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How do I start racing?

I'm 16, and want to start racing hopfully by next year, but I'm not quite sure how far and fast to train?

  • Well, my dad finally got the old Raleigh Grand Prix from 1970 fixed up, i know it deffinatly isn't the BEST road bike for racing, but for racing beginners like me it should last me till i decide if i would want to stick to racing. neways... i want to get into shape this summer+fall and we have a stationary bike, but i just wanted to know if anybody knew of a site that talks about how long and fast of a ride I should be doing to get into racing shape for next year. Or if anybody knows from experience. Also, if anybody is from Wisconsin, if they know of a site that lists amature racing clubs for the state, because i can't seem to find one. Any info would be greatly appreciated!!!

  • Answer:

    For the winter months consider getting a trainer instead of using a stationary bike, as this way you spent time oin your bike not an artficial thing and get much better training as a result. As for distance and speed, that is not easy to asnwer as you have not said what sort of racing you want to do (4000meter persuit, individual time trials, single day, stage races) However, I will assume you are JUST starting Firstly you need to find a pedalling speed. This is variable to the person but ranges from 80-100 pedal strokes (Right from from top of stroke back to top of stoke) per minute, so start with 90 and adjust for you. Start with consistent effort workouts, using approx 80% of mas effort for a time period you can sustain. Slowly extend this time period. Once you have got used to this start adding interval workouts into your routine. This is where you will warmup, then either pedal against a greater resistance (to simulate hills) or pedal faster (to simluate sprinting) for a hort period, rest, repeat x times then warm down Giving a typical week looking like (not your 1st week! and alter wokouts by duration and type to waht is most applicable to your chosen race category): Monday - 45min consistent effort (80% of max) Wenesday - 10min warmup 5x 3min hard 2min easy 10min warmdown Friday - 10min warmup 10x 2min fast 1min easy 10min warmdown Sat - 90min consistent effort (80% of max)

Mel at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Is there a good bike shop in your area? If there is, stop in and ask about group rides. They'll either have some rides that leave from the shop, or they'll be able to point you to a local club. Most clubs have at least one ride a week geared towards beginners.

artmichalek

Hi Mel- Sign-up for the newsletter from RBR RoadBikeRider.com and check out their archive stuff, then if you start getting into it further you can download e-books and sign-up for the racer stuff. The basics are that you want to develop about 35 weeks of base mileage done at a moderately easy pace if you're going to invest in a HRM a heart rate monitor then you keep your heart-rate under 150 beats per minute. (Except when you're working on your fast rides or intervals). In each of those weeks you always do a long club ride about a third or two-thirds longer than one of your regular rides. (Build time in the saddle at 15 minute increments e.g. so if you can do 45 then you try for 1 hour next time and so on) Your long ride can be 2-3 hours. I wouldn't do three hours right away. The reason for a club ride is that you have to practice pack-riding because there are certain things you do. Each week has an interval session you can do something as simple as a fartlek (I know weird name, it comes from running and is swedish for speed play). 2 minutes high intensity effort, 1 minute recovery (recovery means relaxed spinning), then 1 minute high intensity, 30 seconds recovery, 30 seconds high intensity, then 5 minutes recovery. Then you do the whole thing again. Or you can do light-posts, high-intensity between posts, recovery the next set and so on. You want to ride about 4-5 times a week. Your least amount of time is 45 minutes once you build up to it. (Although Chris Carmichael from Carmichael Systems - He was Lance's Coach - has a whole series of things you can do if you have less than the time needed). Other rides you can add are: your long group ride will probably be fast, but you can add a short fast group ride, a tempo ride where you try a certain distance at a certain pace that you can keep track of so you can gauge your improvement, one other recovery ride/or no gadget ride (sometimes you just have to leave the cyclo-computer, HRM, the power meter, the GPS, the phone, the stopwatch and the ipod at home and just spin), a super-spinner an attempt to get your pedal cadence up to 120 a la Lance Armstrong, a threshold session where you fool your body into moving your threshold up so you can do more with less, a 20/20 ride 20 miles at 20 miles an hour average (ouch - best I've done is 18), single-speed ride pick a regular route that you do and get into a gear that will allow you to spin at about 90 RPM then you do the whole ride in that gear (sometimes ouch).

B S

This has nothing to do with answering your question. Fair play man at you age not alot of ppl would be asking the question you did, hope all goes well for you in the future.

ra2shadow

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