Wet, Windy and mentally challenged drivers!

huffalotpuffalot

I am 31 years old and after a lay up of 8 years I am finally able to get back into cycling. I took a number of months trying to decide on kit and eventually settled on a mid range bike to motivate me to get cracking. I got myself an Eddy Merckx EMX-1 and I have to say I am really happy with it. Still getting to grips with the prologo saddle which seems to be a real ball crusher but everything else is great.

I started training again a couple of weeks ago and decided to start off on the turbo trainer in order to get the heart, lungs and legs working again. I have a garmin 500 so I am able to get some good information out from my efforts and attempting to maintain at cadence of 90 seemed to be a good start.

Tonight was my first night out on the road. I could not wait any longer even though I had planned to be on the trainer for another two weeks before venturing out into the real world. I was reading in the forum about people being out and about and it just got me going. I picked the best night to do it as well as the weather was wet and windy which was just lovely. I only did a small cycle down to Richmond park (south west london) and back home to wimbledon but it was amazing how much harder it was than being on the turbo trainer. I know wind resistance, friction from the road and actually having to move my 90kg body would not have helped. However, I did enjoy the ride and I am looking forward to the steady increase in peformance over the next few months. I am figuring that with 6 days training a week with one solid rest day, hopefully to coincide with good TV schedule I should be able to get to decent training times fairly quickly.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell someone I had been out and was loving it and if anyone saw me huffing and puffing around Richmond park I hope I did not look like too much of a fool.

It is also the first time in my life I have cycled with a helmet on and I certainly have Cycling Plus to thank for that. If it was not for the great articles and frequent reminders of accidents I would not have bothered for sure. It was my first ride outside and already some moron pulled right out in front of me. Breaks responded well thankfully and there was no need to fly over the bonnet of the car and test out the helmet on the first ride but once again, greatful that I was wearing it.

I have read a lot about interval training and the such, but I am guessing that to start with I should just start working on building my endurance. My intention is to do this by increasing time spent in the sadle by an increment of 15 minutes every week. Does this sound like too much, too little? When it comes to turbo training, should i be looking to do twice the amount of time in order to match the equivalent effort of being on the road or will intervals be a better training approach on the turbo trainer regardless of my current fitness levels.

I appreciate any comments, suggestions and training tips that anyone might have. I also am fully prepared for ridicule of my lowly fitness levels.

First outdoor session:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/113041639

Turbo trainer session:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111297763[/url]

Mettan

huffalotpuffalot wrote:

but I am guessing that to start with I should just start working on building my endurance.

Hi - and welcome to the forum - yes, just start off by riding regularly at a comfortable pace - have fun, enjoy it, and get used to the road - no need to be too 'structured' at this point (up to you though) - and nothing wrong with doing 10 - 30 milers to start off with - longer distances and high intensity work can come later. There's a wealth of information (and experience) regards structured training on this forum, but again, to start off with, getting 3 - 6 months of general riding in your legs will put you in good stead for anything later. The season starts in March so a decent winter's riding now will give you options re. Sportives (or even competitive riding) next year.

At this time of the year Lights are a must (I use mine in the day-time in addition to any other period) - read up on the various lights threads and buy some (if you haven't already) - be safe.

Bronzie

huffalotpuffalot wrote:

My intention is to do this by increasing time spent in the sadle by an increment of 15 minutes every week. Does this sound like too much, too little?

Sounds about right. You are effectively a novice rider, build your hours up gradually each week and enjoy it. As Mettan says, get 3-6 months general riding in before worrying about too much structure.

huffalotpuffalot wrote:

When it comes to turbo training, should i be looking to do twice the amount of time in order to match the equivalent effort of being on the road or will intervals be a better training approach on the turbo trainer regardless of my current fitness levels.

If the weather is bad enough to force you indoors, or you're not keen on riding in the dark then the turbo is a good option. Keep the sessions reasonably short (an hour on the turbo 2-3 times a week can be very effective time spent). Get a big fan to keep you cool. Use whatever you need to keep it interesting and keep motivation.......TV, DVDs, music......Check out the Sufferfest videos.
To make the best use of your time, make the sessions a bit more intense than road endurance rides...............20 mintue intervals at tempo pace (80-85% of max HR) would be a good start.

huffalotpuffalot wrote:

I also am fully prepared for ridicule of my lowly fitness levels.

No need to be ridiculed. We all had to start somewhere. Enjoy the journey.

huffalotpuffalot

thanks for the kind words and advice like you both say, just making it a regular thing and keeping the enjoyment up is going to be the most important thing to start with.

At this time of the year Lights are a must (I use mine in the day-time in addition to any other period) - read up on the various lights threads and buy some (if you haven't already) - be safe.

This is the only thing I have been missing actually and I was lucky last night as i managed to get home before it got too dark and the streets are well lit up, however I will look for forum advice and head down to cycle shop today.

To make the best use of your time, make the sessions a bit more intense than road endurance rides...............20 mintue intervals at tempo pace (80-85% of max HR) would be a good start.

With the interval training, is there a defined rest period between intervals or is it a case of however long it takes for you to recover then go again. Also my turbo trainer has resistance settings on it. I currently have it on 2 of a possible 5 settings, oh and my trainer is an Elite volare Mag.

Many thanks again for kind words and advice, like you say heres to the beginning of a long journey.

huffalotpuffalot

Check out the Sufferfest videos.

these are brilliant, thank you so much for the pointer I have a couple ready to test out. Will certainly make the interval training a bit easier.

Chad_c_Mulligan

You lucky git, I'd have to lose weight to get down to 90Kg. I'm also going slowly round Richmond park looking like death.

I did the London to Paris when I weight 90Kg and it was a doddle, unfortunately two years of beer and not enough cycling has crippled my fitness. The way I feel about it is that I may be fat and slow, but at least I'm doing something to get thinner and faster.

Bronzie

huffalotpuffalot wrote:

With the interval training, is there a defined rest period between intervals or is it a case of however long it takes for you to recover then go again. Also my turbo trainer has resistance settings on it. I currently have it on 2 of a possible 5 settings, oh and my trainer is an Elite volare Mag.

At that intensity, the rest period is more of a mental break than one needed to recover from the effort. 5 mins should do it.

At higher intensity, the length of rest period depends on what you are trying to achieve. It should be long enough to allow sufficient recovery so you can finish all the intervals unless you are trying to simulate race conditons where insufficient recovery can be a good way to train (forcing body to deal with lactic acid build up).

For now, keep your turbo work simple and fun.

With regard to turbo resistance, you'll need to experiment as it's impossible to say how your turbo behaves. The restistance can vary a lot depending on what tyre you run, room temp, tyre pressure, roller pressure on tyre etc. even on the same turbo from session to session.