Help me improve.

[boydj]

Would a time-trial a week have the same effect?

C

A time-trial is a race against the clock and definitely should be an intense, sustained effort, but you have to pace it and not work flat out from the start (unless it's a very short tt). The problem is, unless you judge your effort properly, you'll either burn out early or finish with some gas left in the tank. Also the tt is an extended effort and not the best way of training, because you'll not be lifting your overall top speed.

You will improve your times in the tt over a period if you keep doing them along with a reasonable mileage in other runs. However, a session of hard intervals, done regularly with proper recovery between sessions, will improve your basic speed more quickly. The session doesn't have to be too formal - use a series of lampposts, favourite stretches of road, or go hard on all the hills on one of your routes - whatever suits you and where you are riding. Along with the hard work, possibly the harder thing to do is to ride relatively slowly on recovery rides after a hard session or a tt - because that's when the hard work is consolidated.

 

[HLaB]

Liam, dont worry about making every weekend lots of riders don't. Also if you take the travel at a relaxed pace you can do the club run no problem; when I first moved from Edinburgh to Fife I used to cycle 21miles to the ERClub's start. I would pick and choose when I felt like doing that, so wouldn't be there every week too.

 

[Rob3rt]

A time-trial is a race against the clock and definitely should be an intense, sustained effort, but you have to pace it and not work flat out from the start (unless it's a very short tt). The problem is, unless you judge your effort properly, you'll either burn out early or finish with some gas left in the tank. Also the tt is an extended effort and not the best way of training, because you'll not be lifting your overall top speed.

You will improve your times in the tt over a period if you keep doing them along with a reasonable mileage in other runs. However, a session of hard intervals, done regularly with proper recovery between sessions, will improve your basic speed more quickly. The session doesn't have to be too formal - use a series of lampposts, favourite stretches of road, or go hard on all the hills on one of your routes - whatever suits you and where you are riding. Along with the hard work, possibly the harder thing to do is to ride relatively slowly on recovery rides after a hard session or a tt - because that's when the hard work is consolidated.

But he will be increasing his lactate threshold by doing efforts similar to a TT effort (although a full on TT may not be the best option), thus increasing his sustainable speed. Having a high top speed won't neccessarily mean higher average speeds.

 

[Sittingduck]

Doing a TT isn't going to do much for your 80+ milers, imho. You should try to get out and build up the length of time in the saddle. If you're going out 2 or sometimes 3 times per week that's cool but it would be beneficial to try and go out 5 or 6 times per week, to see bigger improvements, (again imho).

RE: the club thing - I agree with HLAB, don't worry if you can't make it every single weekend. Every other week is better than never!

 

[Rob3rt]

I agree re the club comments too.

 

[Chescadence]

Thanks Boydj- That's something I could put into training rides definitely; like you say, picking a hill or certain sections- I can definitely see the advantages.

Rob- a TT seems like it may be worth considering, even if it's a short sharp intense 10km; in addition, it doesn't take up too much of my time so I could fit it in during a "study day".

Sittingduck- I'd love to be able to get out 5/6 times a week; however, studying dictates that 3 times is really the maximum I can get away with unfortunately.

Cheers.
C

 

[Rob3rt]

Do you have a HRM?

 

[Chescadence]

Do you have a HRM?

No but I'm sure I could get one cheap enough; even if it's the watch type ones.

 

[Rob3rt]

TBH, I personally do not think you should be doing a whole lot of high intensity interval training as you have not been cycling all that long, you can still go hard up a hill etc or throw in the occasional hard effort, I mean that you needn't and probably shouldn't be doing structured and progressive high intensity training, i.e. threshold work, VO2 max sessions and anaerobic sprint training. If done properly, it really is draining and it is just not what you need.

I would advise lots of aerobic riding, a weekend ride of 3-4 hours, another during the week, maybe 2 hours. Then maybe a tempo ride for an hour or so, riding at an intensity where you can only say 2-3 words. Nothing too brutal, but all building your base and the tempo ride will help to increase your threshold. You shouldn't underestimate how hard a tempo ride can be.

 

[HLaB]

I'd love to be able to get out 5/6 times a week; however, studying dictates that 3 times is really the maximum I can get away with unfortunately.

C

I went back to Uni a few years back and through myself into study so was probably out less than that. What I done is supplemented the rides with turbo sessions say 5-10mins every break in study, occasionally half an hour sessions. My thinking was if thing went wrong I was back to my studies in seconds rather than hours. I dont know if that helped my all round cycling but it certainly maintained things between proper rides and improved my sprinting too.

 

[Ningishzidda]

The major time consuming part of cycle training is warming up before the training starts. The equivalent of ten miles flat road is the minimum warm up. This could be 40 - 45 minutes. The other time consuming part is cooking and eating lots of protein.

 

[MattHB]

Thanks Boydj- That's something I could put into training rides definitely; like you say, picking a hill or certain sections- I can definitely see the advantages.

Rob- a TT seems like it may be worth considering, even if it's a short sharp intense 10km; in addition, it doesn't take up too much of my time so I could fit it in during a "study day".

Sittingduck- I'd love to be able to get out 5/6 times a week; however, studying dictates that 3 times is really the maximum I can get away with unfortunately.

Cheers.
C

It's nice to see a student with a solid work ethic!! I wish mine had the same!

I think if you can build in some endurance rides, low intensity but big miles that'll help a lot, it'll also help your speed sustainability over shorter distances and teach you about nutrition.

I have a 13 mile ride to the start of our 48 mile club run which is done at full speed it scared me to death the first few times, and I got dropped a lot! But after a few months I got used to the accelerations and pushes over summits and the fitness came to me. Now I'm on the front most of the time and still manage to average 18+ to and from the start line.