Thank You Everybody For a Great Season- Please Check Out Vermont Bicycles United!

Greetings cyclists!

Matt here. It's Tuesday, which is normally the day I send out my email to all of you about the upcoming Thursday night indoor group ride at Maglianero.

It's Tuesday, but it's April. And we only ride from November through March. It felt pretty silly last week, standing in the Maglianero parking lot in full sun and warm air, going inside to ride bikes. It felt silly, but it felt pretty silly slipping and sliding through the results of this morning's little snow squall, too. Such is spring in Vermont.

I just wanted to write to all of you who rode with us this last season and extend my thanks to you. Thank you so much for coming out (in?) to ride together. Thanks for being willing to throw down five bucks a night to keep the space open at Maglianero, and thanks for helping with the setup and teardown every night too. By my count, we rode 18 times between November and March,. That's 18 times I would have otherwise had to gut it out on the trainer alone, or maybe I wouldn't have even been motivated to ride at all! What a great thing. Thank you also to Maglianero for providing the great space to ride in. I couldn't think of anywhere better.

Now, before you all move on, filling in your race calendars, tuning your bikes, and plotting your outdoor adventures, I want to ask for one more thing:

Please, please check out Vermont Bicycles United.

I've found my niche in Vermont's bike culture by leading indoor BYO bike and trainer group rides out of a basement bike-themed coffee shop. Now spring's here and I'm kicking off kid-oriented group rides under the Kidical Mass moniker. I'm going to make it a big thing this summer- you know, costume rides, storytellers, picnics, bike-in movies... Then there's roller racing, which has been going on in Burlington but hasn't happened yet this year and needs a push to become more sustainable. I got in touch with the former organizers and I put  together a deal to buy up their equipment along with the A/V equipment I need.

The goal of these three projects is to get bikes in people's faces in unconventional places and situations. (Goldsprints at an aquarium? why not? What about kids Goldsprints?)  But I need some money to make it happen.

Please Like and Share the VBU Facebook page broadly, and give generously if you can. You'll notice there are some great thank-you gifts available there, including VBU tees and season passes to ride with VT Indoor cycling next year.

Thanks again,

Matt

Last Ride of the season! Thursday, 3/28, 5:45 PM at Maglianero Cafe- Fabulous Prizes!

Hi all-

You know the drill by now! 5:45 to set up, 6:30 to ride. Bring your bike, trainer, five bucks, and a towel!

Well, this is it. By my count this last ride will be our 18th ride of the season since we started back in November.

I plan on bringing the Suitcase of Courage once again, containing the now-famous Wheel of Pain. Any video under an hour besides Revolver is fair game.



Also inside the Suitcase are our fabulous prizes for the end of the year, so show up and you might take home a hat, some tire levers, a seat cover, or at the very least some Clif bars that don't expire until the end of next month or so!

I'd like to close by thanking Maglianero for hosting us again this season- they have been really great about letting us use their space and are great about supporting cycling in Burlington!

So what do we do now that VTIndoor is done for the season, Matt? 

Glad you asked:

• Weel, duh, go outside and ride!
•  If you have and/or ride with kids, please come ride with us at Kidical Mass Burlington, kicking off on Saturday April 6th on the Burlington bike path. Lots more information available at www.btvkidicalmass.blogspot.com. 
• If you want to get in on some sweet head-to-head roller racing, look for Mad Dashes to make a return to Burlington soon. Details are just coming together now, but Burlington will not go without roller racing for long! 

Gee, those three things (VT indoor, Kidical Mass, and Mad Dashes) all involve bicycles- wouldn't it be great if they were all bundled together somehow? 

Yes, yes it would. And it just might happen. Please keep your eyes and ears peeled for the launch of Vermont Bicycles United, which will be my effort to bring these rather unconventional riding experiences together to support and enhance Vermont's cycling community:

More (including shameless pleas for funding and sponsorship) to come soon. 

