Good Read
by Dave
*I am just a recreational rider, I don't have to do interval training .....
do I?*
You don't have to do interval training but if you want to be faster, or just
more comfortable riding your normal pace, intervals will make you stronger
on the bike.
What is an “Interval”? In 'Interval' is any period of time where your pace
is faster or harder than normal. Intervals can range from 15 seconds to 30
minutes. Obviously, you can't ride the same pace for 30 minutes that you
can for 15 seconds. Therefore, the shorter the interval, the faster one
typically rides. Longer intervals (10 min and longer) are typically done
at a time trial pace.
Why do Intervals? By riding faster than normal for discrete periods of
time, you force your body to work harder than you would for your normal
cruising speed. You can't do the whole ride at this pace, but by breaking
them into discrete periods, or “intervals”, you can sustain a higher speed
for that shorter period of time. Now, you may be wondering why you need
to go faster if you don't plan to ride any faster. Let's say you want to do
Ragbrai and you normally ride around 14 MPH and you are happy with that.
Why should you train any faster than that? Good question! There are
reasons why you should train faster than you plan to ride. First, by
training at a faster speed, you force your body to adapt to a higher
demand. Your heart, lungs, blood and muscles all adapt and become more
efficient. This allows you to do two things better – you can ride your
normal pace more easily because your body is more efficient and you aren't
riding at as near your maximum. If you train at 16 MPH and ride at 14, 14
becomes easier (and therefore more enjoyable). You now have greater
aerobic capacity and you have some energy in reserve. Again, if you
normally are riding at 14 MPH, you aren't maxed out at 14. You have
something left if a hill or headwind gets in the way. Or if your friend
takes off and tries to leave you behind.
How do you do an Interval? Although there are a lot of sophisticated ways
to do intervals using heart rate or power meters, all you really need to do
is ride a little faster for a given period of time, recover and do it again
one or more times. One easy way to do them is just randomly. Let's say you
are riding through town to get to the bike trail. Every time you come to a
hill, step on the pedals and accelerate up the hill. Spin easily on the
level and downhills. Or, when you come to a stop sign or stop light,
accelerate out of the stop and hold it for 30 seconds. If you like
structure, you can head out to an open road (straight, flat, no stops work
best) and pick up the pace a couple MPH for a given duration of time. 30
seconds or one minute are convenient intervals. You can then take a rest
period equal to the work period (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off) or come up
with your own pattern. Do as many as you can until you can't maintain that
pace any longer.
When should you do Intervals? Intervals are a hard workout - that's why
they make you faster. However, you should only do these once or twice a
week at the most. Always give yourself at least two days between interval
sessions as you need to allow your body to recover for at least 48 hours.
For example, you might do them on a Tuesday and then again on Saturday. A
good time to do them is during one of your long rides. If you are going out
on a two hour ride, do a 5 minute interval every 30 minutes. This will
add some speed to your 'long slow distance' rides.
So give them a try, they aren't just for racers. Imagine yourself riding a
century ride this year and being able to comfortably ride your previous pace
and have some reserve left when your buddy/spouse/arch rival tries to pull
away. Or better yet, imagine dropping them!
Maybe I'm finding this so the group will slow down so I wont get left behind
:)
Dave
14 years, 9 months
- 2
- 2
Found this Today
by Dave
The Hammer Syndrome
We may be entering the age of power monitoring and periodization of
training, yet it remains difficult for many riders to wrap their heads
around what smart training really means. The philosophy of "hard riding" is
one of the pervading cycling training misconceptions of the 21st century.
It is the idea that periodization and scientifically-based training is great
for those with time to burn, but for those under severe time restraints, the
way to get the best bang for our buck is by going hard all day, every day.
