how to really train

back when it could be said that I was a "climber" (at the gym 5-6 nights/week in the winter), rest weeks were essential. was always stronger when midterms or w/e sidelined me from workouts.

body gotta recover itselfs, u feel me

i have been lazy having a rest month

i take one week off a year in october.

use it or lose it foolz

yeah figures. i'm gonna do a 4 day taper prior to the end of season stage race. no rest for the wicked.

find your zones. train in your zones. do structured intervals. that's how you get fit and fast.
― shite new answers (cutty), Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:15 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what's the best guide to read on this stuff? and what equipment do you need (powertap/HRM/cadence... just a computer?) to make a go of it

Heart rate zones are the best entry level way to zone training, but if you have the money getting a powermeter is the most absolute way to measure output. Speed can fluctuate due to wind, weather, road surface. Heart rate can fluctuate due to temperature, time of day, general health. Powermeters are the most absolute, and not surprisingly, also the most expensive.

(Worth mentioning that a lot of companies are combining GPS and topography technology to provide lower cost "wattage estimations" but are the first to mention that their results are most accurate on uphills in mild weather with low wind. That's a pretty controlled sample.)

There are tons of HR Zone training plans out there. It's worth trying a few out and seeing what you're most comfortable with. But finding a regimented routine and finding riders of a similar skill set who are involved with similar goals to train with is probably the best advice I have.

coz, two ways to find your zone. self-administered field testing (doing 20 minute/60 minute efforts and calculating percentages afterwards) or lactate threshold testing by a coach.

pick up joe friel's book the cyclist's training bible if you want to learn about training. are you thinking of racing or just want to be faster than you are?

finding your zone sounds expensive (tho worthwhile, i imagine)

cheapest: (0.75)(220-yr age)

pin yr HR there until you work out an actual training plan

cutty, bit of both. def want to be faster than I am and the prospect of racing is appealing but don't want to be embarassed. will pick up that book right now

cheapest: (0.75)(220-yr age)

hmmm that puts me at 138 which is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY lower than reality.

lol u old (j/k mine is 143)

i mean if you're just starting out and all you've got is a pulse, that's still a good heuristic---guessing coz is in the same ballpark, and if ~140 feels like a cakewalk, amp it up a bit. like, the single biggest part of "training" is ~actually doing it~. step 1 is "go out on a hard ride"

worry about the zone-y stuff when you are going to really train imo

my very first LT test was 161. it's north of there nowadays (I can hold 172 for 40mins).

80% of max may be a cheaper estimate. :D

Cozen - it also depends what kind of racing/riding you want to do. From my experience there's a world of difference between, say, an hour-long road race over a hilly 2km circuit / a ten-mile time trial over a gently undulating dual carriageway / a 94-mile sportive. You need to be fit to do all of them, but fit in different ways. For road racing you need to be able to deal with sudden random and short bursts of high speed, for time trialing it's more about holding a fairly high but even pace, and for sportives it's much more about endurance. You can do interval training for road racing and time trialing, but the latter would require much longer intervals.

maybe I'll just get a heavy bike

Now you're talking

no

Even though I'm quite fit I have a weird HR which is nice and low resting - 50 or so - but then shoots up on the first hint of exercise. It also comes down quickly, too, but I'll be in the 170 range when friends are about 150.

how do I shot "hill reps"

OK this week's ride with the harder group has clarified my training aims

I want to be able to ride 100 miles at 19mph+ in a group and stay with the climbers on the hills

so essentially I want to get better on hills - am I looking at hill intervals to get better on them?

you need to focus on your base first, but yes hill repeats wont hurt!

how did you fare on the ride?

your daily bicycle log

nice work cozy, esp in that weather.

in order to ride 100 miles at any speed you need to (as cutty states) build up your endurance.

for hills, repeats will definitely help as well as increasing your ability to recover (via intervals).

100 hilly miles at 19mph is about race pace for sporty amateur riders so it will involve some training and logging lots of miles.

• purchased rollers from reputable squirming-themed online store to rack up the winter k's and work on smooth pedal action
• waited customary week for goods to arive
• package arrives, reveals itself to be turbo trainer rather than the rollers i ordered

:|

rollers finally turned up. bit of a wobble-fest frankly!

pls record and post to CYCLING LOLZ

I've got a couple more time trials to go before the normal racing season finishes, but I'm already starting to think about the actual end of the season which is my club's hill climb championship on the first Sunday in November. I got second place last year (which, while good, isn't amazingly so, seeing as there were only ten or so riders in it and some of them were at the er.... less competitive end of the spectrum) with 2.51. The first placed guy, who is much better than me and has won a couple of road races this season, got 2.35. This is on a climb about three-quarters of a mile long which has a false flat in the middle and the steepest section is about 12% (according to the sign at the side of the road).

