Beginning of Training

AirRescueScott said:

Does anyone else have problems with getting winded early, then it goes away after about 10 miles? I'm not sure why it's happening, but it does.

my wild guess is that its because you try to go too hard in the first 10 miles and then after that you slow to a pace that is slightly below your Threshold Power.
What are you using to gauge your level of effort during the ride? A power meter, heart rate monitor or PE (perceived effort) ??

Pureshot78 said:

my wild guess is that its because you try to go too hard in the first 10 miles and then after that you slow to a pace that is slightly below your Threshold Power.
What are you using to gauge your level of effort during the ride? A power meter, heart rate monitor or PE (perceived effort) ??

Did have a HR monitor only, but now have a powertap. I have never been a "warm up" type of athlete, but perhaps in my older age I should allow myself more time to get the HR up, etc, etc

AirRescueScott said:

Did have a HR monitor only, but now have a powertap. I have never been a "warm up" type of athlete, but perhaps in my older age I should allow myself more time to get the HR up, etc, etc

It's commonly referred to as getting your "second wind".

Bob

AirRescueScott said:

Does anyone else have problems with getting winded early, then it goes away after about 10 miles? I'm not sure why it's happening, but it does.

Everytime I ride!! Its uphill away from my house so I always feel a bit overly tired like I am not goig to have a good ride-then after I warm-up and have my first one or two high efforts and recover I am good to go.

Some people just need to process some Lactic acid before they can really go, go, go.

The first 10 minutes of my first set of L4 is always the hardest. LIke you, I don't spend a lot of time warming up.

AirRescueScott said:

.... I have never been a "warm up" type of athlete, but perhaps in my older age I should allow myself more time to get the HR up, etc, etc

Warmup is a good idea at any age. Warmup and it's impact on performance and injury reduction has been heavily studied. A pub med search turned up several papers like this: ncbi.nlm.nih.govquery.fcgiOpen ↗

Fifteen minutes of L1/L2 warmup to get your muscle temps up, get your blood flowing and just to loosen up followed by a L4 blowout (love that term from Hunter and Coggin's book) really works. It also speaks to the idea that you just need to process a bit of blood lactate before you're really ready to work.