Originally Posted by DrPete
Hmm...
1. It depends on your goal. One school of thought is that if you keep your heart rate down during low-intensity exercise you're burning the most fat and by keeping the intensity low you can do it all day. If you're looking to get faster/stronger on the bike, i.e. training for racing or something, then yes, you need to work at or near LT to first raise your LT, then maximize your power output at LT.
2. Joe Friel, author of the Cyclist's Training Bible, does it like this--go out on a flat course and do a 30-minute, all-out TT effort. Your average HR for the last 20min of this is roughly your LTHR.
3. Being able to get your heart rate up is a good thing, as is quick recovery. If your HR is shooting up and your legs feel tired or you're lacking energy, though, it may be a sign of stress/dehydration/whatever. That's where some of the confounding factors of using HR to measure workout intensity come in.
4. Again, this depends on your goal. If you want to spend the day burning fat, stay below 75% and enjoy how easy it is. If you want to push harder you certainly can, but when you're training you need to balance easy days, hard days, and rest days. Going as fast as you can every day isn't really a great way to train if you ask the big names in the field.
5. This totally depends on your goal. Sure, you can throw in some intervals, tempo, whatever you want, but you need to decide what you want to do on the bike. If you want to race crits, your training focus will be different than if you want to finish your first century. "The Ultimate Ride" and "The Cyclist's Training Bible" are good places to start if you're more into the racing thing.
Another thing I would recommend to you is to count the calories you take in every day. That's the other critical part of the equation if you're trying to lose weight. A lot of times riding, especially hard rides, will make you really hungry and you use the ride as an excuse to pig out--at least that's what happened to me when I started racing. You do need to keep an eye on what calories are going in, just as much as the ones you're burning on the bike.
I hope this helps.
I agree with practically all of DrPete's advice here...but making a detailed science out of counting calories is a little 'hard core' for me. Hard training does make you hungry...and for very good reason. You have emptied your tank, and the body will need a good infusion of nutrition to restore glycogen stores, support protein synthesis, and other factors related to recovery. I am much more at ease if I 'pig out' after a hard training session than if I pig out while watching football all day. The food will be utilized in an entirely different manner under each scenerio(football and pizza versus recovery meal after hard training). You burn a lot of calories and energy when doing a long hard ride...and thus you stimulate the need for additional calories during the recovery period which takes place in the following hours..and even days after the intense training.
This is not to suggest that I eat pizza and cheeseburgers after a hard session. That said, I don't believe that it is too counterproductive to take in increased loads of protein, some fats, and complex carbs.
The things I most avoid at all costs are the sugary garbage..such as ice cream, milk shakes, cakes, puddings, cookies, etc etc. But if I train intensely enough, and long enough, I don't feel at all guilty about having a 16 oz prime rib with baked potato. There is something about intense riding that makes me crave red meat.
I notice that when I take my weekly mileage up to 170 miles or above, I am able to pay much less attention to my diet. I seem to lose weight no matter when my mileage hits a certain level. I also think that the higher your mileage goes...the hungrier you will be, and the more calories you will require for recovery and maintenance. What is more...let's not forget that it's not just about muscles and fat cells either. Your brain needs food too.
Just my thoughts.