Am I riding TOO fast?

[886014]

I am a 41 year old male from Australia, max HR around 183, and am just coming out of winter. During winter I spent about 50 days hard (downhill) skiing where I developed pretty good leg strength. Conversely, over the past 3-4 months I have only spent 2-3 days per week of easy recovery riding on an indoor exercise bike, 30 minutes at an average HR of about 130bpm. I have yet to transfer my power meter to my new bike so am training by heart rate.

Now I’m back on my road bike I had 8 weeks of “endurance” training scheduled, 2-3 hour rides at an average HR around 145bpm. However I am finding that I can comfortably ride 2-3 hours at 150-160bpm, possibly even 165 if I pushed it. Indeed, my butt and back seem to be the things suffering the most after my break!!

Therefore I have 2 questions. Firstly, should I simply ride at this faster pace and wait for my aerobic capacity to “catch up” with my legs? I’ve often read about falling into the trap of riding in the “no man’s land” but wonder if this is more applicable to continuous training in this zone over a long period? In my case it seems that my legs are simply writing cheques (that’s “checks” in Americanish ) my heart can’t presently cash.

Secondly, I would very much like to retain this (hard earned) leg strength, yet even if I were to ride at the higher Tempo pace I feel I’d lose leg strength. Any suggestions for retaining the strength at this early stage of the season?

One caveat is that I live in a hilly area, so continuously maintaining a very low HR is sometimes almost impossible.

Thanks for the help.

 

[MPCRUSHER]

Its funny that you should mention that it is still very early in the season. We race in winter in Australia as it is too bloody hot to do road races in summer and our winters are mild. The season is just about over as it is in Europe and North America.
The summer track season and criterium season is just starting.
What are you training for that you dont want to loose this "leg strength"?

 

[sideshow_bob]

Its funny that you should mention that it is still very early in the season. We race in winter in Australia as it is too bloody hot to do road races in summer and our winters are mild. The season is just about over as it is in Europe and North America.
The summer track season and criterium season is just starting.
What are you training for that you dont want to loose this "leg strength"?

Unless he's one of those guys that ride with the funny bars on their bike. It'll be early in their season

--brett

 

[MPCRUSHER]

Oh I forgot about them.

 

[886014]

MP, it would seem you've never cycled central Europe in summer!! Ok I froze at the the Giro but The Tour was as hot as hell!!

Ok then, it's the beginning of MY season, apart from the crits, there are more than enough road events to keep me in trouble.

You're seriously asking why would I want to retain leg strength? Too funny.

Ah, and no. No funny bars on my bikes

 

[Carrera]

Riding hard is fine but don't do it all the time or you'll burn out. I recall Lance commenting in his book that he once cycled with a guy who just rode too hard for him - in the sense of too hard too often.
If you're constantly riding in hilly areas it seems to me you're in danger of becoming too specialised in climbing. I used to do this myself and found I could drop 80 per cent of other cyclists in hills but on the flat I was a washout. I mean, think about it: In the hills your speed hovers around 15 mph or less. On the flat you need to be able to hit about 25 mph which means you need time spent doing those speeds.
So, I was leading in climbs but getting dropped like a bad habit on flats.
At any rate, don't train this hard all the time or you'll burn out.

I am a 41 year old male from Australia, max HR around 183, and am just coming out of winter. During winter I spent about 50 days hard (downhill) skiing where I developed pretty good leg strength. Conversely, over the past 3-4 months I have only spent 2-3 days per week of easy recovery riding on an indoor exercise bike, 30 minutes at an average HR of about 130bpm. I have yet to transfer my power meter to my new bike so am training by heart rate.

Now I’m back on my road bike I had 8 weeks of “endurance” training scheduled, 2-3 hour rides at an average HR around 145bpm. However I am finding that I can comfortably ride 2-3 hours at 150-160bpm, possibly even 165 if I pushed it. Indeed, my butt and back seem to be the things suffering the most after my break!!

Therefore I have 2 questions. Firstly, should I simply ride at this faster pace and wait for my aerobic capacity to “catch up” with my legs? I’ve often read about falling into the trap of riding in the “no man’s land” but wonder if this is more applicable to continuous training in this zone over a long period? In my case it seems that my legs are simply writing cheques (that’s “checks” in Americanish ) my heart can’t presently cash.

Secondly, I would very much like to retain this (hard earned) leg strength, yet even if I were to ride at the higher Tempo pace I feel I’d lose leg strength. Any suggestions for retaining the strength at this early stage of the season?

