Four weeks to the K-Capital

[ollietrex]

Yep... Its only four weeks until the first K-Capital.


In the next four weeks what would people recommend working on as part of a training regime? I have been doing a lot of running and gym work and doing longish spins at the weekend.


Cheers


Ollie

[Martin]

http://www.kcapitalcup.com/


more info here! good training tab on the left bar.

[Scrivo]

oooo Kilruddery... Can't wait! Lets hope the weather is as good for the Kcap this year as it was last..

[Fergal]

the answer you don't want to hear:

find a tough 6km loop, now I mean tough, it has to have roots, off-camber ones are good, tight corners also good, loose rocks also good - the short climb from the bottom of fairycastle to the first left hand turn is great practice for geting out of the saddle and shifting your weight around on the bike to find traction, it also excellent training for trying to spot the ideal line thru all the loose rubble.


It has to be a loop that you typically would avoid/dislike due to terrain difficulty/technicality, definitely not somewhere like B'stoe, the Phoenix Park or Masseys, it has to make you say "oh I hate this, I don't want to train on this route again, when is it going to end??!!"


Plenty of options up 3 rock (do rock n roll backwards as a part of your loop - difficult but great training), Leadmines is also a good training venue if you do the big loop around the boxing ring, depending on whether you are doing Sports or Experts/Masters, do either 2 or 5 laps at race pace, ideally with people who are same pace/faster than you, you'll always push harder whenracing someone - and avoid the granny gear!!!!


Training on difficult technical stuff with get you faster on techy stuff as well as fit, other training (eg; gym, running, spinning in the Phoenix Park etc) will only get you one of those....


official disclaimer: these are just my opinions!

[ollietrex]

Hummm... Looks like I am going to have to go and find a route around 3 rock for some training. Thanks for the tips.

[paddyobrien]

Well Ollie, if you're looking for a loop around 3 rock to get fit on you could do worse than the following.


Ariels up towards fairy castle, first left and follow that up to the entrance to daggets track, (if its still there ... anyone know?), down daggets (muddy, rooty madness all the way), the left at the fireroad, and then swing right down towards rock 'n' roll, down r'n'r, out the bottom of that across that new bit of track with the bombhole woodwork in it, then the lower section of the old club course and then down the fireroad and across the face of the mountain before heading back up the boneshaker to the ariels.


Some nice alternatives too, try the old club course instead of rock 'n' roll (entrance just a bit further down from the entrance to r'n'r) if you want some real tree root fun.


You can also head up the fireroad after the lower club clourse section for a nice long drag, which could be handy as all NPS courses include something liek that at some stage.

[Martin]

could someone email me the garmin gpx file of this route, last 3 times up there I've got lost after r'n'r (sad I know, but Fergal has hit on a point, get good at the trails you hate and by jasus I hate 3 rock!!) but I'm willing to give it a chance and see I can saddle it!!

[paddyobrien]

if you want i can show you the route on wednesday or thursday evening.


don't have any of that fancy garmin stuff .. but sure there's only two compass points anyway .. up and down

[Fergal]

just like Paddy said - the route & options he suggested are ideal


PS: no better way to get familiar with these trails than to come out on a trailbuilding day - AHEM!!

[mel]

Oh - and if it's not technical ability that's holding you back but your fitness, I can recommend lactic treshold drills - you won't like them, but if you want to become fitter and faster (they don't help you on the technical side though, do Fergal's stuff for that), for example:


1. warm up for 25min, get your heart rate up once or twice, find a hill

2. climb for 8min hard - I mean hard, it has to burn in your legs and they have to feel heavy as lead, if they don't, you are not going hard enough!

3. roll down the hill again, keep legs moving to clear lactic acid

4. repeat 2&3

5. repeat 2&3

6. cool down on the flat, spin your legs out


I do them on the road, but could also be done on fireroad. And, I got these from Ryan, I've been cursing him for them, but they got me fit over the winter....

[ollietrex]

Was thinking upper car park, bone shaker, up and around to the satellite run, rock and roll, over into the club course via the wooden brige thing (Whats its name?), over and down into the mad club course and then across the mountain on cross max and then across the bottom of the bone shaker to the upper car park and repeat until the need for a pint in taylors takes over.


Or two laps of Kindlestown is 7km so four or so laps of that would not be bad.

[Fergal]

I tried your exact suggestion last week Mel - horrible but very good if you know what I mean, from Taylors to the top of the road (just where it levels off as you go along the road towards the T-junction) is just under 8 mins for me so that's my route for these drills.

[Scrivo]

A way I found to make the interval thing slighly less horrible (Very slightly) is to find a hill as normal. Get somebody to start with, lets say a 10sec handicap, and try to catch them before the crest. Then rotate so the other person is chasing. Makes sure you push yourself since nobody likes losing...

[ryan]

Doing intervals and things like that are a great way of getting faster (anyone want much more detailed info, talk to me directly) - I've been doing it for about 2 years now and it helps me a lot. Other hints that can make you faster without getting in specific training... First two are about maximising the amount of riding in a given time. My typical 5 hour solo spin has me stopped for about 3 minutes (toilet breaks).


- Don't take 'breaks'. If your out riding by yourself - don't stop every 15min or top of climb for a rest. Keep going, slow down a bit to recover but keep moving.

- Learn to eat on the bike, have food in pockets and if it's a bar that is hard to open with full finger gloves, open it up a bit at the start of the ride.

- If your going out for longer the 2 hours (or shorter if you are hammering), use a sports drink - depending on temp/intensity I try to drink 1 every 1-2 hours... Racing - it's almost 2 bottles an hour + a gel

- Riding longer then 2.5 hours - take bars/food. I go for a bar (about 170Cal) on the 1.5 hour mark then every hour after that. With the sports drink, it's about as much as your body can ingest... Eating more wont make you feel better. Make sure it's food that is low in fat, high in carbs. Mars bars wont help much. I remember seeing a guy open a pack of crisps on a spin... not so good!

- I said it many times and it has been mentioned many more times - training is not over until you have eaten... If you have ridden for more then 1.5 hours, FIRST thing you do once you get off the bike is grand some carbs (and a bit of protein) to eat. Chocolate Milk is great :) Try to not each much fat in the first 2 hours afterwards, it slows rehydration.

- Get a road bike (or an MTB with slicks). A couple of two hour (or more :)) road spins in addition to MTB will increase your fitness dramatically. On the road bike, you end up pedaling a LOT more then on the MTB (less technical, less descending) so you get more of a workout (endurance wise) for time spent.

- As the guys already said - choose a technical route that you don't really like (due to how hard it is) and ride it to death. I've been doing a lot of this this year.

- Ehhh, have fun :)