bdbike16

First off, I know there are about a million "help me get ready for my first race" threads, and I've read most of them. I've read the new to racing sticky and searched any additional questions.

That being said, my first race season starts in 7 weeks. I'll be racing collegiate (Prob D considering I haven't raced before). My season will consist of 5 30-50 mile road races, 3-4 TTs (between 5 and 10 miles) and maybe a few Crits (probably about an hour). Considering that I just started biking at the end of last spring, I clearly haven't put in enough time in the saddle to be super competitive, But I want to do well in D and hopefully move up to C.

Everyone always seems to ask for more info, so here's probably more than necessary:
Over the summer I rode when I could (4-6 times a week) without really keeping track. I rode about 80 miles a week from September - December with about 1-2 group rides a week. I've been on the trainer (Fluid2) about 6 hours a week since December. I got a HRM about a month ago, along with Baker's "Smart Cycling". Since then, I've been reading (including stuff from cptips, fascatcoaching and BF) and getting used to riding in different zones (mostly 60 min rides at 70-80% maxHR or 30- 45 min rides with time between 80-90%). I actually tested to get my max HR, I didnt just do 200-age, etc.
According to this thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/181343-cycleops-watts-speed.html and a few others, my average Watts on the Fluid2 for about an hour at 65-75% of my MaxHR is about 235. I assume that Avg. would probably go up to about 250-265 if I ride for an hour at about 80-85% MaxHR. I hit about 750-800 watts for a little (10-20 seconds) yesterday. I know those numbers can't be 100% accurate, but it's a decent estimate. I weigh 70 kg. If it makes a difference, I XC skied competitively in High School.

I feel like I have accumulated enough information to come up with a more structured plan for the next 7 weeks leading up to the season. Again, I know that Ideally this plan would be more drawn out, but I wasn't ready to jump into a training program after only a few months of riding.

Here's what I have:

Week 1:
Four “long” rides @ 72-79% Max HR (1.5-3 hours)
2x20’ at 80-85% Max HR (SST…?) during a 2 hour ride
1 cadence/positioning/recovery ride

Week 2:
2x20’ at SST during 2 hour ride
Three “long” rides at 72-79% max HR
3x15’ at SST during 2 hour ride
Cadence/Recovery ride

Week 3:
Two long rides (2-3 hours) 75-80% Max HR
2x20’ at SST with 5 min rest between
3x30 at SST with 5-10 min rest between
40 min 85-92% Max HR
Recovery ride

Week 4:
One 2-3 hour ride 75-80% Max HR
3x30’ SST
2x 35’ SST
3x10’ @ 90-92% Max HR, 5-10 min between
1 hour in SST
Recovery

Week 5:
2x35’ SST
1 hour SST
3x15’ @ 90-92% Max HR, 10 min between
3x3’ @ 92-94% Max HR, 3 min between
5x20-30 sec. @ 92-100% Max HR,
Long zone 2 recovery ride

Week 6:
2x30’ SST
1 hour SST
4x10’ @ 90-92% Max HR, 5-10 min between
5x3’ @ 90-95% Max HR, Low Cadence(50-60) 5 min between
10x20-30 sec. @ 92-100% Max HR,
Long zone 2 recovery ride

Week 7
2 SST rides
5x3' @ 90-92%
Two easy 60-90 min rides


Hopefully that'll do it. Again, this is my first season racing, so I'm not expecting to go out and win a Cat 3, and I know that's not possible with the amount of training I've done. Feedback is definitely appreciated.

Edit: I won't be able to ride outside until after my first race - so I can't really do group rides or much hill work.

bdcheung

You're going to be burnt out before the race even starts. From the looks of it, you don't have enough rest in there - and rest/recovery is where your body builds strength.

aperez8264

You just got into the sport and started riding seriously. Those intervals are going to wreck you and you will burn out. Get on some local group rides and start riding w/ some seasoned masters and Cat3s. You will learn more there and get more fit with them than on your own.

I don't mean to be frank, but as a newbie you should be focused on learning basic race skills(i.e bumping, rubbing wheels, etc etc). Plus collegiate D is not as fast or hard as some group rides. So just get out and ride. BTW what conference will be you racing in? I'm in the ECCC...

bdbike16

I forgot to mention that with the weather here, I won't be able to ride outside until after the first race (maybe the week before if I'm lucky). So group rides, unfortunately, aren't an option. It will have to be trainer only and possibly some XC skiing if I get cabin fever.

Same.

bdbike16

Should I just keep doing what I have planned in weeks 2-3 for weeks 4-6, but with some lighter LT/AT stuff thrown in and less SST?

