Training advice sought - 10 weeks to go...
 

Have read great advice on a range of topics here at BF, so thought I'd throw one out for the masses.

I have a bike trip planned in early July that will be four or five days of 80 - 100 mile rides each day in the New Hampshire White Mtns.

Here's what I want:
- loose 8-10 lbs before the trip
- increase my climbing ability as much as possible in this short time frame
- increase overall fitness so I can enjoy the trip as much as possible

Here's what I have available:
- time: most weekends to do any length of ride
- hills - nothing big in my immediate area, but have a few 1/2 mile hills that I can do repeats on
- hills - have some good ones an hour and a half away, so I planned to make a few weeks of driving to this location to get some hill training in
- time: mornings - have a good hour-to-hour and a half each morning before work to train
- time: after work - have the odd hour or so after work to train
- local gym around the corner for any weight lifting that could help

What sort of training should I focus on? Anyone out there want to take a stab at a training regiment?

I'm hoping to ride 4-5 days a week with bigger rides on the weekends. I was thinking of doing hill repeats one day a week for an hour or so. Any use going to the gym to hit the leg weights at all?

Thanks for any advice!

I wouldn't recommend any weight training. Since you are trying to loose weight I would focus on simply riding, a lot. What you are planning on doing sounds fine. The hardest part now will be actually following through with your schedual.

adam: how many miles per week are you doing now?

with 10 weeks to train for that kind of workload, i personally wouldn't have weight loss as a goal. eat enough quality food to fuel your training and recovery.

the only resistance training i'd do at this stage is core work. maybe some light leg work to correct strength imbalances.

Will be over a hundred a week, but looking to ramp it up right away. Was thinking of starting the following:
- weekend: 40-50 mile one day, 20-30 miles the other day. This will move up in length closer to July
- 3 x 20 miles during the week.

Weekend will involve some hills, weekly rides will include one hill repeat session and one interval session

Buy Chris Carmichael's Ultimate Ride. I am reading it now and it addresses all facets of training. It does have some self-promotional stuff in the beginning of the book however the content of the book is solid where it matters. He was the coach of the US Olympic team and Lance's personal coach.