Should I just pedal harder?

[Panter]

I seem to have hit a bit of a plateau with my riding and where I was making big improvements in speed and fitness before, I feel I've levelled off a bit now.

I rode to work this morning but knew I would be taking the van home so I hit the ride quite hard where I normally have to leave some in reserve for the return journey.
Anyway, I didn't manage to make the target of <1Hour (although it was close at 1Hr 2m 43s) but my average HR was 156 for the journey.

So, should I simply pedal harder everywhere to move my performance on a bit or should I be looknig at specific training, intervals or similar?

I feel that I need to be able to increase my HR without flaking out so quickly, 140 is comfort zone, high 150's are on the edge of substanability, 160's don't last very long and once in the low 170's I'm on borrowed (and very short term lease at that) time.

 

[zimzum42]

Use a lower gear and start spinning quicker? i.e. up your cadence, then you can go back to a higher gear and you'll be going quicker....

 

[ASC1951]

..or in the words of the Housing Minister, "It's a target. It's aspirational. You aren't supposed to meet it".

But if you need to, zimzum is right again.

 

[andyfromotley]

Panter, i too am floundering about trying to come up with a sensible HR based commuting regime. It aint easy! A lot of the info seem contradictory to me but i am definitely looking to do most of my riding at a LOWER HR no more than 70% and then just have maybe one balls out session.

andy

 

[domtyler]

Naturally increases in performance will start to tail off after making big initial gains. The important thing is to keep the mileage up.

 

[fossyant]

Nah...Flat out everywhere........!!! Commuting is good for increasing speed - flat out, good cadence 90 rpm, rest at traffic lights, then off again....great for speed work. The down side is that it's really hard at first riding like that.....

 

[zimzum42]

Cadence of 90????

You want to be aiming for 110!

 

[domtyler]

Cadence of 90????

You want to be aiming for 110!

110 is okay for little girls, go for 145 at least.

 

[Moonlight]

pffft, everyone will tell you different of course, your natural cadence will most likely been around 60, aim for 80 and it will naturally become 70, then aim for 100 and you'll be fine.

Prehaps time trial it? try and do it a minute quicker every ride. but allow for stong winds etc, you don't want to over do it.

 

[Over The Hill]

Slow down and enjoy it!

 

[Panter]

Sorry, I forgot to reply on this thread

Thanks for the replies, I thought my cadence was pretty good as I've been working hard on it for a few months now.

I'll try timing it and see if I've slowed again otherwise i'll just try harder.

Slow down and enjoy it!

Thats a good point actually. I will do a leisure ride one of these days, I just seem so pushed for time that whenever I ride at the moment its more of a "training" session.

 

[MrGrumpy]

I seem to have hit a bit of a plateau with my riding and where I was making big improvements in speed and fitness before, I feel I've levelled off a bit now.

I rode to work this morning but knew I would be taking the van home so I hit the ride quite hard where I normally have to leave some in reserve for the return journey.
Anyway, I didn't manage to make the target of <1Hour (although it was close at 1Hr 2m 43s) but my average HR was 156 for the journey.

So, should I simply pedal harder everywhere to move my performance on a bit or should I be looknig at specific training, intervals or similar?

I feel that I need to be able to increase my HR without flaking out so quickly, 140 is comfort zone, high 150's are on the edge of substanability, 160's don't last very long and once in the low 170's I'm on borrowed (and very short term lease at that) time.

buy a fixed wheel and do all your commuting on that, that should sort the wood from the trees

 

[Panter]

buy a fixed wheel and do all your commuting on that, that should sort the wood from the trees

Sorry, don't believe in 'em

 

[mickle]

Your power output is limited by the ability of your cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen to your muscles. Riding fixed is a great way to improve your cv fitness simply because it forces you to use a lower gear for much of the time but you can get similar results by spinning low gears. As a general rule, if you start to feel comfortable in a gear you should downshift.