Looking for a training plan for beginners...any suggestions?

[nico demouse]

I am getting back into biking after a long time away. I know that I can just go out and log miles but I find I do better with a more specific focus.

When I started running, I used the Couch to 5k program. I liked it because I didn't have to make any decisions -- I just went out on my running days and logged what the program told me to.

I've been poking around on the web looking for something similar for biking but am not having any luck. The training plans I am finding all seem to be for more advanced riders. All the riding I've done in the past 2 years has been rides to the playground hauling the trailer...nothing over 5 - 8 miles.

Any suggestions?

[indysteel]

There are some training plans out there for doing your first century (100 miles). You could follow one of those (maybe scale it back a bit), but those plans tend to just follow the adage that you should increase your rides by about 10 percent each week.

I, too, followed the couch potato to 5k a few years back, but cycling doesn't lend itself to quite that structured of a plan. In my opinion, there are a few variables--terrain, weather and wind--that are more noticable on a bike and generally have to accounted for. In other words, mileage doesn't tell the whole story. It's also easier on a bike to make bigger and bigger leaps as your fitness improves because cycling just isn't as hard on your body as running (thank God). Thus, it's not quite as necessary as a beginner to follow a real structured plan.

So, I would suggest just devising your own general plan. If you're doing 8 miles at a time this week, try 10 next week, maybe 12 the following and then 15. So on and so on. As you do longer and longer rides, you'll have to start integrating more food and drink.

Good luck!

[Jiffer]

I agree. If you want something structured, make your own structured plan for what you want to accomplish. What are your goals? Do you want to ride a century, maybe a half century to start? Do you want to ride faster?

My suggestion would be to look on Active.com for organized rides in your area. You might start with a 25 mile one, or jump up to a 50 miler. Or you might find a 25 mile one in a month or so and a 50 miler a month or two later. Use those to work your way up in mileage. It's great to have a goal in mind like that and set your training plan around that.

At first I'd focus on distance. Add longer and longer rides each week until you reach about 75% of the distance of the event ... or more if you want, but it's not necessary to complete the event. You don't have to do EVERY ride longer. You need recovery rides and rides that are not as taxing on you in between.

How many times a week can you ride? What days of the week work best for you? You might plan every Saturday to do your "long ride" for the week, where you add a couple of miles each week. During the week, you might do two or three 5 to 8 mile rides, as you are already used to doing. Eventually, you might make your week day rides 10 to 15 miles, once it seems easier to do so.

Lets say your ultimate goal is 50 miles. You train to do it, in no specific time. Just get it done and enjoy it. Then maybe you sign up for another 50 miler and you want to do it faster. Then you start doing more workouts geared toward speed. You might do intervals. You might start timing yourself on your slower rides, or "portions" of your shorter rides. If you want to get better at hills, you might do hill repeats, or find routes that make you climb. But even if you don't do any training rides specifically intended for speed, you'll get faster just by being on your bike and getting more miles in.

All the while, you are balancing these week day rides with longer weekend rides (assuming your long ride is on the weekend).

Listen to your body. If you just did a long ride, and it was harder than usual because there was more climbing than usual, or there was a lot of wind or you went faster than ever and now your muscles are especially sore .... take it easy the next day. Either don't ride, or do a recovery ride. Recovery rides are meant to be ridden easy ... and they are meant to help you "recover". You spin your legs and instead of making your muscles ache even more, it should help your muscles heal faster.

I have done several centuries and am at a point where I am really working on my speed and my climbing. I always have been working on those things, but it's getting easier to do that since I don't have to worry about just making it through a hundred miles. Because of all my base miles, it's easier to accomplish the distance and I can focus my efforts on other things. I don't know what your ultimate goals are, but if you're curious what my training schedule is like, here it is. (This may be WAY more info than you wanted, but I'm on a roll!)

