Training Plans

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Steve62

Regular
Hi,

This may have been a previous topic, but could anyone point me in the direction of a good training plan please?

I have been cycling on and off since I was a kid but have only ever cycled 30-40 miles maximum.

Cycling had to stop for a while due to work and a few injuries but I have now hit the magic 5 0 and have decided i need to do something to get the weight down (by about 3 stone) and improve my fitness.

I have decided to make my goal the Dunwich Dynamo (120 miles over night) which runs in July.

Is it a case of just going out and riding as much as possible between now and then or are there more specific training plans that builds up to this?

Many thanks for any help

Regards

Steve
 

deanE

Senior Member
"100 days to 100 miles", by Marla Streb, is a good read. Mine came from my son, who lives in the US, but you can find it in the UK. Provides a flexible training plan.
 

MattHB

Proud Daddy
trainingpeaks.com is amazing, especially if you pay for the premium membership. its the highly technical side of training though and might be more than you need. you need to do a lot of background reading too to be able to get the most from it.
 

amaferanga

Veteran
Location
Bolton
trainingpeaks.com is amazing, especially if you pay for the premium membership. its the highly technical side of training though and might be more than you need. you need to do a lot of background reading too to be able to get the most from it.

And you need a power meter.
 

amaferanga

Veteran
Location
Bolton
no you dont. you can do heart rate based stress balancing as well.

It's not the same thing. If it was then no-one would bother with power meters. You'd be better spending your money on a power meter and using something free like Golden Cheetah to manage your training IMO.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
Quite frankly, someone who cycles on and off and is only just doing 50 mile rides max need not be considering performance based training (most likely will cause more damage than it will reap performance benefits).

Ride your bike more, when you have done a good few thousand miles, come back and ask for more advice!

8 months to get your mileage up to 120 miles is beyond plenty of time.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
You can use training peaks without a power meter, BUT you will get the most out of it if you do have one!

I want a power meter, research and saving has commenced! :biggrin:
 

defy-one

Guest
As others have said .... ride most days,if you can't do it before/after work .... commute to work!!!
Eat less,use something like "my fitness pal" to record the amount you are eating and the amount you are exercising.
The miles will start to increase .... i started riding in June and can do 40-50 miles now ...... more time in the saddle is the key!
 

Andrew_Culture

Internet Marketing bod
Just to stick my oar in, and bearing in mind that I can only tell you what worked for me, because I'm not and expert, and because bullet points don't get used on this forum outside of 'finger jabbing opponents breast' type discussions:
  • I got the SparkPeople.com app and tracked my grub intake, because it's probably worse than you think it is.
  • I got Endomondo and used it to keep track of how many calories I'm burning.
  • I listened to advice on here.
  • At worst (roughly March) I was just under 16 stone, now I float around between 13 and 14 stone, I still have a little belly, but that's just my reserve in case of a nuclear winter
  • It's my badly judged opinion that if you can do 30 miles without feeling really bad then 100 is no problem, just get your nutrition right. Your 100 might not be incredibly fast but by god you'll do it!
 
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