stockholm

Hi all,
Last year I had a baby, so I've been using this year to get back in shape. Simply just cycling for the love of cycling. Before my pregnancy I was doing metric centuries and centuries without any major problems, I could go long but not very fast.

Now I want to get back into cycling as training, not just transportation and fun. But I'm not aiming for a specific event, rather just looking for a healthy way of living, getting into great shape, and perhaps do a century again sometime if I feel like it -- and faster this time.

To my question: all plans and books talks of 10 weeks here and 12 weeks to there, but I want to keep doing it all year! Should I skip the plans and just focus on my daily commutes, a weekend ride, and perhaps mix it up with some fartlek intervals? Or can I use the plans (such as Bicycling century plan) back to back? When 10 weeks have passed I start from the beginning again?

Sticking to a plan helps with motivation, so I'm a little bit scared of "freelancing" if you know what I mean...

Any and all input greatly appreciated. Thanks!

gregf83 

You don't really need a sophisticated plan if you just want to get fit. Set a goal for weekly cycling time, for example 10-15 hours/wk and see how you manage. Once you have a specific target event in mind then you can work backwards and build up to a peak before the event. All competitive athletes use some form of periodization in their training as it's not possible, mentally or physically, to stay in peak shape all the time.

Pick up a copy of Joe Friel's 'Training Bible' as well.

coachloren

Hello stockholm,
Joe Friel's Training Bible is good but one better would be to get a TrainingPeaks Premium account and use the virtual coach. Virtual Coach uses the same concepts that are outlined in Joe Friel's Training Bible. You can check this out at https://home.trainingpeaks.com/sign-u...l-edition.aspx. Another option is to seek out a coach in your area. A coach should be able to develop a year around fitness plan as well as incorporate some centuries in your training plan. PM me if you have any questions.

cyclezen

you have the wonderful option of riding 6 months and skiing the other time.
I would do both (and other stuff, like skating, hiking...).
When you take considerable time off from a sport, but still retain conditioning, there is some back sliding in sport specific performance. So coming back to cycling after a winter of x-c will provide some 'motivation' for getting the cycling legs back. Same thing will happen on the flip side with x-c.
It happened to me this past winter - didn;t really get back on the bike much until Mid-April. We had an incredible winter in CA...
Cycling was fresh, I was behind all the others; I found motivation in catching up to my riding groups. The juices flowed! I did a real strong program of intervals and hill climbs to hasten the performance recovery. And by Mid-summer was riding strong again. Now it's carrying well into fall as others are burned out. And I'm stoked to get back on Downhill and X-C skis this winter.
I hope it again happens the same way this year...
I developed a 2 week plan, then modified based on how I was performing. If I was feeling wacked for a day or two, I would still try to punch thru the plateau on the 3rd day. If that didn't work, then the next week became a 'recovery' week. Then back on a building plan after the recovery week.
I didn't initially plan to do any 'events', however I did do some organized rides during the summer and early fall. Next year I plan on getting back into Master's racing, with May as a target date to start (if we again have a similar winter...) to include TT's.

At some point it's important to have an 'event/goal' maybe 3 weeks out, which you can work towards. If you have any competitive juices, this helps get the motivation focused. Even strong weekly group rides can help that.
I find it very difficult to ride with any motivation, over an extended period, if I don;t have some goals. And riding solo for extended periods becomes the black hole of burnout.