Are some of us only meant to go so fast?

[KSH]

I have a friend, who is a strong rider, but because of her body type is limited in the power she is able to generate and thus cannot go much faster than 17 - 18 mph. She is very tall and very lean, has little or no muscle mass. Great for climbing or endurance rides but tough on performance. This is why some cyclists specialize in climbing, or sprints or GC.

Her trainer's recomendation is that she build muscle mass. That means hitting th gym and lifting weights. Need to do leg lifts, calf pulls, etc. Muscle equates to power. Power equates to speed. It's as "simple" as that.

Hee-hee... well, I don't fit into the category she does!

Actually, I did lots of weight lifting for many years and did so in the off season too. I have head crusher thighs (use your imgination on that one! HA!).

Lean with no muscle mass... not me.

Good suggestion though, I hope it worked for your friend!

[Dianyla]

I have head crusher thighs (use your imgination on that one! HA!).

Bwahahaha!!!! Love it!

[RoadRaven]

Hey there... my two cents

Absolutely agree with velo girl

Heres my experience of the past few weeks... I am the "subject/assignment" for a student training to be a coach and she has written me a training a programme.

I had some fitness tests done (Lactate threshold, VO2max, endurance) and then she wrote me a six week programme.

A few weeks into it and I have broken two PBs in time trials and I feel stronger on hills than ever before. My strength (in these early days - only been riding/training since October 2004) and my weakness' are sprints and climbs.

She has scheduled me for three aerobic rides a week (which are not hard pushing - more like recovery pace - and a bit longer than usual rides) These rides are at 70%, 75% and 80% of max.
Then I do 1-2 specific rides per week - she has written into the schedule Fartlek sprints, hill repetitions (riding in the biggest gear I can while staying seated), and speed endurance sprints.

I am faster in my sprinting, I find hills still tough, but i am up them much more quickly - and this is after less than a month of training!

I have told her that when I have finished being her assignment and she has written her report on how the training programme went, I will pay her to write me another.

I have never had this much variety, or this many "recovery" pace rides - even though I have known going slower is possibly more important than lots of faster rides.

So based on this very limited experience thus far i would say vary what you do, do some hill reps with a specific speed, cadence or heart rate in mind... do some little sprints/intervals... make sure you do plenty of riding at a lower speed/resitance...

[betagirl]

KSH, I was the same swimmer in high school. I loved doing the 500 free, and people thought I was crazy. I also wouldn't place at 1st, but would do well and felt good at the end. I'm not a sprinter at all, so I think we're pretty similar in terms of athletic genes. I can go long and far on my bike, which is why I'm trying to get into doing brevets, etc. I can sprint only for short distances and I absolutely die after. But I also haven't trained properly to develop those muscles. So part of it is just my style. Keep at it!

[Geonz]

I was a competitive swimmer, and also "endurance" but that was just because I'm also just SLOW and those were the only events with room for me. 400 I.m., 200 Butterfly... I have no upper body strength to speak of. My strokes are very nice - I perfected them trying to get fast. Pretty does not mean strong :-)

However, my experience in cycling has been different.

Do you workout like you owuld a swimming workout? That got me tons faster on the bike. I'd go out and do a long warmup, then some medium length sorta-hard intervals, then shorter and faster ones... just like a swim workout. I also focused on technique. If you're doing something inefficiently, then that could have you hitting that speed wall. I have a four mile grid that I use for "laps." Other cyclists would find it too boring... but it's more exciting than the swimming pool, especially 'cause I can watch that speedometer and see exactly how fast I'm going.

It meant going out on my own, in the dawn's early light, but that was part of the "fun" - the REAL fun was the look on that ride leader's face when I hit 17 mph.... going uphill on a 35 pound Western Flyer :-) ... and averaging 21 + with the guys for 30 miles... still on a toe-clipped hybrid (albeit aluminum).

Now, it *could* be that you have X amount of quadness or V02 or whatever stuff they talk about on that other bike forum, but maybe not.