You may remember that I posted a review on the ‘new kids on the training block’ back in January. In the cold of a winter where I was trying to pile on the miles to make me as fresh as a daisy in the Spring, 3LC was the answer! As 2012 has rumbled on I’ve found myself fitter and stronger, some of which I can definitely attributed to 3LC. Now the wonderful guys from the Isle of Man have realised I not only need to up my overall power using their ‘Time Trial’ workout but also stop being such a wimp going up hill and tackle their ‘Climbing’ workout. With #30daysofbiking now underway I thought it would be a great time to remind Team #LovingTheBike that you can still rack up your miles for the month on a turbo or the rollers.

Cadence, cadence, cadence

I was a bit sceptical at first as to how much I would get out of a session designed to improve my climbing when I was actually on rollers, in a bedroom, on a flat floor. Needless to say, the help that the 3LC DVD’s have given me over the winter and early spring has improved my riding and in particular my climbing. With the Road Race DVD session there is quite a bit of gear change as you go through different parts of the race from the Grand Départ to the climbs and then finally onto the building a sprint train. In the Climbing session you focus on cadence and staying in the saddle to get the most efficient power output your tiny legs can achieve. You may know that staying in the saddle when you climb is the most effective way of climbing in terms of power but have also experienced that feeling of slight relief when you stand up, partly rest those muscles and stamp on the pedals like a crazy person. Once you have the overall fitness, which this DVD can help you achieve, it feels so much more enjoyable to climb in the saddle whilst being able to regulate your cadence. It’s difficult to put into words (not because it’s emotional… I’m just not a very skillful writer!) how much these 3LC sessions have helped me but I do find myself thinking about my pedal stroke more when climbing and imagine being on the rollers with Peter Kennaugh Snr gently asking me to adjust my cadence in a way that you know he will mentally break you if you do not comply!

Bubs showing his race face

The Climbing session begins with a warm up and then on to a series of 3 climbs, starting with something gentle and long, then a little shorter, and finally on to a long steep climb with generous recovery periods in the between. This is essentially interval training without giving it that name, which is good as I think terms like that put people off sometime. One thing I’ve found using the whole range of 3LC DVD’s is that having the coach there on screen and the other riders, who end up feeling like your team mates who you don’t want to let down, makes you work a little harder than I do on other, more Suffering orientated training sessions. Because these sessions come from a racing background, even on the ‘recovery’ sections you are preparing for what is ahead. I’ve found this particularly beneficial when on the road now as recovery segments are about panning rather than reflecting on what has just happened. The recovery almost takes care of itself. There’s no point dwelling on what just happened and how much it hurt… look ahead, plan and think how you are going to achieve the next goal. Just having that little bit of race orientation from the coaches and pro’s on the 3LC DVD’s has made me a cleverer more intelligent rider

Stretching

The stretching sessions that come as part of the 3LC DVD’s are an excellent way to finish a session and I urge you to put aside that extra 10-15 minutes for after your training session. I’ve found myself bent double with muscle tightness in the past after not stretching properly after a spinning session. The stretching sessions are short enough to be done straight after without losing your focus but long enough to be beneficial and not just a DVD extra’s gimmick. I’ve even been known to do a few of the stretching sessions back to back on a rest day. Some of the riders that are in the training session will be doing the stretching session too and this adds to the feeling that you are watching pro’s in action in their daily routines and makes you feel like you can be part of that too. When using the 3LC DVD’s I’m constantly thinking ‘PRO’… this is how you improve, be professional in your approach to training and you are heading in the right direction.

3 Little Cons

The conversations betweent he riders and the coaches can get a little monotonous after watching the DVD’s a few times. This is a victim of its own success really as it’s this personal interaction which sets the sessions from others on the market. I’ve got to a point now that I can reenact parts of their conversations, but to me that’s like tan lines, it shows how hard I’ve been training. If it’s something that you think might be a problem, there is nothing wrong with turning down the sound and putting on some music. I’ve done it before and all of the instructions are on screen so you can still do a full session.

