Hi!

I accidentally bought a road racer 3 weeks ago - first time I have been on a bike since high-school. I am working in the north of Norway for 6 months and thought this would be a good way to get a look at the scenery around here, its simply stunning! The first two weeks I did five 30 mile rides and decided to enter a local race just for the heck of it. After that race I have not been able to think about anything other than bikes - it was great! This week I made two 70 mile trips and two shorter ones for a total of 220 miles. My butt officially hurts.

What I see is a need to organize my training a bit. Usually I go about things like this by buying a book and reading up, but until I get the Cyclist Training Bible perhaps you could give me a few pointers...

I am 26 years old, weigh 140 lbs. As mentioned above I have little riding experience but I am decently fit. Will buy a PC-15 HRM tomorrow to aid in the training. Most likely I can not put in more than 4 rides per week due to work and other activities so thats the kind of program I am looking for

As a long term goal I would like to enter the Lysebotn race exactly one year from now. This is a 90 mile long race, starting off with a pretty intense climb of 3200 elevation feet (see links).

Graph
Image of first climb

I will only be able to ride a bike for a few more months before the snow gets here, but I have plenty of hobbies/ winter activities to keep me in fit through the winter.

People seem to be suggesting "building a solid base" and then increase your tolerance to lactose etc through higher intensity interval training... My question is then, should I focus on having longer, low intensity workouts at first, or will interval training do me good right off the bat? I will obviously need to do some hill climbing activities, but should that wait until next spring, or should I start next year?

Anyonen have a suggestion to get me going? I realize it won't be tailored made but something to train by until I read the book and get a little more knowledge about these things...

Try reading "Serious Cycling" by Ed Burke.
Check out cptips website.
and here is an article from the medical centre I work at. McMaster Study

Thanks for the links!

From what I can tell, most trainers recommend getting a base of about 500-1000 miles of easy riding before starting a more detailed program. I'm in reasonably good shape so perhaps I could benefit from starting a program right away, or? (the first 70 mile ride ended 3000 feet above starting point, completed in just under 4 hours on a mountain bike. After completion it was my butt that was sore, not so much my leg muscles).

That said, I read from one guide:
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I have a ton of excellent routes to take, from extreme hill climbs to miles upon miles of more or less flat with a few rolling hills. This is what I am thinking at this point:

Sunday: Long ride. Starting with a few more of the 30-40 mile rides, increasing to 50-70 miles as I get comfortable. Gonna use the HRM to stay at a 70% HR level and will adjust the length of the ride depending on how my body responds afterwards.

Tuesday: Hill climb. There is a hill ranging from 5-10 degree inclination that I think I can climb in 10-15 minutes if I go more or less all out. It is about 30 minutes of riding from where I live. I was thinking that riding out there at a slow warmup level, and then climbing this hill say 3 times with a little rest in between should be a great anaerobic excercise. Then do a low resistance / high cadence pedaling back home to get rid of some of the lactic acid buildup.

Thursday: Intermedeate ride: 30 mile ride at 70% HR. In the beginning this could be identical to the long ride, but I think I need a shorter ride like this in my program for days when I don't have more than 1-2 hours to train.

Friday: Another hill climb, alternatively another intermedeate ride.

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Even though I have stated the days specifically I am going to have to be a little flexible. Pretty sure I will not begin skipping days though. What I am a little scared of is that I will skip the hill climb days. Interval trainig is a pain in the butt, I've always hated it. But if it is what it takes to improve I'll do it. I want to do a few cross country skiing races this winter as well so the training should be great for that to. I am very competitive and would like to beat some of the times I set last year (I know I can't win as there are world class competitors in most of these events, but I do want to beat the people I train with and set a new personal best...)

Comments?

Ordered the Cyclist training bible by Joe Friel today. This was a bit hard to come by, but found it at Amazon with a 2-3 week estimate before it was in stock. Add to that the 11-18 days of international shipping and its gonna take me a while before I get it...


Any comments on the training program until I get a chance to read up on things myself? Things I should do differently?