Dragon ride

temitchell1987
temitchell1987 Posts: 73
edited March 2015 in Training, fitness and health
Ladies and Gents,

Just a bit of advice/reassurance that I'm heading in the right direction. I've been riding a couple of years, was a 17 stone rugby player so I'm never going to be a 60kg climber but got down to around 88kg last summer, currently 94.

Been averaging 6-8 hours training mainly z2-z3 with a few efforts on hills each week over the past couple of months.

I'm stepping my training up, aiming to lose another stone as I'm currently a bit fat to be hauling myself over the Welsh mountains. Going to be doing one proper endurance ride of 4-6 hours each week, increasing time and distance most weeks. Then adding in one 2.5hr session with 3x12min over/under interval sessions and one 2.5 hours session with 2x20 at sweetspot. I'm quite lucky that I work shifts and can afford a god 10 hours training most weeks.

Do we agree that this will put me into decent(ish) shape and combined with decent nutrition help me lose some weight.

Comments

  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Realistically, weight loss will depend much more on what you eat, rather than how you ride. In principle, 10 hours a week will get you round - many people get round on much less than that.
  • temitchell1987
    temitchell1987 Posts: 73
    That's my thoughts, particularly about diet!! 10 hours a week is manageable most of the time, it's just the first season I've trained with power and felt that doing some structured training is a useful thing rather than just riding.
  • Grill
    Grill Posts: 5,610
    I would only do short sessions like that if crunched time. Go out and ride your bike up some climbs. Power on longish rides like the Dragon is meaningless as the key to such rides is knowing yourself and comfort in the saddle. I've yet to do an audax where I look at anything other than the map page on my GPS.
    English Cycles V3 | Cervelo P5 | Cervelo T4 | Trek Domane Koppenberg
  • daxplusplus
    daxplusplus Posts: 631
    If you haven't already I'd also get some group riding experience in .. so that you know what's expected of you when you ride the dragon. There's so many riders that your bound to get in with a group at some point.
    Sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail

    strava profile
  • temitchell1987
    temitchell1987 Posts: 73
    Yeah I ride with a club when weekends off work allow so I'm quite used to riding in groups. I wouldn't say that time is tight but I quite like being married so make the effort to do shorter rides if the management are off work, my longer rides are usually over the Severn bridge in Wales so I get a fair bit of climbing in.

    Thanks.
  • twotyred
    twotyred Posts: 822
    10 hours training is a good amount however instead of packing it into 3 sessions try 5 per week with two rest days. No need to be doing six hour rides each week 4hrs is enough and will let you recover better so you can put more intensity into your other shorter sessions. Do a couple of other sportives leading up to the Dragon just to get some longer riding in, trial your nutrition strategy and give you a feel for doing these events.

    Even with 10 hours a week cycling you'll need to watch what you're eating to lose significant weight in the next couple of months.
  • temitchell1987
    temitchell1987 Posts: 73
    When I say I have favorable shifts I still have a job, I can't ride 5x a week as it involves me working 13hrs a day or night shifts when I am working. I commute 2/3 days a week but the 10 mile round trip through traffic doesn't really build a lot of fitness in my opinion. Currently fairly obsessively calorie counting and eating sensibly.

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