I am very new to riding but I know it's something that I want to give it a good go.. I have a running background.. Have run for 5 years but that has slowly become a very small part of my life..I had knee issues after I ran a half marathon 2 years ago and it all slowly started to go downhill since then..motivation has suffered the past month with exercise due to a few personal drama's..all sorted now and I bought myself a nice little vivente road bike.Now all I need is feedback from anyone and everyone on how to structure a training week, how far to go in the first few weeks so I dn't overdo it, when to incorporate hills into the workout etc.. I live on the Central Coast NSW so also any advice on some nice riding routes would be much appreciated..
Test yourself with L2 endurance level riding every other day three days a week first you should be able to do that until the cows come home. If you ride an indoor trainer then half the riding time should be enough due to not being able to coast. If all goes well and you get 500 miles of base behind you with no knee pain start mixing some L3 Tempo in with your rides (requires a little concentration to maintain and keep from sliding into L2). Sometimes adjusting your saddle up a little helps take pressure off your knees so keep it in mind if you have knee pain to high and your hamstrings will bother you at the back of the knee.
miswen said:
Hi Guys,
I am very new to riding but I know it's something that I want to give it a good go.. I have a running background.. Have run for 5 years but that has slowly become a very small part of my life..I had knee issues after I ran a half marathon 2 years ago and it all slowly started to go downhill since then..motivation has suffered the past month with exercise due to a few personal drama's..all sorted now and I bought myself a nice little vivente road bike.Now all I need is feedback from anyone and everyone on how to structure a training week, how far to go in the first few weeks so I dn't overdo it, when to incorporate hills into the workout etc.. I live on the Central Coast NSW so also any advice on some nice riding routes would be much appreciated..
I live on the Central Coast NSW so also any advice on some nice riding routes would be much appreciated..
Cheers🙂
Nice part of the world. You might want to make contact with the Central Coast Cycling Club. They're a good bunch with an active race programme as well. I'm sure they'll have the low down on good training routes. Plenty of good rides up your way I'd say!
Test yourself with L2 endurance level riding every other day three days a week first you should be able to do that until the cows come home. If you ride an indoor trainer then half the riding time should be enough due to not being able to coast. If all goes well and you get 500 miles of base behind you with no knee pain start mixing some L3 Tempo in with your rides (requires a little concentration to maintain and keep from sliding into L2). Sometimes adjusting your saddle up a little helps take pressure off your knees so keep it in mind if you have knee pain to high and your hamstrings will bother you at the back of the knee.
um whats L2 endurance level riding? haha i'm a newbie too and would love tips on how to start off properly :o
L2 Endurance all day pace where your breathing just begins to pick up but you could continue for 5 or more hours at that pace. L3 Tempo seems to be limited to around 3 hours. L4 is Threshold at high L4 105% FTP Time trail pace its painful and you're toast within an hour, at 100% painful but a little more sustainable. L5 VO2 Max 5 minutes and you need recovery in L1 Active Recovery or L2 Endurance for about the same amount of time depending on how high into L5 you were. L6 Anerobic Capacity about one minute. L7 Nuero Muscular Power about a 15 second sprint. There are combinations of these zones also ie if you stay between High L3 and low L4 (Sweet Spot Training or SST) you can go more than an hour and get the benefits of L4 most importantly raising FTP (Functional Threshold Power or hour power)
To raise FTP as you train ask yourself am I going to fast to take a swig from my water bottle right now? If the answer is yes back off a little. Then ask am I going so slow that I could take a swig without having to take three quick breaths before it? If the answer is yes pick up the pace a little. Once you find this semi comfortable hurt zone after about 20 minutes of this check your HRM that is probably your sweet spot (low L4 91% FTP) plus or minus 5 bpm. Do 3x20s every other day at this pace. L2 endurance is a waste of time try to stay high L3 Tempo (always pushing takes a little concentration to maintain it and prevent slipping back to L2) or above whenever possible. Just get in that zone and check your cadence, gear combo and then HRM. Use cadence and gear combo for the first 15 minutes then in the last 5 minutes HRM should be on target. Right now 52/21 at 94 rpm is SST for me on the KK. Or even better If you are not ready to spend big on a power meter just get the Kurt Kinetic Road machine with the speed to power computer it is only $324. 1upusa.comkurtkinetictrainer.htmOpen ↗ it is worth it and a great motivator. Andy's book is a good idea. amazon.comTraining Raci...ie=UTF8&s=booksOpen ↗
wcngu1 said:
um whats L2 endurance level riding? haha i'm a newbie too and would love tips on how to start off properly :o
L2 Endurance all day pace where your breathing just begins to pick up but you could continue for 5 or more hours at that pace. L3 Tempo seems to be limited to around 3 hours. L4 is Threshold at high L4 105% FTP Time trail pace its painful and you're toast within an hour, at 100% painful but a little more sustainable. L5 VO2 Max 5 minutes and you need recovery in L1 Active Recovery or L2 Endurance for about the same amount of time depending on how high into L5 you were. L6 Anerobic Capacity about one minute. L7 Nuero Muscular Power about a 15 second sprint. There are combinations of these zones also ie if you stay between High L3 and low L4 (Sweet Spot Training or SST) you can go more than an hour and get the benefits of L4 most importantly raising FTP (Functional Threshold Power or hour power)
To raise FTP as you train ask yourself am I going to fast to take a swig from my water bottle right now? If the answer is yes back off a little. Then ask am I going so slow that I could take a swig without having to take three quick breaths before it? If the answer is yes pick up the pace a little. Once you find this semi comfortable hurt zone after about 20 minutes of this check your HRM that is probably your sweet spot (low L4 91% FTP) plus or minus 5 bpm. Do 3x20s every other day at this pace. L2 endurance is a waste of time try to stay high L3 Tempo (always pushing takes a little concentration to maintain it and prevent slipping back to L2) or above whenever possible. Just get in that zone and check your cadence, gear combo and then HRM. Use cadence and gear combo for the first 15 minutes then in the last 5 minutes HRM should be on target. Right now 52/21 at 94 rpm is SST for me on the KK. Or even better If you are not ready to spend big on a power meter just get the Kurt Kinetic Road machine with the speed to power computer it is only $324. 1upusa.comkurtkinetictrainer.htmOpen ↗ it is worth it and a great motivator. Andy's book is a good idea. amazon.comTraining Raci...ie=UTF8&s=booksOpen ↗
wow thats fantastic thanks for the great advice. I have a polar cs200CAD and am trying to figure that thing out. unfortunately my speed sensor was dead on arrival -_-.
That looks like a nice HRM the method I described is a way to fine tune the HRM to the individual better than the 220 - age etc method that I found wanting. Going by that formula I thought I was working out in middle tempo range when I was actually in L4 in a power based training program. By the power based method 128bpm is L2 but when I went by the 220-age 143bpm was L2 if I mixed in 5 minutes of L5 then tried to find L2 agian by HR it was impossible but with watts displayed it was easy. I'm to cheap to buy a Power Tap so this fine tuning is what I will go by when I'm riding outdoors again without the speed to power computer on the KK. Remember I am not taking average HR from the beginning just the last minutes of a 20 minute interval heart rate takes a while to respond to stress. I am also not mixing in other levels but I do pure 91% FTP. You really should get the KK with watt computer and Andy's book to verify your FTP as explained on page 50 (one of 6 methods). Then with your levels of intensity based on this it would be even more accurate.
wcngu1 said:
wow thats fantastic thanks for the great advice. I have a polar cs200CAD and am trying to figure that thing out. unfortunately my speed sensor was dead on arrival -_-.
