Regaining strength/stamina after cancer recovery

[ColinJ]

I think you are doing pretty well, so just stick at it and have fun!

Like @MartinQ, my lungs got clotted up. [Good luck with those tests at Papworth, Martin!] I was off the bike a long time but regained a lot of fitness just by walking as far and as fast as I could up a big local hill. If you find yourself away from your bike with no pool or gym handy, power-walking would be a good way to get your daily exercise.

I have put just over a stone back on too, and find that it makes a big difference when riding on hilly roads. I can still get up the hills, but not as quickly as last year. If you want to get faster on climbs, then the flab has to go!

 

[adamangler]

See that average heart rate is pretty high, so its no wonder you are blowing up on rides

I would ride for about 8 -12 weeks at an average of around 130bpm (or 70% of your max hr)

you will see spikes of up to 150 maybe on climbs but the only thing you can do here is get lower gears or get off, best try to avoid hills if poss and ride on flat for this reason.

Its hard but forget mph for now, ive removed mine from my garmin and just have HR and cadence showing as it can make you push too hard trying to hit a mph.

It will feel like you are losing fitness and getting slower so its hard to force yourself to go easy but just try it and do a test of a flat course of about 2 hours before and one after the 8 week block (its not scientific it would be much better to train with power)

if you see improvements in your mph/time over the same course after 8 weeks you can keep going with the until you plateau and see no improvements in speed for a given hr( like i said its better with power to rule out variables but if hr is all you have..)

Once you plateau then start to add hilss/intervals and sprints etc, just ramp it up steady.

Mileage first, some strength training and cadence work will help at this stage also


I have just started a 12 week base block and it looks something like this for the first 4 weeks

Monday - Strength training, mainly squatts, deadlifts and core work
Tuesday - Cross training - jog is the easiest
Weds - Recovery ride 1hr or rest day depending on how the legs feel
Thurs - strength training
Friday - Base ride 2 hours zone 2
Saturday - cross train/day off or recovery as you see fit
Sunday - Base ride 3 hours

Week 2 would be the same but a bit more cycling times, then week 3 same again, 4 same again
i think week 5 i cut down the cross training and strenth to once a week each, bit more bike
then it just builds from there up to 12 hours cycling per week and thats it

(however many hours you start at and finish at is up to you, but you want to finish at what you aim to do regular as theres no point going too high or low on sustainable volume)

I have been riding about 8 hours per week but want to up that to 12 so im starting at 4 and building to 12

This may or may not be usefull to you but seems to work for me

 

[barongreenback]

Thanks @adamangler - trying to train in a lower zone was something I was seriously considering. I'd love to go the whole hog and invest in a power meter but I can't really justify spending half the cost of my bike again! (at least not to Mrs Greenback!)

Just edited to add, whatever exercise I've ever done, I've always seemed to have a fairly high average heart rate (my resting is between 50-60). Before cycling I used to run and had similar averages to my cycling. Again, not particularly fast but sustained over 10k and above distances.