A Newbie to proper training

Tjgoodhew

Iv now been cycling for two years and have gone from a complete noob to a relatively decent recreational cyclist.

I have decided that in 2015 i want to start pushing myself further and start becoming a competitive cyclist. I have a few goals for next year and after a short trip away next week i want to start a plan to help me achieve these. The goals are :

Climb Mt Teide (7500ft) 1st week of Jan
Puig Major in under an hour - 1st week of Feb
Tour of Flanders - Easter
Racing Cat 4 and aiming to be competitive by the end of the season
L2P 24h in September

Looking at the timing of all of these i know im going to have to train hard for the next 12 months but i dont really know how to structure a plan. I am determined and actually looking forward to the training altho i may not be saying this in a couple of months time

I am looking at using TR for winter evenings and to use one of their plans alongside Sufferfest but im not a fan of the turbo and much prefer to be outside. Would i lose a lot by riding outside without the structure of TR ?

I was looking at 3x1hour sessions in the week, a long endurance ride on a Saturday and a short recovery ride on a Sunday. I was thinking about ditching one of the week sessions for a pilates/core/ weight session but would i be better just to focus on the bike ?

Any advice or pointers on the above greatly appreciated

ric/rstsport

trying to work out your training from such limited info is impossible, but given your training suggestion of 3 x 1hrs plus a long saturday ride, why would you need a recovery spin on sunday? you'd almost certainly be better off riding 'hard' for whatever time you have available on sunday.

if you're going to do some gym work, it should be in addition not instead of one of those sessions.

Ric

colinsmith123

You've said you have become a decent recreational cyclist, and looking at your list, racing is your unknown and main goal. The others on your list you know you can do, assuming you maintain / improve your own perceived level of fitness and should be seen as part of the pathway.

You've said you use Trainerroad. Trainerroad structured plans work. But start off at the beginning. Base, then Build, then Peak. I'd suggest leaving sufferfest alone for now. Plenty of time to suffer in the new year.

As you are already measuring cadence / speed, can I assume you also have HR and a Garmin? If so create the trainerrod rides in Gamin Express to perform on the road.

I tend to add around 20-30 mins to the main core of 60-75 min endurance trainer road rides when done on the road roughly staying in the Z2. This is to compensate for the amount of time you spend light pedalling / freewheeling with HR in Z1

As Ric said ride your bike on Sunday. I try to do an increasingly longer Sunday rides, building from 2.5 hours at the moment to around 4.5 hours steady by Xmas.

Read up on training techniques, I would recommend Joe Friel's Training Bible and his other book The Power Meter Handbook to compliment and understand your efforts on the turbo. A lighter read, to help understand why do you all of this I'd recommend, Faster; The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World's Fastest Cyclists by Michael Hutchinson, otherwise known as Dr Hutch from Cycling Weekly.

Back to the nub of your question. Having a training plan is easy. Following a training plan is not so easy. It takes commitment, some can do it some can't. Some people are so gifted that they do not need training plans, mere mortals like me, do. I don't think there is a training plan out there that does not work for gifted and mortal riders.

Another approach might be to think of it in this way..

Am I the kind of rider who can follow a structured training plan? If I am then I will know I am on the right track and can use this to focus on my goal of being a competitive cyclist in Cat 4 races at the end of the 2015 season. If I can do this, then I will know I'm on the right track.

Doing base training properly is not easy and the reason is, it seems easy and you will want to 'race' ahead. Stick to the plan. Not religously; as that can be equally detrimental. Accept you might achieve 85-90% of the plan, this will still bring the results you are looking for, because there are always life's obstacles that get in the way. I promise you, you will notice the difference in around 6-8 week's time.

I hope this helps

diy

The core training will be good for the longer distance events. I'm not sure about Pilates its good for stretching and range, but you would get similar results with a good gym based work out and improve your muscles too. Depending on the brand your gym offers, the les Mills CXWorks, GRIT and BodyAttack might be good, possibly even BodyBalance for your recovery day. You will even find things like BodyPump good for improving your leg strength as well as core, though there is probably too much focus on upper body in BP for road cyclists. Better for off roaders.

ric/rstsport

colinsmith123 wrote:

Read up on training techniques, I would recommend Joe Friel's Training Bible and his other book The Power Meter Handbook to compliment and understand your efforts on the turbo. A lighter read, to help understand why do you all of this I'd recommend, Faster; The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World's Fastest Cyclists by Michael Hutchinson, otherwise known as Dr Hutch from Cycling Weekly.

Back to the nub of your question. Having a training plan is easy. Following a training plan is not so easy. It takes commitment, some can do it some can't. Some people are so gifted that they do not need training plans, mere mortals like me, do. I don't think there is a training plan out there that does not work for gifted and mortal riders.

JF's book is somewhat out of date, techniques and ideas moved on a long time ago.

Having a training plan isn't necessarily easy. It *can* be difficult to develop a *decent* plan that helps you to improve. Obviously, anyone can develop a plan - it's down to the detail that is important.

Another approach might be to think of it in this way..

Am I the kind of rider who can follow a structured training plan? If I am then I will know I am on the right track and can use this to focus on my goal of being a competitive cyclist in Cat 4 races at the end of the 2015 season. If I can do this, then I will know I'm on the right track.

Doing base training properly is not easy and the reason is, it seems easy and you will want to 'race' ahead. Stick to the plan. Not religously; as that can be equally detrimental. Accept you might achieve 85-90% of the plan, this will still bring the results you are looking for, because there are always life's obstacles that get in the way. I promise you, you will notice the difference in around 6-8 week's time.

