Self Righteous Cyclist

I love to climb and have always wanted to do the 7 Peaks Challenge  so why not add another 5 classified climbs to the list to create my own version of the 12 days of Christmas, get some solid training in over the festive season and call it the 12 climbs of Xmas. I am not going to review each climb because that's already been done by the Climbing Cyclist , who breaks down each climb and has some very solid advice on how to approach these climbs. While Omeo to Dinner Plain does not have a climb classification, the  42km of staircase like climbing with 8 category 3 or 4 climbs over 2 hours, was one of the toughest assignments of the lot. Taking on this excessive load over the course of two weeks, provided me with an ideal supercompensation training block. In the process, I accumulated a Training Stress Score (TSS) of  2,072, about 25% above my 6 week average total and produced some record power number numbers, so there's a lot to be said for going a little overboard. Superco...

Introduction This is part 10 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this blog I am going wrap up the interventions that took me from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the Introduction Part 1, starting with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, incorporating sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride Part 3, introducing strength training Part 4, taking sodium bicarbonate before races and strong group rides Part 5, adopting a periodised and masters training plan Part 6, completing Lactate Threshold and VO2 Max Testing Part 7, increasing Carbohydrate intake in races to 130g/hr Part 8, increasing Protein intake Part 9, 90min Zone 2 rides with different inputs to explore heart rate response The results - Best ever one, four and five hour average power numbers - Best ever average power numbers for sprinting - F...

Introduction This is part 9 of 10 of the N=1 series of becoming a stronger cyclist for less than a cup of coffee a day. In this series I am going to take you through my journey from my local Masters C to Masters A in the space of 18 months, at the age of 57. If you are reading this series for the first time, you can go back and read the Introduction Part 1, starting with a daily smoothie and Creatine. Part 2, incorporating sprint training into a weekly Zone 2 ride Part 3, introducing strength training Part 4, taking sodium bicarbonate before races and strong group rides Part 5, adopting a periodised and masters training plan Part 6, completing Lactate Threshold and VO2 Max Testing Part 7, increasing Carbohydrate intake in races to 130g/hr Part 8, increasing Protein intake This time around, I became the guinea pig of my own little piece of citizen science, with a n=1 experiment. Initially I planned to ride the same 90 minute sustained endurance workout over 6 weeks with three different ...