Different Training Rides?

[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.