Am I a Wuss? (Chantry on a 34-26…..)

[Sewellymon]

[FONT=Arial]Ok you roadie gurus. I am old (50) and out of shape (only been back in CA 10 months).[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]I am trying to time trial my Chantry Flats time down. 20 years ago, I could do 21 minutes yellow gate to yellow gate (I’ve heard people ride it as fast as sub-15). When I got back to CA, I was riding 36, or 35. Pathetic, huh? But now I am down to 28 minutes and am hoping over the next year or two to ride sub 24’s (or as fast as I can get..). [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]OK- so here is my[FONT=Arial] question… my bike is set up with a FSA Gossamer Compact[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial] Crank- so it’s a 34 inner chaining x 26 cog. What sort of cadence do you roadies get the most speed out of? I noticed on the steeper sections of Chantry, I was riding a cadence of about 60. On the less steep sections (the 2nd half), cadence was 70 or more. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]So what’s optimum cadence? is my 60- 70 the right cadence for max speed while road bike hill climbing? Or once I develop more power, do I learn to push a bigger gear (23 or 21) at slower cadence for more speed? So far, my knees are okay....... [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]So what else is most important to drop my Chantry time besides riding 250 days a year? Losing 10 lbs will make me 10% faster? HR on my 28 minute ride is 165 ish. Riding at 170 bpm another 10% faster? How about the bike? My steed (Cannondale Cad 3) is prolly a generic 20 lbs. How much faster is a 16 lb. bike?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]I hate intervals. Is that the necessary evil?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Opinions, pleeeeaze.[/FONT]

[BFloFoxRider.]

sorry but im not a roadie...
not to mention you lost me awhile back when you said something about the 32 doo hickyy

[S54MCoupe]

I've gone for it before at Chantry, but I've never timed myself, so I honestly can't tell you what an average time would be. A few weeks ago I went all out up there, I wish I would have timed it.

I run a standard crankset, 39x27, and that seems to work well for me up Chantry. I just get up out of the saddle and hammer it when the steeper sections come up, but there are quite a few sections where I drop it into harder gear because it's pretty flat.

20 minutes means about 9mph, I think if you just start riding a lot and putting on miles, as well as doing some high intensity workouts, you can get back to doing chantry is 20 minutes.

If you can sustain a higher hear rate for 20 minutes without cracking, go for it, that all depends on the person and their threshhold.

As for the bike, lighter would help, but I doubt it makes much a difference. I would think stiffness is more important when you're really hammering.

I'll keep track of my cadence, heart rate, etc., but something like heart rate varies so much person to person that it's kinda irrevlevant.

[S54MCoupe]

I'm gonna go there tomorrow (Sunday) and time myself on the way up, I'll post it when I'm done.

[RidetheRAAM4]

I am more into the Tri genre on the road and I typically keep my cadence at about 90rpm unless I can't. If I can't it is because I am on a big hill and I am usually in the easiest gears possible and still can't keep it up. To get faster just ride a lot. Get out of the saddle some and really crank it. I was riding with some guy one time who had just got back from a training thing with some big shot Ironman legend and he said that what this guy told him to do on his rides was to just stand up, put it in the hardest gears possible, and just crank it for a half mile or so. Then start increasing the distance that you are hammering it at. That would help you get faster going up that hill.

[S54MCoupe]

I got it in 19:56 today, but I was hurting pretty bad at the top. I would imagine that on a cooler winter day, I could probably get into the high 18's.

I know some people who can get down into the 15's, but they're climbing machines, and I'm far from that.

[Sewellymon]

19 + right on! go for sub 18

My goal was always to break 20, but back then, I was a trail runner, not a roadie, so never really had the leg power I guess..

So now, it's slowly chip away at weight and up the road fitness and see if I can do sub-24 or better

[S54MCoupe]

Originally Posted by Sewellymon

19 + right on! go for sub 18

My goal was always to break 20, but back then, I was a trail runner, not a roadie, so never really had the leg power I guess..

So now, it's slowly chip away at weight and up the road fitness and see if I can do sub-24 or better

I'm sure I'll be able to get down into the 17's over the next few months, but my main strength and focus isn't climbing.

I bet you can get down to 20 again, all you've gotta do is keep riding and hurt a bit on the way up, haha.