Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - "One thing" you are changing about your training this year?

Welcome to the pre-Spring "shoot the bull" LDX training discussion thread. Today's topic is about specific aspects of your bicycle training you are changing from last year's efforts. Sort of a "what am I doing different" in my training this year thread. I'll go first, so you have an example.

Every year I run a marathon in the Spring. Last year, I piled on nearly a 1000 miles of riding in April right after the marathon and sort of "plateaued." So this year, instead of going out and knocking my self out, trying to bring up my cycling ability quickly, I'm going to make a focused effort to spend a larger part of my riding time obeying a Zone2, or Zone3 effort limit. Last year, some of my fastest riding took place in April and May. Not this year, I'm going to put miles in the bank and save my hardest riding for July/August.

How will you change your training from last year? Or what will you add, to get better this year?

This year I added:
1. periodization
2. indoor rowing and swimming

January: I am concentrating on base building
February: Increase VO2 (1 week off)
March: Increase Speed
April: Increase Distance (1 week off)
May: Start taper in 2nd week
June: Ride Elite Pac Tour in June

Last year, I just rode as I did not have specific goals.

Base through March. For LD efforts this will be Zone 3 limited. For recovery rides, Zone 2 limited. (edit: this is pretty tough, seems I creep into 3 just turning the pedals!)

More intervals and harder shorter efforts.
These will begin once a week in Mid March, and increase to 2 a week throughout the spring and summer.

To accomodate this I'll be breaking my "I've got to ride long" all the time habits.

When the weather improves weekends will be for events and long rides.
Weekdays will be for short, hard efforts. Intervals and climbing. 1 to 1-1/2 hours max, with recovery in between.

I have a short but steep hill I used last season for climbing repeats and it worked great - a 4 mile ride to the hill - repeats in various Zones, then a 4 mile cooldown home.



I saw large gains from interval work after the brevet season last year, and made it a priority to add more this year. Climbing started to improve, endurance improved, and tempo pace improved. A highlight was a century I paced a friend through in WNY - I did many of the long climbs at least half again - as I would ride my own pace and circle back to see how he was doing - then I got in the car and drove 6 hours back home - and never felt fresher!


I too am targetting late July / August as peak riding time, with 1 event into September where a friendly rivalry will keep me on my toes. I'll slip back into a transition period mid September, then hopefully build a larger base next year from October on through to the spring.

I have a short but steep hill I used last season for climbing repeats and it worked great -Yeah, I need one of those "hills" close to home. I have to leave my home area to get the kind of hills that would do me the most good.

I'll probably have more miles in January and February for a number of reasons: I've had a rash of illnesses in Dec / early Jan so I don't expect to get sick in Feb this year, no travel, want to ride some early-season brevets. The other change is that I have an indoor trainer this year.

Edit: one more reason for better mileage is that I have a new job where the RT commute is nearly 30 miles. That's 120-150 miles per week (4-5 commutes) just for going to and from work. Wo0t!

Not a specific plan but I want to try to maximize the rides I get in.


Most of my riding these days is with my wife on a tandem. Those rides will be base builders. I have to be careful not to over spin her legs so the cadence will be slower than I prefer.

When I get a chance to ride my single, I will concentrate on spinning faster and try to do some intervals.

Weekly intervals and being more consistant. I lost a lot of bike time worrying about business matters. Not riding did not change the issues, butmade last season a bit of a wash. I also am spending a lot more time this winter pedaling on a trainer, and doing some long "cruise" intervals.

Oh well, thats more than one thing. so to sumarize to one thing, Ride harder and more often.

More consistency, more miles.

Two big changes:

(1) Shifting even more of my time on the bike into interval training and fast, AT/anerobic work. I anticipate having fewer miles in 2007 than in either 2005 or 2006, where I really focusd on building a big aeorbic base and gaining lots of LD riding experience.
(2) Solving both the proper level of exertion and nutrition problems for competitive rides longer than 12 hours. Related problems, I think, but I'm going to do everything I can in training to isolate and tweak the variables.