Even those who don't consciously embrace this antiquated training
methodology often fall to its pretty clutches when they get caught up in the
group ride hammerfest mentality. Even when they set out for a moderate or
easy recovery ride, they can't resist the temptation to jump on with the
first group that comes flying by. The pace skyrockets at the rise in the
road and the end result is the same—a never-ending string of high-tempo
riding with little to no recovery.
The result of this type of training is an ailment I call the Zone 3
Syndrome. Before we get into the syndrome itself, let's do a little
self-diagnosis. Start by asking yourself the following questions:
Are you exceedingly proud of the average speeds of your rides, and do you
gauge your training progress by the improvement of your average speed from
one ride to another?
Do you find group rides fairly easy, even when the pace picks up, yet you
can't seem to make that final acceleration or stay with the group over the
steepest part of the climb?
Do you have a maximum heart rate of 195, yet you haven't seen it go above
180 since the season began?
Does the thought of letting a rider pass you on the bike path make you ill,
or do you pride yourself on the fact that no rider has ever passed you on a
training ride—even on recovery days?
Do you often leave the house with one ride in mind but more often than not
find yourself in the middle of the weekday morning world championships?
Do you find it impossible to imagine that riding with a heart rate at 130
beats-per-minute could possibly be anything other than an utter waste of
time?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be suffering from
the Zone 3 Syndrome.
The Problems with Plateau
Whether it's a desire to get the most out of every minute on the bike or
just an inability to resist the temptation of searing your lungs on a daily
basis, the effect is the same when you're caught in the rut of the Zone 3
Syndrome. Intensity on every ride with no recovery results in sustained and
difficult-to-overcome mediocrity and a seemingly endless plateau of
middle-of-the-road fitness.
Because adequate recovery time is not given between workouts, the body
reaches a level of sustained exhaustion. Due to this ongoing exhaustion, the
upper reaches of intensity required to induce training adaptation are not
attainable. Workouts that are intended to be done in zone 4 (threshold) and
zone 5 (anaerobic) all wind up hovering within a stones throw of zone 3
(tempo, otherwise known as the dreaded grey zone).
To make matters worse, as a result of frustration with poor maximum efforts
and sustained plateaus of fitness, the rider grows desperate to break
though. Thus zone 1 recovery rides and zone 2 endurance rides start to creep
up in intensity until, across the board, every mile is done in this foggy,
dead zone of zone 3 riding.
Although there is a time and a place for zone 3, generally speaking, it is
not considered hard enough to cause a desired physical adaptation. At the
same time, it is too hard to allow for proper recovery. Therefore, you don't
want to be spending the majority of your time there. Remember the old adage:
When you go fast, you should be going really fast. And when you're going
slow, you should be going really slow.
Remember that the body is incredibly good at adapting itself to whatever
stress is imposed on it. So when you spend most of your time in Zone 3, the
only real adaptation that occurs is the body becomes incredibly adept at
riding in Zone 3.
You can go out the door, hit a nice, fast tempo and hold it all the way
around your favorite loop and back to your house with an average speed over
20 miles per hour. Because of this zone 3 fitness, moderate zone 2 riding
(which is where 90 percent of any cyclists' training should ideally be),
feels ridiculously easy.
Breaking Out of the Rut
The good news is that if you've reached this level with your riding, chances
are you've built up a pretty good base of fitness. To take your riding to
the next level, it may just be a question of backing off a bit, letting your
body reset and starting again on a slightly more disciplined training plan.
Before you change your workout habits, for one week take your resting heart
rate every morning before you get out of bed. Then for two weeks after that,
restrict yourself to zone 1 riding. (If you don't know your zones, this
means easy.) Little girls on roller skates should be passing you on the
path.
Some of you are thinking right now, "This doesn't include the hard group
ride I do every Saturday morning though, right?" Are you starting to see how
you managed to get into this situation?
After a week, you should start to see your resting heart rate come down.
Wait until it hits rock bottom and then rest another three to five days.
Now, you're body is reset. It's time to get going.