Indoor Group Ride, Thursday, 3/21 at 5:45PM at Maglianero Cafe- Also, introducing the Wheel of Pain!

Greetings Cyclists!

(If all you need to know is where, when and what, the answer is Maglianero, 47 Maple Street in Burlington, 5:45 PM to set up and the ride starts at 6:30 this week. Bring your bike, your trainer, five bucks, and a towel. )

Indoor riding has its place, like when there's a bunch of crud out on the roads or when your free time doesn't line up with the daylight hours. Indoor riding gets us through when outdoor riding just isn't practical. But let's be honest- it is a bare facsimile of riding outside. Riding outside, for example, adds the element of surprise.  You never know when you step out the door what you might run into, whether it's an unexpected headwind, a riding buddy calling out a town-line sprint, or a complete change of route and plans that you don't make until you've already gotten a few miles from home.

Well, we here at VTIndoor are dedicated to making our indoor rides just as good as the real thing, and that's why I've constructed the official VTIndoor Wheel of Pain. It's a simple device, really:


Mounted deep inside the official VTIndoor Suitcase of Courage (which also contains the fabulous prizes we'll be giving away on 3/28), the wheel of pain is labeled with each and every current Sufferfest video, with plenty of blank spaces for more. Constructed from a 20" stroller wheel (the most evil type of wheel) and dialed in with a neon zip-tie and a chainstay protector off an old Univega 12-speed, the Wheel of Pain stands ready to take us to yet another level in our indoor cycling adventures.    

We'll go ahead and spin the wheel at the start of our next ride on Thursday, and see where it takes us. We'll limit ourselves to the one hour rides, so if we land on Blender, Hell Hath No Fury, or Local Hero, (or a blank space!) that'll be a free spin. See you there!

Indoor Group Ride! Thursday 3/14, 5:45PM at Maglianero, 47 Maple Street

Greetings Cyclists!

(If all you need to know is where, when and what, the answer is Maglianero, 47 Maple Street in Burlington, 5:45 PM to set up and the ride starts at 6:30 this week. Bring your bike, your trainer, five bucks, and a towel. )

How about we go to A Very Dark Place?


That oughta do it.


5:00 warm-up

2×30 sprints

1:30 rest, because we’re not totally merciless

5 x 4:00 intervals- with 3:00 rest between each interval. Each interval features pro-racing and has it’s own aggressive personality:

1. Solo breakaway in Paris-Nice
2. Small group breakaway in Fleche-Wallone
3. Joining Gilbert and the Schlecks as they attack in Liege-Bastogne-Liege
4. Following Cancellara – and trying to beat him – in Paris-Roubaix
5. Holding onto Wiggins and crew in Criterium du Dauphine

4:00 recovery with some vintage cycling footage


Leave it all on the floor, spin and watch, or do anything in between. Racer, commuter or rank beginner: come one and all!

Indoor Group Ride, 3/7 at Maglianero Cafe, 5:45 PM. Also, announcing Kidical Mass!

Greetings cyclists!

(If all you need to know is where, when and what, the answer is Maglianero, 47 Maple Street in Burlington, 5:45 PM to set up and the ride starts at 6:30 this week. Bring your bike, your trainer, five bucks, and a towel. )

I wanted to start this week's post by announcing another project I'm working on- it's called Burlington Vermont Kidical Mass and it's all about sharing the love of cycling with its youngest participants by organizing kid-oriented group rides in the Burlington area. If you or someone you know has kids who might be interested, please check it out and share the link to the blog (www.btvkidicalmass.blogspot.com)

This Week's Ride:

On tap for this week, we have one of the newest Sufferfest videos: There is No Try. The last time we did this one was January 3rd...