For added motivation, I got my second RAAM invitation in today's mail. :D I'd like to qualify again this year, this time by doing a 425-mile TT in 24 hours, which if I did it would have me qualified by all available methods (other than by riding RAAM itself). Qualifying by using the TT method (which I think is by far the most difficult route to RAAM-qualification, even on the flat Sebring course, let alone at Iowa or Texas) requires both of these adjustments to my training....

Welcome to the pre-Spring "shoot the bull" LDX training discussion thread. Today's topic is about specific aspects of your bicycle training you are changing from last year's efforts. Sort of a "what am I doing different" in my training this year thread. I'll go first, so you have an example.

Every year I run a marathon in the Spring. Last year, I piled on nearly a 1000 miles of riding in April right after the marathon and sort of "plateaued." So this year, instead of going out and knocking my self out, trying to bring up my cycling ability quickly, I'm going to make a focused effort to spend a larger part of my riding time obeying a Zone2, or Zone3 effort limit. Last year, some of my fastest riding took place in April and May. Not this year, I'm going to put miles in the bank and save my hardest riding for July/August.

How will you change your training from last year? Or what will you add, to get better this year?

Ride less, but average more miles. Last year i had 3,000+ miles but i had 302 bike rides. The insane bike riding schedule burned me out could of had 4,000.

Yeah, I'm throwing in some running and a bit of core training (including some yoga my wife taught me...)

I'm going to be working hard on core training, and ride a bit lower in the cadence range. Higher cadence means I can ride long distance, but I think I spent too much time "saving my legs" on training rides rather than making them stronger.

I'm going for 2 short rides during the week and 1 long one on the weekend tailored to mimic the next course. One weekday ride is allowed to be casual and just time on the bike, while the other is a hard TT on a very hilly course with 2 long grades. Sometimes the casual ride turns into another TT depending on who turns up.

I'm adding in some core training and trying to focus on doing some intervals with heavy exertion (zone 3 minimum) for longer times to build aerobic stamina. Tailored intervals on the spin trainer get thrown in sometimes too.

I ride to work every day but that is only 2 miles one way. I race the busses to make it more interesting and get some sprint work in too. My times are improving so I'm going to keep doing the same for now. Its nice not being dropped off the back of the bunch rides anymore.

Regards,
Andy

After a great deal of debate with myself, I came to a decision. I've decided to quit cycling.








Hehehehehehe ... :lol:

No ... I'm kidding!! :lol: :lol:



But I really have had a serious debate with myself about cycling. And I really have been debating about quitting cycling all together. After racking up nearly 10,000 miles in 2004, under some pretty stressful, completely life-changing circumstances, I've been struggling with cycling for the past two years. Specifically, I've been struggling with my motivation to cycle. I've been cycling, but I haven't had the desire to do it.

So, since the UMCA 24-hour back in early September, I've pretty much been off my bicycle. I've done some riding ... a few shorter rides and centuries each month ... but that's it. And the break has been GREAT!! I've been doing some walking and swimming instead. I put on a little bit of weight shortly after the UMCA 24-hour, but I've lost most of it over the last couple months.

The PBP is this coming August, and for the past 4 years I had been planning to go, but from about the middle of November until quite recently, I had changed my mind and decided not to go ... I was still planning to go to France, but I wasn't planning to do the PBP. I thought that perhaps 2007 would be a rest year for me.


However, over the past few weeks, I've gradually come to a decision. I am not going to quit cycling, and I am going to ride the PBP, but the biggest change I want to make is to add the FUN back into cycling!! Instead of feeling like I have to ride, I will ride when I want to ride. :)

Therefore, I will not be doing the Century-A-Month challenge this year. I thought about that one a lot, and decided it would be in my best interest to skip it this year. Riding centuries in the winter takes a lot out of me ... it is a lot of work, and it is rarely what I would call "fun" (challenging and adventurous, perhaps, but not fun). When I've been locked into doing one century each month, too often I have ended up doing centuries in bad conditions ... and have ended up with all sorts of aches and pains etc. etc. Also, my life situation, starting this coming September, will change dramatically again, and I'm not even sure if I will have an accessable bicycle most of the time. So the century-a-month thing is out this year.

