How do you balance high and low intensity rides?

[borchgrevink]

I both run and ride (and the occasional rowing session) as part of my weekly workout, 2 runs and 2 rides. I try to balance running with one high intensity interval run and one longer low intensity run. When riding the Bkool I usually do one longer low intensity ride but the high intensity ride is usually a steep mountain climb from 30 to 60 minutes "flat out".

What I am asking is if I also should variate the rides with more standard 4x4 intervals or other types of intervals for the high intensity sessions? Any thoughts on this issue?

Goal: Be able to climb faster...

 

[Racing roadkill]

I both run and ride (and the occasional rowing session) as part of my weekly workout, 2 runs and 2 rides. I try to balance running with one high intensity interval run and one longer low intensity run. When riding the Bkool I usually do one longer low intensity ride but the high intensity ride is usually a steep mountain climb from 30 to 60 minutes "flat out".

What I am asking is if I also should variate the rides with more standard 4x4 intervals or other types of intervals for the high intensity sessions? Any thoughts on this issue?

Goal: Be able to climb faster...

The only way to get quicker on your climbs, is to ride quicker on your climbs. If you find climbs with bigger gradients, and then attack them until you get Haribo legs, that is a good way to get quicker on the lesser gradients.

 

[borchgrevink]

Thanks, but isn't the standard answer that some sort of balance between high and low intensity is preferable?

 

[Racing roadkill]

Thanks, but isn't the standard answer that some sort of balance between high and low intensity is preferably?

Not really, hill climbing is all about power to weight, combined with oxygen efficiency. So if you train somewhere other than on a bike, on a climb, you may increase you're aerobic fitness, but you won't increase your strength / power ability in unison. You can do serious leg work outs, which will increase your power ability, but may not increase your aerobic fitness in unison. Unfortunately it's just better all round, to get the physical improvement you need, by going up steeper climbs quicker. Either that or junk a load of weight, but then you risk losing strength, which is counter productive. Lightening the bike is not going to reap big rewards, unless you're going from a big heavy lumbering thing, to a paperweight light bike ( ie big difference ).

 

[Kajjal]

On road hill climbing is fitness, weight, bike maintenance and technique. The second two tend to catch people out. For the bike poor maintenance from under pressure tyres, poor drive chain, wrong cassette for your needs, poor bike fit etc. will make a difference.

For technique find a good hill, practice on it and use Strava. Strava will show where other riders out pace you. An example of this is on a section of a hill near me other similar riders went faster than me. After experimenting i worked out standing on that section in one gear faster knocked 10 seconds off my time. Just try experimenting.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Not really, hill climbing is all about power to weight, combined with oxygen efficiency. So if you train somewhere other than on a bike, on a climb, you may increase you're aerobic fitness, but you won't increase your strength / power ability in unison. You can do serious leg work outs, which will increase your power ability, but may not increase your aerobic fitness in unison. Unfortunately it's just better all round, to get the physical improvement you need, by going up steeper climbs quicker. Either that or junk a load of weight, but then you risk losing strength, which is counter productive. Lightening the bike is not going to reap big rewards, unless you're going from a big heavy lumbering thing, to a paperweight light bike ( ie big difference ).

A man of your claimed experience should know that strength and heavy weight leg stuff have no relation to endurance cycling.

Thanks, but isn't the standard answer that some sort of balance between high and low intensity is preferable?

Which is roughly what you have. Where in the week are your runs and what are they made up of. Sore legs from a run on Monday wouldn't particularly help during a bkool hill session on a Tuesday. IMO, the balance to find is the one between two different sports, you may well come to dropping a run.

If you have weight to lose then I would drop the low intensity ride for another hard 30-60

 

[Racing roadkill]

A man of your claimed experience should know that strength and heavy weight leg stuff have no relation to endurance cycling.

