distance vs time

[trichef]

during the base period in cycling, which is more important, time on the saddle or the kilometers that you log? i know these two go hand in hand, so that means when you're out there riding for hours it means that you are also adding mileage BUT my question is specifically which is better, riding 4 hours at ave 20kph or riding for 2.5 hours at 25-30kph ave? which of the two is a quality workout?

hope someone can shed light...thanks!

[RoadRaven]

My understanding of base training is that you do long distances at steady speeds. You are not aiming for high averages, or tough climbs... just base miles...

As you come out of your base riding, you will begin to make your rides specific to the event you are training for.

Good luck.

[Eden]

All of my training (and I have a coach) has been time/hr based. (If I had a power meter it would be time/power based).

This is my understanding of off season base training.

If you are a beginner you want to keep your base mileage pretty easy - a lot of people feel frustrated that they can't go faster during base building - but keep most of your riding in Zones 1/2 (hr zones that is) A little zone 3 won't hurt you, but definitely try to stay out of 4 & 5. Rides generally from 1/2 hour to 3 hours, with the longer rides being once to twice a week.

If you already have a season of that kind of base building behind you, add more Zone 3, some Zone 4, but still try to stay out of 5. There will be more hours in this phase, but since I don't have my full training plan yet, I'm not sure how much longer the individual rides will be - If I recall right, we added about 100 more hours to my training year. We are going to have a team weekend workout (which will be part of my training plan) that I know will be getting up to 70-80 mile training rides, so that makes me think that I'll be looking at 3 1/2 to 4 hours rides towards the end.

(note that I'm not trainining for a century, I'm training to race and for the most part our races are around 60 miles, so we don't do a lot of rides over race length - if you are training for century riding, Ironman, or randoneurring you might want to up the saddle time more towards the end of your base phase, but still taking it easy)

[RoadRaven]

As always, Eden puts it so well... cheers, Eden

[Jiffer]

I believe both are equally important, again, depending on what you are training for. As stated, longer rides are typically more about getting in the miles and pacing yourself reasonably to finish the miles. Shorter rides can a good time to go for it and finish the ride as quickly as possible. Both types of rides build your riding skills over all.

[Eden]

I believe both are equally important, again, depending on what you are training for. As stated, longer rides are typically more about getting in the miles and pacing yourself reasonably to finish the miles. Shorter rides can a good time to go for it and finish the ride as quickly as possible. Both types of rides build your riding skills over all.

Certainly rides of all types have their place- but its a question of when you do these kinds of rides. The question was about base building and in the off season when you are putting in base miles you want to avoid hard riding. Short rides are still in. Some of my base season rides are as short as 1/2 hour or 45 min (usually a basement spin.... weather and darkness).
A little bit of hard riding isn't going to kill you, or hurt your training that much, but you should try to not do it regularly. Base training isn't really about learning how to pace yourself or just about finishing miles. You're trying during this time to build up your endurance, train your metabolism, and build up all sorts of nice little blood vessels to feed your muscles that I've heard zone 5 stuff breaks down. No one is saying never do a hard fast ride, just save the hard rides for later when you are in a build phase.

Yes - a lot of people, especially enthusiatic beginners can find base training to be frustrating and boring, but it does make a big difference when it comes to the next year. You see people who ride really hard all winter really fizzle early in the race season. Yeah, they do great the first couple of races, then nothing..

Now if you are just riding to ride, and you aren't training for any specific event/reason, then you might not have a reason to periodize - so sure ride how you feel.

[RoadRaven]

Yep, I was going to respond with something similar Eden


TriChef refers to base training and that is long steady miles on the bike. The specific training that Jiffer refers to should ideally come after your base has been built.

TC, I suggest you also look in these books - "Cyclists Training Bible" or "The Female Cyclist".
Both have a good explaination of base training and time periods for your base, to your build up and peaks as well as "down-time".

[trichef]

thanks guys! eden has really put in information i'm training for a half ironman but that's scheduled next year. my goal as of the moment is to increase endurance that a 60-70mile ride won't be too tough anymore. i also want to do a century mid-next year just to test myself.

i'm currently doing 3 sessions per week: a 3-hr long ride on weekends and two 2-hr rides on weekdays (usually tue and thurs). but i'm riding too slow, probably 20-25kph and i'm basing it in perceived effort. at the end of each ride i feel like i didn't ride at all . i hope i'm on the right track.

[RoadRaven]

With three long rides a week, you certainly sound like you are well on track for a solid base - plenty of time out from the race if its next year too.

When I am doing a base-training ride, or active recovery ride, my average is about 26kph if mostly flat, and about 22-24kph if there are hills.

My road race average is about 28-30kph (most of our courses have hills and are about 35-40km long - though last Saturdays was 66km and this Saturdays is 52).
I TT on a 20-25km course at around 32kph (though this is still improving as I get better at it).

So it sounds to me (when I think about what I do) like you are setting a good tempo.