Training with intensity only?
 

Before this week I had not been on my bike in a year. I have been deployed to Iraq and came home on leave. We have a small gym in Iraq with a few indoor stationary bikes......standard gym fair that displays HR, distance, cadence...... that I road in hopes of being in some kind of shape to ride a century this weekend. In a nut shell I started training 4-5 days a week….depending on missions…..for an 1-1 ½ hours a day. The months went like this:

Mar- May….interval training
June and July….hill training
Aug….long intervals 30 min hard efforts
September 5 days off fly home and ride a century.

Last year when I was home I rode the same century, same rout, and it took me 5hr, 45 min. This year I did it in 5hr 1 min. I used the same bike so no change there. Based on my un-scientific experiment......I trained like I did because I was mainly bord not based on any training method......... I concluded that training with intensity can make up for a lack of miles/base training. I would not recommend training only indoors for 7 months because it drove me nuts ………….but it was all that I had.

Training at the high end of the curve(>vo2max) pulls the bottom end of the curve(endurance) up. Much research is being done on this now. For those pressed for time, it's a decent way to work out. You still need to get some recovery and adequate rest in.

Congrats on the time improvement.

And Thank You for your service.

+1... you've just discovered that one of cycling's most hallowed traditions (base miles) is flat out wrong.

Now keep your flak vest handy b/c the defenders are going to come out of the woodwork.

Meanwhile, just keep doing intervals... as long as you're getting enough rest / recovery, it's all you need. Granted... might not be the most "fun" workout... but it gets the job done.

And thanks for your service. Glad you're safe and sound. Keep it that way, huh?

I'm not sure you should assume your change in your indoor training was the primary reason for the dramatic improvement in the outdoor Century ride. You may have used a better mix of training intensity and developed more fitness - or not.

For one thing, remember that any Century ride result is a collection of many factors. We might just as well be asking what the heck was "wrong" with last year's Century ride?

From what i read in the science press, there's a lot of empirical support for HIT. And Cateye's experience is in line with this.

I often ride 30 or 40 miles a day for fitness. But I feel like I got as much benefit from speeding my commute time from 17 minutes to 13 minutes. HIT methods like sprinting, intervals and maximum effort riding give me a lot of bang for the buck.

I'll throw myself in with the defenders. All the guys I know who maintain a high level of intensity in their training year round tend to start getting burnt out after about 15 races into the season. The guys who cut back on the intensity in the off season and do a lot of base miles seem to race better longer into the season. One teammate actually did 60 races this season.

HIIT(and the related gain) tends to create a lot of stress on the body. I believe that is a major factor in the burn out I've seen in others. It's very important to make sure that you are doing active recovery and getting adequate rest if you go this route.

I tend to think of base as part of a year(or multi-year) periodization cycle. Like I said though - there seems to be a decent amount of research coming out about this and it will be interesting to see what the year-over-year results show.

I would guess also that for OP an intense workout is a good way to deal with the stress of being in a combat zone and that may trump all other factors in deciding how to format a yearly training plan.

Good points. Another factor for a lot of people is that they don't have the time to train with high mileage.

I periodize for yet another reason. In the summer, I enjoy long road rides in the country, so I tend to take it slower. In the Michigan winter, most of my riding is commuting and other short trips in the city. So winter is when I tend to use the HIT methods like intervals.

All are good posts. Like I stated my findings were very un-scientific. It took a ton of discipline to do what I did because it is very boring. Training with HIT did make it more enjoyable but still training like I did indoors only sucked. I do believe that HIT did make a huge difference. When I pulled, attacked up hill etc. I was hurting people. What I also found out was that after a hard effort I was less tired than before so doing another hard effort was easy and again that put the hurt on others. When I get home I will do long miles for fun and fitness but I plan on a lot of HIT as well. Ditto on plenty of rest between hard HIT training. I learned that the hard way. Once I figured out active recovery and what my body could take with HIT I got stronger.

Yup, that's how it works. Looks like you should be back from the abyss soon. Good luck!

I had asked Waterrockets what his training plan was, because he's had a lot of success racing this year. In a nutshell, 5 days of intensity, weekends off. So there ya go, more support.

Stay safe.

Just like feet and shoes, there is no "one way fits all" type of training plan. For some this will work, for others such as myself, it will not. IMO this 'HIT most of the time' plan will work for those that already have a preponderance of slow twitch muscle as they do not require the training duration necessary that us type IIb guys require for an endurance type muscular adaptation to occur. The endurance adaptions at the molecular level require hours of exercise at a time, not minutes. The increase in mitochondrial and capillary density for fast twitchers will only come with hours in the saddle. Yes, there will be an increase in fitness but it will plateau quickly for type IIb guys whereas a good dose of base miles beforehand to lay the foundation will allow an athlete to reach a higher plateau down the line.