It's killing me but..........

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As for being light years ahead of the beginning of the year, I never really think of it that way. I just consider it the normal progression anyone can hope to see by taking the advice of people like RD and losing between 500 and 1000 calories per workout.;) It is interesting how you mention 'normal' progress - no, no, I'm not being critical rather it sparked a thought. What really, if there is such a thing, would be a 'normal' progression for a beginning cyclist? I always hear it varies and granted, genetics and other factors would be significant. Still, I do wonder...



Back to the tandem. Maybe "The Dynamic Duo" would be a better name.
Nah, "The Dynamic One and a Half" would be more appropriate.:D Hmmm, I was thinking more along the lines of....Abbott & Costello? Bert & Ernie? Pinky & the Brain? Ren & Stimpy? :D



Lucy your 1400 Watts was impressive (even with your Lady Power Meter :rolleyes: )

With the ability to generate such power you must be capable of a reasonably high FTP in the future I imagine. Now, don't be shy - what is your FTP at the moment?
It can't possibly be lower than my starting FTP at the beginning of this year on page 1/2 of this thread. And even if it is, so what? You will soon demolish those figures.
Another thing is Lucy, if you air your figures people will be inspired by your progress. You know the typical young male (and not so young male;) ) way of thinking; if she (a woman) can do it so can I. Maybe they can't but at least you will inspire them to try.Ha! What a riot! This was worth a good cackle to boot.

See now you are just being gibe. :rolleyes:

Witness how after taking countless swipes at me you are trying to soften me up? ...need I reiterate your declaring my philosophy towards competition as a one-way ticket to the neolithic? Or scoffing at my sprint numbers?

Come now, I'm entirely too sagacious to be taken for a complete loon! :eek:

It is interesting how you mention 'normal' progress - no, no, I'm not being critical rather it sparked a thought. What really, if there is such a thing, would be a 'normal' progression for a beginning cyclist? I always hear it varies and granted, genetics and other factors would be significant. Still, I do wonder...



Hmmm, I was thinking more along the lines of....Abbott & Costello? Bert & Ernie? Pinky & the Brain? Ren & Stimpy? :D



Ha! What a riot! This was worth a good cackle to boot.

See now you are just being gibe. :rolleyes:

Witness how after taking countless swipes at me you are trying to soften me up? ...need I reiterate your declaring my philosophy towards competition as a one-way ticket to the neolithic? Or scoffing at my sprint numbers?

Come now, I'm entirely too sagacious to be taken for a complete loon! :eek:Countless swipes??? Moi? The English are noted for their sarcastic wit, unfortunately Americans don't always appreciate it. Still that works both ways.
We have American comedys (in English - well a kind of English:rolleyes: ) out here ,and the American audiences are roaring with laughter. I sit there thinking what are they laughing at, there's nothing funny.
Mind you Japanese humour; that's an oxymoron!:D
Strangely enough, German sense of humour is closer to English humour, but then you would expect that. Even our dear royal family is German, and that's a great laugh!

Back on topic. Stop trying to wriggle out of declaring your FTP by using big words I don't understand - get posting or I'll set Big RapDaddyo onto you.;)

The soreness likely means that you just stressed your leg muscles a bit more than usual. It actually may have been due to the 2nd consecutive day of L4s (with a 1 day lag). 60mins/day of L4 is a pretty heavy load to jump into if you haven't been doing this kind of volume. I'm a big believer in volume + intensity, but one should bump the volume a step at a time. It's also a bit surprising that it's your hamstrings. It may be your pedaling style (i.e., lifting on the upstroke). My leg stress tends to be quads only because I am a pure "pusher" and not a "lifter."
Guess I'm just a 31 year old who is struggling to follow the work outs of a "Silly old Twit".

The hamstring soreness is a mystery to me. It seems to be the only muscle group that I can ever really gets sore. I think that I sometimes completely exhuast the quads and then call on the hamstrings to get me through the workout.

It is interesting how you mention 'normal' progress - no, no, I'm not being critical rather it sparked a thought. What really, if there is such a thing, would be a 'normal' progression for a beginning cyclist? I always hear it varies and granted, genetics and other factors would be significant. Still, I do wonder...

\Tyson's progress is certainly a sign of an enormous amount of diligent hard work, but I wonder if his many years of running may have accelerated his power improvements. I hope not, as I hope to achieve similar improvements, although, I don't expect it.

