Keeping strength without group rides

First, set some goals. Little (or big) concrete tests. One or two tests are fine. Repeat them over a period of time.

Could be : highest avg hr over a 30min effort. Or highest avg power over a 30min effort. Or best possible avg speed over a 60k TT. Or max power obtained in a 8min rampup test.

Then your intensity program can be build around that, to improve your performance level in your tests.

🙂

It's Christmas. Ask Santa to buy you this book:

The Cyclist's Training Bible, by Joe Friel.

Many serious cyclists and virtually all bike racers have read Friel.

It will answer all your questions, and many more that you have not yet thought to ask.

Bob

Bobby Lex said:

It's Christmas. Ask Santa to buy you this book:

The Cyclist's Training Bible, by Joe Friel.

Many serious cyclists and virtually all bike racers have read Friel.

It will answer all your questions, and many more that you have not yet thought to ask.

Bob

I took a quick look at that book not long ago. Very good recommandation!

SolarEnergy said:

First, set some goals. Little (or big) concrete tests. One or two tests are fine. Repeat them over a period of time.

I agree with this. Unless you clearly define exactly what your goals are, structuring a training program is extremely difficult. I would say set some short term, medium and long term goals as a starting point.

I'll take a crack at a response (my 2cents worth). The OP can achieve exactly the same benefits (if not more) by training on his own with a well thought out program. Most non-recreational riders i know do 75% or more of their training on their own so group riding isn't a pre-requisite. As for your comment on training on your own is less intense - i'd disagree. Intensity is a function of how hard you're willing to work. If you need a bunch to make you work to that level, then you need to find ways to motivate yourself to do it on your own.

As for the question on what to do...it depends on your goals. If it's jsut to maintain endurance/general fitness, just replicate what you do on bunch rides on your own at exactly the same intensity (forget speed). Do you have more specific goals in mind?

Some general rules for interval training:

For TT/threshold performance - many options but most popular are 2 x 10, 15 or 20min L4 intervals on the flats or on hills (using Andy C's definition for intesity level). The aim here is to be able to complete each interval without bonking so pace your effort for the interval (0.5x or 1x recovery between each interval)

Sprinting/Strength/Anaerobic Power - many options here but could try: repeats on 3-8min V02 max intervals (@ L5-L6) are good (and hurt a lot!). You could also try big gear Hill Sprints and Decending Hill Sprints or Flying 200's (wind up to a good speed then go for it all out for 200m)

There's numerous threads out there on what others do (check out Power training forum as well - some good tips on what specific drills do in terms of adaptation). I've also read from others that Friel's book is a bit 'tame' in terms of the intensity he prescribes for intervals (haven't read it so may be wrong). Hope this helps. If it's off track, sorry for writing so much:o

Okay, then I'll lay out some goals for you. What I want to do is start racing this spring/summer, and be good enough to possibly join/ride with the CSUChico cycling team. That's what I'd really want to do. !!!

AmpedCycle said:

Okay, then I'll lay out some goals for you. What I want to do is start racing this spring/summer, and be good enough to possibly join/ride with the CSUChico cycling team. That's what I'd really want to do. !!!

Starting racing is a good goal. The good news is that it's easy to get into racing. The not so good news is that it can take years of hard work to get any good at it (unless you've got some good genes or just have many miles in you). Racing is a completely different beast - many more variables. I'm not familiar with the team u mention. What level are they? What type of racing are you focusing on? How old are you?

The team is the california state university, Chico cycling team. They race road, which is all I know. They're not a division 1 school... I'm 24, been riding for 1.5 years, and getting pretty good. I'd like to focus on racing basics since I've never done it before. Things like tactics, technique, form, and above all speed.

Dini77 said:

Starting racing is a good goal. The good news is that it's easy to get into racing. The not so good news is that it can take years of hard work to get any good at it (unless you've got some good genes or just have many miles in you). Racing is a completely different beast - many more variables. I'm not familiar with the team u mention. What level are they? What type of racing are you focusing on? How old are you?

You have probably answered this question in another thread, but I don't recall your answer. Do you ride with a PM?

Eh? Don't know what you mean..... :?

RapDaddyo said:

You have probably answered this question in another thread, but I don't recall your answer. Do you ride with a PM?

AmpedCycle said:

Eh? Don't know what you mean..... :?

Do you ride with a power meter?

AmpedCycle said:

Eh? Don't know what you mean..... :?

I think RD was referring to your response on the following thread. You were talking about your experience on the group rides & drafting, etc
cyclingforums.comt304984 first group ride did well on hills not so well on flats.htmlOpen ↗

Learning race craft, technique, tactics, etc can take a long time and u never really stop learning. i don't think there's any training you can do to learn tactics, etc - the best way is through practice.

If RR is your scene, then you'll want to concentrate on increasing threshold power and working on your finishing sprint (also practice bike throws!!) - in which case, 2x 10 - 20min L4 intervals, 4x3-8min V02max intervals, big gear hill sprints & desending hill sprints would be good drills to have in your program.

I think I know where you are coming from, so I'll give it a shot. As I understand what you are saying, your group rides were intense and you were getting good workouts by virtue of trying to stay with the group and occasionally going to the front to pull. You're now forced to ride solo and want to know how to structure equally intense workouts. If that's about right, I would make these suggestions.

First, you need an understanding of training intensities and the physiological adaptations corresponding with each intensity level. I follow Andy Coggan's schema, as described here midweekclub.cacoggan.pdfOpen ↗.

Second, you need a master plan for how many minutes you want to spend per week and per ride at each level, plus total duration, IF and TSS. Unfortunately, while all of this stuff comes for free with a power meter and the CyclingPeaks software, you have to sort of guesstimate these numbers without a PM. For a master plan, I'd say get a coach if you can afford one. I have my own plan but I don't feel comfortable recommending it until I know that it at least works for me. Even then, our goals might be different and I think that's a pretty involved dialogue.

Third, you need a way to apply the first and second points above to your actual road courses (assuming you don't have access to a velodrome). I have spent a huge amount of time on this issue and have developed a very comprehensive ride planning process that allows me to be extremely specific as to time in each level, total ride NP, IF and TSS. But, again, my approach is totally dependent on availability of a PM. Without a PM, here is what I would do. I would identify all of the high-intensity segments of my courses (e.g., upgrades) and ride them (separately) once a month at the maximum speed I could sustain. Hopefully, these segments run the gamut from 1 min to 20 or 30 mins. Then, on my training rides, I would ride each segment at 90% of that max speed. The reason for the monthly re-calibration is that, hopefully, my max speed would increase a little bit each month and I would adjust all of my "interval" speeds as appropriate. For me, this approach to doing my high-intensity work allows me to avoid intervals in the traditional sense, which I don't enjoy.