I am looking to get serious about training!
 

Hey guys, I have been riding a bike for many many years so its nothing new to me, I have had a mountain bike for 6+ years and in shear desperation I sold it and bought my first road bike, anyways MTBing and RBing is a different game (as I am sure you know). Anyways, I am looking to see what you can all recomend for reading, and any input that you may have on what to do about training, I am not looking to become Americas next top cyclist, I am looking to find good health. So what I am looking for is information on what I need to do training and diet wise. I know that I need to change my diet just not sure how, and I am also looking for ways for me to increase my breating and also build muscle...any input is appreciated

too general....post your specific goals.

eg: I want to start racing MTB, or I want to lower my skinfolds.

Fair enough, well lets see I weight about 220 or so...basically I want the "race fit" and I also want to build muscle.

Diet is mostly about the following:

1) Getting the junk out of your diet. Take out refined sugar, refined flour, white rice, etc.
2) Add in vegetables and fruit
3) Keeping track of what you eat

1. ride your bike a lot more. Ask at your LBS about group rides and go along as often as you can.

2. building muscle requires resistance training. Join a gym....then ride there 3-4 x a week for workouts.

Alright Chain, I did this recently, dropped 25 lbs and "got healthy".

The diet:
Slightly smaller portions of everything
No fried foods, fast foods, white flours, and sugar
Protein shake (protein powder in fruit juice), piece of fruit, & granola bar for breakfast in the office after pedaling in.

Exercise:
To ramp up my cycling to beyond 10 miles/day commute, I trained for a century. Lots of plans around, this one looks pretty good. Rode four centuries since June.

In the gym, 2 or 3 times a week, basic upper body conditioning:
push-ups
pull-ups
crunches
knee lifts
back extensions
incline presses
squats, squats and squats, weighted, unweighted, etc.
Try not to let more than one day a week go by without 30 minutes of aerobic exercise.

stfuar

kthxbye

I'll second the century advice. Like you, 8 months ago I weighed about 225 when I got into road bikes. I decided to make my goal for this year a century. Last month I did three of them. I'm now down to under 210 with a lot better fat/muscle balance.

Even if you don't want to ride a century a metric or a half would be a great goal to provide focus for your training. I just needed something more specific to motivate me than "finding good health." When I told my friend that I would to ride a century on X date it gave me plenty of motivation to get off my butt.

The century training helped me focus my diet and exercise on a specific goal. The book I read was Bicycling magazine's "complete book of long distance cycling." It's a little general but that's what I needed at the time.

Basically, the aerobic fitness will come from riding progressively longer distances at a moderate heart rate. I increased my weekly mileage by 10% each week. I also increased the distance of my longest ride by 10% each week. I literally just sat down with the calendar picked my first century and then backed the weekly mileages into it.

The weight loss comes from eating a little less each day than you burn off. Just to be sure to have something small to eat before riding two hours plus. Also, eat or drink on the long rides. The book does a nice job of addressing this subject.

As for the muscle, the legs will take care of themselves. For upper body you're probably going to have to hit the gym a couple days a week.

thanks for the replies guys, the info helps alot!