There's no "claimed" about it. I log all of my endurance rides meticulously, hell, I even go as far as to post them on cycling forums some time. This chap (borchgrevnik) was talking specifically about getting quicker at hills, not general endurance riding. Hill riding, as Kajjal, and my good self, have mentioned, is a mix of power to weight, bike / equipment suitability, and mental fortitude. You can do a mix of separate routines, one focusing on CV, and a separate one focusing on strength / physical power, ( or a separated low intensity / high intensity) regime, until the cows come home, until you do both in unison, with the correctly tailored and maintained kit ( ie increasingly up-paced / up gradient hill reps) you are not going to progress as efficiently.

 

[Citius]

This chap (borchgrevnik) was talking specifically about getting quicker at hills, not general endurance riding

Unless the hill is a five second sprint, it will be an endurance effort, so all the principles of endurance riding will still apply. Maybe you should restrict yourself to subjects you know about - which won't be many on here, to be honest.

 

[Citius]

Goal: Be able to climb faster...

Answer: Increasing your sustainable power. Riding up hills, or riding fast on the flat is all about managing your sustainable aerobic effort. Forget all the nonsense about strength. The best training for cycling is (unsurprisingly) on a bike.

In terms of how you balance your low/high intensity stuff - I know you said your goal is to ride up hills quicker - in which case, ditch the running and focus on bike time.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Unless the hill is a five second sprint, it will be an endurance effort, so all the principles of endurance riding will still apply. Maybe you should restrict yourself to subjects you know about - which won't be many on here, to be honest.

Thanks, saved me painful mobile typing

 

[borchgrevink]

A man of your claimed experience should know that strength and heavy weight leg stuff have no relation to endurance cycling.



Which is roughly what you have. Where in the week are your runs and what are they made up of. Sore legs from a run on Monday wouldn't particularly help during a bkool hill session on a Tuesday. IMO, the balance to find is the one between two different sports, you may well come to dropping a run.

If you have weight to lose then I would drop the low intensity ride for another hard 30-60

Thanks for input.

I usually do a high intensity run on mondays, high intensity ride on wednesday, low intensity ride or run on saturday and low intensity rowing on sunday. I need to have a little variation to keep injuries away and motivation up.

So the "conclusion" is: Just ride what you intend to get better in?

In running and cross country skiing, the regime seems to be that you do most of the endurance training in low intensity heart rate zones, but maybe this doesn´t relate to cycling?

 

[borchgrevink]

A man of your claimed experience should know that strength and heavy weight leg stuff have no relation to endurance cycling.



Which is roughly what you have. Where in the week are your runs and what are they made up of. Sore legs from a run on Monday wouldn't particularly help during a bkool hill session on a Tuesday. IMO, the balance to find is the one between two different sports, you may well come to dropping a run.

If you have weight to lose then I would drop the low intensity ride for another hard 30-60

30-60 is? Minutes? Seconds interval?

 

[Racing roadkill]

Thanks for input.

I usually do a high intensity run on mondays, high intensity ride on wednesday, low intensity ride or run on saturday and low intensity rowing on sunday. I need to have a little variation to keep injuries away and motivation up.

So the "conclusion" is: Just ride what you intend to get better in?

In running and cross country skiing, the regime seems to be that you do most of the endurance training in low intensity heart rate zones, but maybe this doesn´t relate to cycling?

Yes, that's the ticket

 

[Citius]

So the "conclusion" is: Just ride what you intend to get better in?

In simple terms, yes. ALthough that doesn't necessarily mean riding hills to get better at riding hills. In means training at the level you intend to ride at.

In running and cross country skiing, the regime seems to be that you do most of the endurance training in low intensity heart rate zones, but maybe this doesn´t relate to cycling?

Endurance training is anything that is not anaerobic in nature. In other words, pretty much everything short of 95-100% efforts can be deemed as 'endurance' because they are fundamentally aerobic. As before, train at the efforts (or slightly above/below) you want to ride at.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

30-60 is? Minutes? Seconds interval?

Minutes. If all you're doing is two rides per week, one of those being low intensity isn't best use of the time.