Please help me as regards training…

I get a cycle mag called cycling fitness (quarterly) and they always publish training schedules for different type riders…this is all dark side BTW 🙂

Well I was attempting to follow a schedule and invested in a Garmin forerunner edge, HRM, cadence sensor, etc…tried to follow a 90min ride but found it really difficult. Basically the regime was too restrictive and I found my Heart rate was invariably too fast for the interval (mainly zone 2 or zone 3). i also found myself going uphill at the wrong time (trying to keep to zone 2) and going downhill when trying to keep at zone 3!

question – what do others do and do you follow a training program? I do a lot of riding on my own and it is getting the motivation and discipline to follow and do solo rides.

been using Strava.com to follow others on segments to see who is the fastest but this does not fit with training regimes with limiting HR.

I have sportive and long distance rides coming up, do not race and I am 47…

If you’re focusing on base stuff then a flat route is a better idea. Ignore going fast (Strava segs) if you’re doing z2/3. z2 is probably slower than you expect. If you have to include hills, try to aim for no higher than z3. Incidentally, how are you calculating your zones?

The key is adapting it to you.

I found really specific training tough to follow and a PITA.

Learn the basics and make up your own programme. Getting the tiny details perfectly right won’t make a difference to a rider like you, and will suck out all the fun.

Slower steady rides over winter, then 4 week periodisation with increasing use of intervals, and tapering for events.

thx pedalhead…

yes it is very slow!

whether I am unfit or my HR is just too high but struggle to keep below zone 3 almost all the time…

I added a bit to my original reply…how are you calculating your zones?

Get thee to an iDave.

http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2012/02/22/12-into-70-3-will-go/

Yes zone 2/3 is slower than you think, I can’t do zone 1 except on the turbo, with the resistance set to 1, in bottom gear (34/27!).

Best way to do them if you haven’t got any really flat routes near you is to arrange them slightly differently so it becomes easier to follow.

e.g. structured program:
10min warm up
10min zone 2
10min zone 3
5x 30second sprints wit 90seconds rest betweent hem
10min cool down.

Becomes:
Ride out of town with a few trafic light sprints
10 minutes riding slowly allong the lanes
Ride up a moderatley big hill trying to keep HR sensibly low.
Ride through a section of rolling small hills, sprinting up, coasting down keping legs moving to flush out lactic acid.
Ride back into town slowly.

Either that or just get out and ride (my prefered option) and if you find yourself struggling at hills/sprints/long rides just add in 2 or three sessions a week concentrating on those.

“Yes zone 2/3 is slower than you think”

its not really if you have got your zones correctly – how ever most folk are just doing 220-age and wondering why its all **** up ….

ive peaked at well over 200 as have many folk on here im sure and was quite comfortable(as comfortable as you can be) doing a 25mile TT at 190BPM

where as my mate paul who is invariably faster than me maxes out at 190 – his average for the self same 25TT was 170.

and dont get too hung up on the numbers as the recovery rate (from your working rate to near resting when you stop) is much more important than your max or your zones.

thanks guys…signing off now to go for a ride 🙂
but will catch up on posts later…

specific questions…
No I have not set up my zones properly just used the age calculation.

My area is hilly with little flat. i live on a ridge so very difficult to stay on this ridge and not go down then ultimately back up at some point.

Routes, reasons to ride, destinations are all problems for me.

If you want to know you correct zones then get a metabolic test done.

Zones I calculated through info online had my max Z2 at about 125bpm. Had a test done and in reality my Z2 zone is actually 138 – 152bpm which makes base training easier to stay in the correct zone.

Following a training plan in a magazine is a very bad idea. It won’t be tailored to you, it doesn’t take into account the fact that life and work get in the way of training. It assumes that you live in an area where easy flat rides are just as accessible as a hilly one.

By all means use it as the base template for your own tailored programme but don’t ever follow those things to the letter. They’re designed for “inspiration” not the be-all-and-end-all of training.

My area is hilly with little flat. i live on a ridge so very difficult to stay on this ridge and not go down then ultimately back up at some point.

Then just do what I suggested and plan routes that give aproximations of the correct workout. Or give up and just plan a route with the most hills in it and batter yourself relentlessly arround it. My local favourite is 650m of climbing in 16 miles/1 hour. 2 laps of that is the same as riding up and down the alp-d’huez, then a third of the way up again!

As for zones, you can find your FT heart rate (how hard can you go for 1 hour), by a slightly easier method than entering a lot of flat 25 mile TT’s untill you get one with a constant heart rate. It’s something like warmup 10min, then some hard work for 10min, then some sprint/rests for 10min, recover for 10min, then ride as hard as you can for 20min and take an average over those 20min. At least then you only need to find ~8 miles of flat ish roads (or an 1 mile flat bit ridden 8 times). zones are then calculated as a percentage of FT, FT heartrate changes over time i.e. a sprinter might have big muscles and small heart and therefore a very high FT HR, a climber would possibly have the opposite, and dependingon your workouts you could swing from one to the toher extreem over a season.

Doing a metabolic test (university sports depts do them sometimes) will measure your VO2 max, FT etc, by measuring the ammount of oxygen you breath inand out and taking blood samples. Bit overkill unless you’re really serious.