However, I still plan to do lots of centuries and other long rides ... but they'll have a purpose. I might ride some just to practice riding long distances. Others will contain lots of hills so I can train on hills. I might aim to do some within certain time limits so I can work on my speed over long distances. And some will be for fun ... exploratory rides to check out areas I haven't ridden before.

I also plan to ride a Super Randonneur series (I need that to qualify for the PBP) but it will most likely be done on routes I design ... routes that suit me (with a variety of terrain, of course). I may also travel to BC to do a series there, and if I do, that will be fun because it will still be winter here in Alberta, but should be warm and lovely over there in BC. :) And any other brevets I do will be strictly for fun.

I plan to ride the PBP ... but I want to ride it in a way that I can take in the culture, the people, and the sights. And if all goes well, I'll also tour Europe for a month or so ... all for fun!! :)

I will train for all of this, if I can figure out a way to train that is fun. Someone said something recently in a different forum that was kind of a revelation to me .......... I had made the comment that I hated inflexible training schedules that locked cyclists into doing certain things on certain days (for example, rest days are always Thursdays, interval days are always Tuesdays, etc. etc.), but that was the only way I knew how to "officially" train. That's how I was taught to train when I was in bodybuilding (and it worked for me there), and that's how I was taught to train when I had a cycling coach (not that he was a good cycling coach). The person made the comment that I didn't need to lock myself into a specific schedule like that, and that it was actually a good thing to mix it up a bit. Hmmm ... something to think about.

I just want to relax and enjoy cycling, and especially my long distance cycling, this year! :) :)

But I really have had a serious debate with myself about cycling.Cycling in Canada has got to be a tough go. You say, you dislike the idea of "training", yet you've never given any indication you've ever seriously approached cycling in anything but a hap-hazard manner.

Anyway, I hope you have plenty of "fun-riding" this year. Maybe your "new" perspective toward riding will result in an all-around improvement your health. It will be interesting to see how your "background" fitness will serve your ability to complete the SR and PBP related events.

Maybe, I'll try your idea next year, but usually just taking November and December off is enough to "regenerate." If I find myself needing to skip an entire season, I'll start looking for a hole in the ground.

You say, you dislike the idea of "training", yet you've never given any indication you've ever seriously approached cycling in anything but a hap-hazard manner.



http://www.machka.net/

If you click on her website, i think you'll discover that she might have approached cycling in more than a haphazard manner. :rolleyes: I'm not sure what you point is, but when i think of this person, i don't think of them approaching cycling in a "haphazard" manner.

Cycling in Canada has got to be a tough go. You say, you dislike the idea of "training", yet you've never given any indication you've ever seriously approached cycling in anything but a hap-hazard manner.

I don't believe I've ever given any real, in-depth, indication about how I train on any of the forums on which I post. I know I haven't written in any detail at all about the structured training I've done ... but I have done a fair amount of that every year, usually from January to April, when I'm on my trainer. The main reason for my silence on the subject of my personal structure training is that I find structured training so utterly boring that I figure to write about it would put everyone to sleep. :lol:



Anyway, I hope you have plenty of "fun-riding" this year. Maybe your "new" perspective toward riding will result in an all-around improvement your health. It will be interesting to see how your "background" fitness will serve your ability to complete the SR and PBP related events.


I'm thinking that if I approach my cycling from a fun perspective, both my health and fitness might improve as a result of a different attitude. :)

Light weight freeweights for upper body toning without bulking up. Some running as well, as I plan on doing my first triathlon in June as well as swimming. I've gotten my body weight to a point where I can do it without trashing my knees (the running).

