My Training Program
 

Hello,

I just started cycling 2 months ago. I have read alot of post and from what I have seen came up with this training program.


Sunday+3-6 hour group ride

Monday+45-90 minute TT ride effort (cadence 90-100)-On Trainer

Tuesday+2-4 hours 4 minute intervals (cadence 90-100) 5 minutes rest (cadence 75)

Wednesday+(40 sec max effort (cadence 95-105), 4 minute rest (cadence 75) X3) recovery for 10 minutes at 75 cadence-(Repeat all X3)-On Trainer

Thursday+2-4 hour going max on hills (cadence90-100) and recovering down them

Friday+Leg Curls, Calf Raises, Squats, bench press, curls X2

Saturday+3-6 group ride and individual ride (Depending on Group Ride Length)


Before and after every ride I do a 15 mintue warmup/cooldown at a cadence of 75. Any advice or opinions on if this will make me better. Any feedback is welcome. I want to race and maybe turn pro. By the way I am 20 and 6'1", 155 pounds.

hmm you sound serious about it for someone who just started out.

frankly, your training regimen looks like it doesn't contain enough rest. if you don't rest, you will never realize the gains you try to make by working out. plus, you can injure yourself pretty easily by overtraning, get sick all the time, etc. put simply, you make gains on rest days, so make sure not to underestimate their importance.

also, you should periodize more, ie. weights and base miles in the winter/early spring, then start building power for sprints and climbing in march or so. at 6'1" 155 i am imagining you will be a relatively strong climber ...

finally, make sure you have fun with it. turning it into your job too early can burn you out fast!

ps. read the cyclist's training bible - some dated information in it, but the overall ideas are good ones and most of the pros i know have used it at one time or another.

Jesus! Hope you enjoying your programme.
It is a fascinated plan. If I was you, I will add in the walking exercise and the indoor aerobics exercise.
Go for it!

You need some recovery in that schedule. At least schedule one day of VERY easy spinning/week. A BIG part of training is recovery.

Good luck!

So just one day a week do nothing. I hate doing this cause it makes me feel that I'm slacking off. If that will help I 'll do it though. Probably alternate resting between Monday and Wednesday every week. How does that sound?

Get a book on training. I second keithnordstorm's recommendation - The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel. If you want to get serious about competing, this or another training book will explain periodization and putting together a training plan.

lol most of us hate days off, that's why it has to be said - and emphasized. you will not make gains without rest, at least over the long term.

there's this mountain outside of town, and years ago i wanted to get faster up it. so i decided that i would ride up it every chance i got in order to improve my time.

well, i began to climb it an average of 4-5 times a week on my montain bike. and in a very brief period of time - like a month or two - i saw huge gains, my time dropped from 45 minutes to just over 40. and i thought, "sweet!" my training is paying off.

but then i realized that my friend kevin was riding up it at 36 minutes, and try as i might i could not break 40. lol and then i got slower - suddenly it was hard for me to break 41. and kevin wasn't riding up it *nearly* as often, most of the time he rode he was just spinning easy! i became pretty frustrated, and figured i just lacked talent.

of course, i eventually picked up a better training plan - one with a lot more rest - and now it takes me 33 minutes. so you can follow my path, risk injury, and get slower ... or you can pick up a copy of joe friel's book and learn from the mistakes of others. i highly recommend the latter course!

Well, Vlad, looking over your training schedule, it looks mighty intense. You emphasize a lot of intense work on the same muscle groups day after day. Weight lifters and body builders don't do that. I would suggest to at least skip a day between the hard efforts.

You also don't seem to be doing that much aerobic work. In aerobic work, quantity has a quality all its own. I would advise you to try to have some longer work outs during the week at moderate efforts.

About rest days. It seems to be written in stone for most people to rest at least one day per week. Shoot I ride each and every day. I think the last time I did not ride was back in May.

