One Hour Sessions

richard36

Hi

Most of my time is spent running but I do often go out at weekends with some others and we do rides of about 30 - 40 miles at an average speed of about 16mph.

I want to improve my all round cycling fitness and intend to spend 3 mornings a week doing one hour sessions on the road and wondered what was best.

I had thought of the following

(1) hill repeats - there is a hill nearby (not sure of the gradient) and its about half a mile long. After a 10 min warm up I was going to go up it as many times as I could in 40 minutes with a 10 minute cool down. I would go as hard as I could up the hill and coast down. I would alternate between sitting down and out of the saddle.

(2) intervals - warm up and cool down and in between cycle fast and hard followed by recovery.

(3) the other session would just be cycling around for an hour - fast bits/hilly bits etc

Are the above ok or is there something else I should definitely consider?

Also if I do an interval type session what should I be doing ie. 1 min fast 1 min slow or 5 min fast 5 min slow etc

All expert opinion gratefully received!

Cheers

Herbsman

Richard36 wrote:

Hi

Most of my time is spent running but I do often go out at weekends with some others and we do rides of about 30 - 40 miles at an average speed of about 16mph.

I want to improve my all round cycling fitness and intend to spend 3 mornings a week doing one hour sessions on the road and wondered what was best.

I had thought of the following

(1) hill repeats - there is a hill nearby (not sure of the gradient) and its about half a mile long. After a 10 min warm up I was going to go up it as many times as I could in 40 minutes with a 10 minute cool down. I would go as hard as I could up the hill and coast down. I would alternate between sitting down and out of the saddle.

(2) intervals - warm up and cool down and in between cycle fast and hard followed by recovery.

(3) the other session would just be cycling around for an hour - fast bits/hilly bits etc

Are the above ok or is there something else I should definitely consider?

Also if I do an interval type session what should I be doing ie. 1 min fast 1 min slow or 5 min fast 5 min slow etc

All expert opinion gratefully received!

Cheers

All of that will increase your all round fitness. No real need to do intervals unless you're planning on racing any time soon. Ride down the hills as well as up them - coasting is a waste of time. Actually pedaling down hills will help you recover from the effort you made going up them

richard36

Herbsman - thanks for your reply.

I included intervals as I thought it would help to increase my overall speed.

Are there any sessions you would do other than the ones above.

Cheers

jgsi

Well , you could use the group ride if its a regular thing, to push all of you a bit harder than a 16mph average and perhaps extend to between 40 and 50. It is "easier" to up the speed in a group... more motivation for a start.
But its where you want to go with it is the question you should ask yourself.

richard36

JGSI

Thanks

Yes, as a group we are trying to up the speed and distance.

I'm aiming to do a number of sportives and next year an Ironman. As I said in my first post I want to improve my overall cycling fitness. As much as I enjoy running I also really enjoy my cycling and want to improve by doing the hour sessions in a morning. I work from home so can't cycle to work.

Thanks again.