I turned 50 earlier this month. I don't recommend getting older . I am fighting to stay fit and it's a lot of fun but much harder than it used to be. I've been doing a lot of off road unicycling and road biking . There is tons of fun to be had out there. Working on fitness sure doesn't have to be dull. I enjoy reading all your threads about the activities that you do. I envy your youth .

Quote from: mbalmer on August 20, 2009, 06:23:08 AM
I turned 50 earlier this month. I don't recommend getting older . I am fighting to stay fit and it's a lot of fun but much harder than it used to be. I've been doing a lot of off road unicycling and road biking . There is tons of fun to be had out there. Working on fitness sure doesn't have to be dull. I enjoy reading all your threads about the activities that you do. I envy your youth .

I'm gonna pick your brains for unicycling tips one of these days.

Quote from: somegirl on August 20, 2009, 06:51:47 AM
I'm gonna pick your brains for unicycling tips one of these days.

Let's do it. I now have six unicycles. Two are out on loan for friends to learn. Once you get past that initial learning curve it's tons of fun.

Here's a question for my fellow cyclists,

So I have 92 days left until my first century ride for the Tour de Tucson and I really want to be well prepaired for it. I've been training in a variety of ways, but what are some really good tactics to have to help increase average speed?

And for those who have done a century ride, what's a good average speed to maintain? Moreover, what's a good time to aim for if you're training super hard and highly competitive?   

My new tag line: "It's not that I'm out to beat you, it's just that I have to win."

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 20, 2009, 12:51:22 PM
Here's a question for my fellow cyclists,

So I have 92 days left until my first century ride for the Tour de Tucson and I really want to be well prepaired for it. I've been training in a variety of ways, but what are some really good tactics to have to help increase average speed?

And for those who have done a century ride, what's a good average speed to maintain? Moreover, what's a good time to aim for if you're training super hard and highly competitive?   

My new tag line: "It's not that I'm out to beat you, it's just that I have to win."

I finished my first century at Lake Tahoe earlier this year in about 6 1/2 hours of riding time. 

I think the guys at the Tour de France were carrying like 24-25mph on the last stage of the tour for all 104 miles or so.

Somewhere in between there would be a good target to shoot for!

But in all honesty, I think the key point is not going to be the speed, as that will come with time, but rather making sure you are prepared for the distance.  I've not checked out the route map for Tour de Tucson, but I've heard that it is a relatively flat ride. 

In your training rides now, what kind of distances are you riding?  What kind of elevation gains are you taking?  Are you doing rides that have both distance and elevation?

- R

Quote from: mbalmer on August 20, 2009, 07:09:30 AM
Let's do it. I now have six unicycles. Two are out on loan for friends to learn. Once you get past that initial learning curve it's tons of fun.

Cool, I have a unicycle (Torker) and I'm decent at going up and down my hallway on it but terrified of not being able to use the wall if I need to.  I'll PM you about it.

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 20, 2009, 12:51:22 PM
So I have 92 days left until my first century ride for the Tour de Tucson and I really want to be well prepaired for it. I've been training in a variety of ways, but what are some really good tactics to have to help increase average speed?

Interval training.

Although  I'd recommend working on endurance more than speed.  Being able to go fast for the first 25 miles won't help you if you lag the last 75 miles.

Your ride looks nice and flat so that will be good for your first century. Hopefully the winds won't be too bad.

A friend of mine wrote this article on preparing for a century.

It looks very well supported for a charity ride, have fun.

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 20, 2009, 12:51:22 PM"It's not that I'm out to beat you, it's just that I have to win."

You're just joking, right?

Tour of Tucson is not really flat per se and has some moderate climbing.  Wind is ususally an issue, along with two giant washes that you have to cross.  Those with expert bike handleing skill, ride through it, other folks walk briskly through said deep sand.  I recommend that you dismount, take off shoes and socks, carry bike cyclo cross style promptly reshoe on other side and continue on.  People that don't wind up spending time cleaning out cleats or damage them and can't get their shoe into pedal.

A good average speed is between 18 to 21 mph.  This century is about drafting.  All along the route you will fall into groups that keep average speed high by taking short pulls at the front of 10 or more riders.  If everyone tries to maintain "current speed" of the group while "pulling" for one minute or less your AVS stays very high.  Effectively, you spend one minute performing an interval and 9 minutes riding medium to high tempo--very doable.

Quote from: somegirl on August 20, 2009, 07:07:09 PM
...I'm decent at going up and down my hallway on it but terrified of not being able to use the wall if I need to...

I randomly came across this this morning which might help you assuage your fears of needing a wall for assistance:

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/08/electric-enicyc.php

Quote from: somegirl on August 20, 2009, 07:20:24 PM
Interval training.

Although  I'd recommend working on endurance more than speed.  Being able to go fast for the first 25 miles won't help you if you lag the last 75 miles.

Your ride looks nice and flat so that will be good for your first century. Hopefully the winds won't be too bad.

A friend of mine wrote this article on preparing for a century.

It looks very well supported for a charity ride, have fun.

