Optimal Training to Ride Faster/Longer/Efficiently?

itaa

My Goal is to be able to ride 20miles a day most days of the week rain or shine at a reasonable pace,
I'm a weak skinny-fat 27y old office worker with no endurance/power whatsoever, currently after riding 20miles in one go I feel knackered and out for 2days. I can maybe sustain riding 6-7miles in good weather every 2days with no effects at the moment.

How do I get there and train my body in the most efficient way to achieve this without overdoing it and messing myself up?
How often/ in what way/ at what speed and for how long /with what kind of increases the training should be done?

I realise this is a lot like weight lifting and most of the gains comes from hitting it the right amount and having a good rest.

Has anyone been in my shoes? How did you got there? What was your experience?

mattyfez

Little and often, build up slowly. If your comfortable doing 6 miles every 2 days, keep that up and maybe time yourself with a phone app and work on getting your average speed up on a given route. Be consistent and the fitness will come.
Go at a comfortable pace to start with to give you a basline average speed you can work on.

Then add a mile or two, and keep doing that until your avearge speed is as quick or close to before, I dont feel like I've had a proper ride unless I've done about 20 miles or more, although I don't do that every day.

When I got back in the saddle a couple of years ago, I struggled to do 6 miles without stopping for a rest, but that quickly changes with regualr rides (and rest days).

JBA

itaa wrote:

My Goal is to be able to ride 20miles a day most days of the week rain or shine at a reasonable pace,...
... currently after riding 20miles in one go I feel knackered and out for 2days. I can maybe sustain riding 6-7miles in good weather every 2days with no effects at the moment.

I think you have answered your own question there.

What's the point of smashing out 20 miles if you are then knackered for 2 days. Build on the 6-7 miles but don't rush it. Increase the duration of your rides over time otherwise you will get demoralised.

I currently ride between 6 and 12 miles 4 or 5 times a week and do a longer ride of 20 - 30 miles on the weekend. A couple of years ago when I started riding again a 5 mile ride killed me but I kept doing short rides and built up the distance over a few months.

Repeating a familiar route is good way of judging your increasing fitness and stamina as you see the time to complete the ride decreasing.

milemuncher1

If you want to increase your ability to endure longer rides, rather than increasing your ‘explosiveness’ ( for want of a better expression) I would suggest you start by Working out what your average output is in Joules / KiloJoules ( product of your Power and the duration you put that power out for )Then try to gradually increase this figure, by focusing more on increasing the time component, rather than the power component. If you were trying to increase your short burst sprint performance, you’d be better off increasing your output by focusing on the Power component. Once you have this ‘all encompassing’ general metric on the increase, start to look at improving the component parts of the ride, which form the overall output, piece by piece. There’s a new fangled training thing that goes by the name of ‘four does more / 4DP’ which is a scientific approach to improving the component parts of the ride, which will give you the necessary increase in KJs.

Brakeless

Milemuncher1 wrote:

If you want to increase your ability to endure longer rides, rather than increasing your ‘explosiveness’ ( for want of a better expression) I would suggest you start by Working out what your average output is in Joules / KiloJoules ( product of your Power and the duration you put that power out for )Then try to gradually increase this figure, by focusing more on increasing the time component, rather than the power component. If you were trying to increase your short burst sprint performance, you’d be better off increasing your output by focusing on the Power component. Once you have this ‘all encompassing’ general metric on the increase, start to look at improving the component parts of the ride, which form the overall output, piece by piece. There’s a new fangled training thing that goes by the name of ‘four does more / 4DP’ which is a scientific approach to improving the component parts of the ride, which will give you the necessary increase in KJs.

Ignore all that crap and just ride your bike regularly slowly building up the time spent on your bike or the distance you cover.

plugp7

Brakeless wrote:

Milemuncher1 wrote:

If you want to increase your ability to endure longer rides, rather than increasing your ‘explosiveness’ ( for want of a better expression) I would suggest you start by Working out what your average output is in Joules / KiloJoules ( product of your Power and the duration you put that power out for )Then try to gradually increase this figure, by focusing more on increasing the time component, rather than the power component. If you were trying to increase your short burst sprint performance, you’d be better off increasing your output by focusing on the Power component. Once you have this ‘all encompassing’ general metric on the increase, start to look at improving the component parts of the ride, which form the overall output, piece by piece. There’s a new fangled training thing that goes by the name of ‘four does more / 4DP’ which is a scientific approach to improving the component parts of the ride, which will give you the necessary increase in KJs.

Ignore all that crap and just ride your bike regularly slowly building up the time spent on your bike or the distance you cover.

+1
I just don't get this training crap. Just ride more.

JBA

Milemuncher1 wrote:

If you want to increase your ability to endure longer rides, rather than increasing your ‘explosiveness’ ( for want of a better expression) I would suggest you start by Working out what your average output is in Joules / KiloJoules ( product of your Power and the duration you put that power out for )Then try to gradually increase this figure, by focusing more on increasing the time component, rather than the power component. If you were trying to increase your short burst sprint performance, you’d be better off increasing your output by focusing on the Power component. Once you have this ‘all encompassing’ general metric on the increase, start to look at improving the component parts of the ride, which form the overall output, piece by piece. There’s a new fangled training thing that goes by the name of ‘four does more / 4DP’ which is a scientific approach to improving the component parts of the ride, which will give you the necessary increase in KJs.

