Fitness vs Stamina

[johngroves]

Newbie here!

I've been cycling for around a year now and started off with a cheap mountain bike. Modified the mountain bike by adding slicks and a bigger front cassette. The reason was to give me a better chance of keeping up with friends who have racers. After 6 months of dragging a heavy dual suspension mtb around 40+ mile road routes, I got a Peugeot Performance Road Bike. Going out now I can pedal to my hearts content but my lungs always seem to want to give up.

Is anyone else in a similar boat to me? Does anyone know of any good cardio-vascular exercises to help improve performance? I couldn't think of any other way other than cycling as much as I am.

Cheers,

John

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Newbie here!

I've been cycling for around a year now and started off with a cheap mountain bike. Modified the mountain bike by adding slicks and a bigger front cassette. The reason was to give me a better chance of keeping up with friends who have racers. After 6 months of dragging a heavy dual suspension mtb around 40+ mile road routes, I got a Peugeot Performance Road Bike. Going out now I can pedal to my hearts content but my lungs always seem to want to give up.

Is anyone else in a similar boat to me? Does anyone know of any good cardio-vascular exercises to help improve performance? I couldn't think of any other way other than cycling as much as I am.

Cheers,

John

Surf these forums for SST, FTP, Base Training and other terms like those. If you want to get fitter and faster on a bike you've got to ride frequently(like 4 to 5 days a week), consistently(e.g. steady schedule for months on end), and hard enough(i.e. hard enough to get yourself breathing deeply and steadily for 20 to 30 minutes at a stretch but not so hard you have to back off or shut down after a few minutes). You've also got to go hard enough and often enough but still get good rest and recovery in a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual sense. There's a ton of information about those topics and SST based training is a good way to get there for folks with limited training time. Search the training forum and you'll find plenty of relevant threads with lots of opinions on how to best achieve the goals above.

Good luck,
-Dave

 

[QikSmurf]

This is the age old question in any endurance sport. What do I do to make it easier?

The real answer is simple: do more of it. Eventually it will become easier. As Dave said above, there has been lots written and documented with actual studies so that you don't have to re invent the wheel.

As I say to all my students (not cycling), everyone is different and what works for one doesn't always work for another. IMHO the key is to welcome the current "perceived" negatives. In military training it is often quoted as tolerance threshold. A lot of people avoid what is perceived as uncomfortable. This is basic human nature. Learn to welcome the pain....and go further!