At the moment the 3LC sessions are only available on DVD which puts the cost of the product and shipping up compared to similar training products. This not only impacts on price but also useability as I’ve had to use software to rip it get it onto my Android phone for use in the gym. That being said… I have heard from a little Manx birdy that 3LC may be going digital in the near future which should improve the useability across different media platforms, so watch this space.

Er… I wrote that banteriffic section headline without thinking ahead and don’t have any more cons… which is a pro… I think!

Verdict

Overall I think I have used this Climbing DVD the most out of all of the titles so far and I can really see the difference. The format is the same as the other titles but the focus is different. Indoor training is hard for some to stomach for various reasons but this session makes you stronger and is enjoyable(?) at the same time. Even if you only like indoor training a tiny, weeny bit, surely those are two reasons good enough to give it a go!?

Chapeau 3LC

Stevie

No, not those kind of transitions… But forgive me for using this picture of the ‘Mark Cavendish Shadow’, Tyler Farrar. It was not purely to make a cheap and frankly rubbish joke about the title of this post. It’s more about conveying how I’ve been feeling about my fitness and cycling recently and how I’ve moved on from last year.

The Poggio

I spent most of last year on the bike wishing I was stronger, faster, fitter and didn’t always make it up the climbs on the club run in dead last. I would watch the riders ahead of me spinning their legs and soft pedalling to let me catch up but at the same time not rubbing it in my face that they were having to wait for me. Or they’d drop back and offer me a wheel to follow or some shelter from the wind. The type of things good friends do. It helped that I was good friends with my riding buddies, it meant I didn’t feel self conscious. Once upon a time I would’ve shyed away from long rides with strong riders for fear of feeling like the ‘weak link’ but I soon realised that riding with stronger, fitter athletes was the way to improving.

The last week and today in particular, everything fell in to place and changed for the better. The miles I put in over the winter and the 40 mile commute I am now riding rather than driving has turned me into a pedalling machine! We are a friendly, non competitive chain-gang who only really have one ‘sprint’ as we descend what we refer to as the ‘Poggio’ as we head into Sandwich, Kent. Yeah I fired a few salvo’s off the front during the ride and made a daring solo break a mile before the Poggio, only to be dragged back by the two strongest riders, but they both almost collapsed at the cafe after the effort of catching me. Finally I have the fitness to back up my desires which feels great.

Domestique

This post wasn’t written to blow my own trumpet, I have Twitter for that! The most enjoyable part of today’s ride was having the strength and awareness to drop back on the longest and hardest of climbs to help one of the other riders up. He is in much the same place as I was this time last year so I just dropped back, smiled at him, he smiled back and we rode on with the rest of the gang slowly pulling away up the road. It didn’t matter to either of us though. My riding ‘shadow’ knew I was sacrificing myself to help him and I knew I could pull us back to the group. A win win situation. It felt amazing to have the ability to give something back to the group after they’d waited at the top of climbs so often for me and offered me so many wheels to cling to.

Yeah you can cycle on your own, but it’s so much more enjoyable to do it with friends. We all need a little help once in a while and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask real friends for that help. Just remember that being the domestique rather than the team leader can sometimes be more rewarding and inspirational.

Stevie

As regular readers will know I am a big fan of The Sufferfest training videos. They’ve seen me through some dark, wet winters and this year in particular the indoor winter training I’ve been doing has meant I’ve hit January feeling stronger and fresher than ever. As someone who spends a lot of time off the bike trawling the internet for articles and new up and coming ideas I was really pleased to see the new face of indoor training… 3LC. They were kind enough to send me two of their training DVDs to test and I have been very pleased with what I’ve found!

