cycling

ok so over winter I have decided to get on my wind trainer to try and get fit and ready myself for a 76k bike ride, does any one know how I should structure my training I have done a little cycling but I am really hopeless on the hills so would like to try and get fit to tackle the hills when the weather warms up again any ideas. Currently I am doing 10 mins and jsut want to try and increase my average speed which sits around 25

Don't worry too much about your average speed, that will come natually. Keep the pace slow so you can cycle for a lot longer with comfort, IE: You should be basiclly able to have a conversation while cycling. Increase you time rather than you pace. Build up fairly quickly to half an hour then longer in stages and you pace will quicken. Good luck & enjoy.

Thanks arnie.m
I had been doing up to an hour when I was training for a race, but thought now that I am not competing in it would go back to the basics just wasn't sure how to go about it. so will increase it up to half an hour in the coming weeks.

Sadly there is no substitute for hill work (IMHO) So its off up the hills with you!
No amount of hours spinning on the trainer will give you the right muscle work for hill climbing, ya just gotta do the hills, sorry

And don't cycle on your toes get you heels down if you get what I mean, that will help a bit with calf muscle strength

The Kats Place;367278 wrote: And don't cycle on your toes get you heels down if you get what I mean, that will help a bit with calf muscle strength

Ah thanks afraid some one was going to say that had been doing some hill work before the earth quake but now not really wanting to go to the hills in chch so it will be a matter of finding some out my way with out having to drive for miles

Cycle to the hills as well as doing some hill work?

Hi,
Ive done a bit of cycle races and currently are in training for next years grape ride Magnum 200km. You need to calculate roughly the amount of hills in your race. If it is say 40% hills then you would look to train roughly a little bit more than that. Most people can handle the flats but hills can be a killer.

You will be suprised at what you can ride. I would take some food and drink have no real plan where to ride. Before you know it you would have ridden for an hour. Becasue im never going to be a professional I always have in my mindset its just an adventure, just enjoy it, enjoy the view.

Im building up Ashley George at the moment and if you come from Oxford towards Ashley George there is a nice stetch of hills - 6km one way that you could ride. Nothing serious just a bit up and down.

I think its going to be ages before some of the port hill will be open and to be honest they are pretty dangerous.

Thanks Steve

Webby;367330 wrote: Ah thanks afraid some one was going to say that had been doing some hill work before the earth quake but now not really wanting to go to the hills in chch so it will be a matter of finding some out my way with out having to drive for miles

Don't worry about the Port Hills, head for the road that runs from Loburn to Ashley Gorge. It's generally flattish but with some good undulations at the Ashley Gorge end that are great for getting into (or back into) hill riding. Another good circuit in that area is to start at Cust, head through Oxford turning toward Ashley Gorge and then turing onto German? Road and over Summer Hill back to Cust.