I think that it will be fun regardless, and I'm expecting the head winds to be consistant with my recent rides. They really do hinder keeping a higher rate of speed though. In that way though it does help my training for endurance to be dealing with that element now rather than later.

Quote from: kopfjager on August 20, 2009, 07:43:28 PM
You're just joking, right?

Honestly, I'm just feeling competitive and it's been a long while since I've been so focused. A few years ago I competed in "The Most Athletic Man Competition" and ended up with 3rd place; I was so pissed that I worked for the whole next year as hard as I could and then won 1st place at the next competition.

Quote explanation:

It's not arrogance, because I know that that quote does sound that way, but it's about my attitude and perserverance in regards to winning for myself. I'm not out to beat anyone other than myself. That's the great thing about cycling and most of the sports that I like to do; the competition is within me; I just have to do the very best that I can do and then go another 10% beyond that to push my boundaries, to break through and set a new standard for myself. In that way, I am very much a fighter. When I'm at my most fatigued moment, when I'm ready to give up, it's at that moment when I light a fire inside of me and push myself to go further and be stronger than I ever thought that I could do/be.

Randy, if I do the numbers right, that puts your average speed at 15.5mph to complete your century ride. That's doable for me now. The endurance ride that I did yesterday what focusing on keeping my cadence and average speed high. I pushed just under 10 miles out at a steady 22mph solid. The rest of my ride varied as the winds were high and I ended up keeping my speeds between 14-18mph for the rest of the 20 miles that I rode. Weekly I'm riding about 100 miles but I'm also doing several spinning classes and weight training as well. Last weekend we did a 40 mile ride on Sunday for breakfast and back and could easily have gone further if it wasn't nearing 104 outside!

Nomods, thanks for your input too, it sounds like you've done the Tour before. I didn't know about the wash issue - thanks for the headsup!!! Keeping a speed of 18-21mph should be my goal to make between now and November, and I think that's doable. Drafting is something that I have yet to do as we haven't joined up with any riding groups yet. So it will most likely be an "on the fly" experience for me when the time comes!

Hey nomods, looks like great feedback on Monster Dave's ride.

Quote from: nomods on August 21, 2009, 06:20:59 AMTour of Tucson is not really flat per se and has some moderate climbing. 

Depends on what you are comparing to.  If you live in the midwest, it would be a hilly ride.  If you live in Colorado or California, the ride has slight rolling hills.

Here's Tour de Tucson's elevation profile (low point ~2100', high point just over 3000', over the course of 105 miles).



For comparison here's a 22-mile out-back ride from my house.

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 21, 2009, 09:24:36 AM
I randomly came across this this morning which might help you assuage your fears of needing a wall for assistance:

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/08/electric-enicyc.php

Think I'd rather stick with my drunken unicycling, that will get me over my fears. 

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 21, 2009, 09:24:36 AMIt's not arrogance, because I know that that quote does sound that way, but it's about my attitude and perserverance in regards to winning for myself. I'm not out to beat anyone other than myself. That's the great thing about cycling and most of the sports that I like to do; the competition is within me; I just have to do the very best that I can do and then go another 10% beyond that to push my boundaries, to break through and set a new standard for myself. In that way, I am very much a fighter. When I'm at my most fatigued moment, when I'm ready to give up, it's at that moment when I light a fire inside of me and push myself to go further and be stronger than I ever thought that I could do/be.

One great thing about cycling is that we can all go and challenge ourselves with the very same routes that the pros ride. 

Quote from: somegirl on August 21, 2009, 09:39:20 AM
Here's Tour de Tucson's elevation profile (low point ~2100', high point just over 3000', over the course of 105 miles).



For comparison here's a 22-mile out-back ride from my house.

Hey that's cool - where did you get the elevation information?

Looks like the ride where you're at is much more...vertically challenging. I'll say one thing for the flat desert, it's flat. LOL!!


..um drunk unicycling....doesn't that end up being counterproductive or do you get better by drinking more?? 

I have done about 8-10 century rides, and mostly the Trek 100, once the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, and a couple solo rides and I have my own approach.  I just figure a century ride means I am going to spend all day in the saddle, and enjoy life.  When I can find a good group to draft, my average speed was about 17.5mph over the whole hundred miles.  The hardest part for me to figure out was how much I needed to drink.  It turns out I need one water bottle every 10 miles. But that is for me riding in the summer in Wisconsin.  Your liquid intake may vary.  But I managed to hurt myself pretty good the one time I got dehydrated, so I take it pretty seriously now.

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 21, 2009, 10:13:59 AM
Hey that's cool - where did you get the elevation information?

For the Tour de Tucson, it was from the link you posted.  Click on Information For Riders > Map of Route.
For my ride, I usually use www.bikely.com (although I've had trouble with it recently) or www.mapmyride.com to map out my route and it calculates elevation information.  If you have a GPS you can download elevation information after a ride.

Quote from: Monster Dave on August 21, 2009, 10:13:59 AM..um drunk unicycling....doesn't that end up being counterproductive or do you get better by drinking more?? 

I somehow managed not to fall once even after a few shots, oddly enough.   I haven't repeated the experiment though.