Workouts

sjay said:

I cycle to and from work four days a week. I vary the route quiet a lot and there is a variety of road 'terrains' to choose from (hills etc). My total mileage per week is around 100 milesand each journey lasts roughly between 40 to 50 mins. I've been comuting to work on my bike for nearly a year now (winter included) and although I have improved, I have not improved as much as I would like. I do not want to do extra cycling, as I can't commit the time. However, I wondered if anyone could offer advice on how to make my journeys to and from work, effective training sessions.


Hope you can help

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You have 3 options for effecting your training: frequency (how often you ride); duration (how long for each training session); and intensity (how hard/easy you ride each time). You situation automatically removes the first two as options to manipulate, so you have to go for the third. I don't recommend "hammering" everyday, but 1-2 days/week, doing a series of intervals can make a huge difference for you.
How you measure your intensity depends on the tools you have at hand (i.e.: power meter vs heart rate monitor vs time up a climb...etc), but the two primary determinates of cycling performance are Maxiaml Aerobic Power and 1-hr power (i.e.: ~40k power). VERY general guidelines are....
For MAP: intervals of ~4min with equal rest - ~90% of max HR
For 1hr: intervals of >15min - ~85% of max HR
Working at these intensities is more uncomfortable then many people are willing to work, so you need to experiment a bit and find what works for you. I often see folks willing to push in Zone 3 (high endurance pace) for long periods of time, but usually don't like to go higher then that. This is great for weight loss and general aerobic endurance fitness, but will ultimately lead to a plateau of "lower" fitness than if you incorporate some higher intensities (especially when pressed for time). There certainly are many other options, and you needed be overly structured....hope this helps.