General Training Advice

springtide9

Hi...

Just looking for a bit of training advice. I know this subject is extensive, but just trying to work out how I can best utilise my limited time for training.

Just signed up for the Bristol Bike Fest (Oct). I did the summer one with three friends, but now going to have a go at trying to see how many laps I can do as a solo.
I'm doing this with a friend and not going to take it too seriously, but I would like to have a go at a few enduro/endurance events next year, so this will be a way of finding our how far I'm off the mark in terms of training.

OK, onto the training.... my time is very limited (two small children), so the bulk of my training is done in the gym (2 mins walk from the house) at lunchtime, three times a week (Tues/Wed/Thur) when I work from home.
I try to get the gym once more during the week - or sometimes it might be a run.. or if I've very lucky, out on a real (mtb) bike.

Not ideal, but that's what I have to work with...

I currently do per gym session....

- 30mins bike
- 30 mins (Concept2) rower.

(usually in that order, but obviously mix it up a bit)

For each of these activities, I try to burn as many calories as possible (as a measure of effort), and currently burning just over 500 cals on the bike, and just under 500 on the rower (and just managing over 1000 cals for the hour training). Measured calories are from the machine, so have no idea if these are accurate or not... but I guess any measure is useful.

I try to have minimal rest between the two exercises, the main driving factor is I need to get back to work!

I generally use the rower (find it good for my core) and the bike (because I'm training for the bike), but on occasion use the other machines.

My plan was to maybe do 1 hr sessions on each of the exercises once a week, and maybe the 30min/30min split once a week (to make up the three main sessions)... and mix up the order.

I understand ideally I need to get out on a real bike as often as possible, but living in a city that precious lunchtime hour would be wasted waiting at traffic lights etc.

Anyone with any ideas/advice? (or links to web sites with training plans?)

MountainMonster

If your training i would recommend you get a heart rate monitor and that will help quite a bit i beleive. It will show how many calories are accurately burned during the session, and it helps you learn much more about endurance levels.

springtide9

MountainMonster wrote:

If your training i would recommend you get a heart rate monitor and that will help quite a bit i beleive. It will show how many calories are accurately burned during the session, and it helps you learn much more about endurance levels.

Thanks for the info!

I have two HRM, but don't take them to the gym

I have an old Polar M61 with dead batteries and also a Forerunner 301 which I use on the bike (or running), but generally only use this for the distance/speed data. The 301 seems pretty good for HR on the bike, but not when running (unless I can easily have a conversation with a HR of 230 bpm lol)
I'll start taking them to the gym again to better understand my HR when training (and do a bit of reading up on it).


Question on the actual training... should I push myself as much as possible on every session, or should I have easier gym sessions at a rate which I could (hopefully) go on for longer? (but obviously can't due to the limited time available to me)

I guess I should probably book a session or two with a personal trainer.

MountainMonster

I would say without really having the time to go out for epicly long rides to properly prepare yourself and guage your fitness levels, exhaustion based workouts would be in order. At least you then are cramming tons of fitness into short bursts, and hopefully when the intensity drops on longer rides you would be able to maintain a lower speed but for much longer.

Only probably i can see is your muscles would become accustomed to the shorter bursts, and may fail earlier than wanted. But i have no experience with shorter bursts vs longer rides, so hopefully someone may chime in on that.

Thes best idea of course would be to maybe get out for a 3 or 4 hour ride on saturday mornings if there is anyway possible of doing that, and that should balance out any short burst muscle formations i would assume

springtide9

MountainMonster wrote:

Only probably i can see is your muscles would become accustomed to the shorter bursts, and may fail earlier than wanted.

You read my mind

MountainMonster wrote:

Thes best idea of course would be to maybe get out for a 3 or 4 hour ride on saturday mornings if there is anyway possible of doing that, and that should balance out any short burst muscle formations i would assume

This is the obvious answer and one that I'm obviously going to need to do as much as possible. I think (very) early a.m. rides might be the answer
Thanks again. Your replies are very much appreciated.

springtide9

Just tried a little experiment at the gym and extended the training by 50%

So, I did

- 45 mins on the rower. 11k / 2.01.5/500 splits / 733 cals / 153 bpm average
- 45 mins on the bike. 653 cals / 151bpm average

So that works out at 1386cals total or 924cals/hr

My god that was hard work. So even lowering the cals/hr pace by 10% - 1.5hrs of exercise is really really hard
Once I'd eaten something I did feel a lot better, but still I'm a long way off where I need to be

So I'm guessing that to last 4hrs I'll need to lower my HR to more like 135 bpm. And longer again, more like 125 bmp.

I (think I) calculated my max HR at the end of the rower session to 186 bmp by rowing as hard as I could for the last 500m, although not sure if this is the right way or not. It felt like my max HR I'm 41, so 220-41 = 179 - so 186 sounds about right.

I need to take your advice and get out on some long rides.......

mobilekat

Dont forget if you are looking to do an endurance event you will not be working out at high levels for the whole event, so you need to be building a combination of slow twitch and fast twitch muscles- so aiming for long sustained periods of work with in built sprints- proper interval work is the best bet.

There is nothing better than getting out on your bike and getting some long rides in with some big hills as whilst the work in the gym is great there is nothing like a 4 hour bike ride to prepare you for a long event (both mentally and physically)

Where as if you spend 1-1.5 hours working like a demon you will feel rotten and burn out.

