Training program

[budget888]

Hi all,
I am currently writing my training program for next year with the help of Joe Friel's book "the cyclists training bible", which is rather good, but I am getting slightly confused.
2 things:
1. He emphasises the importance of rest but then his programmes show training every day (unless I'm reading it wrong).
2. He suggests chosing total training annual hours, then splitting it down to days, so, say my weekly hours are 13.5 hours, does this include the weight training, speed skills plus the daily ride? Should there be a ride every day?
Hope someone can help.
thanks
Fred.

 

[Ben M]

Welcome!

I havn't read that book, but from your post I gather that it is a cardio and weight program? But what are your goals? I assume that it is the usual lose fat mass and gain muscle mass.

If you want to put on muscle mass, then you do need to rest. You grow outside of the gym, not in it. Training hard every day is overtraining, and you won't get the same gains as if you have a day off every few days.

Losing fat mass whilst gaining muscle mass can be quite tricky, so you have to be really careful to have a well sorted diet. Too few calories and you'll just lose fat mass and not gain any muscle, too many and you'll gain muscle and fat.

If your training is purely for road cycling performance, then you don't need to be going to the gym, just cycle as much as you can, still making sure that you have rest days. You can vary it by doing high intensity interval sessions as well, these are good for helping increase your anaerobic threshold.

The only cyclists which really benefit from gym work, are track cyclists, because they need the strength for sprinting.

 

[Will1985]

Friel defines rest as different from recovery.

He talks about rest (in his commandments) as what you have every night - allowing your body to take a break from whatever you have done that day...essentially relaxation to return your body to the condition it was in the previous morning/week etc.

Recovery (end of chp8) can either be in the form of a day off or a slow ride. Our bodies can't sustain the same level of intense training for so many consecutive days. Athletes competing at the weekend will tend to have a recovery day the day after a race, and then a similar low intensity day halfway through the week on say wednesday or thursday. The concept of tapering skews this plan.

Ben - it is an all round training programme primarily directed at cyclists who are racing. Most of it is about how to train on the bike, but there are also chapters covering strength (gym work) and body care (eating, stretching etc).
It is not about weight loss as the assumption is that a racing cyclist already has a healthy controlled weight and doesn't seek weight loss or muscle development as a key goal.

 

[budget888]

Thank you both,
Yes Will I'm primarily intersted in getting race fit for next year, having decided on a program of 800 annual hours of training. What I'm struggling to understand is the ratio of actual on-bike training to off-bike training.
e.g When I broke down my weekly plan I had a 3 hour chunk on a Monday on an E1 program, but when I look at E1 recovery (p300 apendix c) I can't make head nor tail of it, what is the actual exercise? Is it 3hrs on a bike, what intensity etc?
Thank you
Phil.

 

[SimonC]

All sounds a bit complicated budget888 and not much enjoyment, are you racing at the mo, or is next season your first season?

Intervals and then some more intervals is the key to getting race fit, as other poster said. I try and do some long interval sessions, and some sprint interval sessions, actual "long" training rides only once a week (say 2-3 hrs).

Maybe your detailed approach is the way to go, but personally I would find a fixed and detailed programme would suck the enjoyment out of it. (Intervals? Enjoyment?)

 

[montage]

you definately need to build a base fitness. This means pack loodes of miles in steadily.

After than, knock out 2 months of tempo work..... shorter efforts at 75-80% effort.

Then, towards the beginning of your racing season, start the interval training, and maintain this throughout your race season before tapering back into being a mile muncher for the winter.

Just take 1 rest day a week .....simples. Also if doing weights...knock these off during the weight season.

 

[jez smith]

My own experiance was when I tried to follow someone elses training plan it didn't work as I hoped it would and I hated it. Then following someones advice all I did was made sure that I went out maybe three or four times a week for a couple of hours with a specific goal in mind, personaly I find it easier to train on my own. Ive only been riding seriously for just over a year now and again I was told it takes a year to get your body fit enough to be able to actualy cycle well and and that turned out to be true as well. Now when i go out on a group training ride people complain that I am pushing too hard and its like being in a team time trial ;-)

In my old club racing 'team' I ended up dreading the Sunday 'training' because all they would do was junk miles and in the end because they refused to do anything more constructive I gave up racing with them or even talking to them.You critisise someones training plan at your peril.

My adbvice is to eat well do what your body tells you, if you feel tired rest and if you feel strong go out and ride.

 

[Will1985]

The book doesn't give set training plans. It shows you how to structure training, set goals, regulate quality and quantity, what do do if it goes wrong etc...

Just riding (and always riding hard) isn't effective.

 

[jimboalee]

Before the days of SRM and PowerTap, or even gym machines, it was necessary to do a 'velocity equilibrium' test on a known gradient in order to get a good idea of CdA for the roadload curve.

