Training for fitness - Dummy's guide needed

tangled_metal

So time poor beginner to actually training for anything. I've got a poor fitness I think but I can keep up a decent 15mph average speed on my commute home but at half an hour and just over 7 miles that is not very good. 6 years ago I did that at an average of 21mph.

I need to find a way to increase my speed and helping get over this plateau. When I started commuting I went from 45 minutes to 30 minutes commute time very quickly (a couple of weeks). Now that was about 2 years ago (with a 2-3 month break while I waited to replace a stolen bike). I can not get any quicker.

My details are early 40s, male. steady 84kg weight and 196cm tall (6'5" to imperialists and 185pounds). Bike is a tiagra london road with racks and pannier on most trips. I have an aldi bluetooth HR strap, smartphone with strava basic (and the crane app which if it could connect to other apps would be enough for me since it reads the HR strap better than stava does without losing bluetooth connection). Aldi cycle computer for speed display. No power meter or cadence and definitely no garmin (missed out on aldi garmin 200 deal as too many MAMILs and retired people cycling in my area who can get to aldi at 8am thursdays)

Aim - not sure just to be fitter, faster and to find harder hills more enjoyable. I would like to use the HRM through strava or the crane app too. At the moment I just try to ride fast and try to listen to my body. I like the idea of monitoring but before I spend on kit I need to know what to do and how to use the monitoring to make my time on the bike more effective.

Anyone got any guidance? Or can point me to a good source of guidance?

imposter2.0

How much more riding were you doing when you were riding that commute at 21mph? The answer to your question is probably already in there somewhere.

keef66

I bought Chris Carmichael's The Time Crunched Cyclist which contains specific training plans which can be based on HR zones. You need to determine your max HR first, which can be quite an unpleasant experience if you do it properly, but after that you're sorted.

There are plans for beginner, intermediate and seasoned riders, and aimed at either completing a century ride or competing in road racing.

Looking at the current edition it looks like he's added some stuff for MTB and cyclocross. And he seems to have reduced the number of references to Lance Armstrong too. Funny that.

Having said all that I read the book but never got round to putting any of it into practice. 15mph average for a ride is a good result for me, and at nearly 58 I think I'm not going to get any faster.

tangled_metal

Probably less but I did a lot of walking and challenge walks up to 40 miles. My main activity was various forms of exercise in the hills from scrambling, climbing to walks and backpacking. Used to disappear for a week into the Scottish hills and do a 40 miler charity walk (under 9 hours at best) and just long walks from 16 to 26 miles.

I guess that is what I need to do for cycling but I haven't the freedom to do this, to spare as much time as back then. I am wondering about training smarter if that is possible. If all I have is 10 half hour rides a week spare then what is the best you can get out of them?

The only thing I can think to increase my time is to take a detour and gain an extra 15 minutes on the way home. Not much time to play around with so probably the answer is to try to find more time. IF not possible then should I be going slower to keep the HR in a lower zone to build base fitness or should I be looking at intervals. Seriously what is best to make the most of what time I have?

tangled_metal

TBH the average speed of 15 mph is my good day speed. The realistic seems to be 12.6 to 15.1 mph. Considering my old times for almost the same route (a bit longer at nearer 8 miles) was 21 minutes I think I could still improve.

BTW back then I had no speedo or means to measure speed so that was done with google maps or another more cycling specific mapping site and a simple stopwatch on my wrist. That time included stops at lights, junctions too as I forgot to press the pause button. Having said that I did try one of my local 10 mile TT courses about then and did it in 24 minutes IIRC. That put me in the bottom third based on the local club's last TT results. I will claim that I was under a bad cold and after that I was coughing my guts up and still had 2 miles ride home and to the start. If I was well I am certain I would have been a lot faster, honest!! Well might have jumped above the pensioner who was above me at least.

Keep wondering about the Levens TT route and whether to try that out one day (after seriously trying to train. That route has a certain Sir Bradley Wiggins as the course record holder IIRC. Known to be a fast route round these ways.

trailflow

Riding faster on short rides doesnt necessarily mean your getting fitter. Cycling is an endurance sport. Try riding slower for longer. Sorry but 30 minute commutes really arn't proper rides to guage anything by IMO. You could actually be doing harm to your body if you are not warming up properly. As a reference it takes me 30-60 minutes to just warm up. (and 20 mins to get my kit on and out the door)

I know you say you are time crunched but i just dont buy it. Whatever it is thats taking up your time maybe you need to change that. If you can browse these forums you can get 1-2 hours in on the bike.

Get out into the countryside away from the traffic and do some 20-60 mile rides as often as possible.

and ignore your average speed. Build mileage and hours in the saddle instead.

tangled_metal

So basically there is no benefit to be had from half hour rides. Dead miles. I have reached where I am at doing that and nothing I do can improve it without adding longer rides into the mix. I find that hard to believe, or just don't want to accept it.

I also think we are talking about different aims. I am not into doing long rides like sportives. I used to do a lot of riding when a school kid on school holidays. Me and a mate used to ride out for the morning then back for lunch before another ride out in the afternoon. Done that and no need for it again.

I am talking about tweaking what I do when I do it so I gain a bit more in terms of speed and fitness.

My RHR is 60-65 at the moment but was once about 58bpm. I am not too bad generally but I know I can be fitter and healthier as a result. Right now I am at a plateau where I feel good and strong monday, dip badly mid week then finish off strong on the friday. My aims are basically to improve fitness so a full week of commuting does not result in a need to recover 3 days in. If that makes sense. My times throughout the week are pretty steady though, but it is how I feel doing it midweek that needs improving.

I have only just got a HRM (used to have one years ago) so am only starting on looking at zones. So far the only ride I have been on where it is just me going to my own pace it seemed I was about 75% in the middle of 5 zones with it being kind of a normal curve either side (i.e. percentage in the zones reducing as you move into zones 2/4 to 1/5 on this. Of course the MHR and RHR was probably not used with this since it is a cheapo bluetooth strap and app (crane connect from Aldi). This is a trial purchase before buying a bigger name / better product later btw. I guess the app used 220 less my age. I have the feeling from the past that this is too low for me. Well I did get to 100% of my MHR once with a bit spare on my old cardiosport HRM based on the 220-age calculation.

Just out of curiosity what relevance is the VO2 max to fitness? Years ago I read about the Rockport walking test to estimate this so I did one. I got a relatively high figure (in the table I saw for my age it was rated as very good or excellent. Not as easy to do as the RHR so probably not a measure anyone uses.

jonomc4

I have the same problem - I went from 75kg average speed 23mph (flatish) to being 92KG 16mph average.

I had to take two years off riding due to a health problem (I am 49). Obviously for me loosing 12kg (my target over 10 months) is the main aim.

I have been back on the bike 6 weeks - what I have found really helpful initially is to go back to the gym also - most here will disagree with this but most here haven't been off the bike for two years. I found just doing some strength work on my legs and also varying the exercise my body is doing, as opposed to just cycling, has produced a big gains quickly. The benefit will be less and less quite fast I am sure. For me though cycling is becoming more about general health and fitness - improving my aerobic capacity and getting my weight back to something healthier. I am not even sure I will go back to doing 100 mile rides anymore - this may change next year :-)

Also on the commute - I think it helps to have two fast days a week and three just going a comfortable steady pace. I think people over train more often than not. I did use a HRM before but mostly for HIT training (which I am a fan off) and for making sure I didn't go crazy on a ride and kept my HR at a nice fat burning level.