Two Wheel Blogs

My buddy Joe has been refurbishing a home for about 7 weeks. It is a big project, so we have not ridden together since that project started (and took over his life). I guess it is nearly done because he called me for a ride like we used to do every Sunday morning.

Nothing too exciting to report, just a nice loop that included Highpoint Road which got resurfaced AGAIN.

Highpoint is aptly named because it included the highest point in the county...which of course is at the top of a pretty big hill. Normally the climbing associated with this loop is noteworthy, but lets talk about the descent first. This road *was* a poorly constructed chip and seal surface, but yesterday it was basically a gravel road. Think pea gravel up to 4 inches deep that is comprised of polished rounded river rock (a lot like riding on marbles).

We both made the descent with brakes clutched (but not too hard as to start a slide) the entire way. Joe nearly had a yard sale when he found a section of very deep gravel in which is front wheel made one rut several inches away from the rut his rear tracked through.

The rest of the ride was uneventful (as most good rides are). I used the opportunity as a training session by "chunking" hills. This is a technique that someone online clued me in to...though I have heard the term used to describe other things, here is my take on chunking and how you can use it on a group ride to get a workout.

Chunking:
Essentially chunking can be used to give training purpose to any ride or route. You simply think about the ride beforehand and dissect the route into chunks. Each chunk is then used for a specific training purpose. This route has lots of climbs and I wanted to do hill work, but was not interested in doing hill repeats on the same hill while Joe stood by and perhaps picked his nose in boredom.

The breakdown for this route was to fully recover by riding with Joe for a longer than normal recovery interval then as a hill approached, I politely explained what I was going to do (so he did not think I was attacking or otherwise being a spas). Then I pounded up the climb as hard as possible, turned around and rode back to the bottom, and pounded the climb again. Ideally, I would get 2 hill repeats at every hill in the time it took Joe to spin up the same hill at the leisurely pace he preferred.

You can imagine how you can turn almost any route into a training opportunity even when in a group (provided they understand and condone what you are doing). You might also imagine that by design you can get a good workout by trying to complete the second climb before your partner gets to the top (or too far beyond the end of the climb).

Joe and I were able to ride a solid 2.5 hours together at a pace that he was comfortable with, and I was able to get a leg- and lung-searing interval workout. There were 4 notable climbs on this route that were fairly evenly spaced that I selected to do these repeats on (so you might call these hills 4 separate "chunks"). The rest of the route was basically a few sets of recovery "chunks".

This whole concept is sort of stupid-simple and may not sound like much, but if you start previewing your routes and thinking of ways to break them down into task-specific "chunks" you will quickly see the value of the concept. This concept allows you to establish new mini-goals for a particular ride, and will likely make you stronger and faster.

The best part about chunking for me is I am often able to train among groups of friends with varying riding abilities...you can enjoy the social aspect of cycling while you train if you plan accordingly. I may take some of the solo-drudgery out of your training routine.