Look at also getting the same nutrition on board during training, big comment I have heard form people doing long events is having digestive issues as they start eating/drink lots of stuff their body isnt used to and it can get VERY messy!

If you are struggling it may be worth speaking to people who are used to helping people train- Jay and Maddie at Fully Sussed offer training advice and they are involved with training people for marathon events (and compete)_ they gave us good advice during our skills course (and are in the SW )

Good Luck!

springtide9

Took your advice and managed a childcare trade with the wife, so managed a 4hr session on the bike this morning.

Cycled from the house to the Timberland Trail in Bristol (about 3.5k) and did the TT loop until my time was up. I managed.....

Time: 04:20:16
Distance: 64.45 km
Elevation Gain: 678 m
Avg Speed: 14.9 km/h
Avg HR: 139 bpm

I'm obviously pleased as I've posted here... LOL

My moving time was stated as 3h50m, but I've noticed my the Forerunner 301 sometimes looses GPS signal - and gives odd results - and I don't think I stopped for 30mins in total (more like half that) - but I could be wrong.
The stops were mainly for bio-breaks and to stuff a bit more food inside, but I think I'll invest in some isotonic drink for the event... just can't get used to trying to eat/drink gels on singletrack. As for liquid intake, I went through 3L of water, but this was obviously too much as I needed the loo once an hour.

Anyway, thanks again... I just need to work on a few more 'childcare trades' with the wife!!!

mobilekat

Well done, looks like a good session.

Just need to keep negotiating the 'childcare swaps!'

Do you know how many climbs there are on the course you are doing? as a few good long hills thrown in will help you get the most from the sessions.

Isotonic drinks definitly help- dont forget to try them out now as some have 'side effects'....

hope you have fun!

MountainMonster

Glad to hear you made it out for a nice long ride! Times look good, and seems fairly on par with a long ride should be.

Keep gettin the childcare swaps and you should be good to go. Don't let up on the gym as well though!

springtide9

Thanks guys. Pleased with Saturday as I still was still able to pick up my 'home' duties and host a dinner party in the evening (without falling asleep lol)

Regarding the course, I was riding part of it on Saturday, but in the wrong direction and a few alternative routes (and looking at my elevations, maybe not as many climb/lap as the actual race circuit)
http://www.bike-fest.com/oktoberfest/course.php

One thing that I'd forgotten about with long rides, is the impact on your hands (and grip).... mtb really takes it out of them after a while riding... think I'll need to invest in a 'hand workout' aid of some sort.

Thanks for the advice guys... just now need to keeping working the next month: more interval work and on those climbs

weeksy59

your 11k time isn't bad at all on the rower mate. Anything around a 2.00/500m at that sort of distance shows a good level of fitness.

Try this

500m sprints. x 10. 1 mins rest. Level 6-7 on the Concept 2.

You should be able to average <1.50 for most if not all of them.

Try for a 1.45for the last one

Or try matching my 5000m time of 18.36

springtide9

weeksy59 wrote:

your 11k time isn't bad at all on the rower mate. Anything around a 2.00/500m at that sort of distance shows a good level of fitness.

Try this

500m sprints. x 10. 1 mins rest. Level 6-7 on the Concept 2.

You should be able to average <1.50 for most if not all of them.

Try for a 1.45for the last one

Or try matching my 5000m time of 18.36

Thanks! Will give the 10x 500m a go this week.... but maybe not today!

>> Or try matching my 5000m time of 18.36

Now that is still out of my reach....... haven't tried this distance for about a month or so .. but managed a 18:57on my last effort (which was a personal best). But 18.36 is a long long way from 18:57 LOL

weeksy59

springtide9 wrote:

weeksy59 wrote:

your 11k time isn't bad at all on the rower mate. Anything around a 2.00/500m at that sort of distance shows a good level of fitness.

Try this

500m sprints. x 10. 1 mins rest. Level 6-7 on the Concept 2.

You should be able to average <1.50 for most if not all of them.

Try for a 1.45for the last one

Or try matching my 5000m time of 18.36

Thanks! Will give the 10x 500m a go this week.... but maybe not today!

>> Or try matching my 5000m time of 18.36

Now that is still out of my reach....... haven't tried this distance for about a month or so .. but managed a 18:57on my last effort (which was a personal best). But 18.36 is a long long way from 18:57 LOL

19:00 was a killer to crack for me... only way i managed was with me and a mate, he'd do a time, i'd beat it the next day LOL... then 2 secs less from him the next one...

18.54 was a record for a week... then he stuck in a 18.43 obviously i had to beat him...

This was all about 5 years back now... i'd be happy to hit 19.00 currently i rekon

springtide9

Update: Race done! Knackered.

Time: 07:53:04
Distance: 110.39 km
Elevation Gain: 892 m

Full Garmin details at:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/53217817

Came 11/41 - 14 laps:
http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/upload ... 16/10/2010

Not sure how this happened, but was averaging ~34min/laps and passed the start/finish line with 34min to go (by my watch!)! Managed a last lap, but nothing like pressure to keep the pace up when your legs are shot! But did manage my fastest lap!

weeksy59

Excellent mate... bloody well done

mobilekat

Well done!!

Enjoy your rest today!!!

jonnyc2420

good work !!

springtide9

Thanks guys. Really broken today. Think it's time for a beer (again!)