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Surrey League coaching session at Leigh village hall

Saturday 1 December 2001

 The event got under way with an analysis of the replies to a questionnaire sent out to 30 riders to establish what they do during the long – often four month - gap between the end of one racing season and the start of the next.

Best practice suggests that this lengthy period should start with a complete break from cycling before a rider settled down to a lengthy base training period, putting in miles as a low (zone 2) intensity. Then, as the next racing season draws near, riders should be moving into a pre-competition phase, with more emphasis on higher-intensity training, so that when the big races finally arrive riders feel that they have prepared for these highlights in their calendar as well as possible.

One of the biggest unknowns is what does everyone actually do between the last race of one season and the first race of the next?

To help answer this, a questionnaire was sent out to a cross-section of Surrey League riders in each ability group. Replies came back from six 1^st Cats along with seven 2^nd Cats and three of the 3^rd Cats. As it is virtually impossible to get to any pool of similar data, Surrey League decided to put the replies on its website for all to refer to.

A summary of replies to some of questions posed are listed below.

 how many races did you do in 2001?

 The range was from 16 to 60 with most saying that they did a number between 40 and 50.

 when was your last race?

 Two riders finished in August, and a third ended his racing in the third week of September.

That left the vast majority racing through to October and in the case of four riders… to the first week of November.

It should be noted that one of the riders who hung up his wheels at the end of August had got an impressive tally of 49 rides to his credit by then.

So the average? That would be the second or third week of October.

 do you have a break before winter training?

 Some curious differences here

            the 1st Cats all said YES        4 take a break of 2-4 weeks

                                                            1 takes a break of 8 weeks

                                                            1 rides only once a week until Christmas

                        with the 2nd Cats it was far more varied

                                                                        2 take a break of 2-3 weeks

                                                                        1 takes a break of 9 weeks

                                                                        But 4 have no break at all

                          with the 3^rd Cats we also have a variety

                                                                        2 riders take a break

                                                                        1 rider rides every week of the year

 when do you start winter training?

The most typical answers were “last week of October” or “start of November” or “end of November”…. though four of the riders gave a date in December.

One rider’s policy was to restrict himself to a single weekly social ride up until Christmas

 do you train alone? in a group?         a mix of both?

 1st Cats                         all said mix of both

2nd cats                        three trained on their own, the rest did a mix

3rd Cats                        like the 2^nd Cats, there was a mix of  alone and in a group

 if in a group, are you happy with the pace?

 The 1st Cats seemed to more sorted out… they all answered “yes” apart from two riders, though one of these has since taken positive action and is riding with another group

 The 2nd Cats were less sorted when it comes to winter group rides…                 

one rider was not happy with the pace/intensity while another complained that his group’s pace was too frantic during the November to February period

 So to achieve a group scenario that proved satisfied, what had they done? In one case the 2nd Cat himself took the lead if the pace was too low….and in two other cases the answer was for the rider to find a second person with whom he could share the lead

 The 3rd Cat who trains with a group reported himself as being happy with group training but he too had had to take on the task of leading the group in order to keep the pace high enough.

 when do you move from  base winter training to pre-competition training?

3rd Cat              one rider didn’t make this move as his entire winter training programme was “hard” - his Saturday 2-hour ride was hard, his Sunday 2-hour ride was hard and his mid-week 2hr 30min ride was hard. The other two moved into pre-competition training mode in February, one at the start of the month, the other at the end

2nd Cat             the seven replies read as follows:

                        end of Feb      late January/Feb             4-6 weeks before the first race

                        end of Feb      first week of Feb    

Feb                     Feb

 1st cats              the replies include the following variety:

March                        

Feb                        

Jan/Feb            

beginning of the racing season…. this is a rider who started his winter

training at the start of December

and finally mid-January

 please describe a typical week of the winter period – see separate page

 do you introduce interval training as the racing season approaches?

              yes said the 3rd Cats

            yes said most of the 2nd Cats                  five did…. but two didn’t

            yes said the 1st Cats

 did you set goals for your 2001 season?

              yes said the 3rd Cats

            yes said the 2nd Cats

            yes said the 1st Cats...in other words: each and every one did so