Before the days of bike computers, it was done by timing a rider between two distance markers on the gradient.

Then, having a power vs velocity curve, you do a 'balls out' sprint on the flat for about half an hour to get a measure of the power you can sustain aerobically. When you go anaerobic, your legs will feel it.
This is a regular test to see that you are improving. If you go on the internet, you will see figures of W/kg banded about. The magic number is 7.

Your aim is to increase the power, and therefore MAX speed you can ride. It will also help you in the mountains, because as you have seen yesterday, a half hour 10% climb at 400 + Watts is asked for in cycle racing.

An interval session you could try would be 5 minutes at your last test MAX, and then 10 minutes at 50% of it.

What you are doing is to encourage your system to grow more capillaries, increase your heart's stroke volume and persuade more Alveoli in your lungs to start working.

When you perform your 5 minutes at MAX, you might notice an improvement straight away, keep going!
You might not get the target MAX on the first interval. You will on the second and you'll probably go faster on the third. Yes? You can cool down and have a rest.

Give a day to recovery.
Then go on a long ride up some hills.
Next day go on a long ride without hills and take it steady like you're in the peleton.
Next day, do a 'balls out' test.
Go on a long ride again the next day with some hills and sprints.
Have a days recovery.
Then do your intervals again.

Week starts again.

 

[jez smith]

I have an issue which has always worried me Jimboalee, I go out and train and I notice my improvement by the fact that I am faster and I find hills easier, I don't like the idea of constant testing, maybe its because it feels like too much commitment which causes issues, maybe its just me I dunno.I suppose it depends on how commited you can be.

 

[jimboalee]

I have an issue which has always worried me Jimboalee, I go out and train and I notice my improvement by the fact that I am faster and I find hills easier, I don't like the idea of constant testing, maybe its because it feels like too much commitment which causes issues, maybe its just me I dunno.I suppose it depends on how commited you can be.

No offence, no resentment. I speak my mind sometimes and it either shocks people into doing some work or frightens them off for good.

If a young cyclist fancies his future on a pro team, he'd better get used to 'constant testing'.
On the track, turbo, hills, road, you name it, the team coach is going to have a stopwatch going ALL the time.

Not only testing on the bike. Testing in the clinic. Blood sugar levels, Cholesterol, Ketones, you name it, plus all the banned stuff.

Then testing on the ergonometer. O2 uptake, Peak power, Max Heart rate, you name it.

Who said cycle racing was easy?

I've just read a bit of an article on the BikeRadar website about training. It says go out and train intervals at 85 - 95 % MHR. Hmmm... It does say train at lactate threshold. Don't bother with HR, feel your legs start to burn, then slow a little.

No-one got good by taking it easy.

 

[Jim_Noir]

What training would you guys say improves flat out sprinting? I have been going out with my HRM on and can't get it to go past 85% of my max. I just did a 10 mile cycle, taking about just under 30 mins. My Hrm said I was working about 82% of my max. I couldn't get this to go any higher, nor could I get my speed up. Now I was thinking is this to do with gears, as I was in 3 on front and 8 on back... so is this mucsle building and should I drop gears and spin my little legs out? The HRM does go above 90% as I can do this when I run Or is it, like running, I have the fitnnes etc for long distance and not sprinting as much?

Edit: Also on long cycles I feel I could keep going anf going... for eg the OH and I cycled to Falkirk and back on Thursday (just short of 60 miles) there we tanked it (well at the OHs max speed of about 16mph) on the way back she was flagging so sat about 9 to 10 mph. Got home and she was effed and I was fine. Yesterday too she was sore and still a bit tired and I have been fine. Durning the ride there the max HR I had was 65% and on the way back sitting about 50% of max.

 

[jimboalee]

What training would you guys say improves flat out sprinting? I have been going out with my HRM on and can't get it to go past 85% of my max. I just did a 10 mile cycle, taking about just under 30 mins. My Hrm said I was working about 82% of my max. I couldn't get this to go any higher, nor could I get my speed up. Now I was thinking is this to do with gears, as I was in 3 on front and 8 on back... so is this mucsle building and should I drop gears and spin my little legs out? The HRM does go above 90% as I can do this when I run Or is it, like running, I have the fitnnes etc for long distance and not sprinting as much?

Edit: Also on long cycles I feel I could keep going anf going... for eg the OH and I cycled to Falkirk and back on Thursday (just short of 60 miles) there we tanked it (well at the OHs max speed of about 16mph) on the way back she was flagging so sat about 9 to 10 mph. Got home and she was effed and I was fine. Yesterday too she was sore and still a bit tired and I have been fine. Durning the ride there the max HR I had was 65% and on the way back sitting about 50% of max.

Sounds like you've got the wrong twitch muscles.

 

[Jim_Noir]

Which is down to genetics? So trying to build muscle to sprint would be and epic failure? So I should do endurance over speed