Nothing rides

liversedge

So, I am back in the saddle after 6 months of being a total plonker (booze and chips etc etc). Trying to avoid burn out and enjoying my riding.

I'm absolutely unstructured in my plans right now, just go riding whenever possible and have fun, typically 1-2hrs only. Might even run in the evening if the mood takes me.

As a result my rides are all a mixed bag - bit of recovery when i'm noodling and a bit of tempo when i'm warmed up and feel strong and the occasional blitzkrieg as I try to catch or keep up with obviosuly fitter riders on hills etc.

Should I be more disciplined and stick to specific zones or is there any value in my unstructured approach (aside from keeping me motivated and enjoying myself). I'm dreading being told to stick in L1 and L2 ...

I have no specific races or goals in the short to medium term so I'm just trying to lose some weight and get some fitness back. I train with a HRM and PM but obviously they're just collecting data right now and not part of a structured training plan.

Thoughts?

nmcgann

Hello Mark, good to see you back again.

I think just mixing it up to keep it as enjoyable as possible is a valid approach if you have no particular goals. In your shoes I'd be doing 4h on a sunday morning at endurance pace and some faster tempo sessions of 1-2h during the rest of the week.

Just a good solid 8-9h of varied cycling in a week will soon bring the fitness level up.

Neil

Alex_Simmons/RST

liversedge wrote:

I have no specific races or goals in the short to medium term so I'm just trying to lose some weight and get some fitness back. I train with a HRM and PM but obviously they're just collecting data right now and not part of a structured training plan.

Thoughts?

Just get out there and ride. No need to be a zone drone.

As you get fitter, throw in more sweet spot work overall. Here's a good item on examples, many of which are free form riding:

http://www.fascatcoaching.com/training_ ... tdeux.html

If goals become more specific then plans may need to change.

liversedge

Cheers guys. And it's great to be back and motivated. Funny how you can get down on yourself when you lose your mojo. And how easy it is to get on your bike and feel good about yourself when you get it back.

I always used to end up doing SST when I should have been doing L4 ... I always think of it as a bit of a cop out. Placing it at the heart of my non-training plan will be a cinch :-)

SteveR_100Milers

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

liversedge wrote:

I have no specific races or goals in the short to medium term so I'm just trying to lose some weight and get some fitness back. I train with a HRM and PM but obviously they're just collecting data right now and not part of a structured training plan.

Thoughts?

Just get out there and ride. No need to be a zone drone.

As you get fitter, throw in more sweet spot work overall. Here's a good item on examples, many of which are free form riding:

http://www.fascatcoaching.com/training_ ... tdeux.html

If goals become more specific then plans may need to change.

Alex, can HR be used as a guide to find the SST? This is why I used to do post ride HR analysis, to see if I was putting in the right effort for the right amount of time.
Where does SST sit on the RPE scale of 1 to10? I ask because most of my mid week rides of about 60-90 minutes are all as fast as I can maintain on a normal road that would include normal stops for traffic/lights etc etc, but certainly hard enough so that my average HR is between 80 and 90% On an RPE scale its 6-7, where 8 is short distance TT effort. I'm getting quite despondant / concerned / peed off that my TT speed has gone drastically backwards from last year, despite doing this type of riding, plus some longer sunday rides in the hills, plus club TT's, and all on top of a half decent winter with some tracks thrown in. OK 6 weeks of little riding in Feb/Mar didnt help but somethings drastically wrong!

Alex_Simmons/RST

I'd say riding from 78%-92% of MHR could be classed as SST, although typically most associate it with Tempo to sub-25-mile TT pace riding in the 80%-88% MHR range.

Hard to say what's causing your performance drop. So many variables to consider. But if performance does not improve after a block of training, then typically either something is wrong or you need to change your training.