Looking for a training plan for beginners...any suggestions?

[nico demouse]

I am getting back into biking after a long time away. I know that I can just go out and log miles but I find I do better with a more specific focus.

When I started running, I used the Couch to 5k program. I liked it because I didn't have to make any decisions -- I just went out on my running days and logged what the program told me to.

I've been poking around on the web looking for something similar for biking but am not having any luck. The training plans I am finding all seem to be for more advanced riders. All the riding I've done in the past 2 years has been rides to the playground hauling the trailer...nothing over 5 - 8 miles.

Any suggestions?

[indysteel]

There are some training plans out there for doing your first century (100 miles). You could follow one of those (maybe scale it back a bit), but those plans tend to just follow the adage that you should increase your rides by about 10 percent each week.

I, too, followed the couch potato to 5k a few years back, but cycling doesn't lend itself to quite that structured of a plan. In my opinion, there are a few variables--terrain, weather and wind--that are more noticable on a bike and generally have to accounted for. In other words, mileage doesn't tell the whole story. It's also easier on a bike to make bigger and bigger leaps as your fitness improves because cycling just isn't as hard on your body as running (thank God). Thus, it's not quite as necessary as a beginner to follow a real structured plan.

So, I would suggest just devising your own general plan. If you're doing 8 miles at a time this week, try 10 next week, maybe 12 the following and then 15. So on and so on. As you do longer and longer rides, you'll have to start integrating more food and drink.

Good luck!

[Jiffer]

I agree. If you want something structured, make your own structured plan for what you want to accomplish. What are your goals? Do you want to ride a century, maybe a half century to start? Do you want to ride faster?

My suggestion would be to look on Active.com for organized rides in your area. You might start with a 25 mile one, or jump up to a 50 miler. Or you might find a 25 mile one in a month or so and a 50 miler a month or two later. Use those to work your way up in mileage. It's great to have a goal in mind like that and set your training plan around that.

At first I'd focus on distance. Add longer and longer rides each week until you reach about 75% of the distance of the event ... or more if you want, but it's not necessary to complete the event. You don't have to do EVERY ride longer. You need recovery rides and rides that are not as taxing on you in between.

How many times a week can you ride? What days of the week work best for you? You might plan every Saturday to do your "long ride" for the week, where you add a couple of miles each week. During the week, you might do two or three 5 to 8 mile rides, as you are already used to doing. Eventually, you might make your week day rides 10 to 15 miles, once it seems easier to do so.

Lets say your ultimate goal is 50 miles. You train to do it, in no specific time. Just get it done and enjoy it. Then maybe you sign up for another 50 miler and you want to do it faster. Then you start doing more workouts geared toward speed. You might do intervals. You might start timing yourself on your slower rides, or "portions" of your shorter rides. If you want to get better at hills, you might do hill repeats, or find routes that make you climb. But even if you don't do any training rides specifically intended for speed, you'll get faster just by being on your bike and getting more miles in.

All the while, you are balancing these week day rides with longer weekend rides (assuming your long ride is on the weekend).

Listen to your body. If you just did a long ride, and it was harder than usual because there was more climbing than usual, or there was a lot of wind or you went faster than ever and now your muscles are especially sore .... take it easy the next day. Either don't ride, or do a recovery ride. Recovery rides are meant to be ridden easy ... and they are meant to help you "recover". You spin your legs and instead of making your muscles ache even more, it should help your muscles heal faster.

I have done several centuries and am at a point where I am really working on my speed and my climbing. I always have been working on those things, but it's getting easier to do that since I don't have to worry about just making it through a hundred miles. Because of all my base miles, it's easier to accomplish the distance and I can focus my efforts on other things. I don't know what your ultimate goals are, but if you're curious what my training schedule is like, here it is. (This may be WAY more info than you wanted, but I'm on a roll!)

First of all, since I have been riding for 3 1/2 years, I have developed a lot of "base miles" ... my body doesn't need as much conditioning to prepare for another 100 mile ride. I did a 65 mile ride in Palm Springs in February. This was sort of a training ride for the Solvang century that I did in March, with 4,500 feet of climbing. I did and relatively flat 95 mile club ride a couple of weeks later (kind of spur of the moment with some club members ... first time I did almost 100 miles "spur of the moment"!) I'm planning to do a century with 6,000 feet of climbing in 4 weeks. It's sort of a "training ride" for an even more difficult century with 8,500 feet a few weeks later. This is the one I want to do my best at. I did it last year and want to see how much better I can do it. So, all these other rides are sort of training for that.

I have a friend I do most of my rides with. We ride two or three times during the week together, typically riding 20-25 miles. For those rides, we might be doing the first as a "recovery" ride, because we just did a bigger ride over the weekend. I might do intervals on one. A lactaid threshold ride. Or just "how fast can we possibly do this route?!" and kill it.

I am trying to incorporate a weekly ride with my club into my training. A Tuesday night ride where there's some decent climbing and everyone pushes themselves as much as they can. I used to feel like a "wanna be" on this ride, but I can hang better now ... with the "slow" group. Used to not even hang with them! So, this is it's own kind of training ride. It's about 20 miles, but pushing it the whole time, so it's like a lactaid threshold workout.

