How 'untrained' am i?



Jon89

New Member
Nov 3, 2014
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Hi everybody!

I have been cycling for approximately 1 and 1/2 years now. After retiring from rugby due to injuries I got a bit fat and out of shape so decided to commute to work, then got a road bike, joined a club and well, now i'm here!

I've never done any structured training before just riding whenever feeling like it and have never done any proper training. I've cycled about 4,500 miles so far this year, this includes my 20 mile round trip commute, club runs, and some long rides(120-140 miles).

I'm planning on some proper training for this winter and to start racing next season and this forum has been a great help. I was just wondering if i can now put in more time(12-15hours/wk) and train properly could anyone give a rough ballpark figure of what improvements I could make.

anyway here are my stats from my new power meter, please bear in mind these are the only all out intervals i've done(20/5min) but i feel were pretty well paced:

age: 24
Weight: 73kg(I have quite a bit of fat still on me and reckon I can get down to 65 relatively easily)
20min: 319W
5min: 389W

I understand that you can't predict each individuals potential, but I just want to know really how well trained I would be regarded and is it realistic to aim for 350/420W 20/5min power.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jonathan
 
No-one really knows... how you'll respond to training etc. is an unknown.

Are you in the UK? If so 5 and 20 minute power isn't very relevant to race success, and you already have the watts to be in most races, if your <2 min gives you a chance to win will be different.

If your PM is accurate, then your numbers are good, but there's lots of folk with them
 
Originally Posted by Jon89
Hi everybody!

I have been cycling for approximately 1 and 1/2 years now. After retiring from rugby due to injuries I got a bit fat and out of shape so decided to commute to work, then got a road bike, joined a club and well, now i'm here!

I've never done any structured training before just riding whenever feeling like it and have never done any proper training. I've cycled about 4,500 miles so far this year, this includes my 20 mile round trip commute, club runs, and some long rides(120-140 miles).

I'm planning on some proper training for this winter and to start racing next season and this forum has been a great help. I was just wondering if i can now put in more time(12-15hours/wk) and train properly could anyone give a rough ballpark figure of what improvements I could make.

anyway here are my stats from my new power meter, please bear in mind these are the only all out intervals i've done(20/5min) but i feel were pretty well paced:

age: 24
Weight: 73kg(I have quite a bit of fat still on me and reckon I can get down to 65 relatively easily)
20min: 319W
5min: 389W

I understand that you can't predict each individuals potential, but I just want to know really how well trained I would be regarded and is it realistic to aim for 350/420W 20/5min power.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jonathan
A 10% improvement in power for a relatively new rider isn't unrealistic (that's about a common variance between off season and peak fitness for an experienced rider), however what is hard to say is how long it will take you to improve by that much. It could be anywhere from weeks, or months to years.

Best thing is to follow a good training process and enjoy the ride. The outcome will be what it is. If you are unsure about what good training process is, then seek some professional guidance.

As for racing, depending on what sort of racing you mean (MTB/cross/road/crits/track/time trials etc), then a greater slice of the development cake at this early stage in your cycling "career" will be gaining experience and learning about how to race. That will be equally as important as your personal fitness level. You are certainly fit enough now to do some level of racing and start to learn about the craft.
 
Lol thats kinda funny!! In August this year I began to train fairly seriously (as seriously as my young training age allows in terms of chronic stress) and I also wondered where the road might go. Whats especially funny is how you almost mirror me:

I am 23,
weight 76kg
and my 5/20 mins power is 392/322

:D

I´d careful though when thinking it`s easy to drop 10kg´s (atleast when you are fairly lean already)- I thought that too. Its absolutely not. Atleast not for me....every kg is a struggle even when riding 10h a week...
 
A 120 mile ride is a long ride, I've never gone over 120 km in training so I'd say you are fairly well trained. Your yearly training volume is relatively low.
 
Originally Posted by Jon89
Hi everybody!

I have been cycling for approximately 1 and 1/2 years now. After retiring from rugby due to injuries I got a bit fat and out of shape so decided to commute to work, then got a road bike, joined a club and well, now i'm here!

I've never done any structured training before just riding whenever feeling like it and have never done any proper training. I've cycled about 4,500 miles so far this year, this includes my 20 mile round trip commute, club runs, and some long rides(120-140 miles).

I'm planning on some proper training for this winter and to start racing next season and this forum has been a great help. I was just wondering if i can now put in more time(12-15hours/wk) and train properly could anyone give a rough ballpark figure of what improvements I could make.

anyway here are my stats from my new power meter, please bear in mind these are the only all out intervals i've done(20/5min) but i feel were pretty well paced:

age: 24
Weight: 73kg(I have quite a bit of fat still on me and reckon I can get down to 65 relatively easily)
20min: 319W
5min: 389W

I understand that you can't predict each individuals potential, but I just want to know really how well trained I would be regarded and is it realistic to aim for 350/420W 20/5min power.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Jonathan
The thing to keep in mind that cycling fitness takes time, years, to acquire and once you have reached that fitness, it requires attention and time to maintain the maximum level that you eventually reach.

If you're doing 120-140 mile club rides, and given your non-cycling sports career thus far, I'd say that you're in pretty good shape and that you have all the basics required to progress a lot further.

What does proper training involve?
It involves training which quantifiably improves your cycling performance. In other words each training session should lead to a better performance from you.
Purposeful training is the description which I am searching for.

This will involve developing a structure of training that allows you to train and allows you to recover, so that your "competitive" performances are improving as a result of your training.

I'd suggest that you sit down with your club coach and tell him/her what you want to do.
Together you can build a training programme and in turn you can measure improvement as a result of that training programme.

