Is it possible to train for two things at once?

Gypsum_Fantastic

It's that time of the year again when my thoughts turn to a regular riding routine to get me through the winter and improve my general fitness.

The generally accepted first step in any training plan is to identify your goals and go from there. Last year it was easy, my goal was to improve at riding fast over as many big hills as I could find, I worked out a rudimentary "training plan" and stuck top it as best I could and made some pretty amazing improvements, happy days.

This year I discovered time trialling and did pretty well in the club TT series, naturally I'd like to improve at this too.

My question is, is it possible to train to improve both my timetrialling and my long fast hilly riding or would training for one discipline interfere with training for the other?

Cheers in advance

SBezza

Of course it is possible. long training rides form a very good basis for later interval work. If you just did long rides then short distance TT's would suffer, but through the winter doing hard interval sessions can mean by the time you start racing, you are mentally tired.

I would do a mixture of training intensities throughout the week, if anything to stop you getting bored and prevent having a plateau. They do not interfer which each other no matter what some people might say.

To get the best out of yourself, you will need to introduce harder interval sessions at some point though, as to when depends on when you plan to start racing and your event lengths (though if it is club events these are likely to be 10 miles I would guess)

Gypsum_Fantastic

Cool Cheers SBezza.

At the moment I'm taking it easy between now and New Year and building the intensity up slowly thereafter with the aim to be "race ready" in mid Apri, mainly for 10's with the odd 20 and 25 thrown in, I' also aiming to so some more SPOCO events too.

Is three months of progressively harder interval sessions going to be enough / too much? Do you have any suggestions for a program of intervals with this in mind as I'm a bit unsure.

SBezza

Well I wouldn't got too easy, now is the best time to start building on your fitness, you will benefit from some intensity in the plan.

3 months is a good timespan, but you shouldn't see training as 3 months of hard work and then enjoy, you should be working hard at training throughout the year. No doubt in April you will not be at your fittest, but that is not surprising. I would hope to be at my fittest around the middle of the summer, when you hope you will have the best weather. All my target events are in the summer as well.

As to what sort of training, well it is the old threshold intervals and V02Max intervals that are likely to be the best option for short distance TT's, how you incorporate them is very individual however, and not really possible to suggest a program on here.

Gypsum_Fantastic

I've not given up entirely I am still riding I'm just not putting any pressure on myself in terms of following a structured plan. Come January the serious work starts in ramping up fittness once the fine weather comes I shouldn't have any bother maintaining any gains made.

I'll have a google for "threshold intervals" and "V02Max intervals" and see what they are and how best to fit them in.

napoleond

I train to get faster on the bike and to consume more cake. I find the two go hand in hand.

overgeared

it's not only possible to deliberately train for 2 things at once, in fact the improvements in fitness we may make from training for one objective tend to have accidental benefits across the board.

let's imagine that the intensity you can maintain for 5 minutes represents the absolute fastest rate you can use oxygen.
in a 10 mile time trial you might be able to work at 90% of that capacity for 20-25 minutes.
in a "long, fast, hilly ride" as you put it you might only be able to maintain 75% of that capacity.
the fact is that this capacity we speak of, if you increase it, will allow you to go faster no matter how long a ride may be.
also, the faster you are at short durations, the less of your maximum you will be using when riding at the pace of a longer ride. this tends to slow the onset of fatigure, making longer riders that bit easier, or faster, as you wish.

Pokerface

NapoleonD wrote:

I train to get faster on the bike and to consume more cake. I find the two go hand in hand.

I find the two somewhat contradictory.

Although the square root of my max speed divided by the number of miles on the ride, multiplied by the number of minutes in zone 4 or higher = the number of extra calories (in cake) I can consume.

edenchristopher

Its the cycling equivalent of training for a 10k and a marathon. As overgeared has said, its not just possible but is likely to improve both. Depending on how much cake goes down the cake hole, of course.

Gypsum_Fantastic

overgeared wrote:

it's not only possible to deliberately train for 2 things at once, in fact the improvements in fitness we may make from training for one objective tend to have accidental benefits across the board.



let's imagine that the intensity you can maintain for 5 minutes represents the absolute fastest rate you can use oxygen.
in a 10 mile time trial you might be able to work at 90% of that capacity for 20-25 minutes.
in a "long, fast, hilly ride" as you put it you might only be able to maintain 75% of that capacity.
the fact is that this capacity we speak of, if you increase it, will allow you to go faster no matter how long a ride may be.

also, the faster you are at short durations, the less of your maximum you will be using when riding at the pace of a longer ride. this tends to slow the onset of fatigure, making longer riders that bit easier, or faster, as you wish.

I thought your VO2 max was genetically determined and there wasn't much training could do to improve it, or have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick? Is there a nice easy way to determine VO2max or does it involve a lab technician?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Gypsum_Fantastic wrote:

I thought your VO2 max was genetically determined and there wasn't much training could do to improve it, or have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick? Is there a nice easy way to determine VO2max or does it involve a lab technician?

VO2max has a sizeable genetic component but is definitely trainable, just not as trainable as the % of VO2max we can sustain at threshold. Perhaps 25% trainable, and much depends on how trained/untrained you are to start with.

Also, VO2max is typically expressed relative to body mass, so losing weight alone while still training will see relative VO2max increase while absolute VO2max may not have changed.