Training Programme

[Bob42]

My friend and I have been road cycling for a year or so now. Before then we did plenty of mountain biking and other general exercise. With the advent of spring, we have become completely inspired with cycling and are looking to up our riding. However, we have never had any sort of programme or regime; it has always been a 'Cycling?' 'Yep, why not' sort of thing. We tend to have time for one long ride at weekends but plenty of interval training during the week now it stays lighter.

Basically, what on earth should we be doing? Even our interval training is completely unplanned; we do things entirely on a whim. Should our longer rides be structured? What intervals should we do? Are there any off-bike exercises that are useful? I go to the gym every now and then with another friend, but my cycling buddy says this is bad. I'm doing medium upper body stuff (benching 55kg, curling 10/12.5) and doing 5 x 22 reps of 72.5kg on the squats. I would like to continue with this for general fitness purpouses, but it is an absolute disaster for cycling?

We're basically looking to get better in every way, really . Please help us!

 

[vio765]

My friend and I have been road cycling for a year or so now. Before then we did plenty of mountain biking and other general exercise. With the advent of spring, we have become completely inspired with cycling and are looking to up our riding. However, we have never had any sort of programme or regime; it has always been a 'Cycling?' 'Yep, why not' sort of thing. We tend to have time for one long ride at weekends but plenty of interval training during the week now it stays lighter.

Basically, what on earth should we be doing? Even our interval training is completely unplanned; we do things entirely on a whim. Should our longer rides be structured? What intervals should we do? Are there any off-bike exercises that are useful? I go to the gym every now and then with another friend, but my cycling buddy says this is bad. I'm doing medium upper body stuff (benching 55kg, curling 10/12.5) and doing 5 x 22 reps of 72.5kg on the squats. I would like to continue with this for general fitness purpouses, but it is an absolute disaster for cycling?

We're basically looking to get better in every way, really . Please help us!

youve come to the right place! the people here are loaded with info and nice debate. firstly, your training should center around your goals and available time. both have to be practical. im a student, so i have plenty of time available, but only a couple years experence, so my body can only handle so much you should go get some books and educate yourself. chris carmichael's Ultimate Ride, Freil's Cyclist Bible and the new Coogan TRaining with Power are the "core" books (in my opinion) that you should read. even if you dont want a powermeter, coogans book is still a valuable resourse.
as far as you goals, they need to be realistic. dont expect to ride in the Cat 1/2/3 races if you are a beginner. also, if you can, ride in a variety of grouprides. i tend to substitute my long rides with a local group ride that is perfect. and as the season progresses and my A-priority races come around, i will add group ride (about an hours drive) that routinely has a mixed bag of racers, not recreational riders. all of them have racing goals in one form or another. think about what you want to do. if you want overall fitness, then design goals around that. goals are important because they give you motivation and direction. without goals, then you are just wasting time on a bike.

 

[Spunout]

General fitness? Just ride.

 

[ric_stern/RST]

My friend and I have been road cycling for a year or so now. Before then we did plenty of mountain biking and other general exercise. With the advent of spring, we have become completely inspired with cycling and are looking to up our riding. However, we have never had any sort of programme or regime; it has always been a 'Cycling?' 'Yep, why not' sort of thing. We tend to have time for one long ride at weekends but plenty of interval training during the week now it stays lighter.

Basically, what on earth should we be doing? Even our interval training is completely unplanned; we do things entirely on a whim. Should our longer rides be structured? What intervals should we do? Are there any off-bike exercises that are useful? I go to the gym every now and then with another friend, but my cycling buddy says this is bad. I'm doing medium upper body stuff (benching 55kg, curling 10/12.5) and doing 5 x 22 reps of 72.5kg on the squats. I would like to continue with this for general fitness purpouses, but it is an absolute disaster for cycling?

We're basically looking to get better in every way, really . Please help us!

Two things that's may be of use:

1) develop some goals about what you'd like to achieve in cycling -- this could be doing a century, a sponsored charity ride, for weight management, or to start racing etc. If you don't have any goals you may just end up riding your bike (no bad thing) with no actual purpose

2) have a look through this forum and read threads that may help you to improve once you've identified your goals. If you don't want to sort through the multitude of threads and what cycling you may or may not need to do, then you can always think about coaching. At RST we offer inexpensive training plans (coming very soon) to highly detailed coaching and analysis to suit your budget and the interaction you require.

Cheers
Ric