Help with winter training.

golfergmc

This is my first year of cycling and i`m really enjoying it, I just wish I could go faster. A bit of background here 6`2" 226lb age 39 into a bit of weightlifting when I was younger. I just got a cycleops fluid 2 turbo trainer but can only manage to average 14-15mph, start of at 18-19mph then drop off towards the end, heart rate gets up to 185bpm. I can manage 45min-1hr 5-6 times per week.
Is the turbo harder than the road as I can manage to average 16-18mph on the road.
At the minute i`m working one night interval training one minute flat out sprint then 2 minute recovery then the following night recovery of 1hr at heart rate of 120bpm.
Can someone please recommend a training programme that will help me get faster for the new season, also at my current level would it be possible to get to an average of 20mph as that would be my ultimate goal.

ozzzyosborn206

you can't compare speed on turbo to speed on the road due to the resistance on the turbo, and different conditions on the road such as gradient, wind, rain etc. Can you manage to do more at weekends? obviously the more you ride the fitter you will get....for winter there is no need to do anything too intense until late jan feb time

golfergmc

Ideally at the weekends i like to get out on my mountain bike, how many hours would you be talking about.

Bronzie

golfergmc wrote:

At the minute i`m working one night interval training one minute flat out sprint then 2 minute recovery then the following night recovery of 1hr at heart rate of 120bpm.

I don't think that's really going to benefit you much at this time - as Ozzy says, it's too intense.

Try and build a base concentrating on threshold work for now (ie at or just below the sort of pace you can sustain for 20 mins flat out). Ideally if you build it steadily enough, you can do repeated sessions without the need to do a recovery session which is probably just a waste of your time.

golfergmc

Are you saying a 20 minute workout at a fast pace and a warm up and cool down of say 10 minutes would be better until Jan/Feb then start more intense workouts.

ut_och_cykla

Cycle out of doors if you can. And don't make all your turbo sessions a thrash session - maybe 2 harder sessions a week, one long and steady at the weekend and the rest somewhere in between. You wont go far wrong doing 2 x 20 minute intervalls (plenty of info on this forum about how) on the turbo. Hard but not killers. And think about what your goals are - racing, sportives, a big European sportive, riding with your mates - 20 mph for how long, when? Once tyour goals clear it will be easier to suggest training programmes.

golfergmc

My goal would be to average 20mph fora 20 mile ride, most of my cycling on the road is a Saturday morning run of about 50 miles with 2-3 runs during the week of 16-20 miles in the summer. I think I would really need to improve my climbing on the hills as I feel this slows my average time down a lot, any advice for improving this on a trainer.

Bronzie

golfergmc wrote:

Are you saying a 20 minute workout at a fast pace and a warm up and cool down of say 10 minutes would be better until Jan/Feb then start more intense workouts.

If you a using the turbo for training, I can really see no point in doing anything other than tempo/threshold work on it at the moment. Lower intensity rides (endurance) are really best done on the road as sitting on the turbo for more than an hour is mentally very taxing not to mention uncomfortable.

Typical tempo work would be an 30-60mins at steady but hard intensity (80-85% MHR) maybe split into 2 intervals to give yourself a mental break.

Threshold work is just a little bit harder. Typically along the lines of 2x20 intervals (85-90% MHR).
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2007/01/ ... wenty.html

Using a rear-wheel speedo can be very beneficial in judging your effort (as heart rate takes 5-10 mins to settle when starting the interval) - that is provided you can setup the bike on the turbo similarly each time (roller pressure on tyre and tyre pressure).

golfergmc

Thanks for the advice I will definitely give it a try, when you say tempo work is that really concentrating on you pedal stroke to get it as smooth as possible. I have a garmin 305 edge that measures heart rate, speed and cadence etc that us rear wheel mounted. When you say 2x20 min intervals is that in the same session with a rest period in between or 2 separate sessions?

BeaconRuth

golfergmc wrote:

............ I just wish I could go faster. A bit of background here 6`2" 226lb .....................Can someone please recommend a training programme.............

Sorry to be blunt but the main thing which screams out at me from your opening post is your weight. Whatever training you do you also need to look at your diet very carefully and lose a couple of stones for starters. I'd suggest that a good endurance cyclist of your height would weigh c. 175lbs. (If I was your height I'd weigh 166lbs and I still need to lose a bit to be my ideal racing weight. So that's 4 stones of extra weight you're trying to lug up every slight gradient or hill compared to me - and whether it's fat or muscle is irrelevant. Try putting 28 bags of sugar in your saddle bag and going for a ride. That's how much you could lose from your body. :shock: .)

Sorry - I did say I was going to be blunt.

Ruth

steelwheels

that's why i love reading your posts ruth, straight to the point and no prisoners taken...

golfergmc

Thanks, I know I need to loose weight and am trying to do so but can't see myself down to 175 maybe 200 but not 175, the wife would kill me if I went that far.

BeaconRuth

golfergmc wrote:

Thanks, I know I need to loose weight and am trying to do so but can't see myself down to 175 maybe 200 but not 175, the wife would kill me if I went that far.

Surely a skinny golfergmc would be preferable to a dead one?

@steelwheels - :oops: I didn't know my reputation was quite so strong. :oops: I'm afraid I do like mentally sending riders out with extra bags of sugar in their saddle bags to show just how much difference some weight-loss would make.

Ruth

Casbar

golfergmc wrote:

Thanks, I know I need to loose weight and am trying to do so but can't see myself down to 175 maybe 200 but not 175, the wife would kill me if I went that far.

Why would your wife kill you if you got below 200 lbs to maybe 175 ?

Casbar

BeaconRuth wrote:

golfergmc wrote:

Thanks, I know I need to loose weight and am trying to do so but can't see myself down to 175 maybe 200 but not 175, the wife would kill me if I went that far.

Surely a skinny golfergmc would be preferable to a dead one?

@steelwheels - :oops: I didn't know my reputation was quite so strong. :oops: I'm afraid I do like mentally sending riders out with extra bags of sugar in their saddle bags to show just how much difference some weight-loss would make.

Ruth

Ruth could you pls send me 28 bags of sugar..i would like to give it a go . :roll:

Cas

Bronzie

golfergmc wrote:

when you say tempo work is that really concentrating on you pedal stroke to get it as smooth as possible.

No, it's nothing to do with how you pedal - it's referring to a level of intensity between L2 (endurance) and L4 (threshold).

Read about intensity levels in the link below and understand what training at each level is intended to achieve in terms of physical adaptations:
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/ ... oggan.aspx

Note: The HR guidelines given refer to your "Threshold Heart Rate" (the average HR you can achieve riding a 1 hour flat out effort) rather than as a percentage of max HR.

golfergmc wrote:

When you say 2x20 min intervals is that in the same session with a rest period in between or 2 separate sessions?

Read the link given - it's quite clear - 2 x 20 min intervals at around the same intensity with a 5 minute break just spinning a light gear in between. It should be taxing, but not impossible to finish the 2nd 20 min interval.

Ruth is of course right about your weight - I'm the same height as you and 162lbs (74.0kg).You will notice a huge increase in performance on the hills if you an lose some weight.

golfergmc

Thanks for that I will start it tonight, my wife would kill me as she thinks I look I'll when I get too thin. Thanks for the 2 links I have just bookmarked them as they are very informative.

ut_och_cykla

TAke it easy to start with golfer... if you're newish to hard exercise (and overweight) you should increase effort and time spent exercising gradually - or you'll end up injuring yourself or just getting fed up fast.
make small adjustments to your food so you eat healthily and lose weight steadily - no shock horror stuff.
See your goals over a longer period - perhaps up until the end of next summer - and work towards them in sensible increments. that way you'll be able to stick with being a healthy you even after the goal's been reached adn your wife might not think you look ill if you get 'skinny'