A little training advice please
02-27-09, 02:45 PM
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A little training advice please
Hey
This will be my 2nd season with my road bike, and I'm going to try some long distance riding with my local rando club. The first ride I'm thinking about is 95k in March. From that point on, I'd be looking at two rides a week with different groups with gradually increasing distances. My goal will be to complete a 300k this year.
The furthest I have ridden at once is 86k, and I did that with no problems - could have ridden further, no issues the following day. I'm in reasonable shape, and have been riding my trainer 7 - 10 hours a week over the winter.
The problem is that my training is fairly unstructured. I understand about the need to balance hard and light efforts (though I doubt I do this well) and the value of intervals (which I actually like doing). Things like VO2 max, FTP, blah blah ... all Greek to me. I do have a HR monitor, though I am kind of vague on what my zones are ... the highest I've gotten on the monitor thus far is 180, and 145 - 155 seems to be my 'go all day' range.
With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
I'm not that worried about this initial ride, but I want to be as prepared as I can both for it and the season that it heralds.
Thanks in advance for the help.
This will be my 2nd season with my road bike, and I'm going to try some long distance riding with my local rando club. The first ride I'm thinking about is 95k in March. From that point on, I'd be looking at two rides a week with different groups with gradually increasing distances. My goal will be to complete a 300k this year.
The furthest I have ridden at once is 86k, and I did that with no problems - could have ridden further, no issues the following day. I'm in reasonable shape, and have been riding my trainer 7 - 10 hours a week over the winter.
The problem is that my training is fairly unstructured. I understand about the need to balance hard and light efforts (though I doubt I do this well) and the value of intervals (which I actually like doing). Things like VO2 max, FTP, blah blah ... all Greek to me. I do have a HR monitor, though I am kind of vague on what my zones are ... the highest I've gotten on the monitor thus far is 180, and 145 - 155 seems to be my 'go all day' range.
With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
I'm not that worried about this initial ride, but I want to be as prepared as I can both for it and the season that it heralds.
Thanks in advance for the help.
02-27-09, 11:34 PM
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I think your looking for a simple method to increase your riding distance without all the techy stuff.
One rule is the 10% per week rule; in other words you increase your mileage 10% per week until your work up to your distance your wanting to go.
You can do it either by time spent or miles rode. Assuming your somewhat good on a bike now here is time spent on bike chart to get to a 100 mile goal which you can alter to go further distances. https://www.livestrongchallenge.org/a...g_schedule.pdf
Keeping that above chart in mind use this method: Saturday: 1-2 hour ride with 30 minutes of hard effort
Sunday: 1-2 hour ride at steady pace (65% MHR)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 1-1.5 hour ride with hills
Wednesday: Rest or 1-hour easy recovery ride
Thursday: 1-1.5 hours with interval training
Friday: Rest or 30-minute easy recovery ride
And here is a chart for miles based training: https://www.kanbike.org/pages/training.php
Again with the miles based training method you can alter the miles riding based on your current level and how far you need to be riding at the end of 10 weeks. And you can also do the steady, recovery, interval etc training mentioned above in this miles thing if you want.
By the way, this is how I and other racers did it back in the days before there was heart rate monitors, and the likes of Eddy Merckx and the masses before him did just fine!
One rule is the 10% per week rule; in other words you increase your mileage 10% per week until your work up to your distance your wanting to go.
You can do it either by time spent or miles rode. Assuming your somewhat good on a bike now here is time spent on bike chart to get to a 100 mile goal which you can alter to go further distances. https://www.livestrongchallenge.org/a...g_schedule.pdf
Keeping that above chart in mind use this method: Saturday: 1-2 hour ride with 30 minutes of hard effort
Sunday: 1-2 hour ride at steady pace (65% MHR)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 1-1.5 hour ride with hills
Wednesday: Rest or 1-hour easy recovery ride
Thursday: 1-1.5 hours with interval training
Friday: Rest or 30-minute easy recovery ride
And here is a chart for miles based training: https://www.kanbike.org/pages/training.php
Again with the miles based training method you can alter the miles riding based on your current level and how far you need to be riding at the end of 10 weeks. And you can also do the steady, recovery, interval etc training mentioned above in this miles thing if you want.
By the way, this is how I and other racers did it back in the days before there was heart rate monitors, and the likes of Eddy Merckx and the masses before him did just fine!
