Training Tips for newbie

lewisuk12000

Hi Guys,

I am just getting into cycling and loving it! I'm doing a charity ride in July of 300 miles in 2 days. Was just wondering what some of your guys tips are for training for this? Been on google and i have read a million different approaches. I am relatively fit. Done quite a bit of cycling over the last year. Was 15 stone last October as of this month I am 11 and half stone Got my first time trial coming up in 2 weeks! Can't wait!

simonhead

Fantastic Lewis, you may want to put yourself on the ex xxl leaderboard, thats good going. Your ride in July sounds great and there are loads of people on here that can offer advice on training. 300 miles in 2 days is a challenge, what is the furthest you have ridden in one day so far?

I would say best thing you can do is to plan your training, building up your distances and aiming to do a couple of long consecutive days about 2 weeks in advance of the ride itself so you are used to it. Doing 1 long day is fine but half the battle is wanting to get back on the bike the next day.

Most of all enjoy it.

Wrath Rob

If the charity ride is your main objective for 2013 then try and focus your training plan around that. Any sportives you do should be used as training sessions, e.g. always do the long route rather than the short one, try out nutrition strategies, work out what kit you'll wear etc.

In terms of specific rides, if like most of us you've got limited time to train then I'd suggest doing 1 long interval workout (e.g. 2*20min hard efforts with 8 mins recovery between them), 1 less intense tempo/sweet-spot ride where you're working at 6/10 effort for 30 mins or so, have a 15-20 min easy recovery and then ramp back up for another 30 mins and then finally at the weekend do a long distance ride.

If you've got more time to train or when you get fitter you could increase from 2 mid-week rides to 4 so that you do a block of 2 days training, have a rest day, 2 days training, rest day, long ride, rest day for your week.

But don't take my word for it, invest in yourself and buy something like Joe Friel's Training Bible. That got me from a club rider to 3rd cat and sub-25mins for a club 10.

Toks

lewisuk12000 wrote:

Hi Guys,

I am just getting into cycling and loving it! I'm doing a charity ride in July of 300 miles in 2 days. Was just wondering what some of your guys tips are for training for this? Been on google and i have read a million different approaches. I am relatively fit. Done quite a bit of cycling over the last year. Was 15 stone last October as of this month I am 11 and half stone Got my first time trial coming up in 2 weeks! Can't wait!

Nice one, I remember first getting into cycling nearly 10 years ago. If you haven't already, joining a club and riding with groups at the weekend is to be recommended - it a great way to learn cycling etiquette and group riding skills.In general since you're a newb the more you ride to a point the better you will get. When you feel good try and push yourself/intensity so that you finish the ride a little fatigued but not completely trashed. If you can ride up to 5 times per week with 2 days off you should make good fitness gains. Your post is very general - so maybe be post again when you're ready with specifics (available training time, strengths weaknesses etc) All the best with your big challenge 8)

Roadride28

Hi Everyone,

I have been MTB cycling for the past year and have recently had my first child come along. So like most i have little spare time and am unable to get to the trails as often as i would like to and still wanted to keep my fitness levels up, so when i do go away for the weekend once or twice a year to wales or scotland i'm still able to do the miles.
I recently baught my first road bike and have been out on a few rides and am now looking to improve and was hopeing to get some advice on how and what to train on.

I have a relativly good fitness level and complete 50 mile rides at the weekend with an average speed of 17 - 18 mph. I'm now looking to improve even further and was wondering if interval training in the week will help and if so what type of training to do?

Toks

Roadride28 wrote:

I'm now looking to improve even further and was wondering if interval training in the week will help and if so what type of training to do?

There's no if about it, assuming you're not fatigued when you do them and their done at the correct intensity, duration and frequency you'll definitly see an improvement. Which intervals you should do is thw big question. Do a search on Vo2 max intervals or 2 x 20 threshold intervals.Have a look at training levels 4,5,6 in the link below
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/ ... oggan.aspx

Roadride28

Thanks for the advice, i think i'll have a look at a few different interval sessions and incorperate them into my mid week training sessions and then mix them up for my weekend endurance ride.
For the Vo2 hill climb intervals, what type of incline should i look to perform them on? or does it matter?