Training but not for racing

[starthms]

Hi all,

I am looking to put some structure into my riding to improve fitness/endurance. I just don't really know how to do, all the training plans i have seen all seem to be about pecking at race day. Not looking for that just want to rise levels of fitness/endurance.

Infor on me
current Level (last little ride) 28k elevation gain 329 avg speed 22km.
age 31
weight 89 kg
riding 2 years.
Got a good sprint on me but cant hold it for long say 200m

So I am really look to be able to output higher tempo for longer ( not sprinting).

Any idea on what sort of training to do (hill work, intervals, long slow rides) and how many a week how long that sort of thing.

Any help be very thankful for.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

My two bob's worth. If your just looking to increase your ave. speed over longer distances then:

Longer intervals incorporated into your rides - mix up 10, 15 and 20 min periods when you push yourself a little harder. Rest as much as you feel you need between each interval. Probably no more than 30 mins of harder effort to begin with until you feel stronger. Over a period of time you can 'join up' these efforts so you're riding at a higher pace for a greater % of your ride.

Don't chicken out by choosing flatter more downhill sections for your intervals or by conveniently finding you have a tail-wind on every occasion - it's really about how hard you're working, and not your speed.

If you have the opportunity, ride in faster groups who will 'pull' you along and get the body/legs more used to riding at a greater speed without having to necessarily work any harder yourself!

If your local club has a fast group, explain what you're hoping to achieve and ask if it's ok for you to hang on the back for as long as you can before dropping off - but make sure you know the way home if you do this!!

 

[Rob3rt]

How regularly do you ride?

I am pretty sure the answer to your question is going to be "ride more regularly and ride for longer when you do ride", but I'll wait until you give more info before I commit to that!

 

[starthms]

3 days commute but it is only 6k to work mostly uphill tho lol. then an average 50k to 70k Sunday ride.
Joshua sounds good i have a 3 hills i could interval up on me sundays take 5 to 10 mins to climb each one, there nice flat between them to rest. love to join a club but they a bit hardcore around me.

 

[Rob3rt]

Quite frankly, given your current level, intervals are not what you need, you need time on the bike!

Intervals of course work, but the main influence on your performance will be the total load, your total load is low. You can increase this total load 2 ways, increase duration or increase intensity. Both methods are valid, however, adding intensity is best done when you have 1st established a solid level of fitness by 1st increasing duration!

Unless you are very tall you could probably drop a few kg too, which would be an added benefit of increasing your duration on the bike!

 

[midlife]

As we used to say in the 70's ................. more miles in the legs
Shaun

 

[arch684]

As we used to say in the 70's ................. more miles in the legs
Shaun

An old guy told me once if you want to go fast go far first,that was about 1975 if i remember correctly

 

[starthms]

Lol not tall diff lose some more weight started on the bike at 100kg. thinking of added more to the commute, just don't like getting up earlier lol. think getting a
Cadence cpu help ?

 

[KneesUp]

Lol not tall diff lose some more weight started on the bike at 100kg. thinking of added more to the commute, just don't like getting up earlier lol. think getting a
Cadence cpu help ?

I guess where you live is hilly, as it is here. One idea I've had but not done yet is to plot a few extra routes home - the ideas I've had are:

'Normal' i.e. straight home
'Long' i.e. a big loop
'Hilly' in my case this would be either a medium length route to get to some longer hills (there are lots around here, but they're short) or a route designed to stitch together as many short hills as I can.

And make sure I do at least one of each per week. I'm a big fan of leaving the hard riding to on they way home - you don't have to get up earlier, and if you're less likely to hold back. I couldn't do it as a parent, but as a student I used to ride home from my summer job with the idea that I'd use every scrap of energy possible. If I did it right I used to have to lean on the house still clipped in for a few minutes until I could get off the bike. You can't ride like that and then do a days work

 

[starthms]

Sound like a good plan tho i do have a little one so don't think i can do very long ones after work.

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

thinking of added more to the commute, just don't like getting up earlier lol.

Now don't take this as harsh but you need to get out of this 'I don't like it' malarkey. If you want to improve you've gotta do what you've gotta do. What time do you start work in a morning?

I wouldn't worry about a cadence sensor yet, you've got to put some miles in those legs.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

As we used to say in the 70's ................. more miles in the legs
Shaun

Hmmmm.......I suppose so, but all this stuff seems a little counter- intuitive to me.

A couple of people have told me in the past, that to be able to ride faster sometimes you have to ride more slowly. I've always nodded sagely in agreement but, a part of me was thinking (in the voice of Mr T): "what the hell you sayin' you crazy fool?!"

 

[vickster]

Lol not tall diff lose some more weight started on the bike at 100kg. thinking of added more to the commute, just don't like getting up earlier lol. think getting a
Cadence cpu help ?

I don't believe gadgets will help you ride faster or further (well maybe further if you have mapping as you are less likely to get lost once away from your home turf)!

Cycle more, get up earlier if you really want to benefit

 

[gam001]

http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/am-i-training-right.128907/#post-2424541

 

[Bollo]

An old guy told me once if you want to go fast go far first,that was about 1975 if i remember correctly

And if you want to go far, go fast ;-)
There's a school of thought that says shorter periods of high intensity efforts give a better bang per buck than longer, lower intensity efforts - you might have heard the phrase 'junk miles'. Probably the easiest-to-find detailed description of the high intensity approach is this....

http://www.velopress.com/books/the-time-crunched-cyclist-2nd-ed/

For balance, I own a copy and while I can accept the core of the book's argument, there's an awful lot of upselling and hype in there. It might also be worth checking out the trainingpeaks website

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/

which has plenty of interesting stuff in the blog and articles as long as you're aware it's still trying to sell you stuff as well.

The thing I found most useful from reading around was the idea of applying a structure and a goal to a ride. I use turbos/rollers a lot where it's quite easy to contol how you ride. On a real ride, I'll pick hills to attack and specific stretches of road to recover, rather than just huffing around the loop as best I can. Without any objective measure, you'll have to decide for yourself what efforts equate to 'attack' and 'recover'.

If you want to get into gadgets, the gold standard is either a power meter or a trainer that measures power. Neither are cheap. It's possible to estimate power from speed on a turbo, but power estimates on a real ride a la Stava are not great. With power measurements you'll be able to estimate your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). It ain't a passport to a TdF stage win, but your FTP (or your FTP per kg) is a good way of picking up any improvements or drops in your cycling ability.

The conventional wisdom is that heart rate measurements aren't nearly as reliable a measure of 'fitness' as power, although personally my HR correlates with power quite well after the initial lag. BUT, unless you're going to understand and use the numbers properly, you might as ŵell not bother, save your cash and just go by 'feel'.

If they invent a gadget that stops you eating cake and drinking, that's the gadget to buy.