Fitness & ride length

Bustacapp
Bustacapp Posts: 971
edited September 2012 in Road beginners
What would be best for fitness. Sticking at a 10 mile course and trying each time to ride a faster pb, or increase length of ride, but riding at a more sedate pace?

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  • Grill
    Grill Posts: 5,610
    Increase distance, the pace will follow. Slow twitch FTW.
    English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg
  • springtide9
    springtide9 Posts: 1,731
    Bustacapp wrote:
    What would be best for fitness. Sticking at a 10 mile course and trying each time to ride a faster pb, or increase length of ride, but riding at a more sedate pace?

    A mixture of both!
    Simon
  • simon_masterson
    simon_masterson Posts: 2,740
    Bustacapp wrote:
    What would be best for fitness. Sticking at a 10 mile course and trying each time to ride a faster pb, or increase length of ride, but riding at a more sedate pace?

    Do you mean 'fitness' or 'cycling fitness'? As for the former, moreorless any cycling you do on a regular basis at a reasonable pace for longer than half an hour will benefit you. For the average 'non-cyclist' that dutifully turns up at the gym and goes for jogs a couple of times a week, this would be great exercise.

    As for the latter, I'll let the sports scientists give the educated answer, but undeniably you need both if you are interested in pushing the tempo (which of course not all road cyclists by any means are that interested in doing)

    For me personally, I don't have time for long rides (in fact I don't really get to cycle at all because my bikes are 10 miles away, but let's not go there this time...), so I just do 10 mile "sprints" as often as possible. My stamina has always been pretty good.

    But a good compromise is to go for a ride length in the middle and incorporate some sprints, fast intervals and/or tough hills; this can be really punishing, actually. Just being able to ride for two hours or more at a time is a good start, though. You could even go out aiming to be out for a certain length of time rather than riding a certain distance, and see what pace you can sustain.
    Retro(ish) TT 2017-
    Fixed TT 2015-2016
  • Bustacapp
    Bustacapp Posts: 971
    Simon Masterson wrote:
    Bustacapp wrote:
    For me personally, I don't have time for long rides (in fact I don't really get to cycle at all because my bikes are 10 miles away, but let's not go there this time...), so I just do 10 mile "sprints" as often as possible. My stamina has always been pretty good.

    But a good compromise is to go for a ride length in the middle and incorporate some sprints, fast intervals and/or tough hills; this can be really punishing, actually. Just being able to ride for two hours or more at a time is a good start, though. You could even go out aiming to be out for a certain length of time rather than riding a certain distance, and see what pace you can sustain.

    Well my 10 miler usually contains a few sprints and some nasty hills. In fact one very nasty hill. And it always wipes me out. In contrast, I rode the flats to my place of work the other day and back. 24 miles. And I virtually felt nothing. I don't think that ride benefitted me in any way shape or form.

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