I'm using a HR monitor for the first time and I must say it's a lot more convenient than having my wife take my pulse periodically during my workouts!:D

After a great deal of debate with myself, I came to a decision. I've decided to quit cycling.

I just about had a stroke when I read this! You know, that burst of adrenaline that causes your nerves get taught, your heart rate to double, and all your muscles to tense up. Then I saw the emoticons and all was ok with the world.

Seriously, I know what you mean. This is a tough sport mentally and for me, too, riding a bike is all about fun. I had another great year last year and greatly exceeded my expectations. I'd worked out some goals for '07 that I thought would keep me pumped up, but the past month the juices haven't really been flowing like they usually are when it comes to wanting to get on the bike. So I've taken a pass on the bike of late and have focused on some other things -- both cross-training and also other aspects of my life. I know in time that the desire to get back on the bike and kick some butt will return in spades, so I'm not that worried about it from a "training" perspective.

Part of what I've been thinking about is that I've probably done everything on a bike that I can do when it comes to LD riding as long as I have my current job, with its all its long hours that are totally not condusive to any structured training. True, I could meet some more aggressive goals by fine-tuning my nutrition and focusing my on-bike time more, but those things would -- for me -- decrease my "fun" quotient. And I wouldn't have much margin for error, seeing as how time is so limited for me. So I've been thinking "to hell with it"; I'll forget, for now, about taking my LD riding to the next level (i.e., winning the JMC outright, riding RAAM) and just dial it back and have some fun. Maybe do more USCF racing this year and get reintroduced to having my ass handed to me.... :D Ride the brevets for pure fun and go to PBP just to see the sites and not care whatsoever about my finish time. We'll see. All I know is that life is short and that it's more fun when I'm riding a bike.... All this could just be the winter blues (it's been particularly cold and snowy here of late) and maybe I'll have a different feeling about this when the daffodils show up.... All I can guarantee is that I'll be out there riding and having FUN this year, and I'm glad to hear that you'll be doing the same! :D

This thread gets the BikeForums Twilight zone award!

Machka, Octopus - snap out of it! Its winter, you me and alot of cyclists are tired and bummed by the weather. (I'm particulary sore and discourage by going to hard on a -4 deg F run that kicked me hard).

Come to VT for some skiing (or get out west for some real snow), get on the mtb with some fat tires and plod around town (posing at the coffee shop in full team kit), sit in front of a really warm bonfire at night and take a look at the moon and stars...

...then after some time off the bike get back on it and have some fun, dial it up to 400w, blow by the knave on the brevet of your choice, argue about campy vs shimano vs bar ends vs ti vs steel vs deep v vs aero spokes vs leather saddle vs recumbent vs commuting by bike vs global warming and breathe it all in...

lifes short, ride your bike.

Actually ... if it snows this week, I am planning to go cross-country skiing on the weekend. That should be fun! :)

Unfortunately the weather here has been extremely difficult and annoying .... we have a blizzard, get a ton of snow, but roads are shut and it is next to impossible to get out. Then it gets extremely and bitterly cold so it is too miserable to go out. The roads are covered in snow and ice so cycling is next to impossible, and it is too cold to comfortably ski.

The very next week, the temperature goes to +7C, all the snow melts all over the roads and turns already slippery road into skating rinks ... still next to impossible to cycle. But the snow has melted so skiing is out.

I can't win with the weather!! I wish it would either melt entirely so I can cycle, or snow but stay relatively warm (say -5 to -10C) so I could ski!!

I can't win with the weather!! I wish it would either melt entirely so I can cycle, or snow but stay relatively warm (say -5 to -10C) so I could ski!!I hardly ride at all during December, January and February. All my workouts are on an indoor trainer. And yet, by May, I have nearly all of last year's endurance. (and speed)

While, M demonstrates a considerable commitment to riding brevets, her failure to maintain some aerobic fitness through out the year severely limits her potential each Summer.

