If i'm lucky, i can get in one ride a week on dirt and try to use it as fun/enjoyment. I'm hoping to supplement this with 45-90min trainer rides 2-3x/week. I am a training noob, so, i never know if i'm over training, too many intervals, or needing to build base miles. Here's a few examples of my current routines. 1min Intervals-58min10min> Warmup 1min> zone 5- 1min> zone 3 (Repeat interval 7 times) 10min> zone 4 1min> zone 5- 1min> zone 3 (Repeat interval 7 times) 10min> Cooldown SS Building Routine-70min 10min> Warmup 20min> Standing with HR @ zone 4/5 5min> HR @ zone 2 20min> Standing with HR @ zone 4/5 5min> HR @ zone 2 10min> Cooldown Zone 3 Step Up-70min 10min> Warmup 5min> zone 3- 2min> zone 5- 3min> zone 2 (Repeat 5x) 10min> Cooldown 10min+Intervals-108min 10min> Warmup 10min> zone 4/5- 1min> zone 5- 1min> zone 3- 1min> zone 5- 1min> zone 3- 1min> zone 5- 1min> zone 3- 1min> zone 5- 5min> zone 2 (Repeat 4x) 10min> Cooldown I get a bit tired of pushing hard with these routines more than 2x a week. I'm hoping to find a cycle that will help me stay motivated to ride the trainer while getting fitness and strength. What do you do on the trainer or rollers to get in pedal time and build stamina/power?
Focus on intensity for that time...if you're going for 90 minutes, stop and get off the bike for about five minutes in the middle for a mental break...here's some variations: Pyramids: start in an easy gear and get the rpm up to 100, shift to the next hardest gear after 30 seconds, shift harder again after 30 seconds, and shift one more time and hold it for one minute at 90 rpm. Then back it off in 30 second blocks and get the rpm back to 100. Once you find the right starting point, you'll be maxing out your effort...then give yourself 10 minutes of EZ spinning in let the legs and heart recover. descending intervals: spin the hardest gear you can at 100 rpm for 75 seconds, rest 60, spin 60, rest 45, spin 45, rest 30, spin 30, rest 30, spin 30. old style intervals: spin the hardest gear you can at 115 rpm for 20 seconds. Rest 30. Repeat until you have to shift to an easier gear or you puke. there's other variants, but it looks like you're already getting those. Pay attention to your gearing and speed...if you're effort is up but your heart rate and speed/gearing is low, you're overtraining. I'm time crunched (hey, that's a book title) so most of my CC/VQ is this style twice a week leading up to the event...gets me to sub 5-hours the last two years with only being able to do one 4-5 hour dirt ride a month. Intensity builds endurance. Maximize that intensity by resting enough in-between intervals during your sessions. Crispy out in your area should be able to chime in...I get my advice from Robert Kahler down here in OC...
That will be a challenge since i am a horrible "spinner". Thats why i started liking SS so much. I really like the Pyramids idea. When you say, "Maximize that intensity by resting enough in-between intervals during your sessions." what do you mean by resting enough in-between intervals? Do you mean not to do intervals 2 days in a row, or more like 2/1 or 1/1 intensity to rest ratio? I'm new to this training stuff and would like to start from scratch.
Whatever your peak heart rate is, you should be able to hit it for each set/type of intervals when you're on your trainer for the 60-90 minutes. You shouldn't be filling that time with just intervals. Say you do a set of 5-6 intervals, 30-seconds on w/ 30 seconds of rest, and you're max heart rate hits 170 or close to it each time, and that's about 90%-95% of you're absolute max. Then spin easy for 10-15 minutes, not so easy that there's no resistance, but with enough effort that the heartrate stays in zone 3. Whatever you're next set is, you should be able to hit that same heart rate target from the first set of intervals. If you're only able to punch the heart rate up to 160, you haven't recovered enough and aren't getting the benefit...kind of like trying to do a hard ride on tired legs...you only make the legs more tired because they haven't recovered yet. overtraining tip...check you're heart rate in the morning after being awake and up for about 10 minutes. If it's normally 40 and the day after a ride it's 45, you haven't recovered. Ride easy, if at all. The waking heartrate is always going to be lower than when you usually measure you're resting heartrate during the day. And while spinning is traditionally a roadie thing, it'll really help out on tempo-style climbs and being stable across a whole range of pedal speeds.
You can get a wahoo sensor that connects to strava via the wahoo fitness app and do challenges on it.
Just got my Wahoo trainer...after melting tires and rebuilding fluid trainers, we'll see how this works for getting the intensity going.
Ummm, ya... i barely heat up my trainer tire. I guess that explains my level of intensity. I've already got some motivation from the ideas here. Thnx guys. Now to put in the hours and hope to get stronger than before my back surgery.
http://www.trainerroad.com/ + http://www.thesufferfest.com/ Enjoy. Sufferfest is more road oriented with their videos-- but some intervals you won't even notice the video as your will just have your head down trying to hang on. Trainerroad has about 10 different plans with it and makes the trainer much more enjoyable. Makes you have to focus on the ride vs just zoning out and bored. They just put out a MTB specific plan, too.