Tyson's progress is certainly a sign of an enormous amount of diligent hard work, but I wonder if his many years of running may have accelerated his power improvements. I hope not, as I hope to achieve similar improvements, although, I don't expect it.You've probably hit upon something there TD, I don't think it is the running per se, more likely to be the ability to exert myself over and above the call of duty.
10 mile road races are the races which stick in my mind the most. I used to sprint off and after 100 yards think, only 9 miles 1660 yds to go with this pain.
But I knew if I wanted to get below 54 minutes, I had to keep going.

This started at school actually with 400 and 800 yd events. I still recall the pain. And later in the RAF with the 1 mile and cross-country races. I used to do 6x1mile intervals every afternoon along with shorter sprints.

Always pain - oooh the pain! :eek:

However, there was quite an hiatus till I took up running again in my 30s and an even larger hiatus till I took up serious cycling. Paradoxically, perhaps it is this having pushed myself so often that is in fact limiting my progress now. By that I mean, I sometimes think, why am I still pushing myself at my age when it would be far easier to head off to Starbucks and devour a caramel pound cake and cinnamon roll along with a caffe latte. Just thinking like this, I believe has an adverse affect on one's training.

Aaah, the flesh is weak. Now where did I put my Starbuck's mug? I'm heading there now actually, but today is my day off.:p

And finally TD, as RD would say; don't worry what others are doing, do the best you can yourself. When I see FTPs off 300W plus I sometimes sigh, but I can only do what my old frame allows me to do, and am resigned to the fact I shall plateau out, perhaps well below the 300W FTP I would like to achieve.:(

Countless swipes??? Moi? The English are noted for their sarcastic wit, unfortunately Americans don't always appreciate it. Still that works both ways.
We have American comedys (in English - well a kind of English:rolleyes: ) out here ,and the American audiences are roaring with laughter. I sit there thinking what are they laughing at, there's nothing funny.
Mind you Japanese humour; that's an oxymoron!:D
Strangely enough, German sense of humour is closer to English humour, but then you would expect that. Even our dear royal family is German, and that's a great laugh!

Back on topic. Stop trying to wriggle out of declaring your FTP by using big words I don't understand - get posting or I'll set Big RapDaddyo onto you.;)And precisely what, exactly, makes you think I'm American?

Tyson's progress is certainly a sign of an enormous amount of diligent hard work, but I wonder if his many years of running may have accelerated his power improvements. I hope not, as I hope to achieve similar improvements, although, I don't expect it.Tyson has done great, but really, what matters is your own progress - whatever it may be, fast, slow, erratic - whatever. So long as you improve and enjoy what you are doing, truly, what else matters? :)

And precisely what, exactly, makes you think I'm American?Apologies if you're not, but I assumed that as you live at 6000 feet somewhere in the mountains of the US of A, that the chances were you are American.;)

Lucy wrote:

Tyson has done great, but really, what matters is your own progress - whatever it may be, fast, slow, erratic - whatever. So long as you improve and enjoy what you are doing, truly, what else matters?
I shall take that compliment and savour it. :) TYSON

Quite a bit of the populace in this commonwealth are not american, while some of the denizens are not even human, i.e..., chupacabra! :p


I shall take that compliment and savour it. :) TYSON Quite possibly the very last of a disappearing breed - the compliment that is! :D

Quite a bit of the populace in this commonwealth are not american, while some of the denizens are not even human, i.e..., chupacabra! :p

Quite possibly the very last of a disappearing breed - the compliment that is! :D
Why all this secrecy Lucy? You are among friends here. You can tell us what nationality you are, what your FTP is etc. No one will laugh or ridicule you.

Unless of course you are French.:D

Why all this secrecy Lucy? You are among friends here. You can tell us what nationality you are, what your FTP is etc. No one will laugh or ridicule you.

Unless of course you are French.:DLet's see here, rapidly searching through the cavity of academic memory...ah, yes, logical fallacies.

I believe you are fond of the 'appeal to flattery' one. Which might take the form: "Oh my, Lucy, you look great today. Did you know that Earth has 6 moons?" :rolleyes:

Let's see here, rapidly searching through the cavity of academic memory...ah, yes, logical fallacies.