First of all, since I have been riding for 3 1/2 years, I have developed a lot of "base miles" ... my body doesn't need as much conditioning to prepare for another 100 mile ride. I did a 65 mile ride in Palm Springs in February. This was sort of a training ride for the Solvang century that I did in March, with 4,500 feet of climbing. I did and relatively flat 95 mile club ride a couple of weeks later (kind of spur of the moment with some club members ... first time I did almost 100 miles "spur of the moment"!) I'm planning to do a century with 6,000 feet of climbing in 4 weeks. It's sort of a "training ride" for an even more difficult century with 8,500 feet a few weeks later. This is the one I want to do my best at. I did it last year and want to see how much better I can do it. So, all these other rides are sort of training for that.

I have a friend I do most of my rides with. We ride two or three times during the week together, typically riding 20-25 miles. For those rides, we might be doing the first as a "recovery" ride, because we just did a bigger ride over the weekend. I might do intervals on one. A lactaid threshold ride. Or just "how fast can we possibly do this route?!" and kill it.

I am trying to incorporate a weekly ride with my club into my training. A Tuesday night ride where there's some decent climbing and everyone pushes themselves as much as they can. I used to feel like a "wanna be" on this ride, but I can hang better now ... with the "slow" group. Used to not even hang with them! So, this is it's own kind of training ride. It's about 20 miles, but pushing it the whole time, so it's like a lactaid threshold workout.

If it's the day before a big ride, I will ride moderate to easy, to save my legs for the big ride. (The days we do our week day rides vary based on my friend's changing work schedule, so it's not set in stone.)

Sometimes on a Saturday we'll do the 32 mile club ride, that has a pretty hard climbing section. And then do our "long ride" on Sunday. However, instead, tomorrow we're doing a 40 mile ride with 4500 feet of climbing. A couple of weeks before our next century we'll do that same ride with an additional 20 miles ... so 60. Plus the day before that, we're doing another club ride, of which I'm not sure the distance yet, but back to back, they will be good training for a 100 miles with a lot of climbing.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you. Just giving you a glimpse of what "one person's" goals and training schedule are like. You may never aspire to do the kinds of rides I do ... or you might go on to do more difficult rides. Or you might become a racer! (I'm doing my first race next month, actually.)

Whatever you do, have fun!

[nico demouse]

indysteel and Jiffer, thanks for your responses.

I think I do need to figure out exactly what I am trying to do before starting on a training plan. When I was riding the most (about 10 years ago) I never really trained. I would just head out and ride. I worked up to a 50 mile organized ride that way, but I was in my early 20s then, so I am thinking a more organized approach will yield better results!

My big frustration when I rode in the past was that, although I could ride a long time, I was always very, very slow. When I would do organized rides (I did ACC yearly for about 6 or 7 years) I would always average between 9 - 10 mph. I never seemed to get any faster. So I would say that (after I build up some base miles) I would like to work on speed. I always felt really weak on hills, too, so I'd like to feel stronger in that area.

In some ways I have tons of time to train and in other ways very little...I am at home with my two year old son, so I have the freedom to head out anytime we want, BUT those are rides pulling the trailer. My son is very content for about 45 minutes or so...although if I plan a ride with a break midway through where we stop at a playground I think he's be happy to ride longer. So...I could do 1 1/2 hour rides every day but they would be rides with a longish break in the middle.

I also can ride in the evening after he goes to bed, or in the early am. Right now I run 3x a week in the evening so I could easily add a ride on the evening I don't run...these times are limited only by when it gets dark.

Just sort of thinking out loud here....

[indysteel]

In order to get faster, I would suggest incorporating some intervals into your workout. That will help you maximize the time that you have. You might search for "intervals" here to get some specific suggestions. Beyond that, if you can hook up with some riders that are faster than you, that will help. In order to get faster, you have to be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone for longer and longer stretches. For me, that entailed going to weeknight training rides and trying my best to stay with the group. At first, I was hardly ever successful, but it got easier and easier. Of course, now I'm slow again. The other thing about getting faster is that you have to keep up with the training.

The other thing I have to wonder is whether you've learned to "spin" in the right gear. Ideally, you want to choose a gear (at least on the flats) that allows you to turn your pedals at a relatively fast pace, somewhere around 90 revolutions per minute. While not all cyclists are alike, an approximation provides the best balance between leg strength and aerobic capacity. You might think about--if you don't have one already--investing in a bike computer that offers a cadence function.

[Zen]

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