Any fast fitness tips...?

[Ewbles]

Can I ask for some tips? I've followed cycling as a sport for many years, but have never actually been much of a cyclist, in fact, I've barely put **** to saddle at all for fifteen years. By complete fluke, however, my summer holiday this year is in a gitte practically at the foot of Mt Ventoux.

Now I'm not so foolish as to think that I can go from ostensibly a standing start to actually riding to the summit of Ventoux, but I do know that I will kick myself if I take a holiday there and don't at least have a go at the slopes-essentially, I'm looking to build enough fitness that the experience is merely painful, as opposed to painful and humiliating.

As of this glorious long weekend I've been doing about 90 minutes hard riding a day. I can find time to perhaps do a little more, but I've no idea how best to spend those minutes. Should I be trogging over local molehills?

 

[DirtyWorks]

Can I ask for some tips? I've followed cycling as a sport for many years, but have never actually been much of a cyclist, in fact, I've barely put **** to saddle at all for fifteen years. By complete fluke, however, my summer holiday this year is in a gitte practically at the foot of Mt Ventoux.

Now I'm not so foolish as to think that I can go from ostensibly a standing start to actually riding to the summit of Ventoux, but I do know that I will kick myself if I take a holiday there and don't at least have a go at the slopes-essentially, I'm looking to build enough fitness that the experience is merely painful, as opposed to painful and humiliating.

As of this glorious long weekend I've been doing about 90 minutes hard riding a day. I can find time to perhaps do a little more, but I've no idea how best to spend those minutes. Should I be trogging over local molehills?

Ride up the molehilles in a very large gear. Too large a gear. Three or so 1 minute intense efforts will hurt and should leave your legs and rear very tired. More is not better. Three and you should be hurting. Pedal a high steady cadence for about an hour afterwards then go home. There's your 90 minutes.

Then Rest. Repeat about 4x a week. Be fully rested at least once a week. After a couple of weeks of this routine, you will be stronger. If not, you are not getting enough rest.

Try to ride Ventoux at a higher cadence. Maybe 70-80 rpm if gearing permits.

 

[TheNJDevil]

The top isn't going anywhere and there is no reason to be embarrassed for going slowly.

 

[M Sport]

...... I've been doing about 90 minutes hard riding a day. I can find time to perhaps do a little more, but I've no idea how best to spend those minutes. Should I be trogging over local molehills?

First thing is don't do 'Hard' riding every day. You need a couple of really easy days riding a week plus one rest day off the bike.

On the other four days you go super hard, not the whole ride as you still need to do warm-up, cool down but really work yourself doing repeats of the 'molehills' and through in a 20 minute interval now and then as well.

Really basic advice but i'm sure it will get you started.

 

[brianf7]

Just ride and ride and ride as much as you can or as much time you have to do it.
everything will follow you get fitter and faster but first you must be able to ride a long way ounce you can do 100km without too much pain you can start riding faster.

 

[Ewbles]

This is all really helpful, thanks guys. So, a big gear to work my legs, rather than a little one to let the bike do all the work, and rest time to make sure I'm capable of working hard when I do hit it?

My Dad once successfully trained for his first marathon by compressing a three-month training schedule into a months worth of evenings. I suspect that where my initial idea of just riding as hard as possible every day came from. Given the state of my legs and back, these tips for a more nuanced training plan are greatly appreciated.

 

[breakfast]

Don't try to drastically change your life with an unrealistic New Year's Resolution. Make a smaller lifestyle change to live healthy, instead.

 

[JayKosta]

A lot depends on your age and current physical condition.

If you are older than about 35, you will need more rest & recovery days than someone who is younger.

Increase in strength and endurance come during the REST/RECOVERY days, the training days cause a degrading of fitness and then the body rebuilds and strengthens during rest.

If your performance gets worse it means you are not resting enough - that condition is called 'over-reaching'.
Hard training every other day is about the maximum for someone who has fast recovery.
Doing hard training 2 times per week along with easy 'recovery riding' a few days would be a good way to improve without risking setbacks.

I recommend using a whey powder protein supplement and a high carb sports drink immediately after your training sessions.
The protein helps the muscles to recovery quickly and to avoid soreness.
About 20 grams of protein is good. And then also make sure to eat good regular meals.
There isn't anything 'special' about whey protein, it is just a convenient and inexpensive method to get the protein quickly and easily.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

 

[Boeing]

intervals with equal intensity and recovery time

 

[oldborn]

intervals with equal intensity and recovery time

Any evidence for this?

 

[fatandfast]

jump rope. Something about is good for racing.

 

[Occams_Razor]

From a 'standing start' as you say, all a new cyclist should do in the beginning is a lot of easy miles, with a nice high cadence. Pushing big gears and high intensity work too early on will not only lead to chronic knee injury and the like, but also can destroy the aerobic vascular adaptations you get from such aerobic 'Foundation' training, throttling back your fitness gains.

 

[PeterSam]

Weight management is very important in cycling. So I would recommend you to maintain a balanced body composition in order to gain high flexibility and strength during cycling.

 

[durianrider]

I wrote a blog about how high intensity training when your not ready for it can make you fat and slow.

http://durianrider.org/2011/07/03/how-hiit-can-make-you-fatter-and-slower/

If in doubt ALWAYS train smarter vs harder. ALWAYS better to undertrain and be hungry for competition vs overtrained and apathetic and not really give a crap who is up the road.

 

[Ewbles]

Thanks for all the help guys. Sadly, I only managed to train for a few weeks after starting this thread before a brief but desperately needed spate of employment derailed me.

Nevertheless, I had a crack at it, and loved it:

http://euro-cycling.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-i-did-on-my-summer-holidays-by.html

Didn't make the top, mind you, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable crack at it. I'm going to start looking for a cycling club near Twickenham/Kingston and start preparing for next year.