How many miles?

Bwgan

Hi guys,

Just thinking yesterday....... Is there a distance that is optimal for training per ride?

I ride 2/3 times a week and am slowly getting in to the TT's with my local club. I usually do 30-40 miles on the sat and about 20-30 on the Monday then the TT on Thursday nights.

This weekend I did 70 miles aiming for 140bpm on a HRM, and it got me thinking is the 70 miles better than doing 30 miles? I am not planning on becoming a long distance rider, but will do the on audax in the club and am planning on doing the wild Wales in aug.

Thanks in advance

imposter2.0

There is no single, ideal distance for anyone. Most people ride according to the time they have available and the effort they want to put in, but most forms of competition training (like RR, TT, etc) usually involve a mix of distances and intensities. If you are training for a long distance event, then riding long distances in training would obviously be sensible. Aiming for an HR number on a ride is fine, if you know your levels - but useless if you don't.

ric/rstsport

The most important aspects of training are

consistency - do you do the training you should be doing, are you training regularly? do you consistently do your training or do you have random days off because you CBA?

structure - does your training have any structure to it, or is it just random ad-hoc bike riding? if you want to get fit for racing you need to have some sort of structure and plan

intensity - do you just ride easy or do you do some medium and hard efforts? if all you do is ride easy it's unlikely you'll improve much!

you need to make sure that your training is suitable for your goals. you wouldn't do lots of sprint efforts if you want to get better at 12 hour training? and, therefore, aiming to do 70 miles may or may not be suitable for your goals. as you get fitter you may also want to do more regular consistent training and it from 2 or 3 times a week to 4 or 5 or even 6 times a week. but the increments need to be done steadily (e.g. don't jump from twice a week to six times a week as you'll blow a gasket!).

As imposter said, if you don't know what you're basing that 140 b/min on it could be correct, or completely wrong. it needs to be anchored to a specific point (such as maximal heart rate or 'TT' heart rate). This is our calculator for HRmax and MAP (power output) http://www.rstsport.com/event-training- ... -zones.htm

ric

Bwgan

Hi guys,

Thank for you replies.

Basically my weekly cycling plan is as follows

Saturday - 30-40 mile ride at low pulse (140bpm)
Sunday - an hour of lactate training 5-6 mins at about 80-90% of maximum heart rate (196bpm)
Mon or tues - 20 mile again at 140bpm
Thurs - Club TT
If I can't get out I try to go on the turbo trainer

So it was really a question to see if I need to up the saturday or Monday miles?

thiscocks

Wouldnt bother with rides aiming specifically for a certain low bpm. Just do an 'easy' ride maybe on the Monday and 'medium' ride on the Sat (going over 140bpm but not maxing it).