Training progression

[zoxed]

Now that spring is in the air, and my knee has recovered from my first attempt at jogging this last winter, I have a question about training progression.
I often read that to allow the body time to adapt, and to reduce the risk of injury, I should only increase my training at the most 5 to 10% per week. But from what base ? Over the winter I have just been doing my 7.5 mile daily commute although yesterday I want for a 16 mile spin without any problems but even starting from the later base at 10% it will take me months to get to my target 100 miles.
Does anyone have any thoughts (or even research based facts (!!)) about where to start from before limiting myself to 5-10% ?

 

[ColinJ]

Now that spring is in the air, and my knee has recovered from my first attempt at jogging this last winter, I have a question about training progression.
I often read that to allow the body time to adapt, and to reduce the risk of injury, I should only increase my training at the most 5 to 10% per week. But from what base ? Over the winter I have just been doing my 7.5 mile daily commute although yesterday I want for a 16 mile spin without any problems but even starting from the later base at 10% it will take me months to get to my target 100 miles.
Does anyone have any thoughts (or even research based facts (!!)) about where to start from before limiting myself to 5-10% ?

Well, the base obviously has to be something greater than 16 miles since that wasn't a problem!

I think it should be somewhere between what 16 miles and your longest comfortable ride ever!

I know that sounds a bit vague, but I'll give you a concrete example ...

My longest ride ever was 141 miles, but I had a long lay off over the winter of about 10 weeks. Clearly, it would be stupid for me to jump back on my bike and try and do 141 miles my first time back on the bike . There again, I have been riding as an adult for 22 years so I know what I am doing. I didn't consider it necessary to start off with a 10 mile ride. In fact, I met up with a few other CC members and did a moderately lumpy 57 miles. That left me feeling tired but not injured or feeling that I'd overdone it.

You felt okay doing 16 miles, so why not try something like 25 miles? If that is okay, try 35 miles. When you find out what your current limit is, start your build up from there.

 

[darkstar]

I've never agreed with the 10% rule myself, it's too strict. if you put the work in, you can work that base milage from the commute up to 100 miles far quicker than you think. You rode 16 miles with ease yesterday, which tells me you're more than capable of riding 30 miles. After the 30 mile ride, if you only increase by 10%, it means next weeks long ride will be 3 miles more than the last. That doesn't make any sense to me. I'd go for 40 miles the week after and continue how to increase at the pace you feel comfortable, not a rule tells you to. Take care of your legs and stretch before and after rides and keep the hydration levels up.

Pushing yourself is a good thing, a bit of pain just shows you're not working hard enough, if you get in from a ride feeling like you could go and do it again, it's not long/fast enough. But thats just how I look at cycling, I don't do it for the views, nor do I run or swim to get in the elements, I do it to work hard.

Get out on the bike and go for it

 

[ColinJ]

I've never agreed with the 10% rule myself, it's too strict. if you put the work in, you can work that base milage from the commute up to 100 miles far quicker than you think.

I always felt that a 10% mileage increase per week was a bit unambitious too! I reckon whoever made that rule up was trying to make sure that they couldn't be sued by the one person in 1,000 who might feel poorly if they pushed too hard.

The first ride I did as an adult was after a 20 year lay off from cycling. I needed to work late in Burnley and was going to miss my lift home so a colleague let me borrow his bike. It was a 15 mile ride with a couple of significant hills on the way. The bike was too small for me and the saddle came loose after 10 miles so I rode the last 5 miles standing up. It didn't kill me! The 'rules' would probably have suggested building up to that ride over a month or so but I didn't know about such rules. I just got on with doing the ride.

 

[Garz]

Quite right too. I think I went up around stages of 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 50,100. After completing the first event which was 100 I maintained longer rides of between 50 and 75 when I had the opportunity. Colin is quite right though and I wouldnt attempt a big ride unless I had a few weeks to build up for it first.

Pace also makes a huge difference. If you pootled along and took all day you could probably cover long distances with ease, it's when you go for quick times or race against the clock that energy tails off fast past a certain distance.

 

[zoxed]

Thanks for the replies: just to clarify I am more worried about injury from my dodgy knees than being knackered after a long ride ! (bad knees can lay you off for a long time, being knackered is just a couple of days !).
ColinJ suggested: "somewhere between what 16 miles and your longest comfortable ride ever!": my longest ride last summer was 66.5 miles (metric-century) at 15.2 mph and I was not particularly tired at the end, but that was after a build up of several months. My 16 miles on Sunday was easy but is was at well below my target pace (100miles@15mph) so do I either raise the speed or the distance first ? Either way 16 miles felt to short (it was just a test ride for my knees really), so I am doing my 2 mid-week rides (15 miles each) this week, and then Sunday I will try my next longer "standard" ride, which is 24 miles.
Garz: I agree about the pace: I could probably go out tomorrow and do my century, but it would be a long day, well below my target pace !

 

[Garz]

so do I either raise the speed or the distance first ?

Distance every time.

 

[Norry1]

Dont forget that it can be the total mileage that gets your knees rather than just the length of your long ride. I know my knees grumble if my weekly mileage OR intensity suddenly spike up.

Martin

 

[ColinJ]

Three things to watch out for to avoid getting/aggravating dodgy knees:

1. If you use clipless pedals - make absolutely sure that you align your cleats properly. I got mine wrong once on a new pair of shoes and that caused a knee problem in less than 20 miles. (Make sure that you have equal amounts of float either side of your neutral foot postion.)
2. Having your saddle too low hurt can hurt your knees.
3. Pushing too high a gear can mash your knees too.

 

[Seamab]

The 10% "rule" is just simply a cautionary to make you think about what you are doing with your training overall and obviously to be taken with a pinch of salt. However, you clearly need to be careful with your knees. So a highish cadence and low enough gears to keep from mashing on the hills may be advisable as well as looking at pedals with lots of float.

Trying to make your adaptations by ramping up the overall stress by relatively small amounts over a long period of time and avoiding huge spikes will help to avoid injury or illness. If your current regime is not stressing you at the moment then you need to work up faster to the point where it becomes challenging and then take it gradually from there.

It's difficult to quantify the stress of a ride from the miles covered. A hilly 25 miler is a lot harder than a flat one. So, in some ways time in the saddle is a better comparison than distance.

If you tried to up the pace on one of the midweek rides it should help over time to up the long distance pace.