All that is fine for pros but sounds like the ideal way to turn an enjoyable pastime in to a real chore for the majority of cyclists.

Just ride often and build up your stamina. Above all enjoy it.

cooldad

Agreed. Ride for fun, enjoy it, and stamina builds up quickly. Don't make it a mission.

itaa

cooldad wrote:

Agreed. Ride for fun, enjoy it, and stamina builds up quickly. Don't make it a mission.

I could care less about hitting an actual mile/time goal, I just like cycling as such...
Between ages of 8-15 I was out all day everyday on my bike and could cycle just about all day ,never got enough of it..

Than..I started working at young age and somehow cycling got left behind.. Now 10+years later the $hit stationary unactive job is messing up my health and I find myself weak as f with barely any stamina, I want to get back in to cycling (Not competitive or any of that stuff- Just spending time outside cycling for a few hours a few times a week and enjoying myself). So the goal is just to be able to do more of it without taking it too fast too soon

chrisaonabike

Milemuncher1 wrote:

If you want to increase your ability to endure longer rides, rather than increasing your ‘explosiveness’ ( for want of a better expression) I would suggest you start by Working out what your average output is in Joules / KiloJoules ( product of your Power and the duration you put that power out for )Then try to gradually increase this figure, by focusing more on increasing the time component, rather than the power component. If you were trying to increase your short burst sprint performance, you’d be better off increasing your output by focusing on the Power component. Once you have this ‘all encompassing’ general metric on the increase, start to look at improving the component parts of the ride, which form the overall output, piece by piece. There’s a new fangled training thing that goes by the name of ‘four does more / 4DP’ which is a scientific approach to improving the component parts of the ride, which will give you the necessary increase in KJs.

This is a p1ss take right? I've never seen such blatant word salad. FFS :shock:

Even if it's true, and it's so impenetrable it's impossible to tell, it's utterly inappropriate for someone struggling to get past 6-7 miles.

OP, if you can do 6-7 miles every two days, start doing 8 miles every two days until that's just as easy. Have a couple of days off each week.

Then add another couple of miles till that's just as easy. Obviously it'll take longer as you go further - don't feel you need to go faster as well as further.

Revisit the plan when you can do 20-30 miles every couple of days without feeling like it's wiped you out. You'll be ready for something a little more nuanced by then.

figbat

I can't preach about the ways you're supposed to do it, but can give you my experience. 3 years ago I was fat and unfit. I remembered I had a MTB in the shed and that I lived in a rural area surrounded by bridlepaths, byways and trails. I pulled out the bike and started riding. I plotted a few loops on Google maps to start with, beginning at around 3.5 miles and going out to around 6 miles. At first I would do the short loops and be knackered. When they got easier I'd go on a longer loop. Eventually I ran out of loops that satisfied my need to exercise; by this time I had found a local MTB group who rode on a Wednesday night and were doing 17-25 miles in an evening - I joined them and now bash out 20 miles routinely. Biggest so far is 60 miles. It took a while but I soon realised I was going further without realising it, tackling small climbs that I had initially feared without issue.

In summary, what they said above - get out there, push yourself but don't wreck yourself. With time and commitment the distances will come, the speeds will increase and the times will drop. I reached a point of being disappointed if my ride was too short. I don't think of this as "training", just getting fitter.

cougie

Yes it's not rocket science. Just ride more.

You can increase your distances faster than you think - but obviously if 20 m wipes you - then start at 10miles and see how you go. It'll come back fairly quickly.

slc123

Ride, ride and ride! Just don’t kill yourself or you won’t enjoy it and won’t do it more. The stamina will follow!

robertpb

Distance is not a concept in mountain biking, only time and effort.

So the more effort the less time you should do it. Distance is neither here or there, as terrain is different to where each of us rides.

The Rookie

Just to touch on something not mentioned, make sure you use the gears properly, many people make the mistake on hills of leaving it in too high a gear and mashing it, what you should aim to do is to ride up a hill using the exact same effort you use to ride on the flat and with the same crank (rotation) speed (known as cadence) by the correct use of gears, mashing climbs is a sure fire way to end up cream crackered unless you are fit enough to cope.

However I also agree with the majority above, just keep doing rides where you stretch yourself a LITTLE bit more each time.

JGTR

Ride more and mix it up.

If you ride the same distance at the same pace each time you won’t build much fitness.

Try faster rides or faster sections, hit the hills hard, do short and fast rides to build fitness, longer rides to build endurance. Try to avoid wearing yourself out.

panache

If you ride the same distance at the same pace each time you won’t build much fitness. AGREE WITH YOU WHAT YOU SAID HOW EVER THIS IS GOOD FOR BEGINNERS LIKE ME AND THIS HELP TO BUILD AND DEVELOP ENDURANCE AS WELL.

kinioo

The Rookie wrote:

Just to touch on something not mentioned, make sure you use the gears properly, many people make the mistake on hills of leaving it in too high a gear and mashing it, what you should aim to do is to ride up a hill using the exact same effort you use to ride on the flat and with the same crank (rotation) speed (known as cadence) by the correct use of gears, mashing climbs is a sure fire way to end up cream crackered unless you are fit enough to cope.

However I also agree with the majority above, just keep doing rides where you stretch yourself a LITTLE bit more each time.

I second this. It will also reduce stress on your knees.