Time to get Fit thread

[HappyHighwayman]

I'm tired of long rides regularly. I really don't enjoy stuff past about 2 hours nd if you want to call it quits halfway you can't.

 

[Mike95060]

I need more daylight and less responsibilities.

 

[Climber]

I think 2 things are dramatically helping my cycling that might benefit other people:

1. More consistent riding. Im doing at least 2 good efforts a week, Wed and Sat or Sun. Once a week didn't seem like enough time on the bike to see noticeable gains, no matter how hard I tried. Adding a 2-4hr effort on Wed has been noticeably better.

2. I've upped my recovery game. Here's my route after each ride. I do it all as soon as I can when I'm off the bike:
- Vegan protein shake, ~150cal. This is helping calorie deficiency and prevents going catabolic
- 10-15min "ice" bath. I take a cold shower, then fill the tub enough to cover my legs and throw in a few ice packs. Its not super cold, but it still helps. This helps with recovery and next-day performance. It also helps me sleep a lot better than night. My legs are usually boiling hot in bed which keeps me awake. This reduces that a ton.
- Eat a full meal, sometimes 2 . This fixes the rest of calorie deficiency. Most of my rides are 1500-2500Cal expended, so I gotta eat.

Twice is better than once a week, 3 times would be even better. After 3 days of not taking your body outside of it's homeostasis has your body starts regressing. In your case, it's only 1 day of regression, but if you could put in a day of short hard sprints, in the middle of your 4 day break, for about 1/2 hour total with short rests in between each sprint, you would see even more gains.

 

[stangmx13]

I'm tired of long rides regularly. I really don't enjoy stuff past about 2 hours nd if you want to call it quits halfway you can't.

You can't plan a route that is bail-able? I was never >1hr from home for my 6hr ride on Sun.

You don't need long rides regularly, it's just what is working for me and my schedule. You can accomplish quite a lot with high intensity on shorter rides. Intervals are the most time-efficient way to exercise for gains. 10min warm-up, 45min of high intensity intervals, and whatever cool-down can be really really productive.

My shortest hardest intervals are 20sec full gas, 10sec rest x8. Then rest 10-12min and repeat. 3-4 of those make it hard to ride home, especially because I have 2 hills back to my house no matter what.

Twice is better than once a week, 3 times would be even better. After 3 days of not taking your body outside of it's homeostasis has your body starts regressing. In your case, it's only 1 day of regression, but if you could put in a day of short hard sprints, in the middle of your 4 day break, for about 1/2 hour total with short rests in between each sprint, you would see even more gains.

I am planning on increasing the load a little more. I want to try riding every day for a week later this month. And I might add a 1hr HIIT ride like I described above.

I'm also climbing twice a week on top of the riding, usually Mon & Thurs. So it's not really only 2 efforts a week. Last week I rode and climbed on the same day with only my recovery routine in between. I was destroyed .

My most knowledgeable cycling friend said to limit high intensity to 2 days a week. Any other load should be Zone 2 or below (Endurance, <75%). It's hard to ride by myself and not push to Zone 4 on occasion, so that'll be a fun mental exercise.

 

[HappyHighwayman]

If I go across the bridge I’m now an hour from home with no actual “ride” yet performed. I’d have to bail at the point we meet up.

 

[stangmx13]

I drive to the start of rides somewhat often. Some of the good roads are 20-30mi away and I don't always want to do 100mi to loop all of it.

 

[Holeshot]

I may race with WERA on Mar 20th at Autoclub. A buddy is doing his NRS that Sat and I'm doing the trackday, so it'll be a fun weekend anyway. Im 50/50 on whether or not I want to race. At least all the fast people will be at AFM BW .

It'd be cool to see ya out with us...you ride damn good. Good enough for podiums! WERA's like what.....beating 6 years olds in football? C'mon out!

My most knowledgeable cycling friend said to limit high intensity to 2 days a week. Any other load should be Zone 2 or below (Endurance, <75%). It's hard to ride by myself and not push to Zone 4 on occasion, so that'll be a fun mental exercise.

Interesting. I might drop one of my zone 4/5 workouts a week, so down to 2. Didn't know this...makes sense I suppose. Worth a shot.

 

[lizard]

Thanks for the quick reply! $50 sounds reasonable to check out before splurging. My sister has that fancy one that is all over the internet. Forgot the name but I think its $200-300? Anyhoo, I will check out the one you recommended.

I went to a neighborhood Walmart. All they had was this - see below. $29. I hit my forearms and bicep tendon. Forearms feel much better!

 

[Climber]

YI am planning on increasing the load a little more. I want to try riding every day for a week later this month. And I might add a 1hr HIIT ride like I described above.

I'm also climbing twice a week on top of the riding, usually Mon & Thurs. So it's not really only 2 efforts a week. Last week I rode and climbed on the same day with only my recovery routine in between. I was destroyed .

My most knowledgeable cycling friend said to limit high intensity to 2 days a week. Any other load should be Zone 2 or below (Endurance, <75%). It's hard to ride by myself and not push to Zone 4 on occasion, so that'll be a fun mental exercise.

