Ride in the morning, turbo in the evening?

jonmack
jonmack Posts: 522
edited June 2009 in Road beginners
Hey,

I try to ride as often as I can, but as I'm unsure to how far I can physically ride, I tend to keep it to around 20-30 miles. Sometimes I ride in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, and sometimes the evening, but few hours after I feel as though I could ride again. I rode this afternoon at about 2pm, is there any problem with doing say half an hour on the turbo trainer this evening, after dinner? I don't want to over work myself but at the same time I do want to increase my fitness levels, and I just love being out on the bike.

Any advice would be greatly received.

Thanks,

Jon

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,666
    Only a short time to spare on the trainer? Try Tabata protocol...
  • Dunkeldog
    Dunkeldog Posts: 138
    I wish I could get out in the afternoon. The turbo has become a godsend just lately what with the weather and late nights at work. In terms of overworking yourself - the best thing about the turbo is you can stop any time you feel a twinge or just out of gas.
  • jonmack
    jonmack Posts: 522
    Well no real limit for time spent on the trainer, apart from boredom level, but I'm still getting to grips with resistance levels. Sadly I don't have a cadence meter so this isn't completely accurate but I tend to feel comfortable somewhere between 56-64 (34:14/15/16) gear inches at about 60RPMish, and that gets my heart going to somewhere between 150 and 160 BPM. I usually just whack my trainer (Minoura RDA850) on the highest resistance setting, and just plug away at it for half an hour, and by then I'm usually sweating so much I've drank about 750ml.

    I always make sure I eat about 1-2 hours before I ride, and then when I get back in the house I always try grab something to eat straight after, although I have just bought some energy/recovery drinks to start taking.

    I've looked at doing interval training as described on http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/fitness/ ... 73950.html but I find that by the time 10 minutes warmup is done, I find it hard to do 5 minutes at race pace because my legs are going as fast as I feel comfortable going, which I think is one of my problems, I always just tend to ride at what I find a "comfortable" pace which when I'm out riding is around 18-21mph on the flat, 10-15mph on the hills round here, and then as I previously mentioned, I just ride with the trainer on full resistance and push 65ish GI.

    Should I look at doing slow warmups, closer to 45 GI at 60rpm for 10 mins, then upping the GI to 65-70 and again 60RPM for 5 minutes, and doing it that way? I'm still very new to this whole game which is why I'm posting here.

    EDIT: If I turbo in the morning, then by the afternoon I feel like I can go out again, is that a bad thing? Should I be pushing myself so hard that I don't want to ride for the rest of the day? I work from home so I really can go out whenever I want, as long as weather permits, which is a very nice perk.
  • Garz
    Garz Posts: 1,155
    jonmack wrote:
    EDIT: If I turbo in the morning, then by the afternoon I feel like I can go out again, is that a bad thing? Should I be pushing myself so hard that I don't want to ride for the rest of the day? I work from home so I really can go out whenever I want, as long as weather permits, which is a very nice perk.

    Let your body be the judge not us forumites!

    If my body could take it, then I go out - simple. If im feeling tired then its for a reason so I listen to the aches etc which prevents me from injury. The only time you need to push yourself through any aches/fatigue is when your competing and have to get the training so you move up a level.

    If you turbo in the morning and feel fresh again later on then get out there and do it!
  • jonmack
    jonmack Posts: 522
    Well I stayed in and played xbox tonight :P but I'll go out tomorrow for a long one maybe, and see how I feel again in the evening.
  • Dunkeldog
    Dunkeldog Posts: 138
    In the past I have been in danger of taking a lot of the enjoyment out of my bike by simply over riding. Like Garz said, let your body be the judge and don't start thinking you have to go out! You'll do yourself no good in the long run riding into an injury.
  • joeyhalloran
    joeyhalloran Posts: 1,080
    sorry, but what is the tabata protocol?
  • jonmack
    jonmack Posts: 522
    http://www.tabataprotocol.com/

    In other news, I've just applied for a job which would involve either a 60 mile daily commute, or a 20 mile daily commute if i took the train :P
  • Garz
    Garz Posts: 1,155
    If you pull it off jon, you would be asking for reasons not to go out again on the bike! :lol:

    That commute would be tiring to say the least!
  • jonmack
    jonmack Posts: 522
    Haha well IF I get the job then the salary would allow me to learn to drive, which would mean I could ditch the commute, or keep it to one or two days a week anyway. This is very wishful thinking as it's actually the first interview I've ever been called to that isn't for a crappy summer/part time job.

    I didn't get to ride today :( not properly, only a few miles to work and back, but I do get to put my bike in my bedroom :D

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