What are some milestones I should be hitting?

sarequads

Coming from a bodybuilding/powerlifting background there are milestones to hit such as; bodyfat into single figures, waist relative to your legs, waist to chest ratio, arms thicker than your neck. Powerlifting; bench, squat and deadlift x amount of your body weight and so on.

What are some milestones I should be looking at hitting in the world of cycling? Ive got a power meter, I commute to work 100 miles per week and access to a wattbike.

Thanks

joey54321

Power to weight values perhaps? 3W/kg, 3.5, 4 W/kg, etc...? I think it has been suggested that 4w/kg at FTP (for ~ 1 hour) is a hard physiological barrier for a significant portion of the population.

For most though, cycling is either about pleasure (just go enjoy it), results (race finishes or perhaps time trial times) or keeping up with groups/training rides/friends.

The problem with setting 'average speed for x miles' goals is its way too dependent on weather.

fenix

I don't think we have those kinds of milestones. Just get out and enjoy yourself. Enter a sportif. Join a club. Ride abroad.

sarequads

Fenix wrote:

I don't think we have those kinds of milestones. Just get out and enjoy yourself. Enter a sportif. Join a club. Ride abroad.

This is the "training, fitness and health" section of the forum. Surely there are?

imposter2.0

Goals will differ depending on your focus and objectives. Nobody can suggest or set goals for you - at least not without knowing more about what it is you are trying to achieve.

maryka

Yes, w/kg is probably the one most people use in terms of pure performance. Heavier people prefer absolute watts though.

If you don't have a powermeter, then you can target some routes/loops to improve your times. Strava is handy for this. Yes weather and equipment plays a role but fitness is the biggest variable, so as you get fitter you will go faster.

If you fancy racing, time trialling is popular for testing yourself against yourself and improving PBs and results. Traditionally going under the hour for 25 miles was a big milestone but these days with good aerodynamics and equipment that's not so hard.

Depends what you want to achieve really, and where you're starting from. I second the suggestion to join a decent club and get out riding with lots of people, in riding and chatting with them you'll get a feel for your abilities and also what the local best courses are, where to start if you want to race, etc.

w00dster

Depends on the goals and how long you have been riding. Where is cycling on your priority’s compared to other sports?
I come from a Rugby League background, at 5 foot 8 and 15 stone I quickly realised if I was serious about improving my endurance performance then my body would have to change. I’m now 67kgs with a target of 65 by end of April. I use the Coggins chart as a rough estimate as to my progress, but this is just indicative.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/power-profiling/

At 15 stone, actually probably closer to 14.5 stone when I decided I wanted to get more into cycling, I was powerful but my sustained power uphill was poor compared to a lot of other guys. I had a week cycling in North Wales with a very good cyclist and it became apparent that for me to improve as a road cyclist I couldn’t keep the same body profile. I was fortunate to have time to complete long rides and over time my body adapted. My wife thinks I look weird though!

Those figures in the table are a good guide, I’m also a member of The Sufferfest and have done the 4D test (on my Wattbike). Worth having a look at. But without knowing your goals it’s very hard to say what milestones you want to look for.

In terms of body fat %, I tend to hover about 9 to 10% throughout the year, during the racing season this tends to drop another % point. But the key for me is to retain my current power while losing weight. Also worth adding that for racing FTP and watts per KG isn’t always the be all. I tend to have a relatively low FTP (273), but have no problems with endurance in a race, my weakness is on recovering quickly from multiple successive high intensity efforts (attacks on a climb, accelerations out of corners etc). Rather than a specific goal of increasing my FTP I work on my HIIT sessions, my 1and 5 minute efforts.

Not sure if you’ve done much mountain riding yet, but trust me you’ll want to shift a lot of bulk after a week doing steep inclines!

Matthewfalle

Bugger all that.

Milestones in my book are things like:

Smashing the people who previously rode away from you and make them weep in the wake of your power and glory

Smashing hills that previously made you cry and vomit and walk like a girl

Getting home from a massive ride then feeling fine and doing a weights session just for the hell of it

Riding past clubbies and ignoring them after they previously ignored you because they hadn't deemed that you had earned it

First really nice cycling holiday in the sun with a mate and enjoying it day after day without dying

None of this rubbish numbers rubbish

Alex_Simmons/RST

Matthewfalle wrote:

Smashing hills that previously made you cry and vomit and walk like a girl

What exactly is wrong with "walking like a girl"?

