help needed

Mansoor

First off You can totally do this!!!

I suggest you get a heart rate/cadence/calorie count monitor This will help make your training more efficient.

I suggest you get a training log and log your miles, percieved effort, average heart rate, route, etc

Training:

I would say you should focus on 3 areas in your training

1)Base Miles: I can relate to the heat issue (i live in phoenix arizona 108 was the high yesterday...no clouds!) But I have found it not too bad to train base miles in the heat...start early if possible though. Get 2 rides in a week of about 4 hours never letting your heart rate get above 60-70% of your max.
also follow each hard ride with 45min to an hour of spinning real easy on the days following your long rides (These short recovery rides are key!) do this for 2 - 3 weeks

2)Tempo 2-3 rides with your heart rate 70-80% of max for about 2 hours(maybe stack 2 ie mon, tuesday recover wednesday off thursday ride friday recover saturday.

3)Hills 2 rides climbing hills at tempo pace (70-80% heart rate) for 10 miles of so....then 1 hard hill climb ride per week 80% or greater heart rate in intervals of 2-5 minutes once a week....again recover after each ride

note: i have focused your work out on seat time and heart rate not speed or distance

diet:

if you really want to slim down replace only what you need and what you use.
hop on the internet and figure out how many calories somone of your size and height needs daily...eat that in recommended proportions carbs/protein/fat. and then use your calorie meter on your hrm to replace those calories. I have found that this has slimmed me to a good cycling wait (not tdf weight 🙂 but good cycling weight)

hope this helps get you started
take it with a grain of salt and modify it so that it works for you!

Thanks for the advice...

I will get on to the heart rate monitor and the related but as we dont have many atheletes around here and I am not a member of any club right now I will have to wait on that.

I will begin that riding schedule for now and testing the heart rate now and then manually with stop (I can do that).....

The only issue that I may face currently that is after the three weeks and that is the climbs you have mentioned... You see I live in the plains and for the events particularly the one with the climbs i will be going to Islamabad.

Can I stack this up... I mean the prepare myself enough and then after every fortnight or three weeks go to islamabad and do the stretch over the week end....Because you have to understand that I am a University student in my senior year and working at a software house as well (my major is computer science)... So I only can spare the weekend for hitting the hills.

The rest and even the four hours rides are not an issue as long as I am at home

I am really thankful for your advice and the time you spent to answer me. Please let me know about this one. Should I work out in a gym a bit to simulate (so to speak) the hills.

Thanks

you could do your hills on the weekend and a recovery ride on monday morning or afternooon!

bottom line is: ride hard 1-2 days and recover 1 day.

you are on your way!!

good luck

jason

While watching the TdF I heard Lance Armstrong shifted up agear or two the few days before they hit the mountains in order to get his muscles ready for the climbs. This was to prepare his muscles for the slower cadence of hard climbs.

I can only say that this seems to work for Lance, but he is a well conditioned athlete, I don't know whether it would be of any assistance in the training period.

If I were you I would ride a lot on whatever hills I could. Even if short and not very steep... ride into the wind, carry a lot of heavy stuff on the bike, and occasionally push a gear that is too high for the conditions...

Also, if there is someplace to do so, and you have a bike that you don't mind getting gritty, you may want to try riding on gravel roads and/or in loose dirt/sand in order to get some good work at lower cadence.

These are all just guesses, but I would try some or all of them if I wanted to train for hills in a flat area.

As far as learning to deal with the thinner air of altiutude, I don't know...