Scott D

:idea: The Kinghussie hotel is host to a very good local beer festival every year over this weekend. From Johnstone-> Kinghussie is a 55mile run over the Erskine bridge, through Callander, Strathyre, to Balquidder.. so a club run there on the saturday with an overnight stay is feasible. I'll be hillwalking in that area with gandalf and some elves all weekend, but if any wheelers cycle over we can share a few ales together in the evening SD

wooo wooo.. does my photo scare yi? not half as scary as those hen party women in Mac's bar eh guys? I agree with what Stevie and Dougie said.. a great weekend with a healthy BALANCE of cycling and eating and drinking anything that wasnt nailed down. The leisure centre was fab.. first time I've appreciated a foot spa! Great result Dougie. SD

:arrow: Your route sounds better Darryl.. the one i sent was computer generated and not very scenic! 730 start.. :? scarily early but probably safest for the reasons you've cited. Hope everyone else is up for it.. Arran is one of the classic runs SD

Timetable is at http://www.calmac.co.uk/winter-arran-timetable.html Ferry leaves at 9.45 or 12.30.. frequency of ferries looks a bit crap... CalMac must be cutting back on this route Alfredo.. is it only CalMac that operate to Arran? If these are the only times, it still looks like an 8am departure from johnstone. I know this is a bummer, I was hoping for a good night out on the friday too. :idea: Come on guys, lets cycle together from zee bird SD

Its 22 miles to the ferry terminal from Johnstone, so if anyone wants to join me at the BiH on saturday, I'll be leaving at 8am sharp. I think the beer tastes much better after a lap of the island My mobile is 07973 282927 if anyone is running a few minutes late or is intending to join by car at the terminal. Also Dougie, could you take a note of my number and let me know yours, so I can find out where you all are and catch you later? I should be back in Brodick by about 3ish, at Mac's bar getting pishhed on arran blonde As I remember doing the 2 string roads and back from Brodick is under 40 miles, so there will be time for that before catching the 1230 on sunday (if our heads are ok to get up in time!) Looking forward to a great weekend SD ================================ Johnstone-Ardrossan Ferry Terminal by bike Acc. Dist Route Directions 0.0 0.0 B789 Johnstone, Rens Follow signs Paisley, Glasgow Airport, Houston B789 0.3 0.3 A737 Junction with A737 At roundabout take 1st exit (signposted Irvine) to join A737 5.6 5.3 A737 Roadhead Roundabout (Junction with A760) Take 1st main exit (signposted Irvine, Beith) In 1.2 miles at Clerksbridge Toll Roundabout take 2nd exit 7.6 2.0 A737 Junction for Beith Town Centre Forward (signposted Dalry, Irvine) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.0 1.4 A737 Manrahead Roundabout Take 1st exit 11.8 2.8 A737 Highfield 13.2 1.4 A737 Dalry Turn left (signposted Kilwinning) 17.3 4.1 A738 Kilwinning At traffic signals turn right A738 (signposted Ardrossan, Stevenston) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18.7 1.4 A78 Pennyburn Roundabout Take 2nd exit A78 (signposted Greenock) In 0.2 mile at roundabout forward 19.3 0.6 A78 Junction with B752 At roundabout take 2nd exit 19.5 0.2 A78 Junction with A738 (edge of Stevenston) At roundabout take 2nd exit 21.9 2.4 A738 Junction with A738 (edge of Ardrossan) At traffic signals turn left A738 (signposted Town Centre) 22.5 0.6 A738 Ardrossan Forward (signposted Car Ferries) In 0.2 mile over level crossing -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22.9miles 0.4 A738 Ardrossan Harbour (for Arran Ferry) You have reached your destination.

Heres a great site for cycling training.. on and off the bike http://www.cptips.com/toc.htm#table One of the best sites with cycling forums / for sale / wanted etc http://www.cyclingplus.co.uk

Hi Kenny, Sounds like a great format. With so many riders from each club competing I wonder what kind of tactical racing you'll see. :?: Teams working to close down breakaways? Slowing down lead groups for star riders to catch up? Or Stevie digging in with a few wheelers 3up style to rip the field apart Perhaps a series prize could be for the most consistent club (encouraging people to complete the series and not bail out halfway). An event like this will guarantee good press for local cycling. Great stuff SD