There's still time left to limit the loss of last year's fitness by maintaining a minimum workout schedule through Feb,.......

Intense resistance intervals on the trainer during the winter. Gotta improve my climbing ability if I'm ever going to be able to tackle hilly long distances.

I hardly ride at all during December, January and February. All my workouts are on an indoor trainer. And yet, by May, I have nearly all of last year's endurance. (and speed)

While, M demonstrates a considerable commitment to riding brevets, her failure to maintain some aerobic fitness through out the year severely limits her potential each Summer.

There's still time left to limit the loss of last year's fitness by maintaining a minimum workout schedule through Feb,.......

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I ride my trainer every single winter, usually starting sometime in November and continuing through to March. I believe I have mentioned that on numerous occasions before.

Some years I run on a treadmill too, if I have access to one like I did last year.

Some years I also ski and snowshoe if the weather is decent for that sort of thing (i.e. lots of snow).

Most years I weightlift and do yoga, as well.

I maintain most of my aerobic fitness throughout the winter ... and some years, like last year for example, I actually start the year stronger than the end of the previous season.

This year is no exception. Would you like a photo of Machak on the trainer? I've taken several! How about me on Machak on the trainer ... I believe I have some of those too. In fact, I actually have a movie of me riding the trainer which I used to watch my pedal stroke. I'm not killing myself this year, I'm riding for fun ... but I'm still riding, and as I mentioned in a previous post in this thread I've been cross training with walking (brisk walking, not strolling) and swimming this year.


I am really puzzled why you think I take every winter off.

Machka. Yes, have more fun. In spite of being two wars older than you and several levels lower in bike accomplishment, I relate to what you're saying. You know what I've been doing on the rollers this winter? Listening to CDs of Buddhist teachers giving meditation instruction! That has really helped. After all, we LD cyclists are just trying to work through the stuff in our lives. Just another meditation/awareness method.

As for what I'm doing differently this year, I'm going to try brevets. I've always done my LD events as hard rides, the faster the better. This year, I'm going to try ramping the distance up and intensity down. Training-wise, I'll just try to be more consistent with my workouts. I'll look forward to riding places I've never ridden before, with people I haven't ridden with, either. I don't have any goals other than finishing. So far, I'm stronger than I've ever been at this time of year and I'm looking forward to starting the brevet season in a couple of weeks.

I know that the year will come when I'll not say that. When I'll be weaker than the year before. But that is not this year. That will be some other year, and I'll deal with it when it comes.

I've built a new bike - so I've added some fixed gear riding to my mix.

No long rides yet - just some short rides around town as I get used to always pedaling.
I've ridden one of my repeat climbing hills and like the way fixed feels for climbing. Certainly a bit slower at this point as I try to stay seated and push the larger gear up the hill. I think this will add some nice spin and strength training to my rides.

I'm hoping to do a century and maybe a 200k brevet fixed, depending on how strong I feel come summer.

Changing horses - and not focusing on my speed (or lack thereof) as much. OK - that's two things - sorry.

My new goal for the year is less about training and more about setting goals for later in the season. I'm planning on doing RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) in July, but I'm also going to set a long distance goal for the fall. Last year I was so surprised that I successfully completed RAIN, that I sort of got lazy during the fall. My rides were less frequent and less lengthy and now I'm paying for it while I try to get back in shape this spring.

My main goals are as much about time with the family, over the last few months I've lost 28lbs and am now getting on the bike. I haven't ridden longer than 10 miles in probably 5 years, but I used to ride centuries and tour.
1 Up tandem mileage w/ daughter to 50 mile rides, also some overnights with her
2 Get wife to ride with us, since daughter is now stoking will need a decent bike for her
3 Loose more weight, target 175 pounds
4 At least one century
5 Don't let myself get fat at the end of season or when out of town working!

Edit to add 6 Two miles on the Uni I got for X-mas.