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Things that suddenly make you faster or slower

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

Things that suddenly make you faster or slower

Old 09-21-20, 11:29 AM
  #51  
Marci
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Probably all of it helped. I remember one of the first bike rides with the group on my old huffy. It was hard keeping up with it on a good day. But I had underinflated tires and it nearly killed me, and I couldn't keep up on this long slight hill at all. I always make sure my tires are well inflated now. And the lovely cooler temps (or warmer in my case with little wind) are lovely. Enjoy the good rides, because there is always the bad ones to contrast with.
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Old 09-21-20, 11:39 AM
  #52  
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cooler weather is faster!

resting a day or 2 makes you faster

coffee

having to go potty
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Old 09-21-20, 01:49 PM
  #53  
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Heat is a double edged sword for me, it makes muscles work better, but overall ability to do work is reduced. Possibly the higher the level of strength and conditioning, the more my muscles like warm temperatures. Times when I gotten closer to optimal fitness, warmup was more important and took longer for a thorough one. Something that doesn't seem to matter to me is my prediction of how I'll perform on a certain day. Some days I get on the bike and think I'm just going to take it easy and I'll kill it. Fresh or recovered legs is most important to me.
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Old 09-21-20, 02:35 PM
  #54  
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Heat and humidity do me in sooner, even with the modest mileage I put in.
Even up here, we had quite a hot summer.
Now that daily temps are in the high 50'/low 60's, I am doing my standard routes a few minutes faster.
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Old 09-22-20, 11:12 AM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by CAT7RDR
ATP and my Mitochondria at peak levels.
a curiosity question. What do you do to achieve that? What works for you? I have ideas what works for me, but I am open for other ideas.
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Old 09-22-20, 11:23 AM
  #56  
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Nutrition- underated and often misunderstood

Originally Posted by CAT7RDR
ATP and my Mitochondria at peak levels.
a curiosity question. What do you do to achieve that? What works for you? I have ideas what works for me, but I am open for other ideas.
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Old 09-22-20, 11:27 AM
  #57  
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Originally Posted by oldernwiser
a curiosity question. What do you do to achieve that? What works for you? I have ideas what works for me, but I am open for other ideas.
FWIW, I will take two of these before a long ride. Anecdotally, my energy level seems to last the entire 5 hour ride more so than without the supplement.
Some supplements like beet powder also serve the same function at least for me. I cannot prove it, but I think it is more than a placebo effect.
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swan...roduct-details
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Old 09-22-20, 11:53 AM
  #58  
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Nutrition- underated and often misunderstood

What if you could eat or drink something that doubled your endurance? What about speeding up recupe time from sore muscles or injuries? Improve your quality of life? Wouldn't you like to know how to see consistent speed improvement? Would you be interested?
I would like to start a thread or forum that talks about these ideas.
I have been studying these issues for 50+ years. I see a lot of ideas that are temporary fixes or don't work long term, to totally false ideas, to great ideas that really work. What do you think? Would you be interested?
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Old 09-22-20, 12:19 PM
  #59  
CAT7RDR
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^^^^^ You might checkout the Training and Nutrition sub-forum:
https://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/
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Old 09-25-20, 06:44 PM
  #60  
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Can you elaborate on Dr. Guerrero's formula?

Originally Posted by oldernwiser
For me the temperature is not the reason, as my best record was set at 95 degree temperature. I attribute this to what I ate. I puposely tried something healthy that I grew. It seems to double my endurance, but in this case I noticed I did not feel the heat as well. Yes!!

