Full range of motion with long cranks.

If you’ve ever done squats in the weights room – you’ll know that you can cheat by not squatting all the way.  You can seemingly lift more weight – but it’s a false economy as you don’t get the full strength gains that a deep squat can give.

So what’s this got to do with cycling?  Well for me it’s the difference between 175mm cranks and the 210mm cranks that are proportional to my size on my Zinn.  I’ve been adding a few interval sessions to my training lately – and one in particular is seated big gear climbs…  Where I find a gentle (ish) climb and put it in the big chain ring and climb with a low cadence.   It’s very much like doing weights on the bike.  Certainly makes you strong.  But also – it’s something where I feel I can make even better gains because of the long cranks on my bike.  Full range of motion can only help strength development.  The long levers of the Zinn custom cranks enable me to really develop the advantage I already have with the long levers of my body.  Means I can really get into the nooks and crannies of strength development – so to speak…

So what else have I been doing?

Well – we’ve had an awesome summer down here in New Zealand.  So, just as things are starting to cool down, I pick that as the time to ramp up my training.  Seems like I’m doing things backwards…

But – though it’s nice to go for a ride on a beautiful day – there is some perverse satisfaction to be had from gutsing it out into a stiff breeze in the dark on a long commute home.

I’m slowly but surely picking up my training volume.   I’m very mindful of the fact that when I last did a long lead in to an event I was training for – that I had a hiccup – in that I trained like a demon to start with and was making fantastic progress – only to be stopped in my tracks with a mystery illness that put a major dent in my training.  Whether or not that was caused by the training I was doing is hard to know – but I’m taking a bit more of a measured approach this time.

I’m adding volume by adding midweek rides.  I work 50km from home so I’m adding 1 or 2 one way trips (in the dark) to my schedule as work allows.  And I’m increasing the distance of my Sunday rides (that are normally done with a group) – pushing that out to 80 to 100km.    And I’ve started adding a few of those interval sessions.

Intervals are something I really enjoy – in a twisted sort of way.  Sure they hurt and you want to puke sometimes – but I love them.  I guess it’s some sort of learned hardship that I picked up from my rugby playing days – where we did a lot of interval training.  I know that my body seems to respond well to intervals –so they are something that will always be a part of my regime…

But they hurt bad when you haven’t done them for a while – and when your aerobic base isn’t what it was

So anyway – I’m increasing volume – and slowly introducing some interval work.  There is a Winter Series of races coming up in 6 weeks or so – so I’ll be targeting that as my first hit out with some intensity.  And will be racing as often as I can from then on in…

205 days till my first major goal which is the Taupo Cycle Challenge – so – steady as she goes….

Adrian

Back into it with Pupose…

This year – as a Team Zinn member – I’m going to regularly post short blogs about me and my Dolomite Ti’s advances towards my goals for this year.

I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern – still riding regurlarly – but only enough really to keep a level of fitness up.  Work and Family have been a priority for the last year – so as needs must – cycling has taken a back seat.

But with things settling down to manageble levels at work – I’ve decided to set some goals and really get into it again…  (Family is still the biggest priority – but they will benifit from a fit Husband and Dad – so all good there).

So – I’ve set a couple of goals this year…

1. A 4 hours 30 something ride at the 160km Taupo Cycle Challenge – in November.
2. A 40km TT in under an hour – before the year is out.

Yikes!

These are lofty goals.  Both of them will be new personal bests.

I’m starting from a position of reasonable – but not spectacular – fitness.  And a bodywieght that’s about 10-15kg too much too much to achieve my goal at Taupo – which has a lot of hills in the first 80km and a biggish one at the 120km mark.  So I have a lot of work to do.  We are heading into Autumn down here in New Zealand – so I’ll be riding and training through our winter – so I can acheive these goals in our spring.

Along the way – I will race in road races and TT’s as much as I can fit in – and generally get involved as much as time allows in the local cycling scene here in Kapiti, New Zealand.

And it’ll all be on my beautiful custom Zinn Dolomite Ti bike – that I’m as excited about riding as the day I got it a few years back.

This is a photo of me racing a few weeks back (one of the only races I entered this summer) – I doctored the photo via snapseed as it helps to hide the weight I’d been dropped when this photo was taken and in a world of hurt.  Good reminder that I need to work harder.

