Advice on training

NRS_Comp1

I use to do a lot of mountain bike races but for the past 5 years I've been busy with work and school so I pretty much stopped training, and riding at all. I've gained a lot of weight in the past 5 years so I decided to start training again so that I could return to a decent shape and maybe start racing on the road.

So I've lost about 45 pound in the last 5 months (with a healthy diet and exercise). Right now I train 5 times a week in the gym, doing weights 3 times a weeks ( lots of reps with light weight ), doing running interval 3 times a week ( high intensity sprint, 1-2 min, for about 30-45min), and running twice for 60 min at about 12km/h.

Now that winter is coming to an end, I would like to keep training on my bike, so that in july I'm fit enough to compete in local Cat 3-4 events. Time is limited because of work but I can probably ride 1h-1h30 every day (either outside or on the trainer), plus unlimited time on the weekends for longer rides. I'm 5 feet 10, and now weight a more healthy 162lb, but I'd ideally want to weight more closer to 150lb when July comes. Do you have any advice on the sort of training program I should follow so I can improve my form on the bike ? Thanx for your input .

Cheers!

Anonymous

This should be your 1st training session -

http://www.adolphus.me.uk/emx/simply/paragraph.htm

NRS_Comp1

Good one !! Didn't know it looked that bad.

NapoleonD wrote:

This should be your 1st training session -

http://www.adolphus.me.uk/emx/simply/paragraph.htm

softlad

if you're planning on racing, then I would drop anything that doesn't involve riding a bike and concentrate on a combination of long steady 3-4 hour rides, combined with shorter, more intense sessions focusing on either sprints, intervals or hill work. Once the lighter evenings are here, see if you can hook up with a local chaingang, too..

I hope you will find that slightly more useful than the previous reply..

NRS_Comp1

softlad wrote:

if you're planning on racing, then I would drop anything that doesn't involve riding a bike and concentrate on a combination of long steady 3-4 hour rides, combined with shorter, more intense sessions focusing on either sprints, intervals or hill work. Once the lighter evenings are here, see if you can hook up with a local chaingang, too..

I will stop training in the gym for the summer. Does anybody some example of the sort of interval you're doing ?

softlad

I would concentrate on getting some base miles in first, especially if you've been off the bike for a while. Build some aerobic capacity and leg strength, and then think about proper interval training after that...