Not racing till March

fastercyclist
fastercyclist Posts: 396
edited August 2010 in Training, fitness and health
As the title says. I'm a dole racer. I could ride 40 hours a week if my body could sustain it. Does anyone have much advice on what to do with the months in between?

I was thinking of doing 45 minutes swim at 7am most mornings then going for a long ride in the afternoons. (60-80 miles). Anyone got suggestions?

Should I get overweight at this period? Will it help muscle growth substantially? I can ditch the fat quickly come February.

Good at listening to my body so take the rest as I need it. I have around 4,000 miles in my legs - I started cycling this time last year. I also have a Turbo, although that means switching tyres over (PITA :wink: ). Can't afford a coach, just want a shove in right direction. Should I just ignore speeds and concentrate on getting the miles in? (I do intervals during longer rides, mainly in the form of going up hills hard).
The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome

Comments

  • callaghan
    callaghan Posts: 11
    id recommend a few months of running and swimming to build overall fitness. Also consider bodyweight circuits. In november add in some 3hr lsd rides without any intervals. Would suggest to keep at least 1 day of running/swimming. In feb, start doing your v02 max intervals. When racing begins, add higher intensity intervals to increase power and LT
  • doyler78
    doyler78 Posts: 1,951
    Forget LSD. I can't think of a worse time of the year to go riding for hours at a slow pace. It does little physiologically to improve and indeed riding around at a slow pace will actually mean you lose a lot of your hard earned power. I don't understand the mentality which says go ride really hard buidling your power from Feb to Aug then start easing back so much that you lose most of what you've gained then start all over again. Really what is the point?

    I can understand wanting to kick back a bit and just relax. That's fine. If you are going to keep anything in your programme what would it be? For me it would be threshold intervals. I can build endurance over 6 to 8 weeks pretty easily. Can I build power that quickly? Not a chance!
  • fastercyclist
    fastercyclist Posts: 396
    doyler78 wrote:
    Forget LSD. I can't think of a worse time of the year to go riding for hours at a slow pace. It does little physiologically to improve and indeed riding around at a slow pace will actually mean you lose a lot of your hard earned power. I don't understand the mentality which says go ride really hard buidling your power from Feb to Aug then start easing back so much that you lose most of what you've gained then start all over again. Really what is the point?

    I can understand wanting to kick back a bit and just relax. That's fine. If you are going to keep anything in your programme what would it be? For me it would be threshold intervals. I can build endurance over 6 to 8 weeks pretty easily. Can I build power that quickly? Not a chance!

    As in 20 minute intervals?
    The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome
  • doyler78
    doyler78 Posts: 1,951
    fastercyclist wrote:
    doyler78 wrote:
    Forget LSD. I can't think of a worse time of the year to go riding for hours at a slow pace. It does little physiologically to improve and indeed riding around at a slow pace will actually mean you lose a lot of your hard earned power. I don't understand the mentality which says go ride really hard buidling your power from Feb to Aug then start easing back so much that you lose most of what you've gained then start all over again. Really what is the point?

    I can understand wanting to kick back a bit and just relax. That's fine. If you are going to keep anything in your programme what would it be? For me it would be threshold intervals. I can build endurance over 6 to 8 weeks pretty easily. Can I build power that quickly? Not a chance!

    As in 20 minute intervals?

    Yep

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