Hi all,

With the imminent arrival of sprog #1, I’m trying to eke the most out of my weekday road training rides. At the moment, I get out 4 mornings a week, and do about 20 miles. I tend to do 3 days blatting it along on the flat and 1 day hill intervals (then ride the mtb at weekends). I tend to try to keep at around 80% max hr, except on the interval days when I push it a bit harder, but to be honest this is just guess work.

Can anyone advise on a decent way to structure my training to get a decent base, and then build up for summer? It would need to fit within 4x 1hr sessions per week…

Thanks all

For base training the idea is to go long and steady (60% of your heart rate reserve).

Not sure how you could fit this in with your 1hr sessions.

IMO for base training you are pushing too hard – it should feel too easy.

Read the Time Crunched Cyclist, it’s meant to be pretty good. In essence is eschews the idea of traditional base training for more intensity.

the answer is buy a turbo

go on http://www.timetrialing.co.uk register and ask for advice on their training forum
half a dozen qualified coaches usually pop up with suggestions (as well as some idiots)

thanks guys. Any other thoughts?

Never seen the point of 60% training. I do my base at 75%. You should probs do higher hr for your intervals.

As above though buy a book!

I’d read in Cycling weekly a report about new findings that indicated that doing interval training worked as well as doing long base training rides. As for your training; what are you training for exactly? Your training should be replicating the kind of races you intend doing.

not training for any particular event (except for a week mtbing with mates in Spain in May), just to keep fit and stay fast (ish).

Have to say that 60% seems like it would be boring, but if that’s what works

60% for an hour = a recovery ride, not worth it!

Upper end of your target zone would be good, something like 75% of your MHR. Intervals should be roughly 65% going up to about 85% during hills, and then recover to about 65% again.

My current regime (8 week base phase):

Mon: rest
Tue: intervals session on turbo. 1 set consists of 15 seconds hard effort then 15 secs easy x 5 reps. Follow this with spinning in an easy gear for one minute. Start with 10 sets and add one or two a week until you build up to 20 sets. You should get to about 95% of HRmax at the end of each set of 5 so choose a gear/resistance setting which allows this.
Wed: 1 hr core/pilates
Thu: Turbo again. 25 mins @ 82% of HRmax, 20 mins @ 89% and 15 mins @ 95%, trying to keep each phase as steady as possible.
Fri: rest
Sat/Sun – get out on the bike and get some long, steady runs in.

The weather is frustrating my weekends a bit at the moment, but I’m fully expecting to be slightly less slow than I normally am come the Spring. The “lactate tolerance” phase begins in teh New Year. Bring it on…

Thanks for the advice. I don’t have access to a turbo, but do have access to pretty clear roads (regents park) and hills (highgate hill) for intervals. Riding a singlespeed, which makes things interesting…

I’ve heard it’s a good idea to keep a training diary. Anyone do this?

Turbo again. 25 mins @ 82% of HRmax, 20 mins @ 89% and 15 mins @ 95%, trying to keep each phase as steady as possible.

You must be **** at the end of that session, sounds like race intensity!

I follow Joe Friel’s book that states the base period should be easy and pretty much non-specific.

I follow Joe Friel’s book that states the base period should be easy and pretty much non-specific.

I don’t think you can apply that when you have such limited time.

True.

I recently got myself a basic Polar HRM and so far have just used it to try and understand what I’m currently doing (when just going for a ride). Baselining I suppose.

Seeing those numbers quoted above has got me thinking I’m already doing something fundamentally wrong:

I’m 43 and tend to max at about 182bpm at some point on most rides.
Resting hr is circa 60 bpm.

A typical night ride at the moment would be 2.5 hrs at an average of 155bpm (reasonable pace but still stopping, chatting, waiting for stragglers). That would be 85%, which sounds too high!

Two weeks ago, that first really cold night, there were only a couple of us out so we ended up doing 3 hrs with no stops (other than gate opening) and averaged 165bmp. That would be 90%!!! I was cramping-up occasionally towards the end of the longer climbs but this eased if I backed-off a bit.
Pre-HRM, I’d have judged the intensity of a ride by “If I’m cramping up then I’m trying just a little too hard, and backing off a little next time out to avoid it.

I’m not super-human, so those percentages surprise me.
Your thoughts?

I would say that if you hit 182 most rides this won’t be your true max.

Either do a test or add a few bpm’s to 182 to estimate your max.

ecky thump. I’m not sure about your numbers.

are you talking about %ages of max heart rate or heart rate range?

Hrr is more useful for training imo.

OP: get a book – it is always a bit difficult to sort good advice from bad on here (or more likely you pick up what you want to hear and ignore what you don’t like the sound of!)

if you aren’t training for anything specific then i’d advise make sure you training covers a bit of endurance/ base stuff a bit of fast stuff (intervals) and some fartlek.

Jase, that was my first thought.
I can’t recall ever getting much over 182 though (trying hard!)

Read somewhere that running up a big hill was a better measure to establish max than riding up same. Will try that.

thomthumb, I was assuming the percentages were of max, as that’s what Stuartie c introduced in his post.
I’ll look at the numbers again on basis of HRR.
Ta

ecky-thump, 182 is not likely to be your max. lots of ways to try and reach your max, but make sure you are well rested prior to any test and be prepared to push yourself. a test i used to use was (road bike) ride steady/moderate speed for maybe an hour to a road that had 3 climbs in quick succession. the climbs were not too long or steep, something you could hammer up in about a minute. go as hard as you can over the climbs and see where your hr is over the top of the last one. this worked well for me, i got a higher reading than a ramp test on the turbo trainer.

Cheers guys. I’ve had a similar experience to ecky thump – 1 hour morning rides tend to average around 165bpm, which is around 85% of my max. Occasionally get up to 90-95% up the (gentle) climbs). All this seems quite high compared to how un-knackered I feel. I’m guessing my max (191) isn’t quite high enough. In any case, I’ve found the hrm really useful in understanding if I’m really pushing as hard as I think I am, i.e. separating out the psychological perception.

thom thumb – I’ll take your advice and get a book. Any recommendations? Think my main issue is lack of time at the mo – I can only get in long (mtb) rides at the weekend.

metcalffe

friel

Carmichael

these three are all well thought of. if you are short on time go for time crunched cyclist.