Beginner

btw, when I am going at 17 to 23 mph, I am really pushing myself beyond my comfort zone.

I too just started riding but luckily my father-in-law is an experienced cyclist. I am also training up for races and what I have been told for training is pedal in such a way that you could go for hours even if you don't plan on it. My usual cruising speed is a moderate pace around 15 mph and i only hit the strenuous pace you mentioned occasionally to get my hr up. I am taking part in my first race in a month and it's a 60mi ride. Training for it I am riding the full length a once or twice a week at a very moderate pace for familiarization and doing 30 miles at a increased rate to build my muscle groups.This seems to work for me.

Joseph Tsui said:

I just started my cycling training about a week ago on my new roadie. I can go about 18 to 23 mph average for an hour, and i am doing an hour (30 - 40 miles) ride everyday. Is it a good training plan? Should I ride more, or should I do 2 hours ride on alternate days?
(I am looking to take part in cat 5 races in about a year or 2 years)

Any advice is appreciated.

I wouldn't call just riding 30-40 miles/day a training PLAN. What makes a training plan is how you structure those miles.

If you are new to cycling, I think that just going out to ride is the right thing to do, and generating a training plan can happen later. If you are not new to cycling, but are trying to kick start a racing season, then you would probably benefit from more of a plan than you have.

Basically, any training plan you come up with needs to target the energy systems that you need to improve to improve your racing. You need to work on boosting your LT, building endurance, sprinting, and boosting your VO2 max for shorter, harder efforts like climbing a short hill, bridging a gap (or opening one up behind you). To do this you will want to incorporate some longer rides into the week (3+hrs) for endurance, 2-3X20min intervals at your LT, 6x2-3min intervals above your LT, and short (15-30sec) all out intervals to practice sprinting. You also want to incorporate recover days after your harder efforts which can be completely off the bike or active recovery (an easy spin the legs out ride).

CalicoCat said:

I wouldn't call just riding 30-40 miles/day a training PLAN. What makes a training plan is how you structure those miles.

If you are new to cycling, I think that just going out to ride is the right thing to do, and generating a training plan can happen later. If you are not new to cycling, but are trying to kick start a racing season, then you would probably benefit from more of a plan than you have.

Basically, any training plan you come up with needs to target the energy systems that you need to improve to improve your racing. You need to work on boosting your LT, building endurance, sprinting, and boosting your VO2 max for shorter, harder efforts like climbing a short hill, bridging a gap (or opening one up behind you). To do this you will want to incorporate some longer rides into the week (3+hrs) for endurance, 2-3X20min intervals at your LT, 6x2-3min intervals above your LT, and short (15-30sec) all out intervals to practice sprinting. You also want to incorporate recover days after your harder efforts which can be completely off the bike or active recovery (an easy spin the legs out ride).

CalicoCat you definitively have a point. Where would you get a plan, your really making sense but for a starter, where would someone get this information.

onthelang said:

CalicoCat you definitively have a point. Where would you get a plan, your really making sense but for a starter, where would someone get this information.

For me, joining a team and working withe experienced racers/coaches really helped in putting together a structured training plan. However, there is lots of good information on this forum and on the internet as well as in books and cycling magazines.

Just to give you somewhere to start, here is my general schedule right now:
Sat: race or interval training (12X30sec-1min).
Sun: long endurance ride (50-100mi) - or race
Mon: active recovery
Tues: Intervals 2x20min at LT or (3x3min and 3x2min, 3x3min, 3x2min at above LT to boost VO2 max)
Wed: off or active recovery
Thursday: same interval workout as tues
Fri: OFF

This is my current in-season training plan and it sometimes varies week to week depending on racing schedule (and life).

Off-season I incorporated a lot of on-the-bike strength training (low cadence simulated hill climbs on the computrainer). I think I benefited from this a lot and improved my top end and overall power. But now that the season is in full swing, strength training is over and I'm focusing on LT and VO2 max workouts instead.

Hope this helps!!!

How does one acquire a measurement for LT (Lactate Threshold)? Is this when your legs start to burn but you're able to keep that steady pace for a decent amount of time?

Or is that the level of burning that you can only sustain for 1 or 2 minutes?

I wouldn't call myself new to cycling cause I've been doing it recreationally for about 4 years now, but I just recently really started to research how to improve performance due to sometimes being the lacking one of the bunch to hold the group back. 😎

Thank You.

Thanks CalicoCat

Threshold said:

How does one acquire a measurement for LT (Lactate Threshold)? Is this when your legs start to burn but you're able to keep that steady pace for a decent amount of time?

Or is that the level of burning that you can only sustain for 1 or 2 minutes?

I wouldn't call myself new to cycling cause I've been doing it recreationally for about 4 years now, but I just recently really started to research how to improve performance due to sometimes being the lacking one of the bunch to hold the group back. 😎

Thank You.

The former. Your LT the power output that you can sustain for about an hour, but then have pretty much nothing left. To test to get your LT, you can do a one hour time trial, but a lot of people use their "20min number" (power output sustainable for 20min) and calculate their LT to be about 95% of that number.

Good luck with your training! I'm sure you'll be hanging with the group in no time :-) But I would suggest thinking about what happens when you lose contact with the group. Is it when there is a surge, or an acceleration from a stop light or a corner? Climbing? Or do you just start to fatigue toward the end of the ride and can't even hold a steady pace? Depending on what your weakness is, you can target your training to work on it.

Additionally there are group riding habits that you might be able to perfect that will help you keep up:
1. Stay close to the front. This will reduce the "accordion effect going in/out of corners. It will also give you room to drift back on a climb, but not lose contact with the group.
2. If you find yourself too far back, don't waste a lot of energy trying to move up on the outside. Just wait for a stop light and gently move forward while waiting for the light to change.
3. Don't brake a lot while cruising, you will just be wasting the energy that you used to get up to speed in the first place, and then have to use more energy to get back up to speed.
4. Protect yourself from the wind by riding as close as possible to the rider ahead of/next to you.
5. Drop a couple of gears before coming to a complete stop. The gears you use for cruising will be very difficult to turn from a stop and it'll take too long to get up to speed.