Last edited by froze; 02-27-09 at 11:38 PM.
02-27-09, 11:46 PM
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This is more or less just what I was looking for, thanks!!
I'm on the trainer as it's still winter up here, so I'd be best to do some longer intervals on the day that should include hills, yes? Longer intervals and / or pedaling a steep gear to get used to the pain brought on by climbing?
I'm on the trainer as it's still winter up here, so I'd be best to do some longer intervals on the day that should include hills, yes? Longer intervals and / or pedaling a steep gear to get used to the pain brought on by climbing?
02-28-09, 09:45 AM
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I have been training for a big MTB event, which is on the 7th. It's a 56.5 mile route with over 11,000' of gain. Average speed to complete the course under the cut off times is 6 MPH.
I don't have an abundance of time for training so I have been focusing on road riding and doing hill repeats. Luckily I live around lots of steep hills. My normal hill is a 1.5 mile climb with grades between 8% to 13%. I climb the hill in a gear that puts my cadence in the 40s. I do 3 to 4 of these repeats.
These repeats have paid dividends. I really have noticed the difference when doing long mountain rides, centuries, and steep MTB rides. Not really a plan but more of something to add to your training plan.
I don't have an abundance of time for training so I have been focusing on road riding and doing hill repeats. Luckily I live around lots of steep hills. My normal hill is a 1.5 mile climb with grades between 8% to 13%. I climb the hill in a gear that puts my cadence in the 40s. I do 3 to 4 of these repeats.
These repeats have paid dividends. I really have noticed the difference when doing long mountain rides, centuries, and steep MTB rides. Not really a plan but more of something to add to your training plan.
02-28-09, 03:24 PM
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Keeping that above chart in mind use this method: Saturday: 1-2 hour ride with 30 minutes of hard effort
Sunday: 1-2 hour ride at steady pace (65% MHR)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 1-1.5 hour ride with hills
Wednesday: Rest or 1-hour easy recovery ride
Thursday: 1-1.5 hours with interval training
Friday: Rest or 30-minute easy recovery ride
Sunday: 1-2 hour ride at steady pace (65% MHR)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 1-1.5 hour ride with hills
Wednesday: Rest or 1-hour easy recovery ride
Thursday: 1-1.5 hours with interval training
Friday: Rest or 30-minute easy recovery ride
02-28-09, 03:54 PM
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With my schedule, my rest days will have to be Tuesday and Thursday, the others days of the week are open. Can you suggest a way to plan the days / workouts around those days? I could come up with something myself of course, but it seems you know what you are talking about, whereas I do not. Much thanks.
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02-28-09, 06:54 PM
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The problem is that my training is fairly unstructured. I understand about the need to balance hard and light efforts (though I doubt I do this well) and the value of intervals (which I actually like doing). Things like VO2 max, FTP, blah blah ... all Greek to me. I do have a HR monitor, though I am kind of vague on what my zones are ... the highest I've gotten on the monitor thus far is 180, and 145 - 155 seems to be my 'go all day' range.
With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
Have a look at my Century Tips page. It may give you some additional suggestions.
https://www.machka.net/century.htm
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02-28-09, 07:24 PM
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Hey
This will be my 2nd season with my road bike, and I'm going to try some long distance riding with my local rando club....The problem is that my training is fairly unstructured. I understand about the need to balance hard and light efforts (though I doubt I do this well) and the value of intervals (which I actually like doing). Things like VO2 max, FTP, blah blah ... all Greek to me. I do have a HR monitor, though I am kind of vague on what my zones are ... the highest I've gotten on the monitor thus far is 180, and 145 - 155 seems to be my 'go all day' range.
With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
I'm not that worried about this initial ride, but I want to be as prepared as I can both for it and the season that it heralds.
Thanks in advance for the help.
This will be my 2nd season with my road bike, and I'm going to try some long distance riding with my local rando club....The problem is that my training is fairly unstructured. I understand about the need to balance hard and light efforts (though I doubt I do this well) and the value of intervals (which I actually like doing). Things like VO2 max, FTP, blah blah ... all Greek to me. I do have a HR monitor, though I am kind of vague on what my zones are ... the highest I've gotten on the monitor thus far is 180, and 145 - 155 seems to be my 'go all day' range.
With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
I'm not that worried about this initial ride, but I want to be as prepared as I can both for it and the season that it heralds.
