Interval Training....
 

Hello,

I am going on this morning group rides one day a week. These certain days are supposed to be recovery days. But, as usual there is always some jackass trying to go 30mph at the front. So, instead of maintaining 21-23mph we are maintaining 25-28mph and peaking at 32mph. The distance these guys are riding is 30 miles, which 5 miles is warm up and 5 miles cool down (at the end).

I used to not be able to keep up, until I discovered interval training:thumb:

My issue is I can hit there speeds, but I can not maintain them for as long as they can. Basically, my interval training consist of 1 minute hard and 2 minutes spinning/recovering.

What other kind of interval training should I do to maintain these high rates of speed (25-28)?

Thank you,
finsfree

Check out the sticky in the racing forum. There's tons of information there.

If you should be doing a recovery ride, why are you riding with a fast group ? Ride solo for 45 minutes at an easy pace.

Beat me to it because I went to go get the link:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ut-recipe-book

You probably want to be looking at the threshold workouts. They are all based on power, but you can approximate them with perceived effort.

I think he does the same thing I do. He goes out with the fast group on their recovery day. Today I did the recovery ride with my group, the average speed for the fastest 30 minutes of the ride was 25 mph, it was a great workout for me, conversational for them. I wondered why they call that a recovery ride until I did the fast ride and had a 29 mph average when I went off the back in 5 miles.

finsfree, what group do you ride with?

I used to get dropped at first and then found out not getting dropped consisted more of technique than power. Don't leave gaps, don't leave the draft, keep a high cadence to make it easier to close gaps that do open, ride in the drops, avoid being behind short people or small women. Now I can finish the rides with no problem with no actual training besides going out a few times a week and getting dropped for a while.

That is not a recovery ride....

Sorry, but if you are hit mid 20's on a ride it ain't recovery....Unless you regularily ride in the TdF...

Homebrew has it right....

Hence the reason I have STOPPED doing recovery rides with groups....Only the wife and I go out those days....Slow and easy is the word...

25-28 mph is really easy to do in a draft. i don't see what the problem is

It's not the OP's recovery ride it's a recovery ride for the group. Invariably when a group gets together they will often pick up the pace at various points in the ride because it is an easy short ride for the group.

But it's not a recovery ride. Unless you're sandbagging you're going to take turns pulling.

the recovery ride here is a 100 person peloton at the crack of dawn, you can go the entire ride without pulling and nobody would notice, i'd say more than half the people on it have never seen the front of the pack.

This is a off topic but if your recovery ride pace is 170W and you're riding in a group, someone out front needs to be doing considerably more, perhaps 240W. It's impossible to have everyone in a group riding steadily at their recovery pace. As long as the average at the end of the day is low enough and you aren't spending any time above threshold you should be fine.

What are we talking about here ? There's a difference between recovery ride & easy ride. None of these descriptions fit recovery ride except "Only the wife and I go out those days....Slow and easy is the word"

Thank you Homebrew....

We do as the coach says and so far it seems to be working...

Years before we'd do what the other poster's are talking about and for some reason always seemed to be tired :)

" Basically, my interval training consist of 1 minute hard and 2 minutes spinning/recovering. "


That is one kind of "interval." This is training your body to do short, intense power outputs. Unfortunately, you are struggling with the longer sustained efforts.

I would start to add some longer interval sessions - ie. 3 min, 10 min, 20 min intervals. For example, yesterday I did 3 x 10 min intervals with about 4 min of rest in between. I frequently do a set of 2-3, 20 min intervals with recovery in between.

Thank you. This is the answer I was looking for. I am looking for answers along these lines.:thumb:

If you where training for a 30 mile race, how many days a week would you do these intervals?

Also jrobe in your 3 x 10 min intervals, what speeds were you reaching?