HMF

I'm 26 years old as of last Saturday and this is my first year taking cycling seriously. I'm on the road about 9-10 hours per week every week, and I've purchased and read through half of Joe Friel's training bible... right up to the point where I'm supposed to be picking races and planning training for next year.

I don't really know what to pick though, and one of the pitfalls he mentions is not training for something specific. When I first started dreaming of road racing, I had only seen the Tour de France, and I thought stage racing was the norm. Now, come to find out, criteriums are a big deal in the US, and one of the most regular types of races here in Austin. I ride in groups every weekend and I think my bike handling skills are pretty good, and my muscular endurance is wayy better than it was in May.

Any suggestions from you guys on what races a first season rider should pick? The reason I ask is because I want to train for the right types of races, and a lot of your were once where I am. Any advice would be appreciated.

mattm

Which races? As many of them you can find/get to.

For your first season you don't really need to target certain races, just get out there and find out what you're good at.

HMF

That's kind of what I figured. "Picking races" at this point is sorta of a shot in the dark. Kinda like picking your major before going to college (Hah, hah... voice of experience).

Another thing.. in Friel's book he talks about the transition period where you're not doing much, then you're supposed to pick up some other activity to keep your aerobic endurance, but he says you should stay off the bike to avoid burnout. I love riding my bike, and since I'm only on it 9-10 hours a week, is this "off" period necessary?

Creakyknees

I don't think Friel was really thinking of cat 6's when he wrote the book... if you're having fun, ride your bike. 9-10 hours a week is not going to lead to burnout in most people.

You are blessed in Austin to have the Driveway series. Get out there, this Thursday, and race.

https://www.drivewayseries.com/

HMF

Yea... really wish I could make it to those, but I work late. Next year :-/

Creakyknees

do you have vacation days?

Racer Ex 

First part of the Texas race is season is mostly road races and circuit races. Crit season starts up early summer, and there's a smattering of time trials and stage races there throughout the year. Check out TXBRA to get a feel for the calender.

That being said as a beginning racer you need to learn how to race, and unless you have an extensive athletic background you're going to keep improving physically, so training for steady progression will serve you better for the first year or two than trying to peak for a specific event. There are several guys in your area on this board and quite a few TX racers, myself included who can share course knowledge, and provide other advice. I'd seek them out, try to hook up for a few training rides, ask questions, and then try to apply what you've learned at the races.

And schedule at least two days a week for either a very light ride or a full day off. Rest/recovery is crucial to progress and in preventing burnout.

If you want to dip your foot in the water this year the TX RR Championship will be held at Ft Hood Oct 9/10. It's a great course and completely closed to traffic so you have the whole road.

badhat

i actually still think theres value to peaking/periodizing, even if its not hugely helpful psysiological and its mostly mental. i think its useful to add progressive load, take rest weeks, transition from endurance to super threshold, high volume low intensity to low volume high intensity, taper, if for no other reason than that it makes training more dynamic, and i think for a lot of people, progression through a plan and variety are really useful motivators.

so yeah even if its out of a hat, pick something early that sounds fun and another something late, and try to build rudimentary peaks around them, and train through the rest of your races.

the nice thing about needle dropping your A races is if after your first A race you figure out some new things about what works for you and what doesnt, you can restructure your second peak to work better for your training needs.

a plan also helps you not neglect rest days and weeks. if its written down in advance, theres less guilt and second guessing if you take an easy week or a couple of rest days.

most of us do better if we have a plan to look at, whether the plan makes us faster or not, it will probably keep you motivated when you have signpost along the road to look forward to.

my 2 cents

Brian Ratliff

Read closer. Friel's book is really for Cat 3 and up; racers who have been racing for 2 or 3 years already. He says this explicitly. A new racer doesn't know enough about his or her body to make use of anything but the most general of information in that book. It does have good information for the new racer, but the specific training cycles and workouts and such that he goes though are really for more developed racers.

If you are just starting with racing, race anything and everything. Race as much as you can, and train by doing threshold intervals and long rides (>2 hours) over the winter. Don't put yourself into a box until you know at least the city your box needs to be located in.

wens

But what about a new racer with an endurance sport background?

mike868y

2010 was my first year racing. I spent way too much time worrying about intervals, training plans, power numbers, over reaching, etc, and it ultimately hurt my results. Just ride. Ride a lot, ride hard. Do 1-2 group rides a week on weeks when you're not racing to get that upper level intensity work in and just enjoy being on the bike.

badhat

had the opposite experience, personally

having a plan kept me motivated, knowing that next week was a rest week helped me push through when i was flagging a little.

some people thrive with JRA, some thrive with goals and specificity.

i dont think you have to be unreasonably strict and agressive with your plan, count watts and grams and obsess over WKO metrics, but a very general progressive outline cant be a bad thing.

