Structured training, getting confused!
davep1
Posts: 837
Inspired by this article -
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/arti ... ter-41448/
I want to bring some organisation to my riding. I usually commute twice a week to work, and it can be anything from 30 mins to 2hrs+ depending on mood/weather/recovery from previous rides. I also ride at the weekend, typically 40-50 miles at quite a relaxed pace.
The above article was written well enough to get me very interested, but there aren't enough details (for me anyway!) to put a plan together. I don't have a power meter and the heart rate information I have is from Ridewithgps, so may not be accurate.
I'd like to schedule a long endurance ride, an easy recovery ride, a tempo ride, a lactate threshold ride and a VO2 max ride each week. I'm struggling to apply heart rate bands to the zones above based on what ridewithgps tells me.
Do I just look at the data from my rides and pick the highest heart rate I see as the max for calculating the zones, or do I need to calculate it? I did a 20 minute functional threshold power test and have a figure for average heart rate during that test, is that something I can work with?
Yesterday I did a 3.25 hr endurance ride, 50 miles. Whilst out on the bike I thought I was in zone 2 most of the time, possibly a bit below it. When I look at Ridewithgps, I was in zone 1 for 38 mins, zone 2 for 28 mins and zones 3 and 4 for a total of 8 mins, so does that mean the 2 hours plus unaccounted for is below zone 1?
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/arti ... ter-41448/
I want to bring some organisation to my riding. I usually commute twice a week to work, and it can be anything from 30 mins to 2hrs+ depending on mood/weather/recovery from previous rides. I also ride at the weekend, typically 40-50 miles at quite a relaxed pace.
The above article was written well enough to get me very interested, but there aren't enough details (for me anyway!) to put a plan together. I don't have a power meter and the heart rate information I have is from Ridewithgps, so may not be accurate.
I'd like to schedule a long endurance ride, an easy recovery ride, a tempo ride, a lactate threshold ride and a VO2 max ride each week. I'm struggling to apply heart rate bands to the zones above based on what ridewithgps tells me.
Do I just look at the data from my rides and pick the highest heart rate I see as the max for calculating the zones, or do I need to calculate it? I did a 20 minute functional threshold power test and have a figure for average heart rate during that test, is that something I can work with?
Yesterday I did a 3.25 hr endurance ride, 50 miles. Whilst out on the bike I thought I was in zone 2 most of the time, possibly a bit below it. When I look at Ridewithgps, I was in zone 1 for 38 mins, zone 2 for 28 mins and zones 3 and 4 for a total of 8 mins, so does that mean the 2 hours plus unaccounted for is below zone 1?
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Comments
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1st question, what do you want to achieve?I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles0
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What hooked me most about the article was training harder but feeling less tired. I don't mind taking Monday off the bike if I did 4hrs+ on Sunday at any pace, or an hour flat out in the middle of a ride, or if I've done some hill repeats. What bugs me is still feeling weak on Tuesday or Wednesday, and I'm not sure if another day off is the best way to treat that; I find it hard to be disciplined and not push at some point.
I'm going to try and be more disciplined and structured for a couple of weeks and see if there are any benefits.0 -
Yes, but what do you want to achieve?0
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Does "feeling less tired" not count as an achievement?! I'm not a racer or time triallist, so can't say "Take 10% off my pb for X". You've both got me thinking, should I bother with this if I don't have a specific target?0
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DaveP1 wrote:Does "feeling less tired" not count as an achievement?! I'm not a racer or time triallist, so can't say "Take 10% off my pb for X". You've both got me thinking, should I bother with this if I don't have a specific target?
Without a specific target, measuring any improvement is going to be difficult. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do any structured training, but without some kind of measure, you won't really know if you are improving, or by how much...0 -
Your goal seems fairly obvious i.e. feel less knackered.
Before you throw yourself into a new plan that seems to be confusing you maybe looking more closely at the amount of rest and recovery you are currently getting and the quality of your nutrition might be a better place to expend time and effort? How much sleep do you get currently? Are you trying to lose weight currently (i.e. eating a calorific deficit) I generally feel fairly sh1tty and tired at the moment because I am trying to get my weight down to a level not seen since my teenage years, combine that with nights when I don't get enough sleep and I feel pretty grumpy, a concerted effort to get to bed early and things aren't too bad. Do you have any habits that may interfere with a decent nights kip (caffeine in the afternoon, a couple of drinks in the evening etc.)
