Will I get fit?

DHA987S

I have been regularly riding since the start of the year, March has been the busiest month with rides every couple of days with the odd bit on the turbo thrown in if I can't get out.

However I don't seem to be getting fitter, the first hill I hit or like today the first bit of singletrack kills me within a minute or so. Breathing heavily and heart rate right up into zone 5. It feels like I am over doing it but I am not trying to go super fast, just maintain a reasonable pace.

Any ideas how to make it "easier"? More zone2 sessions on the turbo to increase endurance?

ollie51

Have you had a rest week since you started?

DHA987S

Not a full week, 2-3 days between rides.

john74

i used to ride every other day. 1 day ride the next day recover and so on. i found i got better fairly quickly but soon you will reach a plateau and not get any fitter this is when you need to up your riding in terms of effort and time on bike.

MountainMonster

Rest days are important as said, and just like the others have said you will eventually hit a wall basically if you only ride same intensity. Time to step it up a notch I guess!

robertpb

When you say Zone 2 do you mean 70-75% MHR, some people use different zone systems.

How long do you do in this Zone.

To get the most out of it you should work towards 4-5 hours and do this once per week.

As they say slow is the new fast.

springtide9

Probably useful to give a 'regular week' in terms of your rides to better understand what you can chance to make improvements.

A good mix or high and low intensity sessions as well as mixed duration in the saddle is what you need to aim for.

DHA987S

Here is a HR chart from one of my regular off road rides



I would do this 2 or 3 times a week, 1hr30 to 2hr duration. Along with some easy spinning on the turbo and perhaps some intervals depending on how I was feeling. [/img]

MountainMonster

Heart rate looks to have good spread, but maybe push it even more as it looks like your highest was 184-185 or so. Not sure of your max, but can get a bit higher than that!

My father in law hit 226 the other day as max heart rate. Said he felt like he was dieing but he surivived!

MountainMonster

Heart rate looks to have good spread, but maybe push it even more as it looks like your highest was 184-185 or so. Not sure of your max, but can get a bit higher than that!

My father in law hit 226 the other day as max heart rate. Said he felt like he was dieing but he surivived!

DHA987S

Have yet to do a proper heart rate maximum test, am 31 so the old rough 220-age cal would give 189. But I know that isn't exact

springtide9

Nothing wrong with riding the way you are, but I would suggest for making faster gains you need to target specific areas.

e.g.find a hill, spend the entire spend the entire ride jump going up and down (maybe on one occasion grinding and on another spinning)

I have just bought this book..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smart-Cycling-S ... 0684822431

I have not had a huge amount of time to read it yet, but seems to expand upon my knowledge of specific training and training plans. It is also not that complex compared to other cycling training books.

robertpb

Under no circumstances use the 220 minus age for proper training, my max is 25 higher than that computation.

Those zones are only effective if you do a proper MHR test.

Have a read of this, www.bikeradar.com/mtb/fitness/article/t ... sics-28838

rock_hopper

Getting fitter depends on where your at now and where you want to be, putting a rough plan together then putting the time in! I would suggest building a good endurance base with 2-4 hour zone 2 and 3 rides a few times a week, going into the upper zones is ok on the climbs. After 8-12 weeks when you have some good endurance fitness start adding the intensity on your rides, rather than going up and down a hill use the terrain to dictate intensity. You need to prepare your body for the high intensity stuff, it sounds like your not quite there yet. Hope this helps

DHA987S

Thanks to all for the advice so far.

I am having a week off, my legs do feel a bit "tired" even though I haven't ridden since tuesday.

I haven't done a MHR test yet as I wasn't keen on doing it without having done any proper exercise other than walking my dogs for a while. Will probably do something in a few weeks to properly set my MHR.

lvquestpaddler

Rest days are critical. Seems to be more so the older I get too(5'7", 13st11lb, aged 42 now). Since the snow went been out trying to pick it up, thankfully been walking the dog since xmas and this too impacts on the biking if I want to do both in the same day- for example Saturday speed walked her 7 miles through the local hills then went out an hour later for 17 miles off road with a lass I know who does ultra marathon stuff etc who's a lot fitter aerobically but tends to overtrain and not have a lot of strength, Sunday did the same walk, and last night down in Perth did 26 road miles(mtb tyres) in howling wind up to about 700ft altitude. Today at work my legs were just dead so tonight it's nothing.....brain says yes, body says no!!

saturnfive

rock_hopper wrote:

Getting fitter depends on where your at now and where you want to be, putting a rough plan together then putting the time in! I would suggest building a good endurance base with 2-4 hour zone 2 and 3 rides a few times a week, going into the upper zones is ok on the climbs. After 8-12 weeks when you have some good endurance fitness start adding the intensity on your rides, rather than going up and down a hill use the terrain to dictate intensity. You need to prepare your body for the high intensity stuff, it sounds like your not quite there yet. Hope this helps

+1 ....This is pretty much what I've been doing and it really seems to work: I've done 12-15 hours / week base / endurance for the last 3 months (taking every 4th week easy as a recorvery week) Now I'm starting to add in some harder stuff and it's really coming together! It's really made quite a dramatic difference :P

DHA987S

So having had just over a week off I went out today. Felt fine, picked a route that is usually about 1hr45 but I can cut short after an hour if I need to. Kept going for 2hr30, average heart rate seemed lower looking at my HRM stats. Legs do need some work but the rest helped.

lastwords

MountainMonster wrote:

Heart rate looks to have good spread, but maybe push it even more as it looks like your highest was 184-185 or so. Not sure of your max, but can get a bit higher than that!

My father in law hit 226 the other day as max heart rate. Said he felt like he was dieing but he surivived!

You cannot be certain what his MHR is until he has done a test everbody is different some high some low, mine for example is around the 180 mark.

Until you have done a MHR test you cant really train in zones as you could be way off.

As someone else pointed out to get better at hills do some hill reps as for singletrack i would do some interval training on the turbo short but hard intervals are what is usually required on singletrack.

The low HR zone training ie base miles is what roadies tend to do through winter to build up there indurance for long rides/races.

blablablacksheep

tbh the lower the heart rate the fitter you are.

many rowers,good ones i must say have avg HR of 30-45 BPM

with a rise of around 60-80 MBP when working hard, so kinda says a lot, also their blood intake/outtake is insane around 4x pumping more blood than normal.


TBH you dont need HRM just feel how your body feels when working is enough.

only need HRM if you allready know how your body works and wanting to push it hard and recover well.

Also for interval training it good