PauloBarnesi

Any of you use pulse meters - or are they rather old-fashioned these days ! As regards training on hills; I used to go out with a bloke who went on to win Olympic gold. he rode to his pulse so if his pulse went up on the hills he would back off to keep it at the same rate as on the flat. Can't remember what his rate was - about 120 I think and mine was at about 150. This was sometime ago when I could finish a 25mile tt with my pulse on 180 - so when I was about 50. Couldn't get anywhere near that now.

Didn't know Indurain was 'tainted' Paulo !

Isn’t a pulse meter merely a Heart rate monitor?

You can use a HRM or a watt meter, both with a zonal system. 

He failed a test in France for a non banned substance that much is true. Just look at those performances, a strong big time trialler didn’t struggle in the mountains anymore... In a time when everyone was doing it, its hard to believe he wasn’t involved.

Every bit counts. Most cyclists spend vast amounts of cash on lighter wheels, etc, when the maximum weight loss is always going to be on the body. I ve lost 5kg or so in the last year and its enormously helpful for Alpine climbs. 

Of course the alternative is to be a strong but heavier cyclist and take aload of drugs; look at Indurain, Riis and Ullrich...

 

And a fantastic stage yesterday of the Giro yesterday.

 

One of the best stages I have ever seen. Epic stuff.

 

Nearly as good as the one in 88

Obviously losing any weight will help a great deal, you are trying to improve watts/kg which is harder than simply watts. You also learn what kind of hills suit you based on your style. I prefer steady long climbs at 6% +, short ones at 15% I can’t bear.

And a fantastic stage yesterday of the Giro yesterday.

Oh and the only way to really climb hills is to climb hills; try and find a decent hill and do it as an interval session. Sign up to Strava and have an idea how fast you are going and what your cadence is. You can’t ever get over how hard they are, you just find that you are getting faster and faster. 

I ve just realised that footballers greatest all rounder might include someone who has also gone into football administration as well? 

The general idea is to stay seated and find a gear that you can turn with a relatively high cadence (70 or so). The problem is when the gradient gets too steep, for you maintain the high cadence. Then you can move down to lower gear and again maintain a relatively high cadence or get out of the saddle, which will use different muscles. Most people can only stay out of the saddle for a relatively short time, so it will only be useful for bursts. Eventually if the gradient becomes too steep you run out of gears and then simply have to try and keep pedalling and try to avoid stalling where you simply can’t go on. The worse thing is to underestimate a hill and try and use a too higher a gear (outer chain ring) and then as you lose speed and cadence, you fear changing gears as you can easily lose the chain, etc. Its better to look a fool and be using a low gear and pedalling like mad, rather than looking a fool in a high gear and coming off your bike. 

Yep 90 is a good benchmark.

Just because you don’t win the domestic league doesn’t mean you aren’t a major club. Liverpool haven’t won it for how many years? 26 or so, are they not a major club? 

Probably a better way of comparing managers and players is giving various weighting to achievements. That Ancelotti has won the Champions League with a big club with an expensively put together squad, is hardly a surprise? The Cryuff was a success at a major club as manager?

In the end we might that footballers greatest player/manager is someone quite unexpected...

The second Rotherham goal was a cracker by Alex Revell

I don’t think he’s got the skill set to be successful in the lower leagues, I think unfortunately for him he will drop out of the football league fairly soon.

 

£50m fine coming their way by the looks of twitter

 

 

Here

Why are QPR facing a hefty financial punishment?

Any Football League club that exceeds an £8m loss for the 2013-14 campaign when their accounts are submitted by 1 December this year is subject to a punishment.

As the 2012-13 accounts of QPR Holdings Limited posted losses of £65.4m, with a wage bill of £68m, it is not hard to envisage another hefty deficit this term given the Loftus Road outfit have lost out on around £50m in television money.

“

The rules encourage clubs to manage their finances in a way that allows the club to be sustainable

”

Football League

The present parachute payments do not come close to covering those losses because relegated clubs receive £60m over four years.

QPR may have loaned out a number of high-earning players, including Loic Remy and Adel Taraabt, but many others remain, not all of whom featured in the play-off semi-final win over Wigan.

"If QPR or any club breaches the Financial Fair Play rules, there is a system in place that calculates the potential sanctions," said Ian Clayden, a football financial expert.

"For the Championship, if a club is promoted to the Premier League there is a calculation table which calculates tax, if you will, on the club, based on spending over and above the acceptable limits."

But why is there a cap on losses?

