I appreciate that the vast majority of the members of this forum are cycling purists, and I don't mean to offend anyone when I say that I am planning on using cycling for cross-training.... I love riding but at the end of the day I do not want to become a TDF champion or anything else.... frankly I don't think I have the right build for it anyway (far too broad).
However, as a rower I am looking at moving into the lightweight category (as, at 6 foot, I am too short in reality to do well as a heavy) and need to find a way to slim down, lean up, and improve my aerobic power. And be a competitive young guy, of course I want to do it as quickly as possible.
Whilst a lot of people have said to me "run, run, run" I've got a nice bike sitting around that i bought 2 years ago, and that really needs some use now that it's summer. And I feel as though a 3-4 hour bike ride will be much more effective than a 40-60 minute run (please correct me if I'm wrong here?).
The point of this post though, is that I don't actually know how to ride for fitness. I've used it for warming up for boat races before, and I've raced a few triathlons... but whenever I go out for a training ride, I cruise on about 28km/h and it's not like running where I'm about of breath.... I can talk fine....
So as an individual who already posseses decent aerobic power and fitness (although admittedly this winter I did take off serious training so I could focus on my final year of school, with just normal maintenance training) what should I be doing on the bike? Is interval training a cycling thing? and are the intervals much longer than with running?
Just a basic guide as to what I could be doing if I was riding 5 days a week would be great... the other thing is I think just sitting on my bike for so long 5 times a week just doing LSD would drive me mad, as I have a real issue with listening to music on the bike.
many thanks,
Francis
However, as a rower I am looking at moving into the lightweight category (as, at 6 foot, I am too short in reality to do well as a heavy) and need to find a way to slim down, lean up, and improve my aerobic power. And be a competitive young guy, of course I want to do it as quickly as possible.
Whilst a lot of people have said to me "run, run, run" I've got a nice bike sitting around that i bought 2 years ago, and that really needs some use now that it's summer. And I feel as though a 3-4 hour bike ride will be much more effective than a 40-60 minute run (please correct me if I'm wrong here?).
The point of this post though, is that I don't actually know how to ride for fitness. I've used it for warming up for boat races before, and I've raced a few triathlons... but whenever I go out for a training ride, I cruise on about 28km/h and it's not like running where I'm about of breath.... I can talk fine....
So as an individual who already posseses decent aerobic power and fitness (although admittedly this winter I did take off serious training so I could focus on my final year of school, with just normal maintenance training) what should I be doing on the bike? Is interval training a cycling thing? and are the intervals much longer than with running?
Just a basic guide as to what I could be doing if I was riding 5 days a week would be great... the other thing is I think just sitting on my bike for so long 5 times a week just doing LSD would drive me mad, as I have a real issue with listening to music on the bike.
many thanks,
Francis