Training This week

[Michael]

Dear all club,

Have been discussing the matter of training and club rides with an experienced member of the club. the club has changed alot over the last few years and is becoming more of a sport club.

I think it would be really good to get people into training towards goals, as a club/team. I definetely have goals for racing although it is all very new to me.

Here are some of the issues that have been brought up to get feedback on.

1. What is the purpose of club rides? Why are the rides exclusive? Why should sport cyclists have to train to be fast enough to ride with our club? (Our road rides are much faster than other club's rides yet few people race)

2. Possible training to be done together: turbo, outdoor sprint, chain gain threshold etc, long distance/enduro, cross training e.g swimming, running, core strength.

3. Racing team: could we have a team who decide on some goals and aim to work together to achieve them? What would happen to the people who dont want to do this?

4. How can we get publicity/sponsorship for our competetive activities? ( despite winning the hill climb we barely got half a page of coverage in one newspaper)

I guess most of this applies to the whole club.

So ideas/feedback please.

Thanks,

Michael

[EdHarris]

There are some good ideas there, Michael, regarding training towards racing goals. From what I can tell, there is a sufficient number of people in the club who, if willing, could be part of the 'Sheffield Racing Team'. As to the people who were not in the team, there are other forms of racing available: time trials? I know many clubs that organise a evening '10' series where all members of the club can participate. If this club were to organise its own series on a set course (It doesn't need to be on an offical CTT course: e.g. up and down the road by the Derwent/Ladybower reservoir), it could provide everybody within the club individual goals, incentives and a measure of progress throughout the year.

I would be interested in group turdo sessions, I've got one but frankly it bores the crap out of me and I not entirely confident I using it properly. Group sessions would releave the bordem and give more motivation. Presumably the chain gang stuff would be for the assigned racing team, as club rides (for me a least) already are chain gangs!

As to your 4th point, I far as I can tell the lack of publicity of the clubs achievements seems to be a perennial problem. I think club jerseys and hoodies will a little way to solve this in that us wearing identifiable kit will create awarenes of the club on campus. Another consideration might be that we just don't compete/participate in enough events (compared to say, hockey or football). The club could summit more results to be reported by having an active racing team and maybe reporting each one of the timetrial results. These might be deemed unimportant by some, but hell, if it gets published, we have more publicity.

I think sponsership might be hard to come by, considering the recession, but we can always try. We could also actively seek our own publicity (and fundraising) by maybe organising events open to the whole university (these are just ideas now), such as a race up the arts tower, or Conduit road or something like that. Perhaps we could partner with a shop to offer vouchers as a prize. We could even set up our own mini-circus by letting the paying public in to see the roadies getting their legs waxed! Anything, however ridiculous sounding might just do the job.

If there are concerns about time/effort/organisation we could always partner with club, either within the university or (regarding the time trials/racing/chain gang) see if we could pair up with another local club (Sheff-rec, Rutland, Phoenix(?)).

Sorry if it's a bit of a monologue of endless blurb: the short answer is 'I'm up for that Michael'.

[Michael]

Thanks for good response. Partnering was one of the things i missed off the list. Partnering with one of the more 'relaxed' local CCs would be a good way of encouraging non-competetive newbies to ride.

Chaing gangs are generally for anyone racing, tend to be shorter and faster than our club rides, also on a set route so, when, people get left behind they can get home safely.

There is a slave auction at some point, organised by club sport to raise funds, all clubs are obliged to enter at least to slaves, dont know when it is.

Michael

[EdHarris]

I would like to be able to ride faster, so I would be interested in joining a chain gang (but would expect to get dropped fairly pronto). I've never done one, but towards the end of the year I'd like to at least try one road race, probably late summer, so back home in Sussex.

If there was enough interest within the club (road and also XC/DH), I would be willing to set up and run the time trials.

[Michael]

Just to reiterate, if you are thinking of racing you need to get your BCF membership and licence ASAP. As the licence runs from jan-dec, regardless of when you get it, the mebership goes from date-date, so if you need to renew your licence you always have to renew your membership with it otherwise you would not be insured, to race.

[ben]

Ed...it's better to get racing as early as possible in the season, especially if you haven't raced before. This is the time of year when everyone (well...should be) is at their worst in terms of fitness. Once you get to late summer most people have had a good 4 months of racing in their legs and the average speed of the racing has gone up!

