Another how should I train thread

[boss]

Hi all,

New to the road bike game, coming across from BMX. Got a roadie a month ago and have since become hooked.

I think I'm doing pretty well so far, on Strava I'm usually in the top 5-30% on the leaderboard. I think I have pretty reasonable cardio, but I also think my power is lacking.

This week in particular I have noticed my times increase drastically following a rest on the weekend. When I say drastically, I mean cutting a full minute off an 8km 4.8% segment... my best time previously was on a weekend (no backpack) and the time I set today was with a backpack with 3-4kg of work stuff in there.

Right now I'm doing:

[*]Tuesday and Thursday: 40km ride before work (With backpack, 15km climb w/500m elevation), 30km ride at lunch (4km sprint climb w/100m elevation, 800m climb w/50m elevation), 8-20km ride home (with backpack).

[*]Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 8km commute to work, 8km commute home

[*]Saturday or Sunday: 80-120km ride (2 x 15km climb w/500m elevation, few other smaller climbs thrown in but don't have a regular routine apart from hitting the big hill twice)

In terms of intensity, I find my early week rides to be fairly lacklustre cause I'm a bit dead from the weekend. On Thursday, the pace picks up, and the weekend is where I really try and nail it.

I'm aiming to hit 250-300km a week.

Does all that sound OK? Or have I got it all wrong.

[Addictr3]

Hi all,

New to the road bike game, coming across from BMX. Got a roadie a month ago and have since become hooked.

I think I'm doing pretty well so far, on Strava I'm usually in the top 5-30% on the leaderboard. I think I have pretty reasonable cardio, but I also think my power is lacking.

This week in particular I have noticed my times increase drastically following a rest on the weekend. When I say drastically, I mean cutting a full minute off an 8km 4.8% segment... my best time previously was on a weekend (no backpack) and the time I set today was with a backpack with 3-4kg of work stuff in there.

Right now I'm doing:

[*]Tuesday and Thursday: 40km ride before work (With backpack, 15km climb w/500m elevation), 30km ride at lunch (4km sprint climb w/100m elevation, 800m climb w/50m elevation), 8-20km ride home (with backpack).

[*]Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 8km commute to work, 8km commute home

[*]Saturday or Sunday: 80-120km ride (2 x 15km climb w/500m elevation, few other smaller climbs thrown in but don't have a regular routine apart from hitting the big hill twice)

In terms of intensity, I find my early week rides to be fairly lacklustre cause I'm a bit dead from the weekend. On Thursday, the pace picks up, and the weekend is where I really try and nail it.

I'm aiming to hit 250-300km a week.

Does all that sound OK? Or have I got it all wrong.

What are you "training" for? Racing? Fitness?

I'd build your foundation, slow long rides during the weekend (more time etc) and go hard during the week. I ride around 500km - 700km a week. But I ride early and commute too.

[boss]

What are you "training" for? Racing? Fitness?

I'd build your foundation, slow long rides during the weekend (more time etc) and go hard during the week. I ride around 500km - 700km a week. But I ride early and commute too.

I'm considering racing. But right now I just want to be as good as I can be, meet whatever potential I have.

[Addictr3]

What are you "training" for? Racing? Fitness?

I'd build your foundation, slow long rides during the weekend (more time etc) and go hard during the week. I ride around 500km - 700km a week. But I ride early and commute too.

I'm considering racing. But right now I just want to be as good as I can be, meet whatever potential I have.

OK more of a goal for personal development; I'd say build base miles, during the week, your commute and shorter rides (less than 100km) I'd ride fast, keep a good cadence say 90 - 110 and avg around 35+ kph.

Weekends, aim for long rides, and hours on the bike. Dont worry about speed too mucn, maybe aim for 30kph for the whole trip.

Diet wise - it comes down to your goals; I'd just eye ball foods, I used to count now i eye ball all calories. I can point you in the right direction for some help on setting up a pretty sound diet if you wish.

