Heart Rate Noob Training

C.Isherwood

Hi,

having been a keen-ish social rider for a number of years now, i thought id step up my efforts and have a go at racing, both road and MTB in 2012.

I'm hoping that i could get some suggestions on where i could find information to structure my training i.e. books, websites, etc.

I'm planning on just using a HR monitor as i think Power Meter is a bit too advanced for what im trying to (do and pricey)

Ive got both road and MTB XC bike as well as turbo trainers. Also can someone recommend a HR monitor / good computer to use. Im a bit of a data geek so i would like to trasnfer training information to my PC and stuff.

any help would be great, thanks for reading.
C.

Bronzie

Joe Friel's "Cyclist's Training Bible" will help you draw up a training plan, although it's not rocket science. Probably take his recommendations to partake in weight training with a pinch of salt too bearing in mind the recent 16-page weights thread.

Another good resource for putting a training plan together is "The Road Cyclist’s Guide to Training by Power - Part I: An Introduction" by Charles Howe. Obviously written for powermeter users but it should give you an idead of what sort of sessions you should incorporate into your plan and the basics of any decent plan (consistency, progressive overload, specificity).
http://www.freewebs.com/velodynamics2/rcgtp1.pdf

C.Isherwood

Thanks for your reply Bronzie, That PDF you linked certainly looked informative and ill give it a good read..

Is there way way to correlate HR and Power? i.e. im close to my max HR so i must be pretty close to my Max power output, or is it not that simple? i imagine outdoors this wouldnt be possible due to wind etc but on a turbo trainer?

Bronzie

C.Isherwood wrote:

Is there way way to correlate HR and Power?

To an extent, certainly for longer duration intervals, but power output is very jumpy in nature and heart rate response is a relatively slow lag response indicator of effort level.
HR response also varies with physical factors such as level of hydration, temperature etc and tends to creep upwards during a steady-state effort.

It's probably best for now to forget all about training with power and get a workable system for HR training. Plenty of successful riders still train by HR and/or feel alone so it is possible as long as you bear in mind the following:
- HR is not a good measure of effort for intervals shorter than 10 mins or so - do these on feel instead
- HR response varies naturally from day to day - best to approach training by HR with a "broad brush approach" - if you ride with steady effort for an hour and your average HR excluding warmup/cooldown falls into the "tempo" zone then it's a fair bet you did 1 hour tempo

curium

What is "Tempo"? :?

Bronzie

curium wrote:

What is "Tempo"? :?

See link to Coggan Training levels in my signature