Stationary Bike for training during the week
 

Hi,
I am new to cycling. I live in a big city so there isnt the time in the morning to drive to a good place to do some cycling so I have been going to the gym to ride the stationary bike for 60 minutes and get my fitness level up.
What types of programs would be best, hills, random, constant. I am 43 years old, what heart rate level would be good for me to train at and what would be a good rpm to maintain to help me with my roadwork when I get out on the weekends?

I have been enjoying reading through the other posts.

thanks

Since you're new to cycling, keep it simple. Just randomize things... hills one day, steady state the next, and then random.

I like riding in the city, what city do you live in?

Az

Doing different things on different days is good. And whatever you do, sweat buckets. If you're not wet, you're not working hard enough. You should be breathing deeply, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. Don't sit there and read. If you can read, you're not going hard enough to do anything. You might find that 60 minutes is kind of a long time to go that hard. If so, ride a little less and work up to riding that full hour. But you can probably do it just fine now. Listening to music is good. The pretty folks who sit there and read magazines are not your role model. You won't see them out on the road.

Try to ride about 90 rpm (cadence). Don't worry about heart rate yet.

Do you have a DVD player near your trainer? Check out some of the Spinervals. They're good intervals and make the time go quickly. There are different ones to mimic hills, sprints, aerobic intervals. They certainly got me through this snowy winter. (www.spinervals.com)

i try and do intervals twice a week (usually ends up being once a week!!) in the gym. for me this consists of 2 x 20 minute intervals at just over 85% of my max heart rate (MHR). I throw in a 15 minute warm up before and after and 5 minute recovery all at 65% MHR.

as mentioned above try and mix it up to prevent boredom. if you are tired, just go in and cruise. try an interval session like the one above once a week or maybe try and ride for 60mins at a steady quick pace, or try some of the "hill programs" on the gym bike.

I can't ride inside without my music though....!