Thanks in advance for the help.
https://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/492191-recommended-training-century-ride.html
I do a ten week training program that I saw published in BICYCLING MAGAZINE years ago, and retrieved from the Mt. Diablo Cycling Club website, though it has been removed the last time I looked. There are two variations, called Easy Century Training, or With Strength to Spare. I do the latter one, and it is about the most time I can spare to train. Fortunately I commute, so that's where I do it by lengthening my usual 14 mile distance. I find that the schedule motivates me to do keep up, and it's very satisfying to plug the data into my Excell spreadsheet and watch the charts expand.
I don't consider myself a strong rider, but I did my best century (actually 107.5 miles because I got lost ;-) in 6:58 at about 15.4 mph, with about 40 miles in a paceline and about 60 miles solo. My modification of the plan is to make Sunday my rest day, and Saturday is my century day. This won't print on the Forum as a nice table, but I think you can figure it out:
WITH STRENGTH TO SPARE:
Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Weekly
Easy* Pace* Brisk* Pace* Pace* Pace* Mileage
10 12 14 Off 12 40 15 103
10 13 15 Off 13 44 17 112
10 15 15 Off 15 48 18 123
11 16 19 Off 16 53 20 135
12 18 20 Off 18 59 22 149
13 19 23 Off 19 64 24 162
14 20 25 Off 20 71 27 177
16 20 27 Off 20 75 27 177
17 20 30 Off 20 75 32 194
19 20 30 Off 10 5 Easy Century 184
1,516
EASY CENTURY TRAINING:
Week Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Weekly
Easy* Pace* Brisk* Pace* Pace* Pace* Mileage
1 6 10 12 Off 10 30 9 77
2 7 11 13 Off 11 34 10 86
3 8 13 15 Off 13 38 11 98
4 8 14 17 Off 14 42 13 108
5 9 15 19 Off 15 47 14 119
6 11 15 21 Off 15 53 16 131
7 12 15 24 Off 15 59 18 143
8 13 15 25 Off 15 65 20 153
9 15 15 25 Off 15 65 20 155
Cent Week 15 15 25 Off 10 5 Easy Century 170
1,240
I don't consider myself a strong rider, but I did my best century (actually 107.5 miles because I got lost ;-) in 6:58 at about 15.4 mph, with about 40 miles in a paceline and about 60 miles solo. My modification of the plan is to make Sunday my rest day, and Saturday is my century day. This won't print on the Forum as a nice table, but I think you can figure it out:
WITH STRENGTH TO SPARE:
Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Weekly
Easy* Pace* Brisk* Pace* Pace* Pace* Mileage
10 12 14 Off 12 40 15 103
10 13 15 Off 13 44 17 112
10 15 15 Off 15 48 18 123
11 16 19 Off 16 53 20 135
12 18 20 Off 18 59 22 149
13 19 23 Off 19 64 24 162
14 20 25 Off 20 71 27 177
16 20 27 Off 20 75 27 177
17 20 30 Off 20 75 32 194
19 20 30 Off 10 5 Easy Century 184
1,516
EASY CENTURY TRAINING:
Week Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat. Sun. Weekly
Easy* Pace* Brisk* Pace* Pace* Pace* Mileage
1 6 10 12 Off 10 30 9 77
2 7 11 13 Off 11 34 10 86
3 8 13 15 Off 13 38 11 98
4 8 14 17 Off 14 42 13 108
5 9 15 19 Off 15 47 14 119
6 11 15 21 Off 15 53 16 131
7 12 15 24 Off 15 59 18 143
8 13 15 25 Off 15 65 20 153
9 15 15 25 Off 15 65 20 155
Cent Week 15 15 25 Off 10 5 Easy Century 170
1,240
03-01-09, 11:07 AM
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With a month to go until my first ride and more or less the 'start' to my season, can someone help me with an EASY to understand training plan? One long (2 hr ?) ride per week? How many interval sessions? What else should I be doing?
The easiest plan is the simplest. Ride as much as you can. Ride as fast you can "once in a while." Take a day off when ever you feel tired.
If your goal is endurance, riding more miles is your plan.
Now, what you need to do is learn all those "other things" that are necessary to keep you, your bike, and your bike clothes and equipment ready for whatever the pavement and weather serves up. Rando riding, like ultra long distance riding requires knowledge in all phases of cycling.
