Club Ride - Saturday 15th March 2014

This weeks club ride will be a 50 mile 3 hour loop starting from Brockenhurst with an option to cut short for those wanting to save their legs for Sundays TT. Start time 0900. If group is large (over 12) split into 2 groups to make pelotons manageable and easier for traffic to pass.

Route as follows:

St Saviours Church Brockenhurst, Burley, Crow, Moyles Court, Ogdens, Hyde, Penton Hill, North Gorley, Red Shoot, Ocknells Plain (Airfield Road), Fritham, Bramble Hill, Furzey, Woodlands, Ashurst, Ipley Cross, Beaulieu, Hatchet Pond and Brock.

http://connect.garmin.com/course/5926236

For those with Garmin’s set an alert if average speed goes above 17MPH and that will help with the pacing. Remember I’m stalking most of you on Strava!

Please keep average speed to 17MPH and that will ensure the majority of you are riding in zone 2.

Why do I keep banging on about base training and keeping to zone 1 and 2 for these winter rides? Refer to learned coach Joe Friel:

“When you ride for two or more hours (or less for new riders) at a steady pace—a typical base ride—your body responds with changes that allow you to use more oxygen and burn more fat as fuel, says coach Joe Friel, author of The Cyclist’s Training Bible. For starters, these rides build more ­capillaries, the tiny blood vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood to your muscles. Your mitochondria—the parts of your cells that produce energy—also multiply and enlarge. And you churn out more enzymes that help turn stored fuel into energy. The result: You can ride faster and longer.”

Don’t worry if it feels easy it’s the adaptation from the training that you are after and it will give you more opportunity to do better “quality” work midweek.

So, keep efforts light, ride tight as a peloton, ride through and off across the airfield if it’s safe to do so and maybe on the Colbury / Ipley Cross road.

For those that want to do some aerobic intervals aim for zone 4 on the hills but wait at the top to re-group or ride back down and do it again.

Have a good ride

Barry