New to this - Help with training programme?!

SchoolBoyError

I started cycling about 6 - 8 weeks ago and am just trying to get the gist of it still. I've read what I can find and saw on here that Heart Rate training zones are a bit out of date!!!!?!? whoopss! I only read about them a couple of weeks ago and have been trying that since. I'm a little confused though. Say you have four zones, 1: 50-70% 2: 70-80% 3: 80-90% 4: 90-100%.

How do I would a workout look using these? At the moment I've been trying to keep the cadence up and the heart rate within the first zone although this idea goes to pot on the hills but on the flats I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I suppose what I'm asking is how long should I spend in each 'zone' during a workout. Should I try and train different zone different days? Have I really missed the point and I'm doing everything wrong?

Thanks.

BullGod

Before wiredued replies with his KK power levels can I just ask - what are you trying to achieve in cycling? You want to race? if so what sort of races? Do you just want to ride to be fit, or do you want to rode as fast as possible? How much time do you have for training a week? Are you going to train more or less all year round?

wiredued

LOL outdoors I have no power measurement device but after fine tuning my HR with power I know that above 166bpm I am outside the sweet spot breathing is out of control and I'm cooked after 25 minutes so I set the HR monitor to flash at 166bpm. After a warm up if my heart rate is between 138 and 166bpm I am in the sweet spot and try to do 1 to 3 hours in that range HR. If I go 1 hour the average HR is 145bpm = to about 91% FTP if I go 3 hours I try to average 138bpm at Tempo pace.

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BullGod

some guys just work the sweet spot more than others.....I'm a crit man nowadays, so the sweet spot is what I do for 40 second between my sprints ;-) Maybe just once a week will my training ride have anything like a steady intensity.....mix it up say I!

I agree with you on the Christian stuff. This forum is concerned with cycling, and that sort of US evangelical bible bashing does offend my European antitheist sensibilities I'm afraid wiredued......

SchoolBoyError

It's more or less to keep fit. I have no intention of racing and am prepared to put some time into it say couple of hours 4 times a week. I'm thinking I should keep it up during the winter but depends how boring it is in the gym.

Our ultimate goal is the cycle the route that they took in the uk leg of the Tour De France in a couple of months.

Thanks

BullGod

if you're not racing, and your training goal is more of a steady endurance event I would not bother with any of the shorter intervals. Initially try and ride at a steady pace for 2 hrs, but to be honest - TDF stages take pros riding in a bunch 4+ hrs, so you guys can realistically look at twice that. That's a long day in the saddle, and unless you get used to 4+hr rides before then (once a fortnight hit a long one maybe) you will suffer.

Ignore anyone who starts going on about FTP or VO2 max etc.

Alex Simmons

I always thought Eddy Merckx was God

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SchoolBoyError

Thanks that seems logical!

SchoolBoyError

I went out today and cycled a little over 50 miles; during the last 7 - 8 mile my legs were just burning. How should I eat and drink before cycling this kind of distance?! Or any other things that that could have been rather than not eating and drinking correctly. I did drink plently while I was cycling and ate a couple of cereal bars.

(it took 2:55 in case this is important)! Thanks again

Piotr

Eeesh! Sounds like you guys need to get on the CSC "Harden the ..." program:

http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/de...es/12785.0.html

Can I get a "Halleluja"?

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kopride

Well, assuming that we all have the same HR numbers even corrected for age, max, threshold etc., which we know is not true, and assuming that Jesus looks down at all the world's problems and says: "Iraq and Darfur seem like relatively frivolous problems, but improving Schoolboyerror and wiredued's anabolic threshold seems to be the real problem I should be tackling," then I would think that his post is indeed enlightening.

I don't mean to be a hater, but if Jesus cared anything about cycling, then LA probably wouldn't have won seven TdF.

BullGod

LA is from Texas - isn't that the "Holy Land" of the modern age? Does the "appointed by God" leader of the free world not hail from there? Are they not heading up the "Economically Developed Countries capital punishment" leaderboard?

Surely even after the miraculous healing Jesus and his old man were intervening in LA's TdF's.....I mean all the bad luck his opponents suffered suggests to me evidence of divine intervention....