After setting off on a 76 mile road ride yesterday lunchtime and only manageing 23 miles before realising that I wasn’t going to make it round before dark (I was averageing 13.5mph!) and turning round its clear I need something.

Now I can chalk some of that upto poor clothing choice (I was cold!), some issues with the new drivetrain making gear selection a bit iffy which didnt inspire confidence for out of the saddle efforts, and poor fueling (low carb dinner followed by a fry-up breakfast), but its still piss poor for a ride with only 1200ft of climbing on the map/ 1800ft on the GPS!

Anyway, to those of you who race, do you find it better to have a trainng plan to stick to, or just get out and ride as often/hard/far as possible? I’ve never stuck to any traiing plans I’ve set myself before, but then I’ve never been this slow, I used to (when I was properly fit at uni ~2006) think of 60mile road rides ar 17mph on my own as ‘easy, out for a spin on a Sunday afternoon’ and I’d quite like to get back to that point again this Summer!

Anyway, to those of you who race, do you find it better to have a trainng plan to stick to

the hard bit is having a plan and knowing when not to stick to it.*

* not a (serious or good) racer

I’ve created a training plan this year based on the main concepts in Joe Friel’s book and my previous background as a competitive runner.

Clearly a training plan that is tailored around your goals is going to get you fitter for those goals than simply getting out there and riding. However there is a strong case to make that training takes the fun out of riding, (for those not of a racing mindset).

Depends what you’re training for I suppose 🙂 I don’t think I’d have the mental discipline for a rigid plan. Once it started to feel like training, I’d probably jack it in.

Riding lots tho. That’s definitely good. You can feel yourself getting fitter so riding become more fun, commuting is a bit faster and a few kgs get shed without altering your diet 🙂

Best thing for me has been commuting whatever the weather. Bought a winter road bike with guards and have no excuses not to.

I know I want to do more laps at Clic this year than I managed before. Only way that’s going to happen is ride loads between now and then.

I find training plans interfere with life!

Riding when I can/want to seems to do me OK at my level (2nd cat roadie, top ten local CX league) but the next step up to ride national level events would probably need more focus and that would take the fun out of it for me.

One word. Intervals

That’s not a word Dave. It’s a form of torture. Surely against some article in the Geneva convention?

I don’t have a plan per se but i do have a basic structure for a week – one long ride, one hard session + as many other miles as possible without compromising my performance at either of the two specific sessions.

leggyblonde +1

I kind of know how I’ll respond to riding in terms of fitness and usually managed to “race myself fit” in the past – good enough to be hanging round the back end of 1st Cat for a little while.
I think a lot of people get too hung up on it, either desperately trying to stick with a training plan through illness, injury etc or not sticking to it, getting disheartened and then never doing anything.

Ride your bike, mix things up a bit – some long rides, some short, some fast, some slow, a few sprints, hill climbs etc. Just enjoy it.

I have just recently started getting bike fit again, and have found my turbo trainer a great way of upping my fitness lvl, without realising i have the trainer set for alot more resistance than i get actually riding. The other benefit from it there are no downhill/ coasting sections so a shorter workout can be alot nore ‘intense’.
Having said that 4hrs in the gloopy mud that is currently cannock chase yesterday was still a bit of a slog, having to pedal just to keep moving down some of the hills is not funny

leggyblonde – Member

I find training plans interfere with life!

Interesting as I find that knowing what I’m doing and when allows me and my family to plan our time, thus giving us a chance of a life 😀

There’s always gonna be various bits of scientific stuff to support X, Y and Z, but IMO a traiing plan is only “better” if it’s proven to work and you stick to it enough.

Sometimes you can achieve a helluva lot just by varying your rides/runs, e.g. endurance/stamina vs intervals vs hills vs low cadence vs chilled/fun/freestyle etc.

I’ve never stuck to a rigid plan, but I do tend to look 3-4 rides/runs ahead, so I know roughly what sort of sessions I’ll be doing. Managing all the other stuff in my life is hectic enough, let alone creating a plan than must be adhered to. Hence

I also like to make nearly all my sessions hurt in some way – except the chilled ones. Intervals are “great” for this, but so IMO is getting close to cracking in the last 90 mins of the home leg.

Could be talking scollobs, but that’s my tuppence.

EDIT: Resting is also vitally important – get it right and your recovery/repair is super effective; get it wrong and over-training will soon have you wondering what you’re doing wrong.

Also read years ago that we should all take a block of X weeks rest every year, based on our age. Something like 1 week for every 10 year, e.g. 45 yrs old should take a month off. Don’t know how true it is though.

Personal opinion, based on experience rather than any formal education: if you’re pretty slow, any increase in riding will help – planned or otherwise. A proper training plan will just make you get better faster. If you’re already fast, training is a necessity.

iDave’s one answer reply and the Sufferfest videos (as recommended on here by various people) are also excellent if you’ve got a turbo trainer.

Well, broadly my ‘plan’ for just riding more is to get out on the singlespeed every saturday morning for 2.5-3hours, which I guess is as close to making intervals fun as they’re going to get. Then a road ride every Sunday, for arround 4 hours.

In the week I want to get my occasional mid week ride to a more regular fixture and commute more.

I basically mix long steady rides (weekends) with short hard sessions (night riding off road, chain gang, local TT) during the week.

You can obviously make your training as complicated as you want but you can get a long way with this approach.

The main thing is to avoid just riding fairly hard all the time.

I have a turbo, I hate it, I just can’t motivate myself to sit on it, I’d rather spend 60min in the rain than 30min indoors!

I just ride more but make it count.

I try to aim for two short fast rides (about an hour) a week. Maybe an hour swimming. I always ride mtb on Thursday night but it is pretty easy going. I then try and do one long ride over the weekend. All this depends on the things I’m doing at the time. Last year was largely disrupted by buying and doing work on a house. This year planning a wedding and so on…

My short fast rides are just that. If I don’t feel in the mood I don’t go as there’s little point doing it slow. Go home do something useful and then go out another time. My long rides are planned to be hard. I plan big hills into road rides as a form of training.

Intervals would probably be better as would proper training but I think that would kill it for me. I ride for fun but like racing but the majority of my time on the bike has to be enjoyable not just suffering for the weekend race.

No plan here either just lots of miles. I up the ante by riding with faster guys every so often. I also start racing as early in the year as possible.

Notaspoon

Have you got anyone to go out training with ,mates or a local chaingang ?
Have you got any target events booked for this year?

Both these things got me fitter than I could have done on my own last year .
I have a decent commute distance and was going out on long rides,but found that I would drift off into pootle mode too much.
Going out with mates and on big chaingangs really speeded things up and got me out the door when I couldn’t be bothered.

Having events booked up in advance I would get ‘The Fear ‘ when I started taking it easy.

I am going to do the same this year but try and shake up the commute with some intervals.

Hmm – don’t over train like I have – see my recent post?

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/overtraing

However sometimes in the past my body just says no?

I’ve started working on base level fitness to increase my endurance levels. On Saturday I did a gentle 40 mile ride with only 1500ft of climbing in zone 2 of MHR. Thought it would be boring but really enjoyed it. Will increase distance as I get fitter.
I also do a harder, further Sunday ride which involves a lot of climbing and a fast Tuesday ride. The variety keeps it interesting.
Not sure how scientific this approach is but I feel fitter and most importantly I really enjoy it.

Personally for me it’s all about having a goal/target. With the right goal, it’s amazing how easy it can be to get out of bed at 5am for a sufferfest :-). I tend to mix up long (8+ hour) weekend rides with spinning classes, plus a “fun” group ride to keep things interesting. Those spinning sessions have been really helpful, easier for motivation than using the turbo (which I do, but only occasionally). Oh, and switching to a singlespeed for my long rides has helped too 😀

I’ve Embarked on a “loose plan” for this year to start with i.e. Stickers on the family wall planer (Green dots if your interested) which mean on this particular day Daddy gets at least 3 hours to fit in some exercise, giving yourself minimum 3 hour blocks allows you to accommodate the inevitable faff time, often I fit in more but 3Hours is a good minimum I reckon…

At these time I will get in a Bike ride (So far all MTB) or a Run the plan is not too specific at the minute and it leaves a bit of flexibility, a good chunk of my riding is Solo night riding at the minute (normally quite busy during the day, and have to accommodate Family stuff), which is good as it leaves it a bit open ended as to how long I can take, how far I go, and what sort of riding I choose to do; a 3-4 hour night ride is brilliant fun and you can tune your food intake throughout the preceding day to suit it too where as crow baring in an Afternoon ride with a Set “have to be home by” time often means I have to curtail it if I’m not covering the distance I expected… Stretch the hours available, don’t let the sun dictate your exercise times…

I think if I was as rigid as specifying a set mileage say 2 weeks ahead I’d never hit it, it simply comes down to a “What can I do with the available time” decision, sometimes a Run makes more sense and mixing up your training isn’t a bad thing, I hate Jogging but I have noticed real benefits from getting into it lately…

Time spent rather than Mileage I reckon, if your doing it with a HRM that should really set the intensity (If not learn to judge a sustainable pace) rather than reaching a distance milestone or an arbitrary average speed, if you knacker yourself trying to hit these targets you may do more harm than good…

If you do have a set route in mind, Prepare for it, No point trying to do 75 Miles setting off at 15:00 hours without sufficient lighting, clothing and provisions or a backup plan…
You still need to prepare, and plan for the unexpected, if you carry a Camelbak full of spares, tools, food and clothing you’re bound not to need most of it, but sods law dictates that if you leave it at home something will almost certainly go wrong…

The other thing I’m doing is using Sports tracker just to log the basics, Time taken, Distance covered, and Average Speed, comparing similar sessions week to week means I can judge any Progress (Assuming there is some) without getting too bogged down in minutiae…

EDIT: Resting is also vitally important – get it right and your recovery/repair is super effective; get it wrong and over-training will soon have you wondering what you’re doing wrong.