I’ll try to post a blog a couple of times a month about how I’m doing – or just cycling in general on my Zinn…

Adrian.

Lennard Zinn sweeps the USGP races Oct. 13-14!

The US Grand Prix of Cyclocross, the biggest cyclocross race series in this country, came to Colorado the weekend of October 13-14 in the form of the SmartWool USGP in Fort Collins. My daughter Emily and I raced on our magnesium custom Zinn Magster ‘cross bikes, and both of us had successful weekends. I won both days in 55+ Masters men, and Emily placed mid-pack both days in Category 2&3 women despite fighting a cold and having just moved up from Category 4 (she is still in her first year of racing).

Saturday started cool and dry and turned to pouring rain in the middle of my race. Fortunately, I had opted for tires with good tread (Dugast Typhoons) rather than fine tread, which would have been faster in the conditions at the start but which would have been sliding all over the place in the mud that formed rapidly the last two laps. I had lots of catching up to do in both races, since I started in the very back row both days. Unlike local races, in which riders are called to the line based on their points totals, the USGP in my and Emily’s categories do not have a points category of their own and don’t honor any other. Call-ups are based entirely on order that registration was received, and we registered late.

The challenge of passing all of those riders in my group plus lots of singlespeeders who were on course at the same time and had started 2 minutes ahead was great practice for me for upcoming national and world championships I’ll be doing in January. Being able to advance through traffic on a tight and technical cyclocross course is a crucial skill for success.

I am in my fourth season of racing cyclocross, and this season, since I just moved up to 55+ and will be the young guy in that category, added to the fact that the world cyclocross championships are in the USA–in Louisville, KY (the first time ever outside of Europe), I have been training for cycling for the first time in 30 years. I started racing cyclocross as a way to stay fit for cross-country ski racing in the fall, but now it has become an end in itself. And I got an early jump on the cycling season by tearing my triceps muscle in the Finlandia Hiihto and Vasaloppet ski races in Finland and Sweden in late February/early March. Instead of skiing into May, I hung up my skis after the first weekend in March, and I raced my first road season since 1982, in order to prepare for cyclocross season. My goal is to be on the podium at state, national and world championships in cyclocross this season. I am encouraged by this weekend’s results and am taking them as evidence that my training plan is working.

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Cyclocross Nationals 2012

This past weekend was the Cyclocross Nationals in Wisconsin. Not as much snow as we were used to from racing cyclocross in Colorado this season, and overall a great event. Here are some photos.

Here I (Lennard Zinn) am with my longtime buddy Dag Selander (in the orange jacket) who pit-crewed for me. I switched bikes four times during the race; one time because I had a stick jammed in my rear derailleur (see photo). Dag power washed my bikes and gave me a nice, clean one almost every lap.
Last photo is with my teammates (who race different categories than me); left to right: LZ, Brandon Dwight, Pete Webber, and Greg Keller.

My custom lightweight magnesium Zinn Cyclocross bike with custom cranks, Enve carbon fiber rims, and all the lightweight components.

 

 

Zinn Titanium road bike with Shimano Di2

When building a bike for Di2, there are many ways of arranging the wiring. Some run the cables externally, and some run them internally. Several different ways of mounting the battery have also surfaced since the advent of Shimano’s electronic component group. Read on and check out these images to see how we at Zinn Cycles have achieved a very sleek and elegant system for Di2 with minimal compromise in the frame’s structural integrity.

We have made a convenient entry point for each of the shifting cables so that your custom titanium Di2 bike will look very sleek and very little clutter of cables.

We make a small hole with one of Shimano’s grommets at the very end of the chainstay, so the rear derailleur cable goes right into the chainstay and looks very clean. It also keeps the chainstay stronger than if we were to drill the hole into the side of the tube.

The wire goes from the shifter and into a small hole in the down tube so the wire can be hidden all the way until it reaches the derailleurs.

Instead of drilling the large hole that shimano suggests in their guidelines in the side of the down tube, we put ours in the bottom of the bottom bracket, which has much less effect on the strength of the bike. Then the battery is mounted under the down tube hidden by the chainrings and is very inconsicuous. The chainring gets in the way a little when opening the battery pack, but it’s worth it for the clean look.