Obviously a significant increase in fitness will result in everything feeling easier if you then go back to the pace you previously ran at, the down side of that is that you are unlikely to retain much of that fitness without making an effort to tax yourself from time to time.
Just some thoughts and obviously your experience may differ from mine!0 -
Yes, that would be an achievement but surely the way to achieve it is to stay in bed and not ride your bike at all?DaveP1 wrote:Does "feeling less tired" not count as an achievement?!
Ruth0 -
BeaconRuth wrote:
Yes, that would be an achievement but surely the way to achieve it is to stay in bed and not ride your bike at all?DaveP1 wrote:Does "feeling less tired" not count as an achievement?!
Ruth
I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles0 -
:idea: Oh no...BeaconRuth wrote:
Yes, that would be an achievement but surely the way to achieve it is to stay in bed and not ride your bike at all?DaveP1 wrote:Does "feeling less tired" not count as an achievement?!
Ruth
"Feeling less tired" means specifically my thighs, I always feel like I did a big ride yesterday, this in turn makes me think a recovery or no ride is what I should be doing today. Even when I try a recovery ride I nearly always go much harder if only for a few minutes, and some of the advice I have read is to never get above 70%.
Thanks for the comments and advice so far. I've got three big rides this year. Ridelondon is less than a month away, if this training helps that then great, but I am not expecting a huge change in my abilities between now and then. I think I have a sub 5 hour time in me, provided I have no mechanicals or crashes, and can get in a good bunch for a good chunk of the ride. If that doesn't happen, I'll still enjoy the day.
Later in August I'll be in Abruzzo in Italy, and there's a 2,200 m climb I want to try again. Last time was 3 years ago, and I got 2/3 of the way. The average gradient is 10% but it is 20+km, and I just couldn't summon the willpower and stamina to keep going last time.
Then in September I have the Legs of Steel which I did last year but missed the gold standard by 10 minutes. Next year I will turn 50 and the organisers give that age group a extra 15 minutes for gold so I want to nail it as a 49 year old. It's 10 of the big hills around Dorking, I've got a slightly larger cassette this year and hope that plus extra fitness will make the difference.
So far I have done an FTP ride for 20 mins, a couple of easy rides and an attempt at zone 5. The biggest thing I have learned at the moment is that it is hard to ride in a zone that is only 10 or so bpm wide; I'm nearly always under. The zone 1 ride I managed 3 mins in zone 1 the rest was less than that. The zone 5 ride was 15 1 min intervals with 1 min recovery; I managed roughly 10 mins in each zone. I did find it very hard to keep going to my max for each minute, especially as I did more intervals, so I am not unhappy with 20 mins in zone 4 and 5. I think I can explain the 30 mins in zones 1-3 as my heart rate dropping back to those quickly in the recovery minutes; when you are going full on it doesn't take long for your heart rate to drop back to more normal levels when you come off the gas.
Quite enjoying the process so far, its a new aspect to riding for me.0 -
DaveP1 wrote:The zone 5 ride was 15 1 min intervals with 1 min recovery; I managed roughly 10 mins in each zone.
Any particular reason you were doing this interval?I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles0 -
It was the suggested interval workout for zone 5, and I've never done intervals like that before. I was trying to say I found it very hard to stay in zone 5; it's a very narrow band and after 8 or 9 reps I don't think I hit my max. I was expecting to see 15 mins in zone 5 for the 15 efforts, the 15 recoveries I was expecting to be a mix of zone 3 and zone 4 as my HR dropped, and I thought the rest of the ride would be zone 1 or under.
The zone 3 and zone 4 workouts were easier to achieve, both zones are wider and not being so close to max helped.
Week 1 nearly done, finding out things about myself if nothing else. Heart rate can lag quite along way behind the effort you put in, it is very very hard out on the road keeping it below 70%. I'm letting old ladies on Raleigh Shoppers pass, I'm now seeing how far up hills I can get before triggering the HR alarm, but I still feel peretty tired.
Couple of z1 rides today, tomorrow off and then a long endurance ride on Sunday.0