Now if you are going to ride each day, you have to be able to listen to your body. I rode pretty hard on Sat and Sun so yesterday, I had to take it easy. Still did my usual mileage, just slower then normal. Today, I was a bit slower then normal. Tomorrow, I should be back to normal. If you can't slow down when you need to, then a day of rest probably is in order.

so how about on tuesday just ride for 2-4 hours spinning not going at an all out effort. And alternate rest between monday and wednesday evrey week. i do plan on looking at the reccomended book.

I would suggest you reconsider that amount of training at this point in your cycling. That schedual as I understand it has on a low week 10 hours on the road minimum plus the trainer and weights. If you have been on the bike for 2 months this seems a bit intense.

My suggestion would be first of all to slow down some. It takes years to develope into a racer, not to say you can't race your first year but if you want to be good it takes time. That schedual looks that it would lead you to overtrain. This will slow down your progress and perhaps lead to burnout.

You need to change from week to week. If your training to race then I would suggest about 250-300 hours per year your first year. This is on the road time and trainer time. Also what do you want to do? If it is to do road racing then what races? You need to train to peak during those times. That schedual you laid out will work now if you can maintain it but if you want to last then relax. I started racing at 16 so now have 27 years of racing including several as a pro. I never raced in Europe but raced for Motorola in the US. I still race mens Masters today.

Follow the advice and get the Training Bible, it is an excellent resource of information and will prove to be invaluable to your training.

jchet, i wanna race road bikes. if that schedule is to intense perhaps you have a schedule that might suit me. I am gonna race as many races as i can in the southeast next season. i raced last week @ the michelin cat 5 and held on to the group for about 6 of the 15 1km laps. what specific rides should i do, right now i have ridden for my first two months about 900 miles. how many miles/hours should i do a week to hopefully increase my riding ability?

what specific races do you want to do? climbing, flat, criterium, road race, time trial, etc.? until you know that answer, specific training isn't gonna help.

once you know what races you like, pick some specific races you want to win. plan to peak for these, with a ratcheting schedule that increases in intensity until you taper right before the race ... pick other races that will be training races.

in your first couple of years, if you're serious, you are gonna want to category up. this means you have to concentrate on winning points at a number of different events.

since entire books have been written on this subject, you're not gonna get a good idea from a few forum posts. check out: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...44717?v=glance

I agree, there is way to much information needed in order to plan your training schedual. Hell, I have a hard time doing my own training plan. These forum posts may give you pointers as to resources to get that information. It requires a lot of data and time to mold a training plan for a rider. That is why coaches get paid. Try getting a Training Bible as suggested, this will help you understand the format of training. Race, get points, and win and before you know it we will be hearing about you in the Tour de France. Good luck!!!

Your program lacks adequate recovery. Recovery is more important than training because that is when your body rebuilds itself stronger than before.

What you have listed is a sure way to fatigue and overtraining.

I'd go hard on the bike only twice per week plus one day forn a race or three times per week if not racing. Every other ride should be for fun and at a painfully slow pace.

Exactly, that is a burn out training schedual if there ever was one.

OK. How about this

Sunday+2-4 hour group ride

*Monday+45-90 minute TT ride effort (cadence 90-100)-On Trainer

*Tuesday+1-2 hours 5 minute intervals (cadence 90-100) 5 minutes rest (cadence 75)

Wednesday+75 cadence for about an hour, just pedaling w/o raising heart rate much

*Thursday+2-3 hour going max on hills (cadence90-100) and recovering down them

Friday+rest

Saturday+2-4 group ride

In the group rides I do not go "all out" i just criuse along with the majority of the group.

*indicates days I push the limit and go all out.

That last schedule looks much better. Sir spin... is right about recovery. It is the most essential part of getting results.

Also keep in mind that to see good improvement of one riding discipline you need to focus on that discipline for about a 4 week block. If you mix up too much your improvements will be spead out and much slower. Climbing is a good one to focus on after building your base since it will work you the hardest.