In 2012, after two years of detailed discussions, the Football League and its clubs agreed on a Financial Fair Play framework across all three of its divisions.

A Football League statement said at the time that the framework aims to "reduce the levels of losses being incurred at some clubs and, over time, establish a league of financially self-sustaining professional football clubs".

It went on to say "the decision to adopt Financial Fair Play regulations follows a strategic review by the Football League board which identified the state of club finances as the organisation's biggest challenge".

Clayden said the rules were put in place because sustainability of football clubs is a key concern of the Football League. "The rules encourage clubs to manage their finances in a way that allows the club to be sustainable," he said.

Manchester City, the 2013-14 Premier League champions, were recently fined £49m - £32m of which is suspended - after failing Uefa financial fair play rules.

So how big a penalty could QPR face?

Should QPR remain in the Football League, they would face a transfer embargo until such time as they could "demonstrate they were on track to record acceptable losses or profit".

However, if they are promoted to the Premier League, they would be subject to a fine. A club is allowed to lose up to £8m without sanction. Above that level, there is a sliding scale on the next £10m of losses, with a maximum fine of £6.681m.

Once losses exceed £18m, the fine is imposed on a strict pound-for-pound basis.

So, should there be an overall loss of £30m, the Football League would be left chasing almost £19m. If it was £50m, the figure would be nearly £39m and if QPR were to match last year's loss, their fine would be almost £54m.

Are other Championship clubs happy?

Not really. The regulations themselves have attracted plenty of criticism from member clubs. For some, the parachute payments, coupled with the £8m losses allowed, distort the finances of relegated clubs.

Earlier this month, Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn said Championship clubs were hopeful of changing the Financial Fair Play rules because the current boundaries were unrealistic.

Financial Fair Play

• Championship clubs have to reduce losses, season-on-season, to a maximum of £5m (£3m can be funded by shareholders) by 2015-16
• Championship clubs are permitted losses of £8m (£5m funded by shareholders) in 2013-14
• Championship sanctions start in January 2015
• League One and League Two clubs have limit on spending as a percentage of turnover
• League One and League Two sanctions already in place

"We are trying to have the boundaries of financial fair play extended," Mostyn told BBC Radio Solent. "Everyone recognises that, with clubs coming into the Championship with a first-season £23m parachute payment, something has to be done."

Mostyn only recently criticised the Financial Fair Play rules for being implemented before the parachute payments deal. "The current limitations were decided by a group of people who are no longer playing in the Championship," he said.

"There are only about 40% of the clubs playing in the Championship that had anything to do with those and it was prior to the huge parachute payments deal."

However, all four proposals - three of them related to boosting the level of losses and owner investment permitted - were defeated in a vote by the 24 clubs.

The fourth proposal was for the rules to be imposed based on 'real time' financial figures instead of the existing retrospective system but it, too, failed to attract the necessary 75% backing.

Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey said other alternatives would now be examined.

Can't the Premier League help out?

The Premier League has previously told the Football League it would have no involvement in retrieving the money, considering the matter to be none of its business.

Therefore, it would not withhold any television cash upon the Hoops' return to the top flight, forcing the Football League to actively pursue QPR for any financial penalty.

Indeed, Clayden says it would create a difficult scenario if QPR do get promoted. "It creates an added level of complexity as to whether or not one association or organisation can fine one member of another."

The situation is further complicated by the fact that any fine, instead of being distributed amongst other Football League clubs, would go to charity.

And if the Football League cannot get its money?

The Football League believe its regulations are robust enough for them to be enforced but, given the potential sums involved, the chance of them being challenged in the courts is high.

If QPR are promoted, Derby will no doubt feel aggrieved if their London rivals escape any kind of sanction.

The Rams have operated within the regulations in the last financial year, posting a loss of £7.1m.

They - and others - would argue that the financial fair play regulations are worthless if they have no teeth.

What would be more useful a power meter or an electronic group set? I would take the power meter, but I ve never ridden an electronic group set. I suspect in the next couple of years we will see a 105 electronic group set which will really reduce the price. 

 

It was my first ever 10k!

 

I only run in the gym because im not up to any standard worth doing it on the roads really, also ive seen a few friends hit the tarmac and instantly get problems with knees and shins etc.. im trying to protect myself more than anything.

Treadmills aren't real running. Sorry, just my opinion. I use them while at the gym as it's nice to show off but they can't replace running forwards. A treadmill moves the ground for you, you don't have to push yourself forwards. All you have to do is pull your legs forward again.