3 Legs Cycling

Based in the Isle of Man, 3LC has cycling passion running through their veins as cycling has been so popular over the years on the small rock off the north-west coast of the UK mainland. The committment shown by local riders and coaches has paid off and many riders have gone on to compete on both World Tour and Pro Continental teams; with the most being Mark Cavendish. For a population as small as 80,000 the number of top flight riders the island has produced in incredible and shows the emphasis they put on quality training and dedication to the sport. There are currently 5 DVD’s in the range that are aimed at improving your peak fitness for all aspects of cycling whether it be sprinting, climbing, time trialling, criterium racing, sportives or triathlon racing and to make the training even more beneficial, 3LC.tv treat you to a great line up of Pro riders. Current World Road Race Champion Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh of Team Sky are heavily featured in the series and their enthusiasm and energy is hugely compelling and the aim is that they will help you achieve your goals even quicker.

2 Legs Good, 3 Legs Better…

As already mentioned, there are currently 5 DVD’s in the range which ‘Sprinting’, ‘Road Race’, ‘Time Trial’, ‘Climbing’ and ‘Ladies Road Race’ and I have been lucky enough to test the ‘Road Race’ and ‘Sprinting’ sessions. I won’t list all of the different areas each DVD covers but click on the links above and you can see a detailed description of each DVD. What I was really pleased about was that the type of training done whilst watching the 3LC training DVD’s is very similar to what you experience and can achieve from other similar training aids. I don’t see this as a bad thing at all as it means the training I have been doing has been the type of thing that the Pro’s do and thus should be beneficial for me. What is different about the 3LC training DVD’s and what sets them apart from everyone else is the way they train you through interaction with Pro’s and coaches.

The 3LC training DVD’s are like a group spinning session with some of the worlds strongest and most inspirational riders as well as proven top-level coach, Peter Kennaugh Snr. Unlike other training DVD’s that use pounding soundtracks and beautiful vistas to keep you entertained and motivated, 3LC uses the personal touch of qualified coaches and the sight of top-level riders feeling the pain just as you do. There are some great moments of banter and chatting between the on-screen riders which is a nice way to pass the time. The DVD’s use the very useful measurement of ‘relative perceived exertion’ (RPE) and cadence to push you to your limits. This means that you won’t out-train the DVD and become too strong for the workouts… you just go up a gear or too and you are able to do the same workout but at a much harder level. This gives the DVD’s a great longevity and should keep you coming back to them year after year, however close to Mark Cavendish’s rainbow bands you get!

You also get a comprehensive warm down session with some stretching techniques which again tells me one thing… these training DVD’s are for WINNERS. These are not just for the recreational roller rider. If you want to be winning races and competing against your friends, you need to train the Manx way and follow the lead of the Isle of Man riders.

Watching these videos, for me, feels like a much more social way of training. Sometimes I do want to pull the blinds, pump up the stereo and push my body to its Suffering limit but when I know I need and want a session where I can push myself but also feel like I’m training and improving with others… 3LC is definitely the DVD I’ll be reaching for.

If you want to win… train with the best!

Stevie

As many of you will remember I spent a week in July at Le Tour with @SteamyWynndows & @AndyMWild and as a result of that trip, ended up the proud owner of a limited edition Team Sky jersey signed by the riders. Since returning from the Tour I’ve been determined to make that Sky jersey the centre piece in my lycra-man cave… less affectionately known as ‘the 3rd bedroom’. Now finally, the room is complete. The hand painted World Champion stripes are finished, the jersey has returned from the framers, the pictures are hung and the adminration has begun!

But this room isn’t just for looking at, it’s become my motivation. Where better to punish yourself in front of a Sufferfest video (or two if you feel particularly anarchic!) than in a room surrounded by memories of World Champions and pioneers of the sport!? Short of riding your turbo in Jens’ garage, you can’t get much more motivational than my new bike room! I’m very pleased with it and I hope The Sufferfest see fit to add me to their list of bike torture chambers.

So when a friend asked why I had decorated the room in homage to my idols… I answered, “Because I can!” Check out the video below and let me know what you think.

#IWBMATTKYT

Stevie