Just by looking at your schedule, I have absolutely NO idea what your plan is- it's too sporadic, no rreal ecovery, no indication of heart rate. No talk about training VO2 max, endurance capabilities, no talk about training the muscles (weight lifting). Since I don't know where you're from, I'm not sure when your racing season is, so there's no comment I can make about that either.

So, what are your goals? When is your racing season? What are you trying to accomplish? What's your time frame?

Other questions to consider- what kind of racing are you doing? What's your VO2 max? What's your anaerobic threshold? What's your max heart rate? How is your eating/nutrition? What kind of training program are you looking for? Have you racd before? At what point are you burning carbohydrates for energy and what point are you burning fat for energy?

Too many question, and no answers to give until you give us a better idea of what you're doing with all this.

Let us know.

Koffee

My overall goal is to eventually turn pro. I live in Ga and will start my first "full" season after winter. I have been in one cat 5 race. I am doing road racing, whatever kind are close to where i live. I don't know how to calculate my VO2 max or anaerobic threshold. My resting heart rate is 54. I eat lots of bread and pasta. I don't eat much else. I am looking for a training program to help me get better and eventually turn pro. I didnt include in my program VO2 training cause I don't know what to do. I want need a program so I konw I'm not wasting my time. Please Help!

vladimir,

i understand how you're feeling right now, but i think everyone on this thread is trying to help you. what koffee has said, however, is dead on the money. there is no way we can give you an optimized general training plan because it doesn't exist. it takes years to figure out what your optimal training strategy is, and it takes time to build a base.

in the road racing world, you are extremely young at 20 years old. that is an advantage. i recommend that you: a. buy a copy of joe friel's book asap, b. start building miles, and c. just ride for fun until you know more about your strengths and weaknesses as a rider.

by building miles, i mean start with the average mileage you have done in a week so far and raise it by 10% each week for three weeks in succession, then take one week to be your rest week - reduce your riding by 20-30% on this fourth week.

the fifth week, do the mileage of week 3 plus 10% and continue for another three weeks, after which you will rest again for a week. and so on. do this until your weekly mileage has increased to 150-250 miles, depending on where you are comfortable. after you move into category 3 or 2, you may want to reassess this mileage, but for the time being you don't want to do too much more than this. and that's probably gonna be a few years down the line.

anyway, this is called building a base. build the base focussing on heart rates around 60-80%. eat plenty of protein in addition to your carbs for adequate recovery - optimally .8 to 1 gram per pound of body weight daily. once the base is established, begin doing speed work for a 4 week block, then concentrate on climbing for 4. and so on. at no point in your *training* schedule should you really be going at 90% hr or above for more than 3 days a week, especially at this point in your career. during stage races you may be required to do the training schedule you have outlined on this board, but will presumably be at peak - and you will require time for recovery afterwards.

finally, you probably don't have the money to hire a private coach, so try to get on a team somewhere. ask questions of people you meet who race well, but make them specific - nobody's gonna give you a dissertation on their training schedule (unless they have serious narcissistic tendencies).

it takes many years of very hard work to become a pro cyclist, and while this rough guide will start you off, there is no quick and easy answer how to do it. most of what i have just told you is explained in much greater detail in joe friel's book, from which you can begin to customize your own workout as you begin to undertsand yourself as a rider more. good luck!

How many more ways can we tell you the same thing? Perhaps in Italian :D

Here's an odd question; will that Cyclist's training bible work for mountain biking or is it specifically geared for road cycling? Are the training methods the same? Is there a book on training for mountain biking? Just wondering; I'd like to train for races as well and a book would be very helpful. Thanks

lol jchet.

the training bible has information for both, or did last i knew - versions update a lot. a lot of the same training philosophy holds for mountain and road, though for mountain there is an obvious need on concentrate on short-term power output and bike handling more.

course, races aren't exactly the most technical courses in the world, generally, so fancy handling skills are probably less important than the average rider thinks for racing ... but then again, the ability to get through technical sections with just a fraction less energy expended than your competition means a lot in a two hour race.

I see burnout comin'. Rest my friend. If not at least one day a week, take 2 weeks off in there somewhere.