It's interesting to see the varying terminology in different sports. I know that biking is very well organized for endurance so it's interesting to see how you folks categorize things. I know that you're much more in the aerobic energy world. Most of my knowledge is in the anaerobic and alactacid world with times under 2 minutes.

 

[Holeshot]

I went to a neighborhood Walmart. All they had was this - see below. $29. I hit my forearms and bicep tendon. Forearms feel much better!

Brah....you KNOW what that's for!

 

[lizard]

Brah....you KNOW what that's for!

 

[stangmx13]

It's interesting to see the varying terminology in different sports. I know that biking is very well organized for endurance so it's interesting to see how you folks categorize things. I know that you're much more in the aerobic energy world. Most of my knowledge is in the anaerobic and alactacid world with times under 2 minutes.

Here's how Strava (and a lot of other sources) define zones for cycling. HR references off of max, ~193bpm. And Power references off Functional Threshold Power (FTP), ~200W. This distribution is from that 76mi ride.

HR:

Power:

I've been training with power for just over a year now, so I'm still kinda new to it. It's definitely helpful to see a concrete measurement of effort instead of using perceived effort. Power is probably more important in outdoor cycling than track running because the terrain changes a lot more, hehe.

The more I ride with power, the less I tend to "yo-yo" - unconsciously changing power output wildly throughout the ride. Doing 150W for the entire ride is both faster and less tiring than constantly switching between 100W and 200W. Most of my recent PRs have come from picking a manageable power and holding it for the entire segment. The segment I'm really trying for is 210W for 16min.

 

[HappyHighwayman]

Yeah my power meter was pricey (around 20% of the cost of the bicycle) but an amazing training tool.

 

[Climber]

Here's how Strava (and a lot of other sources) define zones for cycling. HR references off of max, ~193bpm. And Power references off Functional Threshold Power (FTP), ~200W. This distribution is from that 76mi ride.

I've been training with power for just over a year now, so I'm still kinda new to it. It's definitely helpful to see a concrete measurement of effort instead of using perceived effort. Power is probably more important in outdoor cycling than track running because the terrain changes a lot more, hehe.

The more I ride with power, the less I tend to "yo-yo" - unconsciously changing power output wildly throughout the ride. Doing 150W for the entire ride is both faster and less tiring than constantly switching between 100W and 200W. Most of my recent PRs have come from picking a manageable power and holding it for the entire segment. The segment I'm really trying for is 210W for 16min.

That's really interesting stuff! Thanks for posting it!

We can't put heart monitors on all of our athletes, so we use their PR times for distances and extrapolate what their times would be for training distances (i.e. 100m and 200m are usual race distances, but we often train them at 150m, 250m and 300m) and set a target time to complete it, and depending on what we want to develop we have a set rest period between reps and a longer time between sets.

Throughout pre-season we're mostly training capacity which is consistent with the high volume/low intensity mode that we'd be in. As me get into the season we start training power and strength in their endurance. Towards the end of the season we work on lactacid tolerance, we can't start that too soon because the intensity is really high and they can only maintain that for about 6 weeks before their body starts breaking down and they need a recovery period.

We deal with short and hard efforts and it's very specialized. I think that biking has had more technology to help quantify and manage a lot of this, you folks have been doing this very well for decades.

 

[stangmx13]

I didn't have much time to ride yesterday. So I did an interval session. It wasn't as hard as I remember. But the power graph shows the intensity wasn't that high and I was very inconsistent. Maybe that's partially because I haven't done one of these in a year. I definitely need to do these more often.

20sec full gas, 10sec rest, x8. then rest 10min. repeat 4x

 

[Sharxfan]

Well guys started the new diet this week got sick of looking at the same number on the scale. So started Monday and so far this week with 2 days at the gym I have lost 6 pounds so far. I am liking the way the scale is going and it is making the hunger pains worth it. I am hoping once I dump some more excess poundage I can really get back into running and my knees won't lay me up like they used to after a light run.

Pleased with gains on the weightlifting front as well. So far I am putting up more weight than when I was younger so happy about that and have broken through a few plateaus. I have taken to not adhering to rep count as much but am forcing myself to push past and add weight more often once I feel comfortable which has helped. Really wish I could find a weightlifting partner but no such luck so far.

 

[Holeshot]

That's good progress. Hunger pains aren't telling you food's needed; they're telling you you're alive. If no partner, then up the rep count and drop the weights a bit?

 

[Sharxfan]

That's good progress. Hunger pains aren't telling you food's needed; they're telling you you're alive. If no partner, then up the rep count and drop the weights a bit?

I could but its more of a wish someone was there so I could put up one or two more reps just to really get a better fatigue on the muscles. I have to stop early sometimes because I am not quite sure if I will be able to get it up high enough to even hit the low pegs to rack a partner would allow me to push through a little more with peace of mind.

 

[Holeshot]

Smith unit? I know it's an expense and a free bar is best, but maybe?

 

[Sharxfan]

Smith unit? I know it's an expense and a free bar is best, but maybe?

Yeah a smith would really help with that last push so I don't drop it on my face but free bar is the way to go. I will keep muddling along and hope to keep seeing gains.