Development as a cyclist

Triathlon Forum
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I am not running at all right now due to injury, and I am not sure when I will start up again. I’d like to take “advantage” of not running to develope my cycling abilities as much as possible. I am still keeping the swimming up, and I feel like I know what I need to do there to go to the next level (my worst event is swimming, so the improvements come pretty easy).

So I’m about to finish up two years of cycling at the end of this month. I’ve logged a good amount of cycling for a MOP ager, but not outrageous amounts by cycling standards. I had about 3000 miles my first year, and probably around 5000 this year. I try to stay consistent through the winter, but by far the most riding I do is from April to November. Last season I was consistently over 22 mph on flattish sprint courses with little wind, and I was mid to high 23 mph at my next to last race (similar terrain and conditions to others, bike leg was around 18 miles). I have yet to TT at all this year, so I’m not sure where my fitness is, but I’d have to guess I am probably a little ahead of where I was last year. My training has been mostly in the upper Zone 2 region, and I have been getting in one to two group rides a week where I get drilled. For my regular ~2 hour ride in zone 2, regardless of wind conditions or how good/bad I feel at the start, I am consistently around 20 mph.

Last year my highest volume week was 240 miles, but I was probably on average in the 130 - 150 range. So far since I’ve gotten outside three weeks ago I’ve been on the bike from 8 - 12 hours (150 miles, 200 miles, ~210 - 220 miles). This week (a fairly typical week) I had a 2 hr recovery ride on Monday (sunday was 62 mile group ride), a 2 hr zone 2 ride on Tuesday, and a 40 mile hard group ride on Wed. Thursday I was off, and today I hope to get in 1hr - 1.5 hr easy, saturday 2hrs easy-moderate, and Sunday another 62 mile group ride.

So now that you know my background a bit, I’m wondering what I have to do to take it to the next level, which I define right now as a 1 hour 40K (but still try to build my endurance to a sub 5:30 IM bike split in a couple of years). Right now I am pretty much cycling nearly as much as I can. What type of mileage do the cyclists out there typically put in? And how are they broken up? If I want to increase my mileage much more, I’m going to have to ride in the morning and the evening. What is the rest cycle typically used? Right now I am trying to just pile on the volume to get to where I am comfortable over 200 miles in a week, and then try to structure the big gear work/TT work and such into the week.

Sorry for the long message, just hoping for some good advice.

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More mileage isn’t the answer. To break 1hr in a 40K TT requires you to build your functional threshold (the power you can put out for about an hour), obviously. “Hard group rides” probably won’t do it. You need to do structured training that addresses that need. The typical workout is the 2x20, where you do two intervals of 20 minutes (with a minute or two at most between) at a power near your threshold. Between 30 and 60 minutes (no less than about 15 minutes per interval) of this in a workout. Gradually increase the power over weeks (like 5W/week or so). You should be able to do these twice a week.

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You are about where I am, so what I see missing is interval/TT training. 1, 5, and even 10mile tt’s once a week. I start out doing 2, 5 mile TT’s until I can do them at 25 mph. I then do 1, 5 mile TT and follow by a 10mile TT. I do it no matter how the first one feels. The shorter is usually closer to my anerobic capacity, the longer just below. One teaches pain, the other teaches to balance pain for a longer TT. This is when I use a heart rate monitor. My heart max is 183 and I’ll hover at 175-180 for the 5 mile and 170-180 for the longer. As I go over 175 in the longer TT, I bring it down or it’s all over. My mileage for this training tactic may be flawed, but by doing a shorter TT above your goal, and a longer one at, or below your goal, will eventually get you to where you need. The hard group ride is great, you just need to eperiment with hard specific tt distances or times that will get you set up physicaly and mentally for the TT. I do a standing start and turnaround in my 5 mile training TT and shoot for 12 min. I just went under that last week 11:50, and was a minute slower this week. I know I"m about 2-3weeks from a good 25 mile time as I can do it for 5 and close for 10miles. That type of stuctured comparison helps me to know what to work on more.

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The thing that made the biggest difference for my cycling and for others I coach was adding in a weekly time trial, of 15km or bi-weekly 40km. Of course this goes along with adding more intensity into my training general. For most working athletes, simple doing more volume will get them to a certain point, but then you’ve got to do some faster riding to continue improving.

Joel

www.CompetitionZone.com