It should be fun. Here's what the workout looks like, but as always if you just want to come and spin at your own pace, feel free to do that too:

7:00 Warm-up
:15×4 – each 15 seconds gets faster
1:00 recovery
:30×4 – each 30 seconds gets faster
1:00 recovery
:45×4 – each 45 seconds gets faster
1:30 recovery
1:00×4 – each 1:00 gets faster
1:30 recovery
2:00×4 – each 2:00 gets faster
2:00 recovery
1:00×4 – each 1:00 gets faster
1:30 recovery
:45×4 – each :45 gets faster
1:30 recovery
:30×4 – each :30 gets faster
1:00 recovery
:15×4 – each :15 gets faster
4:00 Warm-down

I'd also go so far as to recommend a strategy for riding this workout, which often talks about levels of effort increasing in small increments at the same cadence...

Use your gears to make the necessary speed changes. When each interval is about to start, get down in your 13, 12 or 11 cog and shift up three times. Then start the interval and make one shift each time the video tells you to go harder. 

A little experience will tell you whether running the bottom of your cassette like that gets you in the ballpark on cadence and effort level. 

When I ride a workout like this on my rollers, with little resistance and no adjustability, I'll just compensate with higher cadences if I run out of gears. Yeah, I know that means I might not get as much of the high-power, low cadence part of the workout, but as long as I end the hour crosseyed and exhausted, I'm a happy camper!

Bring your bike, trainer, towel, and 5 bucks to pay the always-awesome Maglianero Cafe for the use of the space.

Indoor Group Ride, Thursday, 2/28, 5:45PM at Maglianero Cafe in Burlington

Greetings cyclists!

(If all you need to know is where, when and what, the answer is Maglianero, 47 Maple Street in Burlington, 5:45 PM to set up and the ride starts at 6:10 this week. Bring your bike, your trainer, five bucks, water and a towel. )

A short ride last week (but intense, ask anybody who was there to to those 15 1:00 10/10 effort, 1:00 recovery intervals and they'll tell you that) means it's about time we went a little longer this week. Cue up Hell Hath No Fury!

IMPORTANT: This ride is longer (about 75 minutes), so in order to get it all in we are going to try to start riding by 6:10 instead of our usual leisurely 6:30 start. If you can't get set up in time for 6:10, just fill in the back and get going as soon as you can!

Here's what you're in for:





WORKOUT DETAILS:

You are a Sufferlandrian. And you’re racing for the Sufferlandrian National Team in the Tour of Sufferlandria. You’re expected to take the leader’s jersey (and a very special jersey it is) over the race, the stages of which are:

3:30 Warm-up

5:30 Stage 1: Easy, flat terrain with a few accelerations

20:00 Stage 2: Rolling terrain with a series of brutal attacks as the pack tries to take the lead from you

6:00 Recovery

20:00 Stage 3: More rolling, aggressive, attacking racing in which you try to break away to get the lead back

4:00 Recovery

3:30 Stage 4: A desperate Team Time Trial in which you have to crush yourself in order to take the lead, and the Tour of Sufferlandria victory

6:00 Recovery, featuring Mental Training Reflection from Athlete’s Audio


Bring your bike, trainer/rollers, towel, and five bucks. Be over 18 or bring a parent/guardian to sign a release. All money goes to Maglianero to use the space.

Please keep an eye on the blog, like us on Facebook, or follow us on twitter for updates.

Thanks,

Matt

Indoor Group Ride, Thursday 2/21 at Maglianero Cafe, 5:45 PM

Greetings cyclists!

(If all you need to know is where, when and what, the answer is Maglianero, 47 Maple Street in Burlington, 5:45 PM to set up and the ride starts at 6:30 this week. Bring your bike, your trainer, five bucks, water and a towel. )

Looks like winter is still here and although it is getting lighter out, we have the rest of this month and all of March to keep riding inside.

Let's do another request night this week:

Possible Choices:

Angels (Climbing)
The Hunted (Climbing)
There is No Try (Speed)
A Very Dark Place (Speed)
The Wretched (Race)
Downward Spiral (Speed)


I left Fight Club off the list because we just did it last time.

Check the Sufferfest website for details on these rides and let me know what your pleasure (pain) is for this week's ride.

See you there,

Matt