Hiya,
I appear to have signed up for a charity bike ride, and thought I'd better do some training for it, being overweight, unfit, and not all that great at cycling! I've done some longish rides before, but not all that many - more this year than I've ever managed before, but in terms of miles until this year (which for me started in april) less than 100 miles/year, over the two years I've had the bike...
Outstripped that this year, after having made lots of changes to the bike and getting happier with it and more confidence etc. Audax bike with drops.
Anyway, back to the main topic - I've been in training for this event as of three weeks ago, and it's two weeks this sunday, so very short time for training! I've got myself a copy of HRM training for cycling (by sally edwards?) and been using the software that came with that, and the cycling coaching plug-in, which has been really good to keep me getting back on the bike each night - and I'm really chuffed with the results I can see from what I'm doing this year (even managed a couple of 40-50 miles with the local club, though huge struggle to keep up and much pain, so subsequent couple of long rides have been making my own way to the tea stop at slightly slower pace!)
So, I've got the bike on the turbo, and am following the workouts given, but am finding it VERY hard to do the high spin workouts - where I'm directed to spin at 115-130rpm against very little resistance. Partly is struggling to get the legs up to 115 - they're happy to sit and spin at 100, out riding they're normally low 80's which is fine, or 65-75 if they fancy a bit of a change and the road is flat to stretch them out in a bigger gear. Partly is struggling to keep the heart rate below my anaerobic threshold if I do manage to get the legs turning over at 115 - and as for reaching 120-130, I just can't do it.
The pedals are quite jerky (I know, sort my pedal stroke out, easier said than done, I can get it lovely and smooth as long as there's a bit more resistance there) with the resistance set low, but if I set it higher the heart rate rockets into the anaerobic end of things, and I can't maintain it (and am not supposed to be training in the anaerobic zone at this point anyway).
Can anyone offer any tips on this? Is what I'm finding with the rpm normal? what do people here class as high cadence training, and can they give me any idea what heart rate they're at if they're doing 115-120 rpm?
I've been letting the heart rate wander upwards but not so far as to hit the AT, but still can't get the rpm up there and sustain it without the dreaded lactic acid kicking in.
I know this'll improve with fitness, but I've made sizeable improvements in that over the last month, and am surprised that against virtualy no resistance the heart rate is still going up so high, it seems that my body is working less pushing a much bigger gear at lower cadence than tiny gears at high cadence, which is against what I keep reading on how to spin up hills rather than power up them.
FWIW, I'm a girly, and carrying a fair bit of flab still so the power to weight ratio is appalling, so I'm suprised to be finding this.
More interested in some comparisons and suggestions than pride, so if it would be useful to know height/weight/heart rate/estimated VO2 etc ask and I'll reply.
Sorry for the long post, bit rambling but I think most of it might be helpful for replies?