Hi dougie 25th oct is great for me, although it might noise up the Bicycle Polo commissar At this rate with all the rescheduling it'll be the Arran Xmas special :? Who can lend me snow chains for my winter bike? Last year Mr. S Leckie and I stayed at a hotel / indian restaurant (better than it sounds!) in Brodick that had loads of rooms, and a secure space to keep bikes. Sharing a room was about £18pp. Cant find the name of it on the internet.. I'd need to call the tourist board. Alternately theres always the Lochranza youth hostel (£10 a night, rooms available according to internet). Your the man dougie... if you say its the 25th, we're going then SD

Hey dougie.. great organisation man! count me in too. Scott

Impress your teammates and make your rivals afraid by telling jokes while hillclimbing Heres one to get you started. A bloke starts his new job at the zoo and is given three tasks. First is to clear the exotic fish pond of weeds. As he does this a huge fish jumps out and bites him. To show the others who's boss he beats it to death with a spade. Realising his boss won't be best pleased he disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions, as lions will eat anything. Moving on to the second job of clearing out the Chimp house, he is attacked by the chimps who pelt him with coconuts. He swipes at two chimps with a spade, killing them both. What can he do? Feed them to the lions, he says to himself, because lions eat anything. He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure. He moved on to the last job which is to collect honey from the South American Bees. As soon as he starts he is attacked by the bees. He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp. By now he knows what to do and throws them into the lion's cage - because lions eat anything. Later that day a new lion arrives at the zoo. He wanders up to another lion and says "What's the food like here?" The lions say "Absolutely brilliant. Today we had fish and chimps with mushy bees."

Event 264 - Scottish Olympic TT Championship (misnamed as per SCU handbook) on that weekend is actually the Tour of The Trossachs TT. Is anyone intending to do this who would also like to go to Arran? Still hoping to get this trip organised Scott

The Rothesay event clashed on the original proposed date (26th-27th Sep). By this date summer will be well gone, the light will be starting to fade.. a great time for an end of season jaunt o'er to Arran. There doesn't seem to be any events this weekend, so hopefully there will be a good club turnout. Suggestion is to stay in either Brodick or Lochranza on saturday night, allowing us to cycle around the island on sat, and do the 2 string roads on sunday before catching the ferry back. There is also the option for people who dont want to stay to return on the saturday, or take it easy and avoid the strings on sunday and meet us at the ferry later. The Arran brewery at the foot of Goatfell is definitely worth a visit My preference is to stay in Brodick, giving us the option of leaving all luggage at B&B / hostel on arriving by ferry on sat, and cycling without luggage on the sunday before picking it up just before the ferry departs. Also because Mac's Bar (attached to the Brodick hotel on the main stretch) is very lively, usually has live music, and serves the fantastic Arran Blonde beer on draught! Just the tonic for tired legs. A popular alternative is to stay at the Lochranza youth hostel, and is very cheap and cheerful. Anyone interested? What's your preference for accomodation? Scott

Who remembers this face from the past? I was attending staff induction with Direct Line in city centre today and found Michael sitting beside me. He's now working in insurance. Apparently as a junior he held the record on the tour of the campsies TT ( :idea: being held this year on sun 14th sep). I mentioned I thought Obree held the record now, and he said that Graham was "just a bairn" when he was racing.. so he must have been racing in the 80s. Michael was telling me he doesnt race any more, and isnt affiliated to any club, but used to ride for either Glasgow Scotia or Glasgow Wheelers. Scott