Other factors that I noticed a difference:
Sleep -(huge) in that is giving your body a few days to recoupe, like running a marathon, don't expect to do something really hard after burning so many calories the day before. Example. I did a 40 mile round trip through an elevation gain of 4,000 feet to 8,000 feet above sea level. I thought it was not easy. I went across another mtn. pass, with a friend, a few months later, that the summit was 9300 feet above sea level. Basically it was 50 miles from my house to the summit and I burned 5,000 calories to get there, let alone coming home. The next Saturday , a week later, I tried the first summit that I mentioned that only went to 8,000 feet. It was like " a piece of cake". I couldn't believe how easy it was.
4 hrs sleep before a big race just doesn't cut it, it is not enough, as I discovered.
Now to mention a few other factors.
Nutrition
This includes hydration, cannot be over stressed. I use Dr. Guerrero's formula that triples your endurance in athletes. I passed this formula to a friend who runs 150 miles through Death Valley in June (crazy) temperatures even when running at night were not below 95 degrees. He reported to me that he really noticed a difference and it also helped him from getting delirious, like other Death Valley runs he had done before.
My daughter at 4 years old , rode her little 1 speed bicycle with 10 inch wheels ? about 13 miles? Amazed my wife and I, because the most she had done before was a few blocks around the house. I noticed later , that when we ate my homemade multi grain cereal she had lots of energy. When she had just eggs for breakfast all she wanted to do was go a few blocks and she was done.
Equipment ​​​​​​- I noticed at least a two mile an hour difference when I bought my new Fezzarri bike where I had to clip my feet into the pedals. My joy riding up hills also increased when I was able to use more and different muscles as I was able to crank on the upstroke as well as the normal downstroke. Besides being lighter, this made a huge and an immediate difference.

As you mentioned, Tire pressure makes some difference, also your attitude and energy before starting. Keeping a bike tuned up increases my joy in riding. I love a quiet well oiled machine, especially no squeeking. (Ha,ha) On that note, I have been running a new chain oil that is the best stuff on the market. Probably should make a separate post about it. (No chain noise, best lube I have ever used, applied once a year ago, no mess, no plastics, waxes, or silicone).
Can you elaborate on Dr. Guerrero's formula? And the new chain oil?
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Old 10-02-20, 09:25 AM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by CoogansBluff
The past couple of solo rides that I've made (30-35 miles), I've found myself going significantly faster. And while the purpose of riding isn't speed improvement, I'm still always curious as to what causes the ups and downs.

So, which of these things probably made the most difference?

-It was 75-80 degrees vs. 90-95 degrees and humid.
-In a good mood, eager to ride with nothing on my mind
-Tires inflated to 105 instead of 95 (I've gained a little weight to 210 and wondered if I'm squishing the lower-pressured tires)
-Got my gear lever fixed (wasn't always getting crisp gear changes going up hills)
-Got my chain lined up where it's quieter, not rubbing against something.

And what sort of things affect why you find yourself going faster or slower on a given day? Ever had a repair or bought something new (ie, tires), or tinkered with tire pressure and suddenly noticed a difference?
The biggest thing that makes me faster or slower are hills.
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Old 10-02-20, 07:47 PM
  #62  
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Originally Posted by rydabent
The biggest thing that makes me faster or slower are hills.
Or a tailwind.

Anyone who's read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency would remember the truckie who didn't know he was a rain god... Imagine always having a tailwind.
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Old 10-02-20, 08:14 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by rydabent
The biggest thing that makes me faster or slower are hills.
Haha ...you beat me to it.

Yep, going up a hill makes me slower. Going down a hill makes me faster. Going down a mountain REALLY makes me faster.
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Old 10-04-20, 01:36 PM
  #64  
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Carb-heavy dinner night before, good sleep.
Previous day was no riding or very light ride.
Morning coffee, and a sweet-role, and plenty water.
Dialed-in bike:.....lined up shifting, well-oiled fresh chain, good air pressure (95PSI max for me....more makes me slower on my routes/tires), keep it less than 80-degrees.

Other things that provided progressive incremental improvements.
Several months of zone2 conditioning 3 or 4 times a week, each ride 1.5 hours Throw in a 3 hour ride from time to time. This gave me huge time improvements.
Speed training....dont do much of it at my age, but I expect it would help if I did.
Equipment upgrade. I got 1.5 MPH average improvement for entire ride JUST BY UPGRADING to aero wheels and quality 1X11 groupset/chain! Overnight!

Last edited by pullings; 10-04-20 at 01:43 PM.
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