Winter training - Velostudio / Athlete Lab

I'm looking into organising some club sessions at the LVVP Velostudio and maybe Athlete Lab for winter training. For those who've not been, LVVP has a bunch of Wattbikes, a big screen, Sufferfest videos, etc. I used it a bit over the winter and it's much more fun than hitting the turbo in my freezing cold garage.

If anyone has any likes / dislikes / ideas / experience of what other clubs are doing, let me know. Also an idea of how many might be interested would be useful.
Cheers
Neil

Hiya, yes I'd be interested - and I suspect Euan would too. We did the Islington wattbike sessions all winter last year - would be great to do it ith LVCC.

Hi Neil,

I work as a freelance coach at the velopark, and until recently was pretty much the resident studio coach. You may have been to my sessions on a Tuesday night-they become very popular, and very full-on! if I can help in any way, do let me know. I have been coaching indoor cycling for years and know a thing or to about getting the most from these sessions. Hope to hear from you soon. Steve
http://www.stevebrown.bike

This sounds great. As a new member it would be nice to have some introduction to winter training .

Hello Neil. Thanks for taking on this task. I would be interested in sessions at Stratford. Any days except Mondaysand Fridays. Mark Freeman

Lets do this ...

It's going to work best if you all go on the same night at the same time.
I would imagine that this will start from October onwards?

LVVP have a slot free on Wednesday evenings for winter training in the velostudio and first week of each month they can do a rollers session in the track centre (velostudio has movie night 1st Wednesday of the month). Can fit up to 27 riders on a mix of wattbikes and matrix bikes (spin bikes). It's £80 p/hr but that's not too bad if we have good attendance. £50 extra to have a coach as well. Would work for all abilities and it's definitely more fun to share the pain! Looks like there is good interest. Does this clash with anything else e.g. racing commitments? If not how do I get hold of the LVCC credit card ;) Neil

Hi Neil. Thanks for moving this on. Maybe we should plan for 2nd Wed in Sept (give those teachers a rest for school back week). I suggest 7pm or 8pm. If we can get 8-10 people together for the first week it will be about £10 each. Perhaps as we gain momentum we can arrange coaches and get people to pay in advance. The club does not have a credit card. Have a work with Jo Mumford about monies, or members can pay in advanceto the club account and then they can invoice us.

Is September too early?
Otherwise Mark, this sounds admirable. I noticed that Full Gas have posted the schedule for the Track sessions over the winter. I think their nights are going to be Tuesday and Wednesday...

What do you need from the Club to make this happen. We are goimg to be spending money over the next year on the Race HQ and a timing system for TTs. So I 'd prefer that this was self supporting from the start.

Edward - I agree re this being self supporting. I think £80 p/hr is quite steep given that normal sessions in the studio are only £7 per person. It's obviously a good deal if we can get 15/20 people every week but I'm not sure we'll do that to start with at least and I don't want the club to be on the hook for cash that is better spent elsewhere.

How about we try making one of the regular studio sessions an unofficial club night to gauge interest before committing to our own slot? My experience is that the open sessions aren't that well attended and there is always lots of space. Sessions are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6.15pm. Downside is that we won't get to choose the particular session we want, but that's not a massive issue.

If this proves popular we can then get our own slots later in the winter or next year.

What do you think?
Neil

Yes, I don't think we will get 15+ a week at first.
However, I think a couple of hires by the club would be a good idea. The club can cope with covering the odd loss..
So lets go for making the open sessions our nights.

When shall we start?

I will be working every Monday and Wednesday evening, but might be able to do the occasional Friday evening slot, for what it's worth

I'm trying to get back in touch with the person a LVVP. He's possibly away. I'll keep trying and see where I get to. Incidentally I met a group after the session on Wednesday and they have a £7 per person deal for their own slot. There were 5 of them, so I will see if that's still on offer.

I've been back in touch with LVVP and they can do the first 3 sessions on a pay per rider basis - £7 (which is the normal cost of using the studio). We can use that to gauge interest.

Perhaps we could do 3 weeks on pay per rider then 3 weeks at the fixed rate of £80. If we start in October when outdoor riding is becoming less fun, that'll take us to close to Christmas (there will be a couple of weeks where LVVP can't fit us in because of big events like the 6 day racing). We can then re-assess for the New Year what works.

Hi Neil, Sorry havnt followed this recently. How is progress going. Is there anything you need from the committee. Mark

Hi Neil, have you been in touch with Steve brown. bike. After reading his post he seems keen to help out with the training and could make a very useful contribution. As for booking a club session I presume it requires payment from one source only. In that case You can arrange for a cheque payment from Joe, and you pay him back after collecting monies from all parties. I can't see a problem with getting 10 people per session. Good luck. John El Pres;

Neil, John and I spoke about this last night.
Can we agree a start date , even if it's just a bunch of LVCC members agreeing to go on the same night. If we get enough of us we can move to hiring it for a session . The club can, up to a point, provide a financial back up. The week after the Hill Climb might be a good week for a start

Hi all, I would like to do this on a Tues, Wed or Thurs night. I tend to use the velo park on Thursday.
Mark

Hi Mark, Edward - The LVVP have moved their slots around so we can't do the Wednesday now. Monday is free for a club-only session but I think that's too close to club run and clashes with weekly meeting. Thursday looks like the best night - there is an open session at 7pm. It has Sufferfest structured training videos and a coach there. They have 27 slots each week so there'd be plenty of space. It's £10 (a little more than usual because there's a coach). I've spoken to Chrystyna because it clashes with Ladies that Lap - the girls are happy to join this over winter. I agree that November is a good starting point - I'll put together a note/poster for the Facebook groups, forum, etc. If we get a good turnout I can then see if there's any wriggle room in their schedule to fit us in in the New Year.
Neil

Hi Neil, I am sure Thursday at 7pm will be a slot where we have some interest.
A few people use the road track on Thursdays.
Are we planning to start on 3/11 or 10/11.
Remember the hill climb on 6/11 so vam be good practise before or good follow on after.

Sounds right, thank you Neil for organising this.

So we go with Thursday night. When do you want to start; after the Hill Climb?

Yes, let's start 10 November. I'll do something for the facebook/forum.

Right ho!