If it's the day before a big ride, I will ride moderate to easy, to save my legs for the big ride. (The days we do our week day rides vary based on my friend's changing work schedule, so it's not set in stone.)

Sometimes on a Saturday we'll do the 32 mile club ride, that has a pretty hard climbing section. And then do our "long ride" on Sunday. However, instead, tomorrow we're doing a 40 mile ride with 4500 feet of climbing. A couple of weeks before our next century we'll do that same ride with an additional 20 miles ... so 60. Plus the day before that, we're doing another club ride, of which I'm not sure the distance yet, but back to back, they will be good training for a 100 miles with a lot of climbing.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you. Just giving you a glimpse of what "one person's" goals and training schedule are like. You may never aspire to do the kinds of rides I do ... or you might go on to do more difficult rides. Or you might become a racer! (I'm doing my first race next month, actually.)

Whatever you do, have fun!

[nico demouse]

indysteel and Jiffer, thanks for your responses.

I think I do need to figure out exactly what I am trying to do before starting on a training plan. When I was riding the most (about 10 years ago) I never really trained. I would just head out and ride. I worked up to a 50 mile organized ride that way, but I was in my early 20s then, so I am thinking a more organized approach will yield better results!

My big frustration when I rode in the past was that, although I could ride a long time, I was always very, very slow. When I would do organized rides (I did ACC yearly for about 6 or 7 years) I would always average between 9 - 10 mph. I never seemed to get any faster. So I would say that (after I build up some base miles) I would like to work on speed. I always felt really weak on hills, too, so I'd like to feel stronger in that area.

In some ways I have tons of time to train and in other ways very little...I am at home with my two year old son, so I have the freedom to head out anytime we want, BUT those are rides pulling the trailer. My son is very content for about 45 minutes or so...although if I plan a ride with a break midway through where we stop at a playground I think he's be happy to ride longer. So...I could do 1 1/2 hour rides every day but they would be rides with a longish break in the middle.

I also can ride in the evening after he goes to bed, or in the early am. Right now I run 3x a week in the evening so I could easily add a ride on the evening I don't run...these times are limited only by when it gets dark.

Just sort of thinking out loud here....

[indysteel]

In order to get faster, I would suggest incorporating some intervals into your workout. That will help you maximize the time that you have. You might search for "intervals" here to get some specific suggestions. Beyond that, if you can hook up with some riders that are faster than you, that will help. In order to get faster, you have to be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone for longer and longer stretches. For me, that entailed going to weeknight training rides and trying my best to stay with the group. At first, I was hardly ever successful, but it got easier and easier. Of course, now I'm slow again. The other thing about getting faster is that you have to keep up with the training.

The other thing I have to wonder is whether you've learned to "spin" in the right gear. Ideally, you want to choose a gear (at least on the flats) that allows you to turn your pedals at a relatively fast pace, somewhere around 90 revolutions per minute. While not all cyclists are alike, an approximation provides the best balance between leg strength and aerobic capacity. You might think about--if you don't have one already--investing in a bike computer that offers a cadence function.

[Zen]

You might find something here

[mariacycle]

You might find something here

i love lmgtfy. when you're a computer person and everyone (and their mother) comes to you for any technological problems... it comes in handy

[nico demouse]

Indysteel, I'll read up on interval training and look into a newer bike computer than the one I have. Thanks for the suggestions.

[marni]

I have been riding for 4 years, when I started, I struggled to do a mile a day 4x a week. When I could, I doubled it, and so on until I could do 20 miles at whatever speed, comfortably, then I added 5 miles a week and when I could ride 50 comfortably I started working on speed. At first I just roade harder bu then I learned about intervals. At my age I have to accept that I probably will never be able to get much above 18 mph unless I am going downhill with a tailwind but the intervals have made me a bit faster and definitely stronger as far as distance.

Apropos of intervals, I think the podrunner podcasts which are music at specific bpm are great for interval riding on a bike although they are supposedly for runners.

As for the ride-5 days a week, it's all relative. I work out at a gym 2x a week and try to ride 4 days, or 3 if the weather is baad. I mostly go about 5 days and then take a day off. since I am a distance/endurance rider, I tend to think that TITS time (time in the saddle) is my primary goal so my typical standard training is 40-60 miles.

Take it easy and listen to your body.

go you!

marni

[Zen]

Look into the Eddie Merckx training plan.

[tulip]

There's a book that I like by Selene Yeager called Bicycling for Women or something like that. It has several training plans that are very specific. It also goes into the importance of intervals for improving speed.

[nico demouse]

At my age I have to accept that I probably will never be able to get much above 18 mph unless I am going downhill with a tailwind but the intervals have made me a bit faster and definitely stronger as far as distance.

Apropos of intervals, I think the podrunner podcasts which are music at specific bpm are great for interval riding on a bike although they are supposedly for runners.