 

This isn't trying to belittle what you've done. 10k is a long way even on a treadmill so if you can do it there, you can do it outside or on a track. Do yourself a favour, use the treadmill sparingly, get out on the roads and you'll improve in no time

 

They are when you do a V02 max test!

I thought people were talking about Electronic Dura ace! 

If you do cycling power meter will tell you a lot more than heart rate monitor, they just cost a lot more and for the average cyclist its an indulgence.

The full Di2 costs a fortune; you must be rich!

 

To be honest I tried a new approach last week; homemade oat bars (with peanut butter & banana), some gels and some clif energy shot bloks. Set my watch to beep every 10 minutes to take on fluid (750ml/hr), and then every 20 took on some food. I rode for over 7 hours, and at the end took on some caffeine. Didn’t lose that much weight and felt fine. Refuelling is clearly somewhere a lot of people don’t do so well, its practise that makes perfect. I find the body yearns for different tastes during exercise; too much sweet and you vomit.

Anyway I did a sub 20 minute park run today. Very happy with that.

I was gonna try some homemade stuff too to see if that helps and even considering taking marmite sarnies for IM Germany to help with salt and to give something different.

Do you have a time in mind for the Marmotte?

 

Not really; I am having a recce of the Alps at the beginning of June to see what my form is. I am trying to get my Watts/kg up to around 3.75. I am fine on short climbs, but haven’t ridden anything long since Ventoux last summer. I ve seen the gold for my age is just over nine hours, which would be good, which is possible if I descend well and then get in a good group between mountains. Just be good to set a benchmark and then have another go with more training next year; Impressive Park Run BTW!

Bought one of those Garmin GPS-watches. Couldn't stop looking at it as I ran and kept pushing myself to the limit. Hurting today but I guess that was the whole point.

 

And it was compatible out of the box with all my old Endomondo stuff so no history-gaps.

Don’t look at it, listen to it

If you go up, then being the lightest you possibly can is the best. The turbo trainer is good for doing intervals; but you need something to measure your effort; a heart rate monitor is the cheapest option. You then can do a test to find out what your maximum heart rate is, and then have zones, where you can measure effort. If you have a laptop you can view whilst you are on the trainer, you can use a system like trainer road www.trainerroad.com which has lots of different work outs and plans. 

 

Monaco - Music for Pleasure.

 

What do you want from me? - It is such a brilliant brilliant record, I'd almost forgotten it then I heard it on Radio 2 this morning. Thanks Chris Evans.

I have that, and forgotten that it was a pretty good album. 

 

Better than Revenge or Freebass. But how hard would that be? And definitely better than Peter Hook & the Light (ft. Rowetta) doing Atmosphere...

Adam McGurk scores the winner for Burton in the playoffs semi against Southend

To be honest I tried a new approach last week; homemade oat bars (with peanut butter & banana), some gels and some clif energy shot bloks. Set my watch to beep every 10 minutes to take on fluid (750ml/hr), and then every 20 took on some food. I rode for over 7 hours, and at the end took on some caffeine. Didn’t lose that much weight and felt fine. Refuelling is clearly somewhere a lot of people don’t do so well, its practise that makes perfect. I find the body yearns for different tastes during exercise; too much sweet and you vomit.

Anyway I did a sub 20 minute park run today. Very happy with that.

 

 

 

 

I still think the biggest mistake waw houllier. Get the right man then, spend similar amounts and I think we'd still be a top 7 club right now.

His issue is he doesn't just **** up once, he **** up over and over again making a bigger mess of what originally isn't a massive issue.

 

 

Interesting.

 

Out of all the managers he hired, I though Houllier was the only one who shook things up and attempted to change our style to play better football.

 

Massive risk, though, given his health problems.

 

Yes but all this caused was a rift in the squad and led to a series of very poor performances. It was only when we resorted back to the MON style of play that we got the results and shot up the table after Houllier got ill. I think he could of relegated us that season if we had continued with Houllier's ways.

 

BJ10 is right and Lerner never seems to learn from his mistakes.

 

Well that was partly because (some of) the players were used to having everything their way under O'Neill.

Houllier tried to do the right thing by banning Dunne, Collins and the others from drinking during season and making them be more professional.  The fact that they responded like spoiled brats refusing to perform and acting up i blame solely on the players.

 

The fact that soo many brittish players are unprofessional is a huge problem and something almost every foreign manager tries to change when the come here

 

Yep because none of those foreign managers do anything mad like Paul of Canio...