A good alternative / addition to turbo training this winter is spin classes. Available at most bigger gyms, spinning is held in studios with typically 20-30 people on special fixed wheel bikes, which ergonomically are quite close to racing bikes. Saddles and handlebars are adjustable, and pedals usually come with toeclips. The bike has a main fly wheel to which you can apply more or less resistance by turning a break knob to imitate different cycling conditions. "Spin" is a brand name, and usually requires class instructors to have received some certification before being allowed to take classes, although the quality of instruction can vary. The instructor usually has a headset and microphone, and the class is held to uptempo dance or rock music. Rumours that special endurance classes are often held to Hawkwind CDs have never been proven Several gyms in city centre, including Esporta (Finnieston), Living Well (Charing X) and Healthlands (Bath St) have classes. I've tried classes at a few gyms in the past, but having recently joined Healthlands wanted to give Krazy Kev's monthly special "endurance spin" session a go. Each month Kev runs a special 90 minute session, not for the squeamish :-} I was interested to see how a class run by a cyclist would compare with previous classes I've tried. Kevin Henderson used to race heavily (1st cat road racer and Glasgow Nightingale rider) but now spends all his time as a personal trainer. The class was quite outrageous. The first 40 minutes culled off half the class, and it was all the maniacs and babes with nice a*ses who stayed for the second half. Kev's approach seemed to be quite simple.. go really fast for a few minutes, then turn up the resistance and get out of the saddle for the rest of the class :? Every minute that passes he asks you to turn the resistance up, so by the end your gritting your teeth begging for your mamma. Periodically he tells you your approaching the top of a hill, and have to speed up to break away from the group.. ending in a hilltop sprint. For fun he has you climb out of the saddle and then sit down again, every 10 secs for 10 minutes . While the dance music tics away at 120bpm, he gives encouragement over his microphone like "fatigue is just a state of mind", "be true to yourself, turn the resistance up", "ignore the pain, 30 minutes to go". I had my pulse monitor with me, av pulse including recovery periods was 166.. max 188 (4 from my max!). Chatting to him after the class, Kev was saying he's so busy with personal training that he doesnt race any more. He was asking about Brian Smith, but I could only tell him what I'd read from his emails to various forums. At the end of the class a pool of water surrounded the bike, I was totally drenched in sweat, and I could feel my trainers squelching as I headed back to the changing rooms . Very demanding but also a lot of fun.. having the class run by a real cyclist made a big difference. :idea: I'm going to try and get a few 1 day guest passes in case other club members fancy coming along to give the classes a try. Let me know if anyone is interested. I'm sure you could blag a few passes from some of the trainers if you say your interested in joining the gym 8) . Endurance classes are from 6.00-7.30 on the last wed of each month. Scott

With winter approaching I thought I would start a thread on gym work, in case members are interested in specific training programmes over the winter period. I'm pitching this email at beginners new to weights, so this might not be of interest to experienced gym users. Maybe some people scoff at weight training ("thats what the big ring is for"), but I think using leg weights is one of the easiest ways to measure P2WR (power to weight ratio). Certainly most cycle improvement programmes talk about this metric as being one of the most important (along with VO2max, but whos got a lab at home?) and usually the cyclist with the best ratio is one of the people dictating the pace on hill climbs (since its strength / resistance focused). Lance Armstrong's training programme book talks about his efforts to lose weight yet retain strength, thereby increasing his P2WR. Chris Boardman's "Complete book of cycling" talks about "Mr Measurement's" attempts to lose weight prior to the TDF, and how he inadvertently lost power also. A simple way to measure this ratio is using the legpress ( :arrow: http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/lpress.htm) in the gym, as the move uses several of the muscles in the pedal stroke (mainly the quadricept, but also knee and hip extensors). The ratio is based on 1Rep, but to avoid injury (especially knee injury, be careful) it is best to do it based on 10 reps, and multiply the weight being pressed by 1.25. This gives an approximation of a max load. Beginners to weight training can expect to be able to handle a load of 1.5 times body weight in the legpress (eg. simple P2WR index of 1.5), meaning a 80kg man should be able to push 120kg once, or 96kg 10 times. Average club racers should have an index around 2-2.5, great competitors should have an index of 2.5 to above 3. Lance weighs about 74kg, and can legpress 20reps over 200kg (an index that brings a tear to the eye ). Expect different ratios for women. Purists would point out that you should be riding a bike with meters measuring power output, left/right leg power distribution etc, but again this isn't really available to the average cyclist.. perhaps JWCC could arrange a trial session with one of these devices for members? Year on year this measure can be checked, and like a 10TT time, offers a simple measure of progress, and also warning signs if fatigue is approaching. For example my index is around 2.4, so I'm looking forward to being able to improve this over winter, and see if it helps in the next racing season. Some days I feel fatigue after just a few reps, an indication that I may have insufficently rested. Admittedly one of the best ways I can improve P2WR is just to lose weight (losing 5kg and maintaining strength would increase my P2WR by .15), but thats easier said than done! :? Here is a typical 1Rep equivalency chart. See http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/weight.htm for more advice on numbers of reps and particular benefits of high/low reps. Load - Repetition Relationship The strength training zone requires you to use loads in the range of 60% to 100% of 1RM. The relationship of percentage loads to number of repetitions (rounded up) to failure are as follows: 60% - 17 reps 65% - 14 reps 70% - 12 reps 75% - 10 reps 80% - 8 reps 85% - 6 reps 90% - 5 reps 95% - 3 reps 100% - 1 rep Just be careful of injury if you've not used weights before. For people interested, take a look through most cycle training guides and you'll see lots of cycling specific exercises that could prove to be useful in the new season. Scott