Setting targets

A brief guide on preparing for cycle events

If you are new to cycling and have already entered an event then well done. You are half way there. If you haven’t, then what are you waiting for?

Sportives, races, charity rides, in fact any cycling event that sets a challenge are ideal ways to motivate yourself into training. Once you’ve booked, then there is no going back.

But where do you start?

A good place to start is at the end. Get a diary and mark the date of your event, then work backwards, counting the weeks until you reach present day. This will give you a period of time that can now be split into training blocks.

Each of these block should be focussed towards your ultimate goal, but can be stepping stones along the way, each with their own target. This process allows you to manage your training into realistic chunks that can be less daunting than a larger timescale.

Within each period you may want to focus on specific areas that you have identified as being areas that you wish to improve on such as: limbing, endurance, speed. Once you have identified a target for each block it is a good idea to record these somewhere and your progress towards them. This is where keeping a training diary is a vital tool in progressing and realising your goals and targets. In the next post we will cover the basic details of keeping a training diary

“Ever bike? Now that’s something that makes life worth living! I take exercise every afternoon that way. O- to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it (lie doesn’t hit it at all), and go ripping and tearing through the streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you’re going to smash up. Well now, that’s something! And then go home again after three hours of it, into the tub, rub down well, then into a soft shirt and down to the dinner table, with the evening paper and a cigarette in prospect – and then to think that tomorrow I can do it all over again!” – Jack London, in The Letters of Jack London

A big thank you to everyone who took part and helped out on the first of the Etape Caledonia Training rides of 2010, which took place on Saturday 6th February.

Everyone had a fantastic 40mile ride around Highland Perthshire, starting and finishing in Pitlochry. The weather was kind as well, with no rain and zero wind.

We’re all looking forward to the next ride on March 20th

(more photos will follow very soon)

Snow, for sure it was snowing, for sure it was cold, but I was paid to pedal.

- Bernard Hinault, on winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Road Race

“One of the reasons I ride is because it hurts at times. There’s a certain discipline and freedom that comes when you push yourself to the limit. There have been times when my heart is about to jump out of my chest, my tongue is dragging in my spokes, and i’m sucking wind like a vacuum cleaner. And just when every nerve and fiber screams you can’t do any more, somebody jumps and you take off after him, forgetting the pain. Later when you look inside yourself, you see things a littile deeper, a little wider, and a little clearer. You realise that you can do things you never thought you could. Your dreams get a little bigger, your hopes a little stronger.” – Rich Griffith

Skinny Tyres has won a Scottish Enterprise Tourism Innovation Award for 2009. The award is aimed at individual or collaborative project ideas that offer genuinely innovative new experiences and give visitors a real reason to visit Scotland. Read the full story on the Tourism Innovation website.

This weekend we took a trip to Inchnadamph for a weekend of cycling, whisky and wine. Our previous memories of this area were of a gruelling 138mile sportive ride from Ullapool taking in almost 18,000ft of climbing organised by Hands On Events.

This time our rides were shorter, but we did discover what can only be described as the most amazing 40miles I have ever cycled in my life. The Drumbeg coastal road circled the soaring buttresses of Quinag (pronounced koonyak). Big climbs, and fat descents all rolled into a route that took your breath away on every turn. I’m not waxing lyrical about this ride for the sake of it. It was stunning and will certainly be on the itinerary of Skinny Tyres trips in the future.

58th out of 240 riders wasn’t bad over the 100 mile course. I rode it in 5hrs 30mins, but had been on for a close 5hrs 10 and was flying only to blow in the last 25miles. When will I learn to keep eating and pace myself early on. Still a fantastic event on a fantastic route organised by Hands On Events that organise among others the Bealach Na Ba challenge.

Photos of all the riders can be found at Action Heroes

Skinny Tyres was back again at the Markinch Highaland games for more grass track racing on the weekend 7.6.09. The track was smoother, but the racing was still full on and hard going. Still not won anyting yet. No more events until the end of July, so time still to train.

Skinny Tyres swapped to slightly thicker knobbly tubs for our first go at grass track racing at the Blackford Highland Games. The first games of the season. The day was a scorcher and the racing was fast and furious of the shoulder to shoulder kind. It was certainly a shock to legs that had been used to racing on smooth roads!