training coach, please help!
 

right now i am training 4 or 5 times per week, mostly on my giant tcr2 and a fluid trainer. (my wife, kid, work schedule at the moment does not allow much time during the week for me to get out. Also, my new job does not have the showers set up yet, so for now i have stopped commuting.)

anyway, i have a speedometer, a cadence computer, and a heart rate monitor. right now my 55 minute workout looks like this:

10 minute warm up at 80 rpm, bringing HR up to 120
2 minutes at 90 rpm, 3 gears harder bring HR up to 140 or so....(80% effort)
1 minute recovery at 80 rpm, back in the easy gear... HR drops down to about 130
2 minutes at 90 rpm, 3 gears harder brining HR up to 155-160 (80% effort)
1 minute recovery at 80 rpm, back in the easy gear... HR drops down to about 140
2 minutes at 90 - 95 rpm, 4 gears harder bringin HR upt to 170 (100% effort)
5 minute recovery at 80 rpm, easy gear brining HR down to 125-130
2 minutes at 90 rpm, 3 gears harder bring HR up to 160 or so....(80% effort)
1 minute recovery at 80 rpm, back in the easy gear... HR drops down to about 130
2 minutes at 90 rpm, 3 gears harder brining HR up to 165 (80% effort)
1 minute recovery at 80 rpm, back in the easy gear... HR drops down to about 140
2 minutes at 90 - 95 rpm, 4 gears harder bringin HR upt to 170 - 175 (100% effort)
5 minute recovery at 80 rpm, easy gear bringing HR down to 125-130
2 minutes at 90 rpm, 3 gears harder bring HR up to 160 or so....(80% effort)
1 minute recovery at 80 rpm, back in the easy gear... HR drops down to about 130
2 minutes at 90 rpm, 3 gears harder brining HR up to 165 (80% effort)
1 minute recovery at 80 rpm, back in the easy gear... HR drops down to about 140
2 minutes at 90 - 95 rpm, 4 gears harder bringin HR upt to 170 (100% effort)
10 minute cool down 75-80 rpm easy gear.

Now, as you can see by my HR numbers, i am not in the best of shape at this point... i am getting better quickly though. lets say i need to train for a 25-30 mile ride... i want to be able to hang with the faster group. is this workout my best bet? I assume not, afterall, i made it up based on NOTHING! Please guide me. i have about an hour to ride each morning on the trainer... and one long real ride on the weekend. if you would recomend a completely different workout, please post it!

I know i am guilty here of getting too caught up in the numbers, but when I am on the trainer, i might as well train as efficiently as possible... besides all of my gadgets give me something to do as i sit there in the same spot hour after hour!!!!!

Get a few videos. The Carmichael training videos are pretty good and then you can have a few different workouts to choose from and it gives you something to do while sitting there. Correct me if I am wrong but I think all the Carmichael videos are an hour long.

The Spinerval series are another alternative. You can buy them directly from the website (google 'em) and/or look them up on ebay, where they seem to turn up regularly.

They will help, at least structuring your training and delaying the onset of suicidal boredom.

It looks like you might benefit from some longer intervals. I believe 3 minutes is about the minimum required to reach vo2 max. Intervals of 3 to 8 minutes withh 20 to 30 minutes of total work time with equal recovery intervals (or less depending on fitness) is a good way to work vo2 max:

10 min warm-up
5x4 min hard, 4 min easy
10 min cool-down

10 to 30 minute intervals with 30 to 40 min total work time is a good way to target threshold:

10 min warm-up
20 minutes on
5 min easy
20 min on
5 min cool down

The only problem is trying to gauge the intensity of your intervals by heart rate. Obviously the shorter intervals are done at a higher intensity than the longer ones. It should feel like you're going as hard as you can go for the duration of the interval, while maintaining a constant cadence and gear. This makes for a constant effort or power output. Have you done any self-testing to set heart rate zones?

The 20 minute intervals should be done at 95 to 105% of the highest heart rate you can maintain for 1 hour. The 4 minute intervals should be done at 106% to ~110% of the highest heart rate you can maintain for 1 hour. The interval starts when you start going hard, not when your heart rate reaches the target. You may have to employ trial and error to get the gearing and cadence right. Hope this helps.