As for the ride-5 days a week, it's all relative. I work out at a gym 2x a week and try to ride 4 days, or 3 if the weather is baad. I mostly go about 5 days and then take a day off. since I am a distance/endurance rider, I tend to think that TITS time (time in the saddle) is my primary goal so my typical standard training is 40-60 miles.

Take it easy and listen to your body.

go you!

marni

thanks for the encouragement, marni! My new bike makes me feel pretty fast but Eighteen mph sounds pretty fast from where I am! I know I need to build up more base miles and am working on that.

There's a book that I like by Selene Yeager called Bicycling for Women or something like that. It has several training plans that are very specific. It also goes into the importance of intervals for improving speed.

Thanks, tulip. I'll request this from my library -- my personal preference is for a very specific plan. Thanks for suggesting one.

[Jiffer]

Regarding intervals ... I had a professional training session with a coach last fall, who gave me a training schedule, which included intervals. Some of his intervals involved starting in my easiest gear and moving up a gear every 30 seconds (or 60 ... not sure). It took a long time to go through all the gears. Other times he told me to go a mile per hour faster on certain stretches of familiar routes. This was kind of hard since I wasn't sure what my exact speed was on those stretches. I could tell you what my "average pace" was for a section, because I had started using the lap feature on my computer (more on that later) ... but what speed I was going at any given time might change if the grade changed a little, or I might have had momentum going into that climb, so went faster in the beginning.

That was in October/November and I took December off from riding. When I started again in January, I felt slower than ever. After a dismal club ride, I decided to get serious about intervals and decided to come up with my own ... what made sense to me and was simple. There's a particular route I most often do my intervals on and it doesn't matter if I ride with my friend or not. She knows when we hit certain sections, always a climb (though pretty mild), I would take off and ride as hard as I could. I think the first time I did this, I did the first interval for 30 seconds, then realized I could go further, so I did 60 seconds for the next and a few others afterward. The next time I rode I pushed it to 1:30 and now do 2 minute intervals (though I haven't done them in a while). When you read about intervals, I'm sure you'll learn that it is recommended to get a good recovery in between. I usually try to get like five minutes at a pretty slow pace. Feels slow and is kind of frustrating, but it's necessary to fully recover so you can get the most out of the next interval. I also read that the first couple of intervals make the biggest difference in your training, so if you don't have it in you to do more than a couple, you're still getting the benefit if that's all you do.

I actually didn't do all that many interval rides before I saw big results, so I HIGHLY recommend it. The first difference I noticed was in my breathing. I always seem to be the one breathing the hardest at the top of climbs or when going fast on the flat. I remember getting to a red light with the club once and, in between gasps, uttered, "Why am I the only one breathing hard?!" Since doing just a few interval rides, I have noticed a BIG difference. I get to the top of climbs and I am not breathing nearly as hard and can therefore keep going when I sometimes used to stop to catch my breath.

Some of my intervals are distance intervals. There's a specific stretch between two signals, which is a mild climb of maybe 2% or so. It's only six tenths of a mile. My friend and I now routinely push it as hard as we can on that stretch to see how much faster we can do it. I was exhilarated the last time I did with her and stayed right with her the whole way. I only did it 2 seconds slower than her. This is huge.

Regarding laps, if you want to work on your speed, I highly recommend getting a computer that offers this option. I hadn't figured out mine did it and used to figure out laps myself. I'd get to the bottom of a climb and look at what my time was at that point and say it over and over again to myself so I wouldn't forget it. At the top of the climb I'd note what the time difference was and the next time I stopped, I'd enter it in the notes section on my phone.

One day I had a "duh" moment when I thought, "I have a Garmin. Surely there must be a lap feature on this thing that will figure this out for me." And there was. And I taught other people in my riding world how to use this feature, including my "know it all husband", who was not aware of this feature. I have the Garmin 305 (soon to be 500!) ... so I have a screen I can switch to which tells me my current lap distance, time, and average pace.

It's a wonderful way to compare how you're doing. I used to focus primarily on over all average pace, but there are a lot of things that can affect that. Signals, or riding with a group that is riding slower than usual. On my Saturday club ride, I don't worry too much about over all pace anymore, because you never know how fast the group will do the first ten flat miles. But there is a big climb, which I am always trying to improve on. So when I get to that climb, I hit my lap button. It doesn't matter what the rest of the club is doing. Everyone thins out on the climb. I just do my best and compare myself to ... myself.

When I get home I enter my stats on Bikejournal.com (another tool I highly recommend. It's free, unless you add more field options, which I did).

I even go so far as to write previous lap times and paces on my wrist with a Sharpie before a ride. I'm the only one I know that does this and my cycling buddies think I'm nuts, which I am. But when I get to a lap that I want to kill, I know exactly what I'm trying to improve on without trying to remember it. When I beat a previous time, it's a PR ... personal record. PR seems to be more of a runners term. Maybe you've heard of it since you run. But I've yet to meet a cyclist that is familiar with the term. But I'll note in my journal if I PR'd a lap or an entire ride.

So, once again I wrote you a book. Hope it helps.