crank length: this is the length of the pedal arm from the centre to the pedal. These came range from 160mm to 175mm. Depending on the length of your length the length of your cranks will vary.
Chain rings: these are the discs which go around the pedals which generates the momentum to cycle. See below for further information. Bigger = harder small = easier
Cranks sizes: 130 or 110. This is the circumference size of the cranks rings. 130 is standard & 110 compact. If you buy 110 chain rings they will not go onto a 130 crankset and visa versa.
Rear cassette: either 10 or 11 cogs on the rear wheel. Smaller = harder, bigger = easier. The opposite to the front chain rings
Continue reading
How often to test & what test to do
Susie posed today’s Coaches Corner question about Testing. She wanted to know How often we should test and What tests we should do.
Testing periodically is key to monitoring progress and checking whether the previous weeks / months training is working. If you have positive test data, then you can imply that the training is working. If the data is however not what you expected, it could come down to breaks in the training phase due to illness, injury or missed session or could indicate the the structure of the sessions are no appropriate.
Group riding
Today’s coaches corner is looking at Group Riding.
When riding in a group, there are a number of things you should know, do and avoid in order to ensure that the group is safe, productive & effective. Here’s a basic guide.
Single line or two-a-breast?
A certain times you can look to adopt either riding position in a group. Knowing when & why will aid for a safer and more enjoyable ride.
