Training & Nutrition - I have two months...

Hello guys,
I'm 18, a freshman in college, and raced the collegiate mountain bike season. The road season is coming up fast, and I have about two months to get into shape. I do not know my V02 max, or even what these cryptic terms mean, but I am looking to be competitive in "Class C" races, which I would assume correlate to Cat 5 UCSF road races. I also plan to race UCSF during the summer.

Anyways, I havent ridden outside of a not-so-strenuous commute in the past three months. What is the best way for me to get in the best shape possible in a two month time span? Obviously, I will continue to train as the season continues, and I plan to train over the summer as well. I don't consider myself to be in good shape at all, but am certainly not fat, by American standards (6'4" 177lbs).

I have invested in a nice set of rollers, and have a cadence measurement on my cyclocomputer.

I'm not sure I'm ready to invest in a heart rate monitor yet, so workouts based on heart rate aren't going to help much.

Thanks a bunch for your help and advice.

(6'4" 177lbs).

Wow by my standards you are an awsome weight. I want to get there, I am 6-6 230 right now... I can hardly image what it would be like to be that weight.


What is the best way for me to get in the best shape possible in a two month time span?

I am kind of in the same shoes that you are in except I want to be ready at the end of March which is a little over 3 months. What kind of racing does the raod team do? Crits, RR, TT's? I would start by picking up The cyclists training bible and reading it through. There are some other good books out there too but I have found this one the best.

You need to start putting on base miles right away. Depending on what kind of race you are doing (see above), and the amount of endurance you alraedy have will make a big difference in how much you need to do. You will also need to start doing anarobic and muscular endurance drills on the bike. Since I am not a coach I will not say exactly when you should start those though.

The other thing to consider is that can you just use the first races as experience builders for starters. Depending on your experience you may not do as well the first season but since you are young you have a long time to go. Of course if you do well that will be even better. I have raced a few cat 5 crits and a road race and they were certainly an eye opener last year.

Good Luck

Oh ya, heart rate monitors are not "required" but will make monitoring workouts easier, expecially on a trainer.

just ride fast and long and eat enough.

A few things.
1st, there are about 2.7 gaggilion 'training program' posts on the boards that a search will come up with.
2nd, for a training program to be really effective a coach needs to know far more then age, weight, sex and bike type.
3rd, what Merton said is pretty much it. Ride, lots, then ride more, have rest days where you ride for 2-4 hours and never loose your breath. Other days mix it up, go fast the whole time, go fast part of the time, race your buddies, go with a medium paced group etc. Bottom line is ride, lots, and eat enough good quality food that you dont loose weight (unless that is your goal) Drink a gatorade every couple of days if you dont mix some electrolyte into your water, take a multivitamin daily, say your bedtime prayers and did I say ride? lots?

And last but not least, have fun.

Wow by my standards you are an awsome weight. I want to get there, I am 6-6 230 right now... I can hardly image what it would be like to be that weight.



I am kind of in the same shoes that you are in except I want to be ready at the end of March which is a little over 3 months. What kind of racing does the raod team do? Crits, RR, TT's? I would start by picking up The cyclists training bible and reading it through. There are some other good books out there too but I have found this one the best.

You need to start putting on base miles right away. Depending on what kind of race you are doing (see above), and the amount of endurance you alraedy have will make a big difference in how much you need to do. You will also need to start doing anarobic and muscular endurance drills on the bike. Since I am not a coach I will not say exactly when you should start those though.

The other thing to consider is that can you just use the first races as experience builders for starters. Depending on your experience you may not do as well the first season but since you are young you have a long time to go. Of course if you do well that will be even better. I have raced a few cat 5 crits and a road race and they were certainly an eye opener last year.

Good Luck

Oh ya, heart rate monitors are not "required" but will make monitoring workouts easier, expecially on a trainer.


I actually just weighed myself, and since I last weighed myself before mountain bike season, I've lost considerable weight. I'm now at about 163.

Anyways, there will be all three types of races. Emphasis is on crits/RR's though.

I'm in your boat too. I think some good base miles firt would help and then go into more specific training. Also I would try to get some group rides in to learn some group skills. That's my plan at least.

Both of those require different skills, sprinting and muscular endurance for crits, while RR requires endurance. Base miles are quite important, expecially with long RR. It is easy to go 25 - 30 MPH (push a big gear) for a small amount of time (for me about 5 - 10 miles) but for 40 - 50 + well that requires training.

Since you are going to be racing soon I hate to say it but your training may be train by race. Just remember intervals, base miles, ananrobic endurance, etc.

Good Luck

Which collegiate conference are you with? My school races in the South Central CCC and our Mens C is not that hard. I ride about 120-150miles a week with no set training schedule and I feel confident that i can handle the best of the group. My only competition came after 4months of not riding and I ended up ~14th in a crit...so now after several months of riding again I should be able to place well. right now i wouldn't worry so much about "training" and just ride for the fun of it.

i would get some base miles to build up endurance, then do some intervals to build up speed. defidently go on some group rides to get handling skills, this is especially important in crits.