3 hours on elliptical?

malakazmirly

I am a 16 year old girl that loves road cycling! Here it's super cold in Sweden so I'm only training indoors this season(weight training and indoor cycling on elliptical). The leader of my cycling club gave me a training plan to follow and I'm following it so far but I don't have to follow it exactly, I can do some changes. He gave it to me for like guidance.Anyways, it consists of like 3-4 interval/intense elliptical sessions (30-1h per session) and one low intensity elliptical session to train distance ( it has to be around 70% of max heart rate). Next week's low intensity session is 3 hours long, and I don't realli feel like it. If it was outdoors, I would not mind but indoors it's quite boring. This week's was 2.5hours and I managed while watching a movie haha but my average heart rate turned out to be 120bpm for this session (70% of max hr for me is around 150bpm so yeah ). Anyways, what do you guys think? Should I do the 3 hours session next week otherwise if not, what should I replace it with?

Thanks!

cycleclinic

Replace with cross country skiing , swimming, or other winter sports. Either that or prepare to due of boredom.

jgsi

I'd be thinking the same with xcountry skiing. You could build a huge aerobic engine up, then as the cycling season approaches, some transition work back into pedalling again. The activity seems to me to be very compatible with cycling requirements. Or is this a snowless bit of Sweden?

malakazmirly

JGSI wrote:

I'd be thinking the same with xcountry skiing. You could build a huge aerobic engine up, then as the cycling season approaches, some transition work back into pedalling again. The activity seems to me to be very compatible with cycling requirements. Or is this a snowless bit of Sweden?

thecycleclinic wrote:

Replace with cross country skiing , swimming, or other winter sports. Either that or prepare to due of boredom.

Not much snow here. What I meant was not to replace it with another sport but another type of session. I mean, are these 3 hours crucial to improve at cycling or I can very well replace it with another cycling session that would in fact be more effective?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Tell your coach that 3 hours on an indoor trainer is beyond your mental tolerance, but be ready to answer the question about what your tolerance level is.

If they don't take into account your ability to reasonably execute the training (given your individual constraints) when setting training plans and/or don't help with reasonable alternatives, then seek another coach.

cougie

3 hours does sound long. I'd aim for two hours and see how you go. I bet none of your races would be three Hours anyway.

cycleclinic

If you are worried about ice buy an old 26 inch mtb mount spiked tires and go for a 3hr ride. That will be a proper workout.