Originally Posted by
Bdd2043
So I'm getting a lot more comfortable on the bike, wth the new pedals and all. So now my question becomes length.. Always seems to come to that doesnt it..
So I am now riding about 15 miles, averaging 13mph or so.. I can push it and hammer to about 16 for short periods.. but that means I bonk and shorter rides. I'd like to ride longer, but not so sure I want to cruise at 10mph.
General consensus is that you should have some 'base miles' which are 'long steady distance' before trying harder intensities; where 'some' might be 500.
Short and hard will increase your speed more faster.
Intervals like 10 minutes as hard as you can go, 5 minutes at half intensity, repeat will be psychologically easier than trying to rack up the same training stress in 40 straight minutes of hard riding.
Without enough fitness you won't be able to do that two days in a row or even more than once a week. Fill your remaining time with nice recovery/endurance pace rides on the other days.
Don't try to do too many hard rides in too short a time period - you won't be able to go as hard as you need to make a significant difference, will stay slow, and be tired too.
I think I will enjoy the longer rides more, so might be more likely to do that, but from a benefit perspective, what do you think?
You need to ride hard to build a powerful aerobic system and legs. That makes you faster, lets you burn more calories in less time, boosts your resting metabolic rate for longer than low intensity exercise, and lowers your blood pressure to where it's "normal for athletes and children."
Chronic training load/long term stress from short hard rides can also give you the fitness to do longer rides at relatively lower intensities. I wouldn't recommend this but I did my first century when my usual ride was 20-25 miles at lunch with a fast group probably without riding more than 50-60 miles in a day and felt great (but took 5:45 to finish versus under five hours for one of the guys doing more longer rides). Followed that up with Ride the Rockies Grand Junction to Golden covering about 420 miles with 30,000 feet of climbing over a week. Felt great then too and I was fast enough to have a hot shower plus my pick of camping spots.
Significantly lower intensities (in terms of power) aren't necessarily that much slower - if on flat ground I'm cruising at 22-23 MPH at full one hour power half power is still 17 MPH although the difference becomes more significant and linear with grades - I'd drop from 13 mph 7.5 mph headed up a 3% hill.
Reading some of the available literature on training for cyclists would be a good idea - even if you don't adapt one of their formal training plans the principles are definitely applicable.