There must be some mix between 2-3 hour rides, SST and LT training that will help me over this time period.

bdcheung

Have you read the training bible? The concepts of Macro- Meso- and Micro-level training are critical to the formulation of an effective training plan. At each of those analytical perspectives, you need to build in rest.

On the Macro level, a rest week after 3-4 weeks (varies by individuals' tolerance to training stress) is important for both physiological and psychological reasons.

At the meso level, you can't go hard every day of the week. Some days need to be easier than others, focusing on active recovery, stretching, etc.

And then at the micro level, you guessed it - more rest and recovery. These are built into the "rest" part of interval training and provide similar benefits as the "rest" periods at the Meso- and Macro-levels of training.

Training taxes your muscles and, at a cellular level, actually breaks them down. Rest and recovery allow those muscles to rebuild stronger. If you train without rest, you'll end up overtraining and be worse off than before you started.

DrWJODonnell

fewer "long" rides. You only need one per week. Also, racing involves speed changes and recovery. Microburst intervals in the last two tothree weeks will be your friend to get your body ready for that shock. Good luck.

wfrogge

Thats a pretty big increase of intensity each week IMHO. What kind of training history do you have... Just wondering if you have been doing 15 hour weeks all fall/winter.

bdbike16

The summer and fall weeks were no more than 6-10 hours.

Thanks. What should I do instead of the longer rides in the first few weeks, then? I felt like I needed to get in the longer rides because I didn't have time in the fall to ride for more than 1.5 hours at a time (I know that's bad).

grolby

Way more intensity than any new rider needs. I had a great first season, and my results only suffered after I started trying to add intervals and such instead of doing what I had been doing, which is Just Riding. I did a lot of one hour rides early in the winter, added longer rides into February and March, when the races started. Maybe 6-8 hours a week, mostly one hour rides outside or on the rollers until the season, at which point I went down to maybe 4-5 hours during the week between races - which may have been too much. I placed in the top 10 in all but one race in the D's, and once I moved up to C was consistently in the top 20, including a 6th place. So it works pretty well.

Duke of Kent

I start those in two weeks. F*** my life.

Starting with 2x10min of 400/250 (fading towards the end, like a Nancy), building to 3x15min, strong like bull.

bdbike16

Were you doing any heart rate work?

aperez8264

ECCC is a fun conference everyone is pretty chill and loved riding in general

since you can't ride outside, then do some(focus on some) intensity. Get the Friels book and do some of those workouts. For your first season, especially now focus on staying fit. Racing is very different, the constant speed changes are what you need to prepare for.

cat4ever

How does one do "SST" via heart rate only?

If you're doing races of less than 50 miles, I say ditch any ride over 2.5 hours or longer.

dmotoguy

I wouldnt ditch them, a good 3-4 hour ride once a week will never hurt..

bdcheung

It's not helping much at this point, though. Long rides at lower intensity are good for base building, if you have the time to ride high volume. Seems that the OP is shooting for lower volume and higher intensity, though.

bdcheung

Also,

+1 to this. Sweet Spot Training, as I know it, is based entirely around power. Heart rate is not a good barometer for being in your "sweet spot" for a number of reasons, cardiac drift being one of them. You'll start off too hard and finish too easy.

bdbike16

I guess I should have just said "High level aerobic training" @ 80-85% maxHR.

dmotoguy

you can adjust for that... if I'm on my tt bike (still no powertap on it) instead of aiming for
~165bpm, I will start around 150ish and then if it drifts to around 170-175 near the end I let it..

dmotoguy

If he has the time it would be beneficial to ride that long, i didnt see any time constraints in his original post.

grolby

I wish; I used perceived exertion as my guide all last season. I'll be using the HRM this year. In my experience (it might not be safe to generalize, here), PE was an excellent tool for doing endurance and tempo-pace riding, but pretty questionable when attempting intervals. This is almost certainly due to my being new to cycling as an athletic discipline, and not having done any serious athletics since high school, when I dabbled in track and field. If you've done a lot of running or something in the past, this might be a non-issue. I suspect that if I had had an HRM at the time, though, I would have seen that I spent a lot of time in zones 2 and 3.

kensuf

You can be pretty good on 8-10 hours a week in the saddle. Maybe less. It's about what you do with that time.

As others have said, focus less on the longer rides and add some shorter intervals.

Yep

You're doing all that riding on a trainer? Good lord. How do you people do that?

I wouldn't ride more than 8 hours a week including level 1 workouts. Get Friel's bible. There are worse ways to plan out your season's workouts.

bdbike16

That's referring to these, right:
https://www.bikeforums.net/33-road-bike-racing/475168-15-15-a.html

should I do 15/15 for 5 min, recover for 5 then do it again? How many times a week?

bdbike16

I guess I'm just concerned with my lack of long aerobic work - I didn't have many rides over 30 miles in the fall.