I hope this helps

I infer from the above that you're suggesting that "base training" is low in intensity (as you may "want to race ahead" and thus go harder than 'base'). This isn't true (that off-season training should be low in intensity), it *should* include *some* harder efforts. What those efforts are, and how frequently they come up depend on a variety of issues (e.g. current fitness, goal fitness, training time available, etc, etc) and are way outside the scope of a forum.

imposter2.0

diy wrote:

You will even find things like BodyPump good for improving your leg strength

What use is improved leg strength..??

bahzob

While you can get some helpful advice on a forum like this it may be hard to pick out the wheat from the chaff and get anything useful as the above replies demonstrate.

I would strongly suggest buying a book that provides you with the background to how to train, test fitness and has some pre-built plans that you can follow. It will cover everything in far more depth than is possible here.

This should pretty much ensure progress. If you then have specific questions they can be asked in a forum like this.

My recommendation is the Time Crunched Training Plan by Chris Carmichael. While the author has a dubious past this book is perfect for cyclists, the vast majority, who only have limited time to train. It comes with plans you can follow e.g. 12 weeks beginner century/12 week beginner racing. If you do these one after another with a rest period in between you will be in great shape for your goals next year.

With respect to your query about outside. The workouts are mostly short and hard, around an hour. This makes them good for turbo as you won't have to spend much time on it but also means if you want to go outside then you can do so and only have to suffer the elements for a shortish time if the weather is pants.

Intherain

Ric/RSTSport wrote:

JF's book is somewhat out of date, techniques and ideas moved on a long time ago.

Hi Ric, could you elaborate a little on this please? Are JF's core principals of linear periodization still sound (I appreciate there are other alternatives and he mentions these in his book)? I am curious to know as I have used this book previously with good results and I believe the Training Peaks plans put into effect his theories.

Is the concept of building a strong base of fitness and then reducing the volume of riding and increasing the intensity once that base is established still a good one to follow?

Thanks!

Tjgoodhew

Thanks for the input everyone,

As mentioned i am new to all this so any advice i can take from the forum is helpful.

After two pretty intense 1 hour sessions this week i am feeling really drained today. Have another session planned for tonight. My body is telling me to take it easy whilst my head is telling me to MTFU and get on with it.

I guess another thing i didnt mention is that i have a pretty demanding job with a normal day meaning leaving the house at 7am and not getting back till 8pm.

Im sure im not the only one that has to balance long hours with training but i can see combining the two making me pretty tired !!!

BSRU

Tjgoodhew wrote:

Thanks for the input everyone,

As mentioned i am new to all this so any advice i can take from the forum is helpful.

After two pretty intense 1 hour sessions this week i am feeling really drained today. Have another session planned for tonight. My body is telling me to take it easy whilst my head is telling me to MTFU and get on with it.

I guess another thing i didnt mention is that i have a pretty demanding job with a normal day meaning leaving the house at 7am and not getting back till 8pm.

Im sure im not the only one that has to balance long hours with training but i can see combining the two making me pretty tired !!!

Good rest and recovery is an important part of training.

ric/rstsport

Intherain wrote:

Ric/RSTSport wrote:

JF's book is somewhat out of date, techniques and ideas moved on a long time ago.

Hi Ric, could you elaborate a little on this please? Are JF's core principals of linear periodization still sound (I appreciate there are other alternatives and he mentions these in his book)? I am curious to know as I have used this book previously with good results and I believe the Training Peaks plans put into effect his theories.

Is the concept of building a strong base of fitness and then reducing the volume of riding and increasing the intensity once that base is established still a good one to follow?

Thanks!

the idea of having to have a rest week every (e.g.) 4th week isn't needed if you plan your training in a decent way.

from what i recall the book suggests building a base by doing lots of long endurance, reducing the volume as races approach and upping the intensity. While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this, it's not great if you can't get in at least 20 hrs a week and it doesn't do much to increase your fitness (but it does make you good at riding long distances). many coaches (but perhaps not all) are moving to the idea of incorporating some intensity for most of the year - there are times when you should ditch intensity though. For e.g., i'm currently ill and when i get back on the bike it'll be a few weeks of just plodding along while i find my legs again at low intensity.

of course, it's perfectly possible that you've had a good season after following one of these plans. what you don't know is would it have been better with more intensity?

Note, for the sake of clarity i'm not suggesting that people go out and smack out high intensity intervals several times a week from now until racing starts properly in march.

JayKosta

Tjgoodhew wrote:

...
After two pretty intense 1 hour sessions this week i am feeling really drained today. Have another session planned for tonight. My body is telling me to take it easy whilst my head is telling me to MTFU and get on with it.
...

==================================================
The main things with any 'training plan' is to find the most useful blend of intensity and rest that is both effective and acceptable to you.

The actual improvements come during the rest period following an exercise session.
The exercise session needs to stress your body somewhat beyond its ability to easily accomplish the stress - but without causing actual injury, and also leaving you able to do the other activities of the day.
Then, sufficient rest is need for your body to recover and strengthen to tolerate the higher stress level. Without adequate rest you won't get good benefit from the next exercise session. Too much rest, and the improvements come at a slower pace.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

bahzob

Tjgoodhew wrote:

whilst my head is telling me to MTFU and get on with it.

I guess another thing i didnt mention is that i have a pretty demanding job with a normal day meaning leaving the house at 7am and not getting back till 8pm.

Im sure im not the only one that has to balance long hours with training but i can see combining the two making me pretty tired !!!

Which is why the time crunched training plan book should be right for you. I'd really suggest buying that, following one of the plans there and ignoring all other sources of advice for 12 weeks or so. At the end you will be a lot fitter and, should you feel the need be able to ask more focussed questions.