Deepl3lue

I am new to the cycling scene and am looking for a training plan to follow the longest ride I have done to date is 5 miles. I have been a runner for about 3 years and am used to following training plans for 1/2 marathons or marathons but have not been able to find much for cycling. The plans I have found just say ride for "x" time but I dont know how hard/fast I should be riding or how far.... Does anyone have a plan that they follow?

Thanks!

daven

Check out TrainerRoad. They have a bunch of plans that are geared toward indoor trainer work. However, the workouts can be adapted to the road. Worth a look!

bmontgomery87

I'd say you'll probably get the best answers by establishing a goal and letting people know what it is.

A goal of being able to ride 20 miles is going to take a different approach than someone trying to do a century in a few months.

In my opinion, if you're new, just ride as much as you can this winter and build up some base miles. Then pick a goal and find your training plan. Don't suck all of the fun out of cycling already.

Machka 

+1

It helps us answer the question if we have a bit more information to go on.

DataJunkie

Riding as much as you can when you first start out is a good choice. However, if you are a reasonably well trained runner then that short circuits this advice a bit.
Figure out a goal and then go from there.
Road race, crits, hill climbs, cross, centuries, to ride 20 miles, tri, mountain bike races or rides of whatever sort, etc.

I have used plans from trainerroad, friel's self coached plans, Chris Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist, and a few others. As of late I just follow a rough plan that will transition into a more intense plan closer to the main portion of race season.

Dudelsack 

There are oodles of cycling plans. Don't for a moment think otherwise.

Unless you've made a commitment to some specific event like a charity ride you got roped into, I wouldn't follow any of them.

Cycling is fun until it isn't. Just enjoy it for its own sake. If you find that you have an insatiable need to speed past any cyclist in front of you, then get into group rides and see if you have any competitive skills.

If you must: consider this your establishing the base.

10 Wheels

I never had a training plan, just a Goal. Ride a 100 miles. Ended up with 11,200 miles the first year.

So What is your Goal?

Deepl3lue

right now I am wanting to train for some Duathlons, bet every training plan I find is geared towards running and then talks about cycling like I already know what Im doing, but other than that I would like to be able to ride 20 Miles then like to be able to eventually get up to 50 or 100 Mi

10 Wheels

Stick with 5 mile rides. Give your butt and the rest of your body time to adjust to riding.

I started with 5 mile rides. Go easy for 500 miles.

Then step it up to 10 miles rides.

Keep going up in miles when you feel you can.

Learn to snack, drink, and stand up to pedal in a high gear range while you are moving.

40 miles is where many have problems as your energy level begins to drops.

Keep it Fun and take rest day as you need them.

The racers that I have rode with always spin. They only use the big ring when actual racing.

10 Wheels

I got in 19 century's last year.

Went crazy in Oct 2010 and got in 19 century's that month.

DataJunkie

I enjoy training and training plans. It is amusing to tweak them and see what happens. Unfortunately I tend to over think everything.

Anyhow, here are a couple plans from one of my local duathlon series. Beyond that perhaps find a tri training plan and toss the swimming bit. There are an amazing amount of tri-athletes around. One would think the amount of training plans would reflect this.

https://www.racingunderground.com/training.html

Machka 

So ... here's the plan ...

If you're comfortable with 5 miles, keep riding 5 miles several times during the week after work, and on Saturday ... go ride 7 miles.

Next week ... keep riding 5 miles several times during the week after work, and on Saturday ... go ride 10 miles.

Next week ... start riding 7 miles several times during the week after work, and on Saturday ... go ride 13 miles.

Next week ... keep riding 7 miles during the week after work, and on Saturday ... go ride 15 miles.

Next week ... during the week, mix it up a bit between 7 miles and 10 miles (pick one day to do fast rides and one day to climb some hills), and on Saturday ... go ride 20 miles.


By the beginning of February you'll be at your first goal.

Keep up that sort of pattern and by the end of March you'll be at 50 miles.


There are lots of cycling books available ... have a look at your local library.

Road Fan

If you want to look at duathlon, seems to me you mainly need to take your existing running knowledge, build up your cycling using a basic scheme like Machka's, and perhaps learn how to combine them. To combine them, perhaps you should read about triathlon? At least in the USA, it is very popular.

cafzali

First off, unless you're going to race, you don't really need to be worried about speed. I'd say endurance is what I'd work up to first. Speed increases generally follow endurance increases. But as others said, a cycling goal works best when it's arranged around something specific. It doesn't have to be a specific event, could just be something as simple as X miles. Once you have your goal you can sort of "back out" from there into a training plan.

Personally, since you're new to cycling, I might suggest taking your first year, riding as much as you can on varied terrain and for varying distances and see what you can do. That will give you an idea as to what goal is realistic if you're really serious about setting a very specific goal. Also, something concrete that you can do, if you're interested, is doing some training to improve your core strength. That will really help your cycling.