I believe you are fond of the 'appeal to flattery' one. Which might take the form: "Oh my, Lucy, you look great today. Did you know that Earth has 6 moons?" :rolleyes:
A song keeps playing on my mind. What is it?

And I tell her, "you look wonderful tonight". Who sang that? Beautiful song.

A song keeps playing on my mind. What is it?

And I tell her, "you look wonderful tonight". Who sang that? Beautiful song.I'd venture a guess, but we don't get electricity here in the caves, much less radio....;)

I'd venture a guess, but we don't get electricity here in the caves, much less radio....;)
One quick question before I go in the shower to ready myself for Starbucks.

Do you have a drum/drums in the cave?

One quick question before I go in the shower to ready myself for Starbucks.

Do you have a drum/drums in the cave?I'm afraid not, but we do have quite a time drawing on the walls and throwing arrow tips at them....

......Why all this secrecy Lucy?......
Wondering the same thing myself :confused: As Tyson said, you're among friends :) so I'll start the ball rolling......I'm male, Australian, 50 yo, FTP 343W :D ........ and that's all the info you're getting Alex ;)

TD wrote:


Tyson's progress is certainly a sign of an enormous amount of diligent hard work, but I wonder if his many years of running may have accelerated his power improvements. I hope not, as I hope to achieve similar improvements, although, I don't expect it.
TD, you've got a good plan for improving your power this winter but all kinds of nagging doubts can creep in at this point and undermine your efforts to get the 3-4 hours of L4 in on your trainer each week that you say you are aiming for.

When I was in my first month of trainer sessions the big doubts I had focused around my max heart rate. Due to my age, my max HR is lower than others so I was sure all of these trainer sessions wouldn't add up to gains in power that would count for something in races. I think other people worry that they are not strong enough so they feel like they need to lift in the gym before the trainer sessions will pay off.

I'm betting you will be amazed by the gains you make this winter. You will be so happy in May 2007 that you started working on this NOW rather than finally getting focused and really beginning the work to improve your power starting in January or February 2007. When you start seeing your power numbers increasing substantially in November and December you will wonder how far and how fast they will climb. Who knows? But, for those of us that are starting out, it's almost inevitable that we will see significant gains in power in our first year of training.

A song keeps playing on my mind. What is it?

And I tell her, "you look wonderful tonight". Who sang that? Beautiful song.
Tyson, believe the line is from Rod Stewart, a countryman of yours.

Sorry to hear Starbuck's has invaded Japan....they just moved into our town last year. In the country that elevated tea service to a ritual, it just seems wrong that you should be subjected to american "fast food" coffee. Just curious, but are you located in Kyoto by any chance?

Lots of us on this forum will likely never reach 300W FTP, myself included. That's just a number which really shouldn't affect your enjoyment of cycling. After all, there is a lot more to efficient, fast and fun cycling than just the size of your motor. For example, we had a great coaching session Saturday on pacelining (ie, advanced wheelsucking), I'm now pinning hopes on that strategy for next season :)

Wondering the same thing myself :confused: As Tyson said, you're among friends :) so I'll start the ball rolling......male, Australian, 50 yo, FTP 343W :DI'M OUT OF HERE - CAN'T STAND THE SIGHT OF BLOOD!:D

OOPS! I'm back. I've just realized my booboo. You're talking about yourself. I thought you were playing the guessing game as you didn't say I'm ......:o :o :o

Tyson, believe the line is from Rod Stewart, a countryman of yours.

Sorry to hear Starbuck's has invaded Japan....they just moved into our town last year. In the country that elevated tea service to a ritual, it just seems wrong that you should be subjected to american "fast food" coffee. Just curious, but are you located in Kyoto by any chance?

Lots of us on this forum will likely never reach 300W FTP, myself included. That's just a number which really shouldn't affect your enjoyment of cycling. After all, there is a lot more to efficient, fast and fun cycling than just the size of your motor. For example, we had a great coaching session Saturday on pacelining (ie, advanced wheelsucking), I'm now pinning hopes on that strategy for next season :)
It's Eric Clapton actually, but close.:D

I've said this before in this thread; Starbucks is for me an Oasis. It is the one place I can go and not get foul smelling smoke blown in my face. Also I guess, I don't really like coffee or should I say real coffee, another reason for going to Starbucks, besides the caramel pound cake of course.;)

Wheelsucking!?!? Sound interesting, give me time to get my teeth out.:cool: