Speed Workouts

[sassyc]

If you go into caloric deficit (from WW or any other diet plan) you should be careful to scale back your riding or running or other aerobic exercise to burn no more than around 200-300 calories a day.

The nice thing about WW is that you do factor exercise into how much you eat, but I agree that it makes things harder. The days I don't do long workouts I want the same amount of food that I do on long ride days I've lost 25# so far, but I'm getting to the point where I need to switch stuff up.

That's good advice about riding with faster people, all my friends are faster than I am.... but always 'go easy on me' when I'm riding with them. I'll politely ask them to 'kick my you know what' and see how that goes.

Thanks indigoiis!

[ChickWithBrains]

Intervals! Intervals! Intervals!

There are a lot of ways out there to do them, and some excellent online resources about training (especially for race events) that incorporate them. Basically, they are periods of intensity -- higher speed, higher cadence, higher watt ouput -- interspersed with short periods of recovery. They might not feel so good at the time, and the rest never quite feels long enough, but after a few weeks of them you will notice your baseline speed has increased a fair bit. With continued work, you build a base of fitness and speed that's much more structured and noticeable than if you simply ride for long stretches without increasing your aerobic and mitochondial capacity. When I began doing intervals, my coach had me doing 2 10-minute intervals with a 5 minute rest during a 1 hour workout; now I'm doing 2 20-minute tempo intervals (even higher on the exertion scale) with a 5 minute rest during a 90 minute workout and some fast-cadence exercises afterwards. The rest is for endurance and putting the miles in.

Can't endorse intervals highly enough.