Not been on bike too much over the winter due to kids/work. Giving myself a month to get back to a fairly basic level of fitness (trail centre without it killing me). What tips/methods/advice can anyone offer? Never been too much of an issue in the past as I’ve always cycled throughout winter so never really needed to start from almost scratch.

Take drugs!

Ride your bike as much as you can.

Burpees. Lots of them. 100 a day in sets of ten. Vary them: normal burpees, knuckle burpees, one handed burpees, press up burpees, press up & tuck jump burpees etc

They will beast your fitness

as njee says, get out on the bike, don’t try and smash it on every ride but do some long mid pace ones as well

eat healthy, cut down on booze and get lots of sleep to help your body to repair itself

if you have regular riding in the last few years you’ll soon get the fitness back

Intervals. I started them this week. Prepare to puke. Then a Weekly z2

I hadn’t been on the bike at all for 5 yrs (really) till last november and i’ve only had a handful of rides since then but i still managed Drumlanrig red/black last saturday with Kirroughtree red/black on sunday and Kirroughtree red/black yesterday without any problems or need to stop, got round Kirroughtree in 3 hrs which whilst way of my previous pace was still ok – if you had a decent level of fitness before then you’ll surprise yourself as to how quickly it can come back. Fair enough i can feel the exertion in my shoulders due to muscle strain when wrestling the bike up the climbs but apart from that i have no ill effects.

Just get out, enjoy it – it’s not a race.

Intervals mixed with steady state(constant heartrate) stuff.

No interval till you have base

Youll only get hurt

Do the ‘bleep’ test a few times a week, gradually building it up to 20…works for me as a basic fitness test.

No interval till you have base
Youll only get hurt

This, and without the base fitness you won’t get the most out of the intervals.

biggest thing you can do apart from generally get more active is cut down drink, junkfood etc and get a good sleep.

the rest will follow naturally – just don’t force or push it until you are coping fine with the trail centre rides

Intervals without base are like fad diets – unsustainable.

Do the ‘bleep’ test a few times a week, gradually building it up to 20

20?! Are you on crack?!

Just ride as much as you can for a month.

Don’t forget a few rest days though, if you have the time to do some decent time, you’re going to be wrecked after the first few days. Rest is just as important as riding.

Duffer – didn’t mean 20 times a week! Meant up to level 20 gradually over the course of a month by doing it a few times per week.

I know a couple of lads that can do this test up to 20, have 10 min break and then do it again…they’re on crack if you ask me!

Base miles/time in saddle.

Just as much as you can, I don’t think it’s wise to do intervals unless you already have a good base level of fitness, you’ll just run risk of injury etc.

I would try 3 sessions of as many hours z2 as you can bear the boredom for a couple of weeks. Then add in an interval set once a week

Be careful with just ‘riding’ your bike if you’ve been laid up for a while. I blew up my knee as I didn’t take into account my fitness has taken a dip over winter and pushed it too much first proper ride on dryish trails

No booze seems to be doing it for me.

somafunk – Member

I hadn’t been on the bike at all for 5 yrs (really) till last november and i’ve only had a handful of rides since then but i still managed Drumlanrig red/black last saturday with Kirroughtree red/black on sunday and Kirroughtree red/black yesterday without any problems or need to stop, got round Kirroughtree in 3 hrs which whilst way of my previous pace was still ok – if you had a decent level of fitness before then you’ll surprise yourself as to how quickly it can come back. Fair enough i can feel the exertion in my shoulders due to muscle strain when wrestling the bike up the climbs but apart from that i have no ill effects.

That’s all well and good but don’t forget we’ll be up visiting you in a weeks time so you’d best make sure your drinking skillz are up to speed. 🙂

Running at least thrice a week. Everyday if you can stand it. Biking whenever possible, eat healthily. Sorted.

One of the simplest training programmes I came across at Uni ( for I have a Degree in Exercise Science dontcha know ) was the one plus one idea. Quite simply, one unit today, 2 tomorrow, 3 the next day and so on.

Theoretically you could take someone who had never run before and say one minute today, two the next and so on and they would be doing 30 min runs in a month with a very gradual increase in difficulty. Assuming you eat and sleep right it is a pain free route to basic fitness.

If you considered biking like this and decided that you could happily ride for say 15 mins now and that 2 mins was a nice and gradual unit of increment, then by day 30 you would doing 1hour13 min rides and have 22 hours of training under your belt. That would be a great base from which to begin to ride again and you will have gained it in a way that avoids too much too soon and gets you riding gradually.

