Training for Recreatinal Riders. Help please!

Improvement means you need to set goals. Even if you're not racing, you should set a mark which you're going to attain and move toward it. Before you can set up any training plan, you need to know where you want to go.

If you simply want to "be more fit," ride more, harder and longer. You'll generally get better. Grab any book on cycling training and go with it.

Periodization will still help you even if you're not racing. I'd recommend getting Friel's Cyclist Training Bible and setting up a personal plan that meets your time restraints. The fact you're not depending on the plan to win races means you can play with a lot more and you're not really "risking" anything because any plan is better than no plan.

Most importantly, set goals. It could be a personal best climbing a long hill, or a certain route or just simply more hours or more distance.

Most of the racers here probably don't set goals based on placing, they set them on times to finish a route (which would make them competitive for placing). Typically the only difference between the racers that succeed and the ones that don't is their ability to set the goal and the discipline to work for it. The only difference between a racer and a recreational rider trying to achieve greater fitness is that their "goal" has a time limit of a given day/event.

Jungli said:

Hello
The rides I do almost always have some hills in them and especially off road its very hard to take it easy as the hills are usually harder in winter due to them being soggy. Am not bothered about racing but want to improve fitness overall.

Cant/Dont want to limit my riding to long low intensity rides but should I then only ride hard(ish) less often now and then more often when spring summer come again?

Thanks.. [img]cyclingplus.co.ukicon smile.gifOpen ↗[/img]

Wether you don't have any specific target event, then maybe you could measure your performance as the power you can maintain for a certain period, 1, 5, 20, 60 minutes or whatsoever.

For training with power, some power meter, like PowerTap, is essential, and besides that, the book Training and racing With power meter is very much recommended. Meanwhile, there are heaps of related reading in the power training forum.

LSD is a waste of time I did that all winter long last year and only gained 10 watts by spring. Taking advise from http://www.cyclingforums.com/t314849.html has given me a 13 watt increase in one month. 91% FTP is where you want to be.