Help with winter training...

Ok ladies, I am on a mission this winter. I want to get fast and strong enough to leave my hubby's friend in the dust next summer!!

He is a really nice guy, in his 50's or so, but he thinks cause I am a girl I can't do anything. He is always surprised when I do anything mechanically inclined (I have a master's degree in mechanical engineering for goodness sake!) Surprised when I go 50 or 60 miles, which I do regularly in the summer with great ease, surprised when I finished my first century this past summer. He wants us to go ride this really hilly route with him because he wants to see my face on the steep downhills (like I am going to get so scared and walk down it instead).

I am anal retentive and I like to have goals, so that is my winter training goal...to easily keep up with him cause I know it will drive him nuts...and I want to do my next Hotter'n Hell in under 6 hours. I can ride long, but not super fast and I suck on the hills.

I need help with a training routine (cause again, I am anal retentive and I like to have a plan!) Anyone have a routine they want to share with me? I have a trainer and should be able to to outdoor rides once or twice a week, with a longish one on the weekend. I need something that spells out what I need to do, like intervals on mondays, hills on wednesday, etc...

Thanks!

Chris Carmichael has a book called: "The Time Crunched Cyclist"

He has written the book for cyclist who have 6 hours to train a week. He also has listed the training routines. If you have a chance, check out the book at the local book store and see if it would be helpful.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by abejita

Ok ladies, I am on a mission this winter. I want to get fast and strong enough to leave my hubby's friend in the dust next summer!!

He is a really nice guy, in his 50's or so, but he thinks cause I am a girl I can't do anything. He is always surprised when I do anything mechanically inclined (I have a master's degree in mechanical engineering for goodness sake!) Surprised when I go 50 or 60 miles, which I do regularly in the summer with great ease, surprised when I finished my first century this past summer. He wants us to go ride this really hilly route with him because he wants to see my face on the steep downhills (like I am going to get so scared and walk down it instead).

I am anal retentive and I like to have goals, so that is my winter training goal...to easily keep up with him cause I know it will drive him nuts...and I want to do my next Hotter'n Hell in under 6 hours. I can ride long, but not super fast and I suck on the hills.

I need help with a training routine (cause again, I am anal retentive and I like to have a plan!) Anyone have a routine they want to share with me? I have a trainer and should be able to to outdoor rides once or twice a week, with a longish one on the weekend. I need something that spells out what I need to do, like intervals on mondays, hills on wednesday, etc...

Thanks!

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First of all, I think it is really important to set realistic goals for oneself, so I commend you on doing that. However, I worry when a goal is too dependent on another person. You don't know what your husband's friend is going to do this winter. He also might be training really hard, so even if you make fantastic gains, you still might not be stronger than he. Or things could change in his life such that he hangs up the cleats for a season.

But your goal for the hotter n hell is great. Sub-6. It is a goal that you can train towards and barring gale-force winds, you should be able to achieve.

For both of your goals, high threshold power is going to be your friend, so you should be doing intervals aimed to boost it. To beat your friend, it looks like you will need to do some short high wattage efforts, like hill climbing, following his attacks, and sprinting.

There are an infinite number of training plans that can be used to accomplish these goals, and the single key to all of them is to train consistently and to maintain your discipline even when you don't want to and when life tries to get in the way. I know how I like to train, so I am going to give you one plan, that I would use. However, you can modify it, and probably still achieve your goals as long as you are still getting time in the saddle.

Plan:
Sat - short hard efforts (10 one minute intervals as hard as you can go for an entire minute, my personal preference is to do these on a short hill, but they can also be done on a stretch of flat road)
Sun - long ride moderate (sustainable) pace
Mon- rest (active recovery or off)
Tues - 2X20 min efforts
Wed - 1-2hr ride (easy)
Thurs - 2X20min efforts
Fri - off

Like I said, this can be modified to fit your work/life schedule. If you have time during the week to turn one of the 2x20 days into a long ride, that will accomplish the same goal, as long as you are working during that ride.

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Originally Posted by chicagogal

First of all, I think it is really important to set realistic goals for oneself, so I commend you on doing that. However, I worry when a goal is too dependent on another person. You don't know what your husband's friend is going to do this winter. He also might be training really hard, so even if you make fantastic gains, you still might not be stronger than he. Or things could change in his life such that he hangs up the cleats for a season.

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I know ;-) It really isn't my super serious goal, LOL! I do really just want to get serious about getting stronger this winter, better on the hills and faster. This past summer, I did Hotter'n Hell in a little over 7 hours. I averaged about 14mph. We had no type of organized training, we just pounded out a ton of miles leading up to the ride and this was my first full summer of riding.

Thanks for the schedule!

I've had good results with training DVDs.

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Originally Posted by bluebug32

I've had good results with training DVDs.

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Which ones to you use, and how often?

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Originally Posted by Blueberry

Which ones to you use, and how often?

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I just started a new thread about this actually.

Here is her thread...

Are there a hill you can train on? The best way to get better on hills is to keep climbing regularly. I usually have to cut back on hills in the winter because of ice, so an exercise that really works if I don't climb is step-ups (as shown by Lance in this video).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDawlrIeaVM