training plan recommendations

trickydisco

I'm trying to put together a training plan for the next 3 months to have a go at cat4 racing next year. I had a fitness test last week to ascertain my heart rate zones and work out what I need to do in order to get fitter.

The plan is to train the base and then up the levels in a few months.

Would people recommend concentrating on phases as it were so you wouldn't do any interval training until the base has been built?

Or is it best to mix up some intervals now and again while training the base.

I have an approx amount 10 - 12 hours of training a week. The problem i can see is this is mostly during the week (1 hour at lunch and 1 hour back from work) I presume this is harder to train the base due to being less than 3 hrs?

I also have the option of a long ride on the sunday (and a mixture of mtb rides)



The results from my test were as follows



which gave me zones

Zone 1 = <125 beats per minute. You will only need to use this for recovery rides.

Zone 2 = 125-144 bpm
It is important to note that when out on the open road you may find on hills etc that your heart rate goes out ofthis zone. It is important to avoid this happening. You may think after uphill sections you can recover back into


zone 2 and burn fat again but that’s not the case. Once your heart rate has gone up your body will kick into sugar burning mode and it can take over 30 minutes to get back to fat burning so the training session can be wasted. 80% of your cardiovascular training should be spent in this zone. This may seem a little easy and hard to keep to,
but the main thing is to be aware of not spending too much time out of this zone. Over time this zone will increase to a level (in terms of heart rate and power output) where you still use fat as an energy source.

Zone 3 = 144-165 bpm
This zone can be used for strength training sessions on the bike, producing more power and getting used to climbing long hills, but it is not a zone to spend more than 10 minutes at a time in at this stage. Avoid this zone when riding with others, it’s easy to get dragged into being competitive. Think of how the big guns on the tour teams do it. They may keep a high average speed but they are in groups of 10-12 riders and so for their long training rides they spend most of their time cruising in the slip stream in zone 2

Zone 4 = 165-178 bpm
This zone is used for functional threshold training, trying to push your threshold up to a new level, getting your body used to buffering lactic acid and hold intensity for longer to help with race efforts. Efforts lasting between 4 and 20 mins in this zone are good for increasing your performance in this zone.

Zone 5 = 178 + bpm
Max effort, used for hill top finishes and sprints.

and yes, before anyone asks I'm a member of a road club, have been out on club rides and a few TT's. I've always just ridden but never actually done any structured training hence the post

Wooliferkins

While far from a race rider I used this; http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... oals-15345 to get me round Paris Roubaix two years ago. Take out the Pave and I would have cruised it. I consider trying to get an average result in a sportive on a par with Cat 5 racing. I got the base miles in first, I did see it described somewhere as icing a cake. If you don't do the base you end up with a very prettily iced cup cake where what you need is a wedding cake with plenty of substance below the icing.

jibberjim

How much do you weigh? 280watts at threshold is likely enough for you to do well in flat 4th cat races assuming you're under 100kgs (looking at your results I'm guessing ~83kg ??)

Are you entirely new to cycling (ie have no "base") or have you been cycling regularly for some time (so have considerable "base") if it's the latter, you don't want to be doing any more slow depressing work (and it's debateable if you ever did as an untrained cyclist, the biggest gains for those come from intense work as that's the most trainable aspect for the untrained person)

If you've got 1 hour your lunch - ride hard for an hour, either evenly hard or as intervals. Ride as much as you can with other people, preferably better guys than you and get used to racing, that's the biggest thing. If you're anywhere near a place that has a winter series of racing, there's no need to wait... go do it, most of what you have to learn is how to race, not your fitness.

trickydisco

I weigh 74kg. I've been cycling for around 6 years. This is mainly mountain biking but this year took up more road riding (cycled london to barcelona in august with a few friends - on road bikes with support)

i'm very keen to do this right and have been told the base is the most important aspect. I've got access to a spinning bike at lunch times now which is good and i've also got smoe powerful lights for night riding (have been mtb night riding for 3 years )

jibberjim

trickydisco wrote:

I weigh 74kg. I've been cycling for around 6 years. This is mainly mountain biking but this year took up more road riding (cycled london to barcelona in august with a few friends - on road bikes with support)

So either my maths was wrong, or you're a staggeringly inefficient cyclist - I suspect my maths it was rather quick. That makes your numbers even better, get racing as soon as possible you need to learn the skills.

trickydisco wrote:

i'm very keen to do this right and have been told the base is the most important aspect.

You have "base" - although it's a very overloaded term, of course that doesn't mean you want to start hammering out anaerobic intervals, just that there's little point trying to find the time to do more slow endurance rides when you don't have that time, you don't need it, focus on shorter aerobic power - it's how long your 4th cat races are going to be anyway.

trickydisco

consider trying to get an average result in a sportive on a par with Cat 5 racing.

I didn't know there was a cat5 in racing?

Bronzie

trickydisco wrote:

consider trying to get an average result in a sportive on a par with Cat 5 racing.

I didn't know there was a cat5 in racing?

There isn't (at least not in the UK) - I think Wooliferkins is simply saying that being able to achieve an "average result" in a sportif is a level below that needed to be competitive in entry level bunch races.