Training

[indielove88]

I am new to cycling and would like to start training for fitness, as well as a future duathlon/triathlon. What is a good training schedule? how often should i ride, how hard should i ride? where do i start?

Any information or resources would be appreciated.

Thanks

AC

 

[CalicoCat]

Originally Posted by indielove88 .

I am new to cycling and would like to start training for fitness, as well as a future duathlon/triathlon. What is a good training schedule? how often should i ride, how hard should i ride? where do i start?

Any information or resources would be appreciated.

Thanks

AC

There isn't really a should in your case - at least, not one that I can assess without knowing more about where you are in terms of your current fitness, and more information about your specific goals.

However, since you presumably don't have much a cycling base, or perhaps not even much of a fitness base, start with getting solid base miles under your belt by progressively increasing your mileage. Once you get your base miles under your belt, you can really start thinking about "training" by adding some intensity days (and active recovery days) into your week.

 

[indielove88]

[SIZE= 14px]I'm fairly fit, but i'm a runner by nature, not a cyclist. I look forward to getting into cycling though. [/SIZE]

[SIZE= 14px]Being as I am a runner, i would like to work up to a triathlon or duathlon. However, there isn't one for quite some time in this area being as it's winter in Kentucky. I would still like to work up to that point in the next few months. let's say i want to be able to compete by march because i know of at least one triathalon in march. How hard do i need to train? What kind of training schedule do i need to use? (how many days/week should i ride, how intense should i workout those days, how far should i ride, etc) Does that help narrow it down a bit? I realize march is a long way from now, but i'm new to cycling, so i may need to time to get really fast in hills and get the feel of a road bike as i go through the turns and all that jazz.[/SIZE]

 

[CalicoCat]

March is not that far away. In fact, most competitive cyclists train pretty hard through most of the winter to prepare fr early season road races that happen in late march or early april. However, hard work needs to be done with a solid base, or else you risk injuring yourself. So, I am not going to recommend my personal winter training plan to you. INstead, I am going to recommend that you just "ride lots". Build your miles progressively and ride whenever your want. If you need a rest day, your body will tell you. If you want to get on your bike, do.

If you can get about 1000mi under your belt between now and the beginning of Arpil, you are doing well, and can start thinking about doing harder, more specific work. For a triathlon (essentially a time trial), you are going to want as high of a lactic threshold (LT) as possible. Generally 2x20min intervals are recommended to boost LT. You can incorporate these into your training in April, and if you are consistent with your training, doing 2x20s twice a week for the month of April, you should see the gains in time for your early season tri or duathlon.


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