Cheers

[boss]

Cool. Sounds good.

Right now I feel comfortable at cadences of 80-100, so I will work on bumping that up to 90-110.

Averages are pretty dependant on route, right? I mean, both last night I put in a lot of work on the 500m climb - great times both relatively to my own performance and also in absolute terms (PB in the morning by 1 min, and beat my new PB in the evening by 45 seconds).

But for both those rides, which were challenging, I managed a pitiful average speed of 25-ish kmph.

One thing that I am currently struggling with is speed on descents, but right now my confidence is holding me back, not fitness/power. So I could probably bump the averages up to 27-28 by just being more aggressive down hills. I suspect that confidence will come with time.

But I digress. So I guess what I'm trying to say - focus on improving my average times over a ride, but also pay attention to improving times over climbs?

As far as diet goes, I'm somewhere between 65-70kg, 5'11, so fairly lean. With that in mind, if you have any diet tips in mind, I'm all ears.

Right now I'm just focusing on eating healthy. Porridge for breakfast, my daily treat is an iced coffee, tuna sandwhiches for lunch, 2-3 bananas during the day, chicken/steak/leanbeef for tea. On the days I ride, I eat a tonne more than the days that I don't and attempt to at least match the calories (by eyeball) that I've burnt riding, which I'm sure you know can be hard, yesterday 2500 got spent apparently.

And trying to avoid drinking alcohol, maybe once a week I'll have a few beers, although maybe once or twice a week I might have a single beer with dinner or when offered to me.

[foo on patrol]

For a start, a 4Klm sprint climb is to much. You need to break it up into easy hard day rides.

You're wanting to do to much to soon from my perspective, regardless of a BMX background.

Foo

[kb]

...
One thing that I am currently struggling with is speed on descents, but right now my confidence is holding me back, not fitness/power. So I could probably bump the averages up to 27-28 by just being more aggressive down hills. I suspect that confidence will come with time.

Hah. One of The Rules I like:

Rule #64 // CORNERING CONFIDENCE INCREASES WITH TIME AND EXPERIENCE.
This pattern continues until it falls sharply and suddenly.

[boss]

For a start, a 4Klm sprint climb is to much. You need to break it up into easy hard day rides.

You're wanting to do to much to soon from my perspective, regardless of a BMX background.

Foo

I didn't see this last month.

Body seems to be coping fine with the training that I've been doing, if anything it could do with more riding - the only thing that has stopped me from taking it further is time. I still like BMX a lot more than riding a roadie, but road bikes are a good challenge for BMX off days and give me a bit of a rush. In a few years when my body isn't up to handling crashing all the time, I imagine road bikes may take over.

Right now I'm comfortably doing:

- 100km tuesdays: 50km morning ride (20km climb with a good 20% for 500m workout), 30km lunchtime ride (with the 4km climb / sprint), 20km spin home.
- 80km thursdays: 40km morning ride (20km climb but no 20% section), 30km lunchtime ride, 10km spin home
- 80-120km every second sunday: hills ride with 1500m-2500m elevation, average speed 22.5-25kmph.

Once a week I turn the spin home into a bit of sprint work but that depends on energy levels and my sprinting is a secondary concern to getting really good at climbing hills.

Every other day of the week I have a short commute 16km plus spend time on the other bike.

...
One thing that I am currently struggling with is speed on descents, but right now my confidence is holding me back, not fitness/power. So I could probably bump the averages up to 27-28 by just being more aggressive down hills. I suspect that confidence will come with time.

Hah. One of The Rules I like:

Rule #64 // CORNERING CONFIDENCE INCREASES WITH TIME AND EXPERIENCE.
This pattern continues until it falls sharply and suddenly.

I like that one too!

[Chookman]

Hi all,

I think I'm doing pretty well so far, on Strava I'm usually in the top 5-30% on the leaderboard.

You don't need advice then - you're already world class!