Different Training Rides?

[momtohanna]

I'm still a little confused between endurance and recovery rides.

Yesterday I ended up going out for a ride I took it easy ~ and didn't feel as though I super exerted myself, fairly easy breathing, a little increased heart rate up hills, but then back to normal. I ended up going farther than I've ever gone before just because the ride was so easy and nice.

I had done 2 long (for me) rides the 2 previous days. So what do you think that ride would have been ?

[maillotpois]

It sounds like your ride was somewhere in between endurance and recovery, and that your riding so far hasn't been at all structured. Which is fine - you are a new rider, and it seems you are having fun with it. But it's hard to fit rides into categories after the fact as opposed to saying before the ride "I am going to do an endurance zone ride of 3 hours." or something like that.

[momtohanna]

I see. So it's about determining the reason for the ride before you go out ~ and then riding for that specific purpose.

How do you determine what kind of ride you should be doing when?

thanks

[Miranda]

http://www.spinning.com/spinning-ent...zone-chart.asp

I teach Spinning at my gym (indoor stationary cycling classes). Above is a link from Spinnning's web site that has some info about the different energy zones. If you scroll down, you can see some frequency suggestions. Some of the same concepts can apply to outside. As far as what you ask "how often do you do what?". That depnds. Your own personal fitness level. Your goals.

Someone who is already a very fit cyclist aspiring to race will train differently that someone going for long distance. Or someone for general overall fitness / weight loss.

I learned alot too by aquiring diff books on cycling and training. I love going to my local bookstore (or library works and is free w/your tax $) to browse. Also titles I have read about here on TE have been helpful. It's alot to digest, but worthwhile.

[maillotpois]

I see. So it's about determining the reason for the ride before you go out ~ and then riding for that specific purpose.

How do you determine what kind of ride you should be doing when?

thanks

Right. It is really helpful to have a plan. You can work with someone, a coach, to help develop the plan which will best improve your riding for your goal. There are some coaches on this board, and I'm one of them. I coach people for long distance endurance rides - mostly as head coach for Team in Training's Death Ride team, but also I work with some people one on one if they want to train for a double century or something. Some coaches (like Velogirl) also coach for racers. Wahine coaches for tris as well, I think. It all depends on what your goals are.

If your goals are increasing your time and distance, then a good very very very completely not individualized basic plan would be something like this:

M - Interval ride
T - Off (weights/core work)
W - Interval ride
Th - Recovery ride
F - Off (weights/core work)
Sat - Endurance ride
Sun - Recovery ride

The length of time, length and number of intervals, etc would be determined by your riding level now and what your goal event is.

[momtohanna]

Awesome! thanks that helps a lot.

Miranda ~ thanks for that link ~ the chart is very helpful for getting my head around this stuff!!

[momtohanna]

I want to add intervals to my cycling workouts ~ what's the best way for a beginner to start with intervals? Speed? Going faster maybe a set speed I'm shooting for, for the intervals? or Intensity, maybe using a tougher gear to make it harder to go?

Also what's the best time frame for a beginner to start with ~ 4 min/4 min? or more or less?

I'd like to get clear on this so I can do this tomorrow and none of the websites I've seen have really helped me figure it out. Any help would be much appreciated.

[maillotpois]

This Arnie Baker ebook has great interval suggestions, routines, etc. http://www.arniebakercycling.com/books/b_hit.htm

According to Arnie, 4 minutes is a really effective interval time. It really helps to have a heart rate monitor and know how to use it (i.e., what your target zones are by something other than 220 - your age). You would do speed or harder gear or hill climb or something for 4 minutes, sufficiently hard to get you into zone 3 or 4 (probably just zone 3 for a real beginner). Without a HRM, this is an effort level at which you cannot speak, period.