Hi, I am a new 4 and got dropped pretty badly in the first 4 race I did. I am trying to stick to a new, better training schedule and get competitive in the 4s. What do you think of the schedule below for the rest of the season (ends in August/September)? I am not sure what days to do intervals or endurance rides or if there's too much group riding. Thanks!

M- Intervals?
T- Intervals?
W- Club workout (Pacelines, echelons)
Th- Fast group ride
F- Rest
S- Group ride/race
Su- Race/recovery

so you want to do intervals twice a week, race twice a week, and do two fast/hard group rides a week, with one rest day?

good luck with that.

recipe for burnout

all I do these days is race (lots), rest (also lots), and long endurance rides. so far it works way better than doing intervals last year.

pick two hard training days, two moderate days, one or two off days and one or two race days.

Oh, and read Friel's Training Bible. Keep in mind that most people whose season ends in August started training in January (slackers started in Feb ) so right now many are doing what Grumpy does.

You won't turn a season around in a few weeks, but you can start to plan for the off season and base.

Rest? What is this rest? Rest is for wussy!


What kind of races are you training for? What races do you want do well in? If your answer is "all of them" you fail this test.
What are your strengths and limiters? Without knowing all that you can't formulate a useful plan.

Buy the Friel book. Use it to figure out that stuff and make your plan.

Take Monday off.
Pick either the Wednesday workout or the Thursday workout, but not both.
Only do intervals once per week, and you can skip it if you have a race scheduled that week.

Hi guys, thanks for all the responses. Seems like I should only do intervals once a week on Tuesday. Because Monday is a rest day, if I am not racing on Sunday, should I do a hard (hilly) ride Sundays? For clarification, the Wed workout is not very hard, especially if I am not sprinting at the end of each lap. I am going to be doing mostly crits, being in Socal (SD). Should I tailor my workouts for crit racing? I am starting to read the Friel book, but it seems hard considering I don't train with computers. Not really sure of my strengths, but lot of limiters for sure. Thanks again.

You should tailor your training for your racing if you want to be as good as you can be. Obviously if you hate doing something you need (like short intervals in my case) you'll need to modify your objectives, accept that you'll be slow or suck it up and do them anyhow.

You don't need a PM or computer to apply Friel's methods for determining limiters, settting goals and periodizing your training.

Everyone has some strengths. They may be useless for most racing like mine are but they'll be there. Being honest with yourself means accepting the things you are good at in addition to being critical of the things you're bad at.

want to clarify how it was exactly that you got dropped? A long time ago I remember umd somehow losing his spot in the group due to a descent. There's a big difference in how you'd train to make up for that downfall versus my ****** missing hanging on over an obnoxious 5-minute power hill. Maybe you went otf for 5 laps, and missed the back of the accordion when the prime bell rang as you were getting caught? how long have you been riding/racing? how old are you?

no fancy computer isn't a problem, but just a cheap $10 one with a clock can get you going a little better on intervals. If you just quit when you feel like it, that kind of defeats the purpose of intervals.


edit:

you can say ass, but not fat - ass? weird

You need to better explain what "intervals" you plan on doing. An interval can be anything from a 15" sprint to a 30' tempo effort. If you're getting dropped, chances are you need to raise your ftp (the max power you can hold for an hour). W/o a PM, you're probably better off avoiding zc intervals. Try 2*20' intervals once a week. Also see https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ut-recipe-book

Rest is good.

+1. I've found that I ride better with more rest. Good training is more about quality than quantity.

this is kind of what I'm doing. basically no more than 3 hard rides a week, and sometimes just 2.

race week:

monday - off
tuesday - intervals (or hard group ride, but work yourself to a slather and actually get a work-out rather than just sitting in)
wednesday - zone 2 / endurance ride
thursday - recovery ride (light spin, 60-75 minutes, keep your HR below 125, you should be going so slow your taint hurts)
friday - light spin with a few efforts as "openers" (I tend to like to do 1x5', 1x3', 2x1' and maybe a sprint)
saturday - race
sunday - race

non-race week?

monday - off
tuesday - intervals (or hard group ride)
wednesday - endurance ride (zone 2)
thursday - hard group ride (you can sit in though), or if feeling a little tired just do zone 2
friday - recovery ride, skip "openers"
saturday - hard group ride
sunday - endurance ride

I am 20 and have been riding for almost 2 years now. I think I got dropped because I took the corners (very technical course) terribly and wasn't able to fight against the accordion effect for very long. I am thinking I might just get a watch with a big display for intervals.

threshold intervals are always a good thing (2x20, 2x30, Ze's, etc)...but it might be a good idea to incorporate some 6x1 efforts. Go as hard as you can for 1 min, rest for 5... 6 of these. Check the workout sticky at the top of the page.

also, if some of it was pack skills, you can get better at that without getting faster (which is nice)

if you can get some more practice cornering in a group (go race again!) you might find yourself doing much better in a short amount of time

+1 on the pack skills advice. The first 3 or 4 times I did race pace group rides (before I ever did an actual race) I was dropped pretty quickly, but it was never because of my fitness, it was because I had no idea how to ride with other. This may or may not be the case with you, but its worth a mention.