Training Help

WisePranker

I'm trying to improve my fitness and increase my endurance with an aim of doing the 75km Isle of Man end2end in September.

I normally do 1 or 2 spinning classes a week at the gym along with 1 or 2 general gym sessions, usually on the bike or the rowing machine then I get out on the bike to Swinley once or twice a week.
I don't have a specific training plan as I work shifts so due to my rota I can't do the same days every week.

I can't decide whether it's worth binning the spinning classes and just trying some extra endurance sessions of about 1-2 hours?

Any suggestions?

ollie51

Bin the spin classes; yeah sure they're high intensity but they don't do your endurance a lot of good.

The best thing you could do if put in the miles on the road and keep the mountain sessions for fun and to make your body able to cope with intensity changes when riding.

Try to get a 3+ hour ride in at least once a week.

WisePranker

That's what I was starting to think. I'll probably stick with the odd spinning class to keep the missus happy as she likes to do them but I'll try and stick to longer rides in place of the classes.

I don't have the money to get a road bike so I'm planning on fitting a set of hybrid tyres that I've got top my old Pinnacle and having that for road use only

ollie51

I do a fair bit of endurance on the roads and I just use my mountain tyres; makes it harder if anything; just means you do less in terms of distance but if you have a spare set of wheels I'd do it; makes things easier and it'll make the miles less monotonous.

springtide9

Not very knowledgeable in this area, but did a similar length ride last year.

This time of year the gym is a attractive solution for keeping up training (for me anyway),

Create a plan that combines a mixture of the rower, bike and running that mixes slower base training as well as interval training, If you don't like running, just row and and bike,

For base training, depending on how long you spend in the gym...... you could have one easy session that has a 50/50 split of 1-1.5 hrs.

Interval training on the rower: 250-500m semi sprints, with 45 sec rests. Or even pyramid sessions, where you row for 500m@2:00 split, and reduce the split by 0:05s until you get to your fastest peak, and then back up again. Maybe do 10x in total.
On the bike, try intervals again. My two favs are:
- cadence sessions - select manual and a level that you are comfortable at 60rpm - and then do a 2min @ 60 rpm ; 1 min at 120rpm ; 2 min @ 60rpm etc. or similar. Will need to work it out for yourself. to get the upper cadence and/or level right
- grinding sessions.... I think the Alpine Pass program: Stick the level up high so that it's manageable at around 80 rpm in the dips. When you get to the biggest peaks, you'll need to get out of the saddle and feel the pain. Either side of the main peak should hurt.. but it's usually a relief after the main one. You can vary the time from 20 mins upto 45 mins.

I did an 8hr MTB race last year (based on time not distance)... and covered I think around 125km with 1200m climbing (so not that much climbing). I had very little time out on the bike.. but managed a about 4-6 long 3-5 hr bike sessions (only once a week) on the real bike (due to family commitments)... and I managed to keep going for the full 8 hrs without to much pain. Thinking about it.. it was 9 hrs as my wife needed the car - so had to cycle (with all my kit, food, water etc) to the race - as she didn't want to drag the kids out of the house early in the morning LOL

I think they say that you should create a training program for around 10 weeks - but after that time switch it around again. Just so that your body doesn't get used to it.

Just started running (doing a half)... and downloaded the running program from their website. It was basically saying, 4 runs a week. One long, one short recovery and two interval sessions. I've now use this as a guide and have done something similar for the bike and rowing sessions.
You could obviously dovetail bits of the above into your current 'gym commitment' sessions.