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More bike speed wanted
johnnylegs
Posts: 3
in General Chat
I'm after a bit of advice from anyone/everyone. I've got a road bike which I use for my tri's. It's got the usual, carbon forks, handlebars, seatpost and tri bars. Aero spokes, Ali frame and basic Shimano 8 speed gearing and weighing in at 22 lb. I've put on Michelin slicks and fly. Away from training, what can I do with my bike to get more speed from it? I can't afford to blow a small mortgage on a flash tri bike or a great wheel set. I have been toying with picking up a tri specific frame, but what will this really give me over 40kms? Any help would be greatly received.
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David.
Besides that I think the only true time-saver is training, like Boycie says( but hey; training is what we love[;)]).
I agree with the post so far. A really good book is "The lance armstrong performance program" Its written by Chris Carmichael his old coach.
With the cycling you already do you may want to try the intermediate program. Its 7 weeks and the results are excellent. You may just be riding alot of dead miles right now with no major benefit. This helps get specific results.
I hope this helps and take it from me it pays off
Short version, my background, recreational runner, hadn't touched a bike in years. Took up Triathlon 2 years ago, got a Giant SCR2 but after intial improvements hit a brick wall, not improving times by much and way, way down in the results. Did a lot of research, concluded that a 78degree Tri specific bike would be better than my road bike beacause over the years my muscles had developed for running not cycling. Got a Focus Tria, lopped minutes off my training and competition bike times but more importantly now go straight into the run with a complete absence of 'jelly legs' that I had before and significantly improved run times.
In my case the wrong engine was in the wrong machine, this has now been rectified and turning in bike times averaging 4 - 5 mins quicker over 20Km and run times 3 -4 minutes faster.
I have quite abit of experience on the bike over the years and always the better the bike the faster I go, and the Cervelo PC with Corima / Record is the fastest bike I've ever ridden. I have been fitter and lighter but I have never been faster on a bike - its' so aero, it's geometry is excellent and the kit is top end. I know there will be an element who will whinge about this. But the sad truth is that vO2 max, physiology, physical attributes, mental approach ie genetics not withstanding your performance can be improved somewhat through training further improvements for the less genetically gifted have to be bought - better kit, training camps, altitude training, time off work to train. And there's nothing wrong with this
Firstly less is more,train smart over a smaller time frame to prevent exhaustion.
Secondly as Treefrog points out to coin a phrase ''it is more than the bike''
Thirdly Chris Boardman says that the more sports you train for the more paranoid you will get that you are not making the required improvements so will tend to overtrain to compensate and performance will deteriorate.
Fourthly Don't follow the crowd.Every month the fitness magazines publish ways to better your 5k,blast your abs,swim more efficiently,so it stands to reason that if others follow these plans then they will improve at the same rate so the status Quo remains in the final results,sometimes you need to walk away from the crowd and try something different to improve.
Or you might think I am talking total BS.