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Old 01-02-11, 11:00 AM
  #18  
milmo
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: MA
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Allegheny, AZ thanks for the replies. As a newbie I'm trying to figure out a cycling plan to get me in shape first for some late April through early June races, then again for a Columbus Day race. There'll be one or two in between but those wouldn't be "A" races.

Allegheny, I'm in awe at your college running accomplishments. I started running at 30 and continued through my mid 40s. I eventually figured out a yearly progression that worked for me, but it was sort of the opposite of what most people who write on cycling, like Joe Friel, recommend. I focused on short races first, doing just enough distance to handle the fast tempo runs and intervals necessary to train for 1 to 5 mile races, then around July I started to stretch that speed out for half marathons and a marathon. Even though it's now been a while since I was a runner it's hard for me to the "get fast then get long" template out of my mind when I think about the bike. It just seems natural to do a couple hard workouts a week even though it's only early winter.

I'm indoors almost exclusively since I'm in Massachussets. In general I'm doing one longish z5a session, at LT HR for 50 to 60 minutes straight; one interval set that at points gets to z5b (in the Joe Friel/Gale Bernhardt nomenclature); and one longish z3 workout, now at about 2 to 2.5 hours each week. The other days are z1/z2 recovery at an hour or less. I do a couple weeks like that then take an easier week with maybe one hard session, maybe none, then start the three week cycle again. Each cycle the z3 day gets a little longer as do some of the z1/z2 days and I try to get the over the ground speed of the long z5a day up just a bit while keeping HR at LT, but that doesn't always work.

If I understand your lactate tempo effort you're going 12 minutes straight, no interval, building to 60 seconds at 120rpm. Yeah, I can see that's a bit intense in least few minutes. That's the kind of "base building" that makes sense to me.

Thanks again to both of you, and if our zone designations aren't in sync please let me know.
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