Training & Nutrition - Short Rides, but Significant Strength Gain

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pletcgm
07-23-03, 12:31 PM
For the previous three weeks, I have been going on really strenuous 10 mile rides in the evening after work. Today was my first day since to commute to work. I noticed a huge strength and speed increase today on my commute. Do the short, strenuous rides make that much of a difference compared to the long rides?

SamDaBikinMan
07-23-03, 12:45 PM
I find I get good results from 20 mile rides with hard effort.

Anything that you do to push your self beyond your normal effort is going to benefit you. Just do not get caught up in the in between effort all the time or your improvements will stall. Ride one of two ways, balls to the wall or slow for recovery and endurance.
WoodyUpstate
07-24-03, 06:50 AM
Milage is rarely the best way to define training rides. Rather, time and intensity are preferred. You could have gone on a leisurely 40-mile flat ride, but with 10 intense miles in the middle and accomplished the same thing.

As to what you improved would depend on the type of ride you did. Low cadence power intervals would help strength. Max intervals would help lactic acid tolerance. AT intervals would improve AT duration. A steady state, intense, 10-minute interval would help TT performance and AT duration, but probably not improve lactic acid tolerance.

Endurance can't be improved, however, with short rides, no matter the intensity. So while you improved power (congratulations! BTW), your endurance probably remained fairly static.