Beginner Plateau

pimptovimto

Hi I started riding earlier this year and thought I was making pretty good progress mostly the odd 20 miler during the week and then some bigger rides at the weekend I ride an MTB with some road tyres on it. Anyway the furthest I have ridden is 60 miles

Recently I started to commute to work which is 15 miles each way it takes me between 55 and 65 minutes mostly determined by the wind, I was hoping that I would start to see some improvements in all areas speed, power/effort, heart rate and breathing but really I have seen no improvement anywhere I seem to to take just as long and try just as hard as I did weeks ago, in fact I would say that my performance has dipped because I am shattered most days at the end of the 15 miles despite having ridden much further than this in the past.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks

PV

pangolin

What do you eat during the day or after a long ride?

Bronzie

pimptovimto wrote:

I am shattered most days at the end of the 15 miles despite having ridden much further than this in the past.

Do you fit any easy weeks into your training schedule? Sounds like you need to fit in some recovery time to me - typically take every 4th week easy to give your body time to recover and adapt to the training stimulus of your harder weeks.

pimptovimto

pangolin wrote:

What do you eat during the day or after a long ride?

I dont do eat anything special really if anything I'd say I concentrate more on fuelling before doing excersise. According to my Garmin my 15 mile ride to work burns 700kcals I dont know much about fuelling so I just drink some SIS stuff and maybe have some porridge in the morning during the day I just a couple of sandwiches and every other day a bake potato or something like that.

Should i be trying to replace the calories burnt? I dont have a weight problem nor do I ride to lose or maintain weight I am training for a 1 day event next month and then a long tour next year. I think I can handle the 1 dayer but at the moment I am having some doubts about the tour even although it is a long way off.

PV

mikeq

There is a 'golden" window after training, whicj is about 30- 60 mins after training which is the ideal time to refuel the muscles. This opportunity decreases over time after training.

Use this window to get some simple sugar into your body (glucose) this will be stored in the muscles just used (glycogen) ready for next time you use that muscle. 75% of glycogen is stored in muscles and 25% in the liver. If a muscle is depleted of glycogen it can take from the liver, but once that's gone it's gone. One muscle cannot use glycogen from another muscle, I.e. your leg muscle cannot steal glycogen from an arm muscle.

So it is important to refuel the depleted muscles after training. Porridge is a good complex carbohydrate I.e. slow release carb, but you need simple carbs after training.

You also need to get in protein after training, this is the building block for the body to rebuild itself.

But you are probably overtraining, your body isn't getting enough recovery time to rebuild before you hit it again. This results in a spiral downward.

Listen to your body, if it feels tired it probably is and you need to rest it. As has been said, have some easy weeks where you just coast along without really pushing it.

brownbosh

I would suggest you dont just keep doing the same thing again and again and expect different results. It wont happen. Work onm individual aspects of your riding. Spinning one day, big gear riding the next, easier days and intervals too and only check your time on the days you go all out for maximum speed. This should not be every day!

pimptovimto

Thanks for the advice I took a few dys off from the commute last week and went out for bigger ride today, ended up doing 70 miles and felt pretty good all the way through I took a bunch of gels a few bananas and some GO bars.

Iam going to mix it up a bitmore as suggested and go out nd do some intervals or something like that next week.

Thanks

PV

Bhima

Use the first 10 minutes as a warmup. Use low gears and spin them pretty fast to get the blood flowing.

Then, when you're mentally prepared and the road allows it:

1) Pedal harder.
2) Pedal even harder, so it hurts.
3) Pedal even harder than that, through the pain barrier for as long as you can.
4) When you can't go on anymore, give it one last push and sprint as hard as you can.
5) Re-gain consciousness, Recover, Repeat.

Then have a 10 minute cooling off period.

If you're not tired at the end of it, you didn't go hard enough. You'll be in pain, but next time you'll be stronger, as long as you eat well (lots of protein).

Do this every day.

airborne_warrior

You are saying he should perform intervals on a daily basis? :roll:

Bhima

I do it and i'm fine. If you eat well enough to recover properly, you can do them every day. Then again, I only commute for 30 minutes...

freehub

If you do intervals properly you can't do them everyday, not at all, no way. You'll end up feeling $hit and your performance dropping. And from what I've read it's only recommended to do 1 or 2 intervals a week, anymore is probably going to make you get slower or improve very slowely.

Bhima

Depends on the intervals you're doing.

I'm doing short, sharp ones as described, which get you gasping for breath but allow you to feel ok at the end of the day.

freehub

Well ok then.

vorsprung

pimptovimto wrote:

Hi I started riding earlier this year and thought I was making pretty good progress mostly the odd 20 miler during the week and then some bigger rides at the weekend I ride an MTB with some road tyres on it. Anyway the furthest I have ridden is 60 miles

Recently I started to commute to work which is 15 miles each way it takes me between 55 and 65 minutes mostly determined by the wind, I was hoping that I would start to see some improvements in all areas speed, power/effort, heart rate and breathing but really I have seen no improvement anywhere I seem to to take just as long and try just as hard as I did weeks ago, in fact I would say that my performance has dipped because I am shattered most days at the end of the 15 miles despite having ridden much further than this in the past.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks

PV

Commuting like that does not give you any "improvement" in speed etc

You will find (eventually) that you can commute more and more days without feeling utterly broken, particularly if you pace yourself to a moderate rate

I have found that I can fit some training exercises into the commute. I have picked a hill and after getting properly warmed up I attack it and try and beat my time. After doing this for 6 months I am approximately 20% faster. I usually do this once or twice a week