However you do it, good luck and have fun!

As njee and Haze said, it’s just down to lots of riding, more is better.

Lots of riding (but not so much it causes an injury). Sleep well, eat healthily, drink lots of water, and rest properly so that each ride gets 100% of the benefit, struggling round a loop late on a tuesday night because you’re too tired or dehydrated is wasted effort.

And LOTS of stretching, especially stuff that’s likely to cause problems (hip flexors and the Y-tendon in your hip). I’m convinced that working in an office chair is ruining me!

As for any noticeable gains in a month, unlikely to get much beyond making the most of what fitness you have. A fast rate of increase of threshold power would be 1%/week, but for a power/weight ratio you could get double that increase by riding lots and eating sensibly and losing 5% of your weight while your at it as long as you’re not a <70kg whippet.

Steady state beats intervals, no point being able to win a sprint if your opponent left you for dead 20 minutes earlier. And the body recovers quicker meaning you can do more rides.

Get a road bike. Get fit fast and enjoy it too.

Level 20 on the bleep test suggests it’s not being done properly.

If it’s on the bike fitness you want then get on your bike. A lot.

When you’re not on your bike eat loads of healthy food and sleep. A lot.

If you’ve only got a month then go for it and don’t worry too much about over training, within reason, as you have plenty of recovery time after.

Oh yes, and when you’re on your bike. A lot. Enjoy it!

Duffer – didn’t mean 20 times a week! Meant up to level 20 gradually over the course of a month by doing it a few times per week.

My point was that level 20 is unattainably high for a mere mortal. I’m not questioning whether the lads you know are capable of it, but you’re talking professional athlete levels of fitness there.

For reference, i have a reasonable base level of fitness for a mortal – 3 x 5-8 mile runs a week and riding on a sunday – and i’ve never been able to get past level 12. Some of the fittest people i know can break level 14.

My point remains; level 20 is crazy talk.

singlespeedstu : unfortunately the drinking skillz are rather lacking, i’m on long term antibiotics for my kidneys and anything more than a couple of pints i’m on the floor, but i’ll be riding and thats the main thing 😀 , ps : still ride wi a medicinal hipflask so thats ok eh? 😉

Lose some weight? 8lb in a month is fairly doable with sensible dieting. Didn’t Wiggins say that losing weight was one of the easiest performance boosts?

Dieting without exercise then going out on your bike.

Hardly going to work for his goal . He will be just as unfit but slightly lighter.

Unless morbidly obese Loosing weight should be a biproduct of working out at this stage not the solution

go for a run where you jog 100 strides then try to sprint 50, then stop and gasp, then repeat – for a couple of miles. Can do these everyday.

gets your fitness up real quick.

then do several rides on a road bike or rigid hard-tail and everytime you have an incline stand up on the pedals and change up to the hardest gear and then back off a gear so you are ‘spinning’ up the slope, but have to support your weight on both pedals. Your legs will probably go lactic pretty quickly.

(you can keep doing the interval runs as well)

then go for longer, normal, runs of 7 miles on consecutive days, say 3 days, then a rest day, then another 3, for a week.

I did this and it got me fit quickly and stopped the early lactic onset, ready for a week of offpiste skiing last year.

Really, don’t go at it too hard.

Do as much riding as you can, preferably including a few hills. I find that spinning a lower gear (ie. doing more repetitions) ‘reminds’ my legs how to pedal more quickly than grinding bigger gears. Acclimatising your legs to lots of pedalling and a smooth, efficient pedalling technique are important.

If you do begin running, take it easy and build up gently. It is very easy to over-do it and get into a cycle of injury after injury. As I have discovered over the years…

I didn’t say it was the only thing to do in a month, but generally a lighter unfit person will find it easier than a heavier unfit person. And it can still be achieved despite any time restrictions due to family or kids etc.

Any massive hills near you? I fijnd a good short thing it to just go out and ride up the most horrific hill in the area. 20 minutes up, 5 down. 25 minute work out if I don’t have time for a propery ride, recently repeated on 1 X 9 with 36t chainring… somehow got up, wasn’t sick – was close though. Be prepared to stop the first couple of times, better to get to the top with breaks.

After lay offs and long injuries I usually try and mix things up a bit.

I would try and fit 3 good rides in a week
1)Use a local fun loop for a quick blast
2)Something more scenic and longer that you can keep a steady pace on and pump out extra miles
3)Bike park for a laugh and short sessions with lot’s of short sprinting and skills work

No idea if it is scientific but keeps me entertained while fitness is low.