HMF

So you'd recommend, every time I go out, to just ride pretty hard? Like in Zone 4/5a?

mike868y

That's what seemed to work for me, but I'm equally (if not more) clueless than you and everybody is different.

mattm

I don't think it's quite that simple, even for beginners.

Base rides shouldn't be done in hard zones (e.g. 4/5), and if they are long enough they can't be anyway.

There are times for riding hard, and times for riding soft.

Keir

Why would you not suggest a new rider follow a specific plan? Does a weight lifter just "lift a lot" because they just started? No. That leads to nothing.

Brian Ratliff

I dunno. I would guess it would depend.

1+ If you know what zone 4/5a is, you'll also know that you can only do interval training at this pace a couple times a week.

At this point, you need to get miles into your legs and hours on your bike, that's one thing. The other thing is you need to learn what a threshold effort feels like and then train at that level of effort (this is your zone 4/5a). You obtain the former by doing lots of long (>2 hour) rides at moderate effort (at this time of year). You obtain the latter by doing long threshold intervals a couple times a week.

The natural competition of a group ride is good training as well. A good group will combine the longer hours you need with the hard efforts you also need and will teach you to handle your bike in a close pack.

Another way to say this is: when you ride easy, ride easy. When you ride hard, ride hard. There's little benefit to riding "pretty hard". If you ride only "pretty hard" all the time, you just make yourself tired. You aren't improving your base fitness; for that you need hours, not intensity. You aren't improving your power output; for that you need to push your limits. Spend lots of time at either end: long/easy and short/hard; that's the way to start training to race.

And then remember, once the season starts, race everything and often.

I have no idea what a weight lifter does. A bike racer does quite a bit of "riding a lot", particularly when in the off season. Intervals are an integral part of training as well, but a newbie racer will find limited use of these (basically the only ones which are important to the newbie are intervals at threshold) until he has the aerobic base under him to support the interval training. Jumping from recreational cycling into heavy interval training is begging for injury and burnout.

umd

I was going to say that someone has a quote in their sig about making up a workout that sounds hard and doing it... then I realized it was you

Brian Ratliff

Yup. It's along those lines. The difference between a recreational rider and a racer is a racer rides more, and knows how to ride really hard.

ericm979

Everyone is different. Me, I need goals. I did the unfocused try to race everything approach in my late 20s and I got burnt out and quit riding entirely. For a new racer its important to experience different kinds of races, but trying to race everything on the calendar and ride hard all the time is maybe not such a good idea. It wasn't for me. I need acheivable goals so there's a "done with that, on to the next" phase.

Now (I'm 50) I plan around a couple races that are important to me. I do other races but those A races define my season. So my season has distinct phases rather than being an amorphous "try to go fast all the time" lump. So far I have made it through five years of racing without getting sick of riding, which is more than I did last time. Admittedly I'm not successful if you measure success by wins and placings, but I am still enjoying riding, which is my measure of success.

Keir

I don't believe this is true. Friel also has guidelines for new riders to create a plan. It's for anyone, but you are right in that it is more directed at experienced riders. On occasion, like in a workout description, he'll say "Do not do this workout if you have less than 2 years of racing experience", but only in a couple of them. To say that a beginner rider wouldn't benefit from proper recovery, hours on the bike and some tempo/intervals doesn't make much sense.

Racer Ex 

I think Racer Ex explained it well.

The problem with the OP training to peak for a specific event, is that until he's got some races under his belt, he isn't going to know what he needs to train for, both as an individual, and to perform well in a particular race. It's like if you were being told to get ready to "paint something". What? I dunno. What kind of paint? I dunno. Colors? Not really sure. But you'll be painting it March 30th.

Unless you're a genetic freak with a sports background, the first 2+ years are like community college. Figure out what you want to do, what you're good and not good at, and get smarter (stronger).

Structure is fine, and if the OP is asking for it, he wants it. But periodization at this point can be pretty counter-productive and disappointing; you can schedule training without an "A" race and do quite well.

I'd suggest doing a little bit of everything, both in your training and racing. It's as likely as not you'll be surprised at where your skill set leads you; I figured way wrong on where I'd excel.

HMF

^^ that was probably the most helpful so far.

I think I'm starting to get an idea of what I should think about doing the next year. And I think I'm getting hung-up on developing a specific formula for success next year. Maybe I'll just ride my bike for a while..

umd

+1

OP, go through the workout recipie sticky, try them all, see what workouts work for you, etc.

wens

Would you just put rest weeks where you would put peaks instead? Swimming I know would have serious mental and physical burnout if I tried to do go the length of road season without putting a break in the middle somewhere.

Edit: sorry my reading comprehension sucked there.