With regards to the racing as a team...I remember a year or so ago, Tom Bailey racing over to the east of Sheffield on some industrial estate on wednesday evenings?! It was run by The League International (TLI) and was a series over some weeks. The entry fee was much lower than BC races even though you paid for the entire series in one lump. Only downer was the fact that each person had to marshall 1 or 2 races over the series....which I guess meant the costs could be kept down if it was all self marshalled!!
If anyone knows anymore than this please post it......as I'm interested in doing it this year.

If we were to try and race week in week out as a team, we would need transport to and from said races as most of the nearby ones are still too far to ride out to-race-AND ride back again with all our food and drink. I'd be happy to help pay petrol money for lifts to races if we could all sort out cars (dizzy rascal included!!) and races that we could all do.
I've got a copy of the BC racing calender (hard copy-not from internet) so I'm going to go through and find all the Jan-May 2009 races that we MIGHT be able to make and hopefully post them here!

(ALSO-----Is anyone in the road club higher than 3rd Cat??)

[ben]

Both Darley Moor-Ashbourne and Mallory Park are closed circuits where they do 3/4 cat races, perfect introduction to racing in a controlled environment-Only problem is Mallory Park is ONLY entry on the line so could be a problem if some us don't get a ride after travelling down there.


BIG POINT--We are students so it really makes sense to have some kind of shared lift arrangements to make it to these places!!

[Michael]

I think you can pay to do the whole series in advance. Im planning on doing ashbourne. My shared lift arrangment was going to be the train.

[Jonny Five]

Mike, if you can get me the details of the races, where they are etc. and help me with getting a license, I will be more than happy to drive you there for some petrol money!

[ben]

Train was an idea but it would be far cheaper if a few people wanted to do it to all go in the same [-insert vehicle name here-]. So yeh, anyone who has a vehicle and some way of carrying a few bikes too would be great! Guess if we had a driver who wasn't racing they could take photos for the website and uni newspaper write ups too..if they didn't mind of course!!

[EdHarris]

I've some sad news: the dizzy rascal is no more. Don't worry though, it isn't in (the 'dizzying' heights of) Rascal heaven, we sold it on at the end of the summer (actually for more than we paid for it!), but it means of course that the use of the van isn't available.

A good point about racing early on in the season, Ben.... I having question about licencing; if I were to get Bronze membership would I be able to get a day licence just for the day of the race? I find the British Cycling website pretty confusing and vague but am I correct in assuming this? As I'm thinking about just getting into/trying racing I don't fancy forking out for the whole shebang of a licence immediately.


P.S. To avoid any embarrasing conversations or requests that might arise from limited spaces/travel arrangements, I'll state now that I'm happy to be religated in favour of someone more competent at racing a bike!

[ben]

Well there's me, andy, mikey so far that i think would definitely race (andy maybe not if he's too busy with his final year stuff!) plus people who would do the odd race here and there as the mood takes them or just as a taster! We should be able to get one or two cars for one day every few weeks for transport!
Anyway, I've got my first race of the year lined up! Evesham Vale RR 15th March,70km...nice start to the season and only 20miles from my home home!! Only problem is it's my gf's 21st that day, but i've managed to wangle permission to race ;D

[Michael]

Yes i found BCF really confusing. You do need to buy silver membership to get a licence. You can race on a day licence but you want gain credit for anything, (well unless you win or 2nd 3rs runner up i guess!)

[ben]

So the 1st Darley Moor race is Sat 7th March (details as on BC website)! Multimap link from BC says the nearest railway is Uttoxeter (5-6 miles away max).

In the interest of getting a team together....who wants to do this race?

Also...as the race starts at 10am would anyone mind (If more than just ME went) riding back from the race (35-40miles) at a SLOW pace! Maybe stop for pub lunch after the race or something?

[ben]

Also.....just been having a look at the train options for 7th March!

Either SHEF to UTTOXETER £14ish (cheaper if you have 16-25 card) 1:15 hours but have to transfer at Derby.

OR SHEF to DERBY £6ish 0:30hours then a 15mile stroll to Darley Moor, nice warm up for the race.

By the way closing date for entries is 28th Feb.