Winter training spins help!!!

sarts

Hi All, I posted back last month with regard to indoor training and thank you all for your great advice. I work away for a month at a time and at home now for a month. Can you please advise me of what type of training I should be doing now?
For the last week I got out for 4 rides longest one today 4hrs LSD but very windy and rain! The rest were all just under the 4hr mark. I want to race again this coming season and have been told that I am doing too much at this early stage.My problem is that when I return to work early next month i cannot do any road work and am restricted to my spin bike indoors.I do one long session at the weekend with my club but the rest of my training is carried out on my own. I have been trying to keep my heart rate in zone 2 (for me upper end 139 bpm) but my rides are generally quite lumpy and my heart rate jumps up to 160 on most drags. I am trying to incorporate 2 days hills , 3 days LSD 3-4hrs and 1 easy day. I know it is early days but I will not get any road work from December to early Jan.2012 then home for month of Jan. and away again for Feb. then back for March. I am fortunate enough to be able to train every day while at home so could you guys please let me know your thoughts regarding my training for my situation.
In advance I really appreciate your help!!

ut_och_cykla

My immediate response is if you can hack it - do it! If it gets too much back off when you're away from home and just do enough to maintain what you've created whilst you were at home. The risks of doing far too much are injury & illness and getting fed up, and perhaps peaking too early but if you're first race isn't till April you can almost afford to peak, fall back & peak again(well almost).
Steady but not easy now and harder more focussed later regardless of whether its road or turbo you use.
I hope you are certain about the HR zones BTW can't rmemeber what you wrote last time!

sarts

Thanks ut_och_cykla for the reply. My calculation for HR zones puts my zone 2 between 121-139. Should majority of spins at this stage be in this zone and if there are parts of the spin that exceed this is it ok? As I say any of the drags or hills that I do put me well above this range and would prob. have to walk up them to keep it in this zone.
Should I do some tempo spins or is it too early for these now?

jgsi

Suggestion is to maintain volume of training but heed the intensity - not to use anaerobic levels.
Then again, someone will propose that an intense session per week is also a way to go....
Find what suits you and gauge your performance next year as to whether you did it correctly now.

vs

JGSI wrote:

My calculation for HR zones puts my zone 2 between 121-139.

This seems quite low. My max heart rate is 178 so my level 2 is roughly 133 - 151 (75-85%; taken from the Black Book)

I have fitted a 34 front / 29 rear ratio and can just about spin over lumpy Exmoor without ever going over 151.

jgsi

vs wrote:

JGSI wrote:

My calculation for HR zones puts my zone 2 between 121-139.

This seems quite low. My max heart rate is 178 so my level 2 is roughly 133 - 151 (75-85%; taken from the Black Book)

I have fitted a 34 front / 29 rear ratio and can just about spin over lumpy Exmoor without ever going over 151.

Was it me?
Anyways, pick your levels of HR as there are many to choose from
BCF level 2 guideline is 65 -75% for example.

vs

JGSI wrote:

Was it me?

No, apologies, don't know how that happened.

Just had a read of the Black Book and you are right to be doing 4 hour rides at 65-75% max HR; it's just that he calls these level 1 (not level 2) so yeah I'm probably pushing a bit hard for November on any rides over 2 hours.

ut_och_cykla

If you're using HR - try and get a proper HR test done, with lactate (& power) levels so you can work out your zones - DON'T just go by % of supposed max - you could be way out. I had a trainer last year that did this (despite me pointing out the error of his ways) it meant nearly all my training was done under 82% which would have been fine if my supposed aerobic threshold had been there but in actual fact its much higher - at 87% - so I was always under performing. I guess the opposite could be true - of over stretching yourself every ride if your assumptions about threshold & max etc are wrong.
For this reason I would suggest the protocol of a hard TT with average HR of last 10 mins as your basis for training not % of max HR