Typical Analytical

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

Smashing hills that previously made you cry and vomit and walk like a girl

What exactly is wrong with "walking like a girl"?

Sleepy peepy

milemuncher1

I’d say a first ride of over 100 Kms then the first ride of over 100 miles are considered a milestone for most leisure cyclists. Then looking at various milestone metrics to do with FTP, Power to weight, VO2 max, lactate threshold, and other number related things.

sloppyschleckonds

Milemuncher1 wrote:

I’d say a first ride of over 100 Kms then the first ride of over 100 miles are considered a milestone for most leisure cyclists. Then looking at various milestone metrics to do with FTP, Power to weight, VO2 max, lactate threshold, and other number related things.

Add to that pedalling at a cadence of 10, 20, 30, 40 etc etc

milemuncher1

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Milemuncher1 wrote:

I’d say a first ride of over 100 Kms then the first ride of over 100 miles are considered a milestone for most leisure cyclists. Then looking at various milestone metrics to do with FTP, Power to weight, VO2 max, lactate threshold, and other number related things.

Add to that pedalling at a cadence of 10, 20, 30, 40 etc etc

Oh dear, has mummy let you on the computer again?

timothyw

sarequads wrote:

Coming from a bodybuilding/powerlifting background there are milestones to hit such as; bodyfat into single figures, waist relative to your legs, waist to chest ratio, arms thicker than your neck. Powerlifting; bench, squat and deadlift x amount of your body weight and so on.

What are some milestones I should be looking at hitting in the world of cycling? Ive got a power meter, I commute to work 100 miles per week and access to a wattbike.

Thanks

W/KG measurements are the best equivalent to powerlifting targets - so you hit the wattbike, see how much power you can sustain over 20 minutes, 5 minutes, 30 seconds, 6 seconds etc, then try to improve it or shed weight without losing performance.

But more fun is to target things like progressing from cat 4 to cat 3 race license (and hopefully winning some races), trying to get into the top 3 of a hill climb/tt event, that kind of thing, and the average cyclist will give you more respect for it as most have no idea what their numbers are or what good numbers would be.

Starting out, it can be as simple as being the first up the hill on a club run, or winning the sprint for the village sign, or getting into the top ten for a strava segment on your commute.

Unless you want to specialise in (track) sprinting events, the likelihood is that you'll need to lose a lot of arm muscle and upper body strength to be competitive.

cougie

Having your first big mechanical that you can't fix and calling for rescue.
Forgetting to eat and bonking fifty miles from home.

timothyw

If you are near south London, the 20 minute Richmond park lap is a classic (followed by the 3 laps in an hour)

daniel_b

My personal targets I have chosen, in no particular order are:

FTP
W/KG
Weight
Average speed on a few circuits
Position on a few Strava segments
Enjoying outdoor riding more
Getting better at pacing hill climbing

The latter two are less measurable ;-)

milemuncher1

Daniel B wrote:

My personal targets I have chosen, in no particular order are:

FTP
W/KG
Weight
Average speed on a few circuits
Position on a few Strava segments
Enjoying outdoor riding more
Getting better at pacing hill climbing

The latter two are less measurable ;-)

They look like decent targets.

MiddleRinger

A good yardstick for me is 20-minute power (and FTP from that). If that's going up then I'm getting fitter! Simple. Sort of. There's a few good climbs of around that length here. As a lifter you could also track explosive 5-second, 30-second, 1-minute power and 5-minute power profiles too I guess. Depends on your goals.

But out of the road, I just track the size of the smile on my face... :-)

ryan_w-2

Your goal should be losing as much weight as possible and spending as much time on the bike as possible.

I’ve dropped 22kg since I switched from powerlifting/ rugby to cycling.

I’m still not where I need to be, but I have improved dramatically.

I think my first FTP test was around 187w (horrendous fitness and massively unconditioned muscles), and now I’m around 350w.

I love a statistic more than anyone (peak numbers and short sprints suit us guys from a stength sport background), but in reality, they’re just bragging rights, to which someone will just call you a knob...

Your goal should be to get away (abroad) as much as possible and enjoy being on the road, in the sun, looking forward to that coffee and cake at the next stop.