Training Help!

[breezer]

Breezer, did you really mean to say 198-210 for cadence?

Woooops! I think you're right. 98 to 110. Sorry.
That would be something though, to get my legs spinning that fast. Wonder if I could win a tour with a cadence like that.

[hayleymajayley]

Lol Breezer you worried me for a second there! Here I was so proud that I had been sustaining 94 yesterday at the gym, and there you are doing 210! haha.

[alpinerabbit]

If I went spinning, I would not go all the way to maxing out my heart rate. At least not all the time. I overdid that the winter after my first season of cycling and it wore me out to the point that I got heart palpitations (or exacerbated the PVCs I already had).

When I once went to a training seminar, the coach there suggested power intervals where you do a low cadence (he suggested 30-40 rpm but I believe this is bad for my knees, so I chose about 60 rpm) at a resistance that brings your heart rate to about 10 below lactate threshold (for me, that's 160 bpm). Alternate that with high cadence recovery intervals.
That kind of interval would get my legs nicely tired and I'd feel the lactate build up before getting really out there on breathing and heart rate.
He suggested this would increase my power output without wearing me out, as would happen if I pushed to max for close to an hour.

so my advice is, don't push it that much. It would be better to exercise longer (2h spin class) but only at or below lactate threshold.


re: numb feet.
Do you mean your feet were numb in the new clipless shoes? Perhaps they are too narrow or you pulled them too tight. Maybe you'll get used to it, maybe you'll have to take them back to the store.

[dreaztrek]

my feet were going numb in the regular toe clips so I decided to order the dlipless, haven't tried them yet though, I'm a little nervouse, any tips on learning how to ride clipless? I did by the tension adjustable shimano clipless pedals that I will be adjusting when I put them on the bike, I have read a few horror stories though of people falling over? I am pretty clumsy os I am envisioning myslef falling int oa ditch!!

[alpinerabbit]

my feet were going numb in the regular toe clips so I decided to order the clipless, haven't tried them yet though, I'm a little nervouse, any tips on learning how to ride clipless? I did buy the tension adjustable shimano clipless pedals that I will be adjusting when I put them on the bike, I have read a few horror stories though of people falling over?

I see then the numbness is probably from soft soles, cycling shoes have stiff soles for that reason.

As written elsewhere, I have never fallen on a road bike with clipless pedals, not when I first borrowed a friend's 15 years ago, not since I started riding 4 yrs ago. I did take a splat last year on my new MTB when I was doing something silly.

You have plenty of time now to practice getting in and out indoors, so you'll have that down once you get out on the road.

Once you go out, try clipping in and out a couple times when you are holding on to something (to check the tension), then just try it. Start with one foot clipped and just take off. If you don't hit the pedal right, stay on the pedal with the foot unclipped and spin lightly (to avoid slipping off), and try again while riding on, just don't panic.

[ehirsch83]

My advice would be to get a heart rate monitor. You can get affordable ones, $40.00, you don't need anything super fancy!

Going by feel is great, once you know what you are feeling, but if you are just going by feel without having actual numbers to compare to- you have no idea what you are doing!

There is a good chance that you are working a lot harder then you think you are, or you do just need to lower your resistance. You can only push a big load for so long before your muscles fatigue.

I advice getting a HRM so you can actually see what you are doing and when, and monitoring your resistance and trying to keep a higher cadence.