Fitness = Workout + recovery

Depends. I race, and have year-round plan prepared for me by a coach (via email)

Best bang for the buck investment for me really.

I’ve read loads of books etc, but could never pull it all together into anything coherent on my own.

+1 for Spinning, you’ve never felt proper pain until you try keeping up with a size 4 Gym instructor who seemingly has no pain threshold and No Endurance limit…
A 45 minute spin class can be as knackering as 3 hours flat out on a road bike

Time spent rather than Mileage I reckon,

Bingo!

I’ve always just ridden and never trained for anything until I had a fitness test November last year. Here I got all my heart rate zones and what my body was actually doing when working out. I decided to take him on as a coach and give me a training plan for the next 3 months (week by week).

I have to say it’s really got me focussed. I didn’t realise how important base fitness was and how to attain it (i used to try and ride hard all of the time). It takes total discipline to train the base but i think it’s important

This is a fairly good article for explaining how base training is important

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/training-heart-rate-monitor-basics-28838

Fletcher, who’s an exercise physiologist, is adamant that by going slow you will get faster. The Evesham-based coach even has a mug on his desk emblazoned with the words ‘slow is the new fast’. But he has some sage words for anyone who thinks that HR training is like waving a magic wand. “Training is boring. Anyone who says they can make base training sessions more entertaining and can introduce fun is kidding you. Just accept it that those long, steady rides on the bike will be boring but they will bring results. There are no shortcuts and no quick ?xes.”

1st – You need a goal / event first.

2nd – A plan to achieve the goal.

3rd – Some short / medium term goals to maintain motivation for your primary goal.

If you have no particular goal/event in mind just ride.

IMO

‘Target’ is the London to Brighton, I’ve no qualms about the distance (I did 48 of thr 52 on Sunday despite feelign crap!), but finishing under 3 hours would be nice.

Would I be better going out for 3 hour rides and trying to as fast as possible and train untill I get the 52 miles. Or riding 52 miles and training untill I get under 3 hours?

Anyway, to those of you who race, do you find it better to have a trainng plan to stick to, or just get out and ride as often/hard/far as possible?

The more serious you are the more a specific training plan will make a difference.

If you want to go faster do intervals.

I would break you goal down into bitesize chunks. For example

Primary goal = 52miles in less 3 hrs (avg. speed = 17.3 mph)

Bite size goals =

Month 1 = 1hr ride @ 17 mph avg
Month 2 = 1hr ride @ 18mph avg, 2hr ride at 16mph avg
Month 3 = 1hr ride @ 19mph avg, 2hr ride at 17mph avg
Month 4 = 1hr ride @ 19mph avg, 2hr ride at 18mph avg
Month 5 = 2hr @ 19mph, 3hr ride at 18mph avg

The rationale being that you can focus on short term goals, achieve, give yourself a pat on the back, and slowly progress. This way you will achieve your end goal without even having to worry about it, it will be a foregone conclusion as long as the intermediary goals are realistic and measurable. The hardest thing about a plan is what someone else mentioned and that is when NOT to stick to a plan. If the plan is not working, change it or review the bigger picture.

If you are not hitting your goals, ask why. Too tired – not enough recovery time, can’t keep up the speed – build-in 30 minute rides i.e. 15min warm-up, 30 min @ 18mph, 15 min warm-down.

Good luck!

Thisisnotaspoon – personally, I’d do some intense speed sessions of 2.5-3.5hrs to know I can operate at that level and beat the 3hr mark. Would mix it up with longer 4hr 70 mile rides to stretch the endurance.

I know we’re not talking big figures here, but at least knowing you’ve got the sessions in the bag already can be enough to inspire those “foot down” moment if needed.

Am I right in thinking the L2B goes up Turners Hill? If so, I’d do some hill sessions (nothing massive – just enough to improve your climbing) to help you make up time. Plenty of people lose minutes by not being able to climb efficiently or confidently – so IMO that could win you 5 mins on just that section.

EDIT: I thought your stomping ground was the Surrey Hills? If so, you’ve got the perfect trails/roads to get those hills miles in.

I still cant get out of the way I trained 35 years ago.
Lots of LSD from late Autumn to Spring. And speedwork in the shape of club night roller sessions, TTs and track.
Once you started to race it became a year long cycle.

No, I’m Wokingham just up the road from Swinley, so the usual stoping ground for road rides is to head up Reading road then out through Caversham towards the Chilterns. Which anoyingly means I’ve got quite a way to go before I get to any gradients. Not too bothered though as long as I lose weight and gain power thats good for hills, whether I do that by riding up hills or just by riding 1mph quicker than I’d like along the flats to simulate it. Just as long as I don’t turn into a sprinter!

head up Reading road then out through Caversham towards the Chilterns

Got a car? If so, how about driving to the Chilterns?