One caveat is that I live in a hilly area, so continuously maintaining a very low HR is sometimes almost impossible.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Carrera]

For my pulse to hit 160, I'm pretty knackered. I'll bet most of the time I ride way below that and these are hard rides. These days I tend to suffer more physically as opposed to high HR. The worst suffering is the very long shallow hills that go on for ages but look flat so you're grinding away in the bike seat trying to steady out at 16 mph. Even then I bet my pulse isn't so high.

I am a 41 year old male from Australia, max HR around 183, and am just coming out of winter. During winter I spent about 50 days hard (downhill) skiing where I developed pretty good leg strength. Conversely, over the past 3-4 months I have only spent 2-3 days per week of easy recovery riding on an indoor exercise bike, 30 minutes at an average HR of about 130bpm. I have yet to transfer my power meter to my new bike so am training by heart rate.

Now I’m back on my road bike I had 8 weeks of “endurance” training scheduled, 2-3 hour rides at an average HR around 145bpm. However I am finding that I can comfortably ride 2-3 hours at 150-160bpm, possibly even 165 if I pushed it. Indeed, my butt and back seem to be the things suffering the most after my break!!

Therefore I have 2 questions. Firstly, should I simply ride at this faster pace and wait for my aerobic capacity to “catch up” with my legs? I’ve often read about falling into the trap of riding in the “no man’s land” but wonder if this is more applicable to continuous training in this zone over a long period? In my case it seems that my legs are simply writing cheques (that’s “checks” in Americanish ) my heart can’t presently cash.

Secondly, I would very much like to retain this (hard earned) leg strength, yet even if I were to ride at the higher Tempo pace I feel I’d lose leg strength. Any suggestions for retaining the strength at this early stage of the season?

One caveat is that I live in a hilly area, so continuously maintaining a very low HR is sometimes almost impossible.

Thanks for the help.

 

[sideshow_bob]

MP, it would seem you've never cycled central Europe in summer!! Ok I froze at the the Giro but The Tour was as hot as hell!!

Ok then, it's the beginning of MY season, apart from the crits, there are more than enough road events to keep me in trouble.

You're seriously asking why would I want to retain leg strength? Too funny.

Ah, and no. No funny bars on my bikes

It's not the same, the temps aren't sustained over the duration of the Tour like say the way they were during the Tour Down Under this year. I didn't see any riders in the Tour passing out doing 70km/h for example. Regardless MPCRUSHER is right the road season for any racing of note is basically over until next March/April.

Your base training should be lots of hours in E1. Your HRmax is about the same as mine so thats down at about 130bpm, the 2-3 hours should probably include longer rides as well up to 4+ hours. I start looking at base in January (if I can keep off the crit racing) and most weeks I'm riding at least 15 hours mostly at E1 with a few shorter E2/3 workouts in there as well. Should you (substantially) exceed this? Probably not early in the season but towards the end of the 8-12 base program you should start doing intensity training, without knowing if you are focussing on crits or long road events etc though it's hard to say where to go from here.

MPCRUSHER is probably right in asking about leg strength. You'll have way more than you are ever going to need on the bike (from obviously doing a lot of skiing), unless you are doing explosive sprint events on the track. For example I wouldn't think Michael Rasmussen obsesses about his leg strength. Really depends what kind of racing you're doing, which is what MPCRUSHER asked.

--brett

 

[886014]

Thanks Brett

I was lucky to go to some stages of The Tour, Giro, and all the Tour Down Under this year. The TDU was stupidly hot I'd agree, but I think many people don't appreciate just how hot it gets in Europe too. Anyway, more of interest than anything, there's enough racing to keep me amused and my season has to start now.

In previous years I've noticed my max power tended to drop as I did more aerobic training and I would prefer to preserve the strength I have bought in from skiing. I certainly can't say I'm presently "unbeatable" in a sprint, but can hold my own, it's getting to the point of sprinting that's presently the problem. As I build the aerobic base I don't get dropped as easily but the sprinting suffers. Maybe I could preserve this with weight training while doing the base miles?

 

[sideshow_bob]

I think there's a 50/50 split between those who see weight as being beneficial and those who don't. I'm not a sprinter and I'm on the side of the fence thinking weights are not especially useful.

Maybe you want to look at some track work. Standing starts over 50m or so where you are specifically developing/maintaining explosive power.

--brett

 

[886014]

G'day Brett, that could be a good idea. The other thing I've thought is maybe some low cadence work up hills several times per week to keep my legs stressed while I'm doing the aerobic training.

Skiing is almost the opposite to cycling in that it's resisting a force rather than generating one. I don't know if weight training helps but if it's anything like the results of skiing (and I'd presume it would be, not withstanding the above caveat), I'd certainly think it helps. Power is defined as Force x RPM, so if you're able to generate more force to the pedals at the same cadence you will be producing more power. Producing it at the right time and duration, well that's another story