How to Start Training?

[li10up]

Ahhh, now this is what I was looking for:

Just choose one... say, you Wednesday ride. Tell yourself something like... "Every Wednesday, during my ride I will ride as hard as I can in the biggest gear I can for 2 minutes, then I will rest and then I will do it one more time."
That's all... after a couple of Wednesdays you will do your two intervals and think - "Hey, I still feel fine, I'll do another one or two..." Voilah... without realising it you will have baby-stepped yourself into a cruise interval training ride.

Or maybe Wednesday doesn't work for you, and you don't want to work on surging and keeping up with the group. You get dropped on hills. And, hello, on Tuesdays you happen to have a steady climb in the route you normally ride that day. OK... ride as per normal, but when you get to the top, turn around, go to the bottom of the hill and climb it a second time. Try and do the second climb as quickly as you did the first - or more quickly!
Voilah again... in a few weeks Tuesdays has become a specific hill rep day to make you stronger, give you more endurance and ensure you are less likely to get left behind on hills...

Things I can do without having to monitor heart rate or stay in a particular zone. I think I can do these.

Spazz - you made me cry with the suggestion that I may be at my performance high.

RR - wow, that is one journal! I do list some of the stuff you mentioned; like who I rode with, what route, etc.

I ride about twice a week with the 2000 UCI Masters World Champion and 2003 NORBA National Champion. Yep, rainbow on his sleeve and all!!! This man is amazing! His wife is pretty good on a bike too. I've seen him put the hurt on guys half is age!!! So, I'm honored to ride with him and he motivates me to try to improve. But it's just too easy to just take it easy on my solo rides. I have some things I think I can try that will make it fun. Thank you.

[Pedal Wench]

li,

I do try some of the fun things to train. I have sections on my solo ride that I pretend are group sprints. Just easy flat sections, and I go all out to the red mailbox. Another section that I try to beat a traffic light. Another section that I pretend I'm breaking away from a pack and go as fast as I can to the stop sign. I've never realized that they were intervals. They're just really fun sections. Is there a section on your ride that you like to go fast, and where you actually can go fast? Use them to your advantage.

[spazzdog]

Hey li... why cry? A lot of us would be very happy to be performing as well as you are. And realistically, performance highs happen... that old genetics and phsiology thing.

I guess, I just don't get "the need to keep up" when I ride. I'm either with folks or not... I'm not going to drive myself crazy (or beat myself up) because I can't hang with the fast puppies.

Good luck to you grrl! I hope, above all else, you're able to have fun.

spazz

[li10up]

This is probably lame to a lot of you but I actually went out solo with a specific plan and actually stuck to it. I was supposed to ride early on Sunday but my friends both bailed on me (they had good reasons). By that afternoon the weather was just beautiful so I HAD to ride. I decided to do this one section of hills that I've been putting off trying on my new bike. I decided I'd ride up them, turn around, and do it again. Well, about 10 minutes into my warm up I started having second thoughts. But after I was warmed up and started feeling good I decided to do it. Now I don't know how long this set of hills are (I'll have to check) but the total elevation is 233 feet (according to Goggle Earth). I don't know if that's much to most of you but around here those are some pretty good hills. They kind of go up, flatten out a bit and then go up, again, repeat. Anyhow, the first time up it took me 12:17. The second time it was 11:51. Now the numbers at this point don't mean all that much to me....just the fact that I went out with a training goal in mind and stuck to it. That was the first time I was able to do that. That in itself was rewarding. Maybe next time I'll do some road sign intervals. Hopefully I'll be able to keep at this. Thanks for listening!!!

[mountainchick]

Good for you! Sounds like you had fun out there too which is important! Keep up the good work.

[jobob]

This is probably lame to a lot of you

Good grief, not in the least. We all had to start somewhere ! even maillotpois, I suppose

The key is to start and stick with it. But even more important, like mountainchick said, is to keep it fun. Don't let it become a chore.

Best of luck - I hope you look back at your post a year from now and feel really happy with how you progressed.

[RoadRaven]

Way to go, li!!

You hill-repping monster you!

Training/planning to train is easy huh?
Don't worry about the stats... you decided to do hill reps and you did! I find that a big mental effort cause hills are such a challenge...

I collect little more for my journal than my time on the bike and number of reps when doing hill reps, after all, doing the reps/knowing you have done the reps is the important thing.

Fantastic.