It is important that if you're going to invest your time training, invest money in equipment, invest in doing purposeful training, that you get
the maximum return to all of that investment.
 
Like everyone else, I'd have to say that you know what you're doing for the most part and have the results to back that up. You could get a little more focused with your training to reach various goals, but it all depends on what you want to do. You're definitely further along than I am as far as training is concerned.
 
This is a tough one to answer. Some people take to training like it was always a second nature & others have to retrain their body to take the consitency. I know it's not too helpful but it really depends on you & whether you intend on pursuing this seriously. Eventually everyone can get to a place where it's easier &, more importantly, desired. Takes time though.
 
I guess if you focus more and spend more time on it you can basically master it. You're doing well but I guess you can be doing better and trained more. I wouldn't know or judge how untrained you are based on what you've given me, but I would say you know how far you went.
 
Well it's been a while since I made this post. Got some great advice on these forums and training has been going really well since febuary with a combination of sweet spot(1-2 hours at 80-90% ftp) and 10-15 minute climbs at threshold.
these are my current stats:

67kgs
FTP(using critical power model): 335
20 minute: 350W
5 minute: 420W
1 minute: 650W

I seem to have plateaued slightly in the last month so i'm planning some dedicated l5 work which will hopefully give me some gains
I'm thinking of taking hill climbing season seriously(i'm in the uk) this year so will also be looking to drop weight to sub 65kgs.
 
Those numbers are completely fine. They aren't Lance Armstrong kind of numbers but they are good. Just keep up the hard work and I promise you'll get there.
 
I'd say you can make a chart that would show a path which would indicate small goals in that path. That small goals should be reachable in order to motivate you. I am basing this comment on my experience although in a different field. When my arm was fractured, I seemed to have lost my morale so I underwent an informal therapy. That's where I learned how to make small goals and small goals that when I achieve would give me the needed motivation to go on.
 
egrocket said:
Those numbers are completely fine. They aren't Lance Armstrong kind of numbers but they are good. Just keep up the hard work and I promise you'll get there.
Lol agreed.
 
Jon89 said:
Well it's been a while since I made this post. Got some great advice on these forums and training has been going really well since febuary with a combination of sweet spot(1-2 hours at 80-90% ftp) and 10-15 minute climbs at threshold.
these are my current stats:

67kgs
FTP(using critical power model): 335
20 minute: 350W
5 minute: 420W
1 minute: 650W

I seem to have plateaued slightly in the last month so i'm planning some dedicated l5 work which will hopefully give me some gains
I'm thinking of taking hill climbing season seriously(i'm in the uk) this year so will also be looking to drop weight to sub 65kgs.
Target the hills you want to race on. Look at the times taken from people of similar ability to you (if you haven't raced them before) and use that as a marker for your required duration. If you're on a 10 minute hill then longer VO2 efforts rather than 3 minutes of grim death and borderline upchucking your lunch in training would be a good place to start.

Look also at the gradient, gearing and what cadence really gives you the best overall speed. If you're going to be using a fixed gear bike, make the gearing experiment doubly important.
 
I can say I am equally out of shape when it comes to being trained. I am probably out of shape with my cardios.. I think there might be an issue with my heart. I am a recovering nicotine addict and such. I have been over weight for several years. I am thinking of getting on a bike just for the sake of trying to get everything back into shape.
 
purplejuice said:
Lol thats kinda funny!! In August this year I began to train fairly seriously (as seriously as my young training age allows in terms of chronic stress) and I also wondered where the road might go. Whats especially funny is how you almost mirror me:

I am 23,
weight 76kg
and my 5/20 mins power is 392/322

:D

I´d careful though when thinking it`s easy to drop 10kg´s (atleast when you are fairly lean already)- I thought that too. Its absolutely not. Atleast not for me....every kg is a struggle even when riding 10h a week...

ambal said:
Yeah losing weight is a slow process.
I agree, I would even go as far as to say that sport(of any kind) is not the way to lose weight, long-term(as in, lifelong) healthy diet is; sports are the way to keep healthy and maintain the desired weight, but keeping active, while certainly important, alone won't help you lose your weight.
 
Unfortunately, there is no real measurement of how trained somebody is at cycling. For the most part, it's all opinion. I would just compare what you do now compared to when you started. If you are satisfied with the progress you made then I would definitely say you're experienced. 1.5 years is a long time to learn.
 
Khatib22 said:
Unfortunately, there is no real measurement of how trained somebody is at cycling. For the most part, it's all opinion.
Not really opinion.

A powermeter and a reliable set of bathroom scales to get your weight are very good tools to measure performance.

By monitoring your power output over several durations you can create a power profile and use this to compare against past performances to check progress against. Weight is easy - less weight for a given power and you go up hills faster. Using the scales and powermeter together you could also figure out how light is too light - where do you start to lose power and is that detrimental to the type of event you want do. If you're after 50 mile hilly road races with small to moderate hills then maybe it is, if you're after rising something like The Everest Challenge in California then a few watts lost off the top end in exchange for less weight may be what's needed for several 20 mile climbs over the course of the race to over 10,000ft.

You can do similar with aero too. How aero can you scrunch yourself before you lose power and where is the trade off.

Reliable data is a wonderful thing for tracking progress in training. For racing, I wouldn't go too gung-ho with the numbers, just get out there and learn how to race. Race results will take care of tracking progress for the most part - but powermeter data could help highlight strengths, weaknesses and even tactical errors.
 
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350 watts at 67kg, with two years of training is actually exceptionally good. Whatever you're doing, keep going. Great numbers there.