Beginner. How Often Should I Train?

[Bonzer]

10 km, thrice a week! I think that's too much for a newbie. I'm no professional but 4 to 5 km per day 4 days a week should be fine. You should not tax your body at the very beginning. You should only go as far as your body permits you to do.

Your body acquires resilience and endurance strength in a phased manner and with the help of proper diet and adequate rest. 10 km at a stretch and 20 km thereafter is not prudent.

 

[Bonzer]

10 km, thrice a week! I think that's too much for a newbie. I'm no professional but 4 to 5 km per day 4 days a week should be fine. You should not tax your body at the very beginning. You should only go as far as your body permits you to do.

Your body acquires resilience and endurance strength in a phased manner and with the help of proper diet and adequate rest. 10 km at a stretch, followed by 20 km thereafter is not prudent.

 

[An old Guy]

Patryk, don't worry about what the pros do. Ignore this jibberish about how they train. You're just starting out and emulating any of their training stragegies will be counterproductive.

That is a very good observation that many do not make.

 

[llfsa]

You don't need to restrain yourself to pre-made plans. Gauge your body signals and see what works best for YOU. A lot of people ignore this and it's the reason why there are so many different plans and beliefs.

 

[kylerlittle]

Twice a week or three times a week for a beginner is great.

 

[9lines]

When I bought my first bike, I used to go riding twice or thrice a week, mostly on weekends. Nowadays I can find time and I do go cycling atleast daily. I usually do 10 km daily.

 

[Sunflogun]

I think our training depends on our goals. Either cases, we should start slowly and increase gradually so that we don't ruin the body.

 

[Keyan]

Think about the amount of time you can spend on riding. If you can accommodate certain number of hours in a week base from your current activities at home or school and with friends start from there as your baseline. There is no point in coming up with numbers if you can not commit.

 

[Lizel]

It really depends on you're strength, you should know how often and how much time you CAN to ride.
Be sure to not overwhelm yourself at the beginning. Good luck ^^

 

[AtlantaSports]

Just go as often as you want. If you are motivated enough, you could ride every day and that would be ok.

 

[Sunflogun]

Yep, as long as we have the time and the body feels good we should go for it, training or riding whatever we want to call it.

 

[GemmaRowlands]

It depends on what your goals are, and how much free time you have to be able to train. When I first started, I tried to do a reasonable ride every week day, with a very long ride (well, long to me at the time) on a Saturday and then have a recovery day on the Sunday. That worked for me, and the length of the ride at the weekend was able to get longer and longer until it reached a level that I was more than happy with. What are you doing at the moment? Only you know what is good for you, and the trick is to simply make sure that you're getting better and better each time you go out. As long as this is the case, your training is doing you good.

 

[Khatib22]

I personally feel that twice a week is a good starting point. Also, don't feel afraid to listen to your body. If you feel sore, make sure to rest and if you feel you can handle more, don't be afraid to challenge yourself. Everybody is different and giving you a one-size fits all answer would just be limiting you or pushing you too far.

 

[Sunflogun]

Twice a week is fine, it also depends on how long we do it. Let's suppose I can train everyday, I would do it for sure. We just have to do what makes us feel good.

 

[tomw1974]

Looking at how pros train is only relevant if you plan on doing 6-7 hour races several days in a row. They are training for a different event than you are and there's no reason to model your training on theirs. Your training needs to be based on your goals and targets, not someone else's.

I agree, 3 to 5 days a week is good to start and could be good for several years as you gradually add length and intensity to your rides. As you get fitter and can recover faster, you could do more days per week. It depends on what else you are doing.

Intensity is a tricky one to that needs to be adjusted as you get fitter. A speed or power output that is a near-maximal effort today might be a moderate tempo effort in the future. As you get fitter, your capacity for speed and endurance will increase, so you need to keep increases your speed, distance, or both in order to keep improving. This is where most people stagnate. They reach a certain point where they do the same rides the same distance at the same speed all the time.

 

[sbatz72]

This would be entirely up to your current physical health. If you are in good physical health I would workout everyday at least one hour a day. If you need to get back into shape maybe everyday just 15 minutes and increase it 15 minutes each week.

 

[Kakashi]

When I was a beginner about 30 years ago lol, I used to bike 6 days a week but nowadays I only hit the road about twice a week.

 

[reighn]

I think it's up to your body condition, do not push immediately, just beat your record every day will help you to keep motivating on training, and I think morning is the better time for training.

 

[ballyhara]

Honestly, I think you're doing a good work. Three days a week sounds perfect for a beginner, and it gives time enough to your muscles to rest. You can try to increase the number of miles, but do it in a slow pace, like maybe 5 miles per time, and you can try to do it every 2 weeks instead of every week.

 

[ballyhara]

When I was a beginner about 30 years ago lol, I used to bike 6 days a week but nowadays I only hit the road about twice a week.

Same here. I was just like you, hitting the road almost everyday when I was a beginner. Right now, I have to work a lot, and I get home completely exhausted, so I don't feel like biking so often. Maybe 2 or 3 days in a week is what I do now, specially on the weekends.