I'm trying to do some strength training to prepare for this. I was advised to do this last year by a coach (but didn't get round to it). On Wednesday I went up it staying in the big ring the whole way up (53x21 and then 53x23 on the steepest bit) staying in the saddle and grinding, thinking this is what I'd been told to do. When I got home I re-read the instructions from a year ago and saw that what I'd actually been told to do was go in a ridiculous gear (53x17) and try to sprint up out of the saddle until I reached the point where I couldn't ride any more. Then I was supposed to mark this point, turn around and go back downhill and ride for a few minutes until my heart rate had recovered, then repeat it four more times seeing if I could beat the point I'd marked.

I still haven't tried this, but on Friday I went back to the hill again to do some timed practice. I went up in the big ring (53x21 all the way), this time out of the saddle and pushing hard, and managed 2.59. Then I did a loop and came back to try it again, this time using the big ring on the flatter bits, but down to 39x19 39x21 on the steeper bits. It felt horrible at the end but I managed 2.50 (so better than I did in the actual race last year).

Chapeau! Do you think you'll be able to get to 2.35? Or close enough to give him a fright?

To be honest, no. Fifteen seconds doesn't sound like much, but it feels huge.

just go up it faster

That might just work...

I recommend using a lighter bike

TODAY MARKS MY FINAL DAY OF TRAINING OF THE 2010 SEASON AND I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT!

always be training.

regardless. you are a winner. you showed real motivation this year and you killed it! <3

youre both remarkable!

honestly, cutty is a saint for putting up with my incessant barrage of n00b racing/training questions.

but both of you guys have been such rad support. *hugglez*

are you going to make the step up to a heavier bike next season

Filthy weather again this morning, but I went out and had another go on the hill climb. This time I tried going all out earlier than normal and just counted on adrenalin to help me gasp my way up the final stretch. I smashed my PB by 8 seconds and got 2:42. Felt so spent afterwards I had to just ride home again.

guys i think i figured out intervals/tabata training

any tips/recommendations etc for improving pedalling technique? I have noticed that when I go for a higher cadence (on real bike or indeed stationary bike at the gym) I get ... "bouncy". I'm sure you know what I mean - arse lifts off perch at every stroke almost, feels really really inefficient. Is it a question of more and more miles? a simple case of cranking up the gear? or are there exercises/methods for improving smoothness?

its been consistently v. v. cold and 8" of snow is lingering, so i went to spinning classes on sunday and last night. i may know how to ride a bike, but apparently i don't know how to "spin." like, i was pretty baffled by the "jumps," where you stand for just 4 pedal strokes and sit for 4 pedal strokes at 90 rpm. also, contradictory instructions about intensity levels.

all i really want is to use a spinning bike for my own workout, but neither venue i go to appears to allow that.

Chris/Porkpie - are your feet clipped into the pedals? is the saddle high enough?

Clipped in yes, maybe the saddle does need to go up, but I set it up as per the prescribed method (can't remember the details but it involved measuring and a bit of maths). Of course there is the random factor of being 6'3" but with only a 32" leg.

buy a spin bike for the home!

I have a mystery knee injury that has appeared from nowhere. I must have twisted it, possibly while playing toddler games, or possibly through dancing while intoxicated. Common sense says I should just rest it until it feels better, but I've had two months of scarcely cycling and the start of the new season is getting closer. If I just go out and ride tomorrow regardless, am I going to regret it?

my mystery knee injury that used to only hurt on my right side now switched over to my left side. right side's fine though.

That sounds encouraging

[warning: EMO]

I am really, really, really, really out of shape. Very disappointing. Getting "looks", "talkings to", "bailed on"... and it's like 85 miles with 5500 feet of climbing in under 5 hours is pretty groundbreaking for me, but still coming up short.

What sucks:
I bonked on this 5 mile climb today.
2 guys I ride with are in really good shape (one seems to be peaking at the moment, he threw down 400+W for over 10 mins the other night in spin class) and are not shy about showing off their early season fitness.
Kinda had some "neg" feelings today about LL this, which sucks because I'm usually a pretty "posi" dude about training/racing.
Basically need to HTFU and stop being slow and lose more weight.