You might have already known these things, but thinking about them again never hurts!!!!

CalicoCat said:

The former. Your LT the power output that you can sustain for about an hour, but then have pretty much nothing left. To test to get your LT, you can do a one hour time trial, but a lot of people use their "20min number" (power output sustainable for 20min) and calculate their LT to be about 95% of that number.

Good luck with your training! I'm sure you'll be hanging with the group in no time :-) But I would suggest thinking about what happens when you lose contact with the group. Is it when there is a surge, or an acceleration from a stop light or a corner? Climbing? Or do you just start to fatigue toward the end of the ride and can't even hold a steady pace? Depending on what your weakness is, you can target your training to work on it.

Additionally there are group riding habits that you might be able to perfect that will help you keep up:
1. Stay close to the front. This will reduce the "accordion effect going in/out of corners. It will also give you room to drift back on a climb, but not lose contact with the group.
2. If you find yourself too far back, don't waste a lot of energy trying to move up on the outside. Just wait for a stop light and gently move forward while waiting for the light to change.
3. Don't brake a lot while cruising, you will just be wasting the energy that you used to get up to speed in the first place, and then have to use more energy to get back up to speed.
4. Protect yourself from the wind by riding as close as possible to the rider ahead of/next to you.
5. Drop a couple of gears before coming to a complete stop. The gears you use for cruising will be very difficult to turn from a stop and it'll take too long to get up to speed.

You might have already known these things, but thinking about them again never hurts!!!!

I guess I'm going to have to hit a indoor trainer someday so that I can test out this LT calculation.

Now that you brought it up about when I notice that I lose the group, I figure I would just explain it to you. I usually always lose the group on long hill climbs and also when we're in line coasting down a flat area, I seem to also have trouble keeping up with the group when there is a short, small hill, which flattens out, where you need to exert a little extra power to get you over the hill while maintaining speed. The guys that I ride with are able to get more riding time in during the week than I can cause one of them rides to work everyday and the other doesn't work, so he pretty much cycles everyday, but I just feel like I should be able to push myself some more. The one guy that rides to work, he's about my height 5'-10" & 190 lbs (I'm 5'-10" & 170 lbs) and he climbs like an animal. He also holds the front of the group when in line for a pretty long time at 25+ mph where as I can maybe hold at around 22 - 23 mph and for a shorter time before I have to peel off the front and get to the back to recover.

Not sure if that is enough information for you to evaluate, but that's all I can really explain unless you have any other questions that I can maybe answer.

To me, from the research that I've done, it seems that I reach my LT before the other guys, which makes me fall back sooner on the hills and also when riding the front of the group. I've read that doing about 8 min intervals @ over 100% LT with 2 - 3 min recovery helps a lot. The only problem with training in the area that I live, there isn't really any stretch of road where I can do that without hitting a traffic light/stop sign/intersection... name it and I have it over here... LOL.

I did know those points but like you said... there is nothing wrong with hearing it again... 🙂

Thank You.

That's a good speed. As has already being mentioned a plan should focus on training different parts of your body. You'll need to incorporate some interval training to get some real benefits. You've started well though. Keep it up.

Threshold said:

Now that you brought it up about when I notice that I lose the group, I figure I would just explain it to you. I usually always lose the group on long hill climbs and also when we're in line coasting down a flat area, I seem to also have trouble keeping up with the group when there is a short, small hill, which flattens out, where you need to exert a little extra power to get you over the hill while maintaining speed.

Thank You.

Losing the group on long hills: Boosting your LT power will help you with this. 2x20min of threshold intervals will help you with that.

Loosing the group on the flats: Boosting your LT power should help you there as well. Also, make sure you are geared right and not wasting energy braking, cornering, etc. Sit near the front and on a reliable steady wheel that will allow you to sit close and keep a steady pace.

Short steep hills: Top end, sprinting type of power will help you here. Do 30s-1min intervals well above your LT power. Power to weight ratio is also a big factor in climbing short steep hills, and if you are massive, no matter how you slice it or dice it, it will be much more difficult for you to crest that hill than it will be for a small person.

CalicoCat said:

Losing the group on long hills: Boosting your LT power will help you with this. 2x20min of threshold intervals will help you with that.

Loosing the group on the flats: Boosting your LT power should help you there as well. Also, make sure you are geared right and not wasting energy braking, cornering, etc. Sit near the front and on a reliable steady wheel that will allow you to sit close and keep a steady pace.

Short steep hills: Top end, sprinting type of power will help you here. Do 30s-1min intervals well above your LT power. Power to weight ratio is also a big factor in climbing short steep hills, and if you are massive, no matter how you slice it or dice it, it will be much more difficult for you to crest that hill than it will be for a small person.

Thank you... I appreciate your direction.

Now when you do these intervals... is this the only thing that you do that day? You don't do any other type of riding after or before?... well maybe a leisure 10 min ride just to get the body warmed up?

Thanks.

decca234uk said:

That's a good speed. As has already being mentioned a plan should focus on training different parts of your body. You'll need to incorporate some interval training to get some real benefits. You've started well though. Keep it up.

Yeah... I think that is one of my drawbacks... I really don't do any sort of interval training at all. I usually just go out and ride, and I ride usually pretty hard, which I've been learning is actually not recommended to do all the time.

I really need a HRM because sometimes I feel like I'm pushing wayyyy too hard but when I cut back on the effort, then I feel like I'm not getting anything out of my workout.