The first thing you'll notice when you're well rested is your heart rate
will increase quickly and go up higher. This does not mean you've lost
fitness, it just means you're fresh. In fact, during your week or two of
recovery riding, the damage you've previously done to your body will heal
and you might notice a significant improvement in fitness.
Yes, that's right. An improvement in your cycling strength from doing
nothing. In other words, you've done all the hard work and you've torn your
body down over and over. Now all you have to do is let it build itself back
up, stronger and faster than before.
So now you're ready to go out to see if you can beat your average speed on
your daily 18 mile loop. Wrong! You've turned over a new leaf and you're now
what they call in the industry a smart trainer. Build intensity into your
program but focus on quality rather than quantity.
Instead of doing your 60 minute ride at 90 percent of your threshold heart
rate, break the ride up into intervals. If you want to work on your
threshold power, do three 10-minute intervals right at your threshold (your
legs and lungs begin to burn and you find it hard to talk). Rest for five or
10 minutes in between and then go again.
After a month you might notice your threshold power or speed start to
plateau. Take an easy week, let your resting heart rate drop back down
(presumably it has started to rise over the last three weeks of training)
and then start to work on your anaerobic power and endurance.
Do some shorter three-minute intervals at maximum effort. Give yourself
plenty of rest in between so that each interval is better than the one
before. Experiment to see how much intensity you can handle in a week. Start
with two days and build to three. Rarely will you want to do more than three
days of intensity in a week.
Finally, the most important thing to remember is when you start to get tired
and the quality of your intervals starts to diminish, do not try to push
through. Rest up until the quality returns to your workouts. As much as you
hate to miss workouts, nothing will hurt your cycling ability more than
chronic, mediocre, low-quality training.
14 years, 9 months
- 1
- 0
Re: [CKcycle] CKcycle Digest, Vol 7, Issue 3
by brad.blonde＠plantpioneer.com
Your right Nikki
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
-----Original Message-----
From: "ckcycle-request(a)lists.ncf.ca" <ckcycle-request(a)lists.ncf.ca>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:26:51
To: ckcycle(a)lists.ncf.ca<ckcycle(a)lists.ncf.ca>
Subject: CKcycle Digest, Vol 7, Issue 3
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Classes at Competitive Edge (Nikki Morris)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:26:37 -0500
From: Nikki Morris <nikmorris.unscripted(a)hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CKcycle] Classes at Competitive Edge
To: <ckcycle(a)lists.ncf.ca>
Message-ID: <BAY113-W302B4F25555D04550BC4E180620(a)phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
Hi there
Ok, I'm a little confused...I thought spin classes during the weekdays were changed to 6:30 as of the New Year....are they know back to 5:30?
Nikki
From: compedge(a)pppoe.ca
To: ckcycle(a)lists.ncf.ca
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:16:58 -0500
Subject: [CKcycle] Classes at Competitive Edge
Hi All.
I thought I?d send out the Spin Class schedule for
those of you wishing to take your riding inside on those cold day.
If you are a member you these classes are free.
For non-members you can join us for $5.00 a class.
Any questions? my e-mail is sydkneeca(a)yahoo.ca
I typically teach the 5:30 Thursday night and the Saturday
10:15am.
Hope to see you there/here J
Ann
November
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
9:00am 50/50 spin
3
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
4
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
5
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
6
9:00am Spin/Core
7
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
8
9
9:00am 50/50 spin
10
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
11
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
12
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
13
9:00am Spin/Core
14
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
15
16
9:00am 50/50 spin
17
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
18
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
19
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
20
9:00am Spin/Core
21
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
22
23
9:00am 50/50 spin
24
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
25
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
26
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
27
9:00am Spin/Core
28
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
29
30
9:00am 50/50 spin
_________________________________________________________________
Reinvent how you stay in touch with the new Windows Live Messenger.
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End of CKcycle Digest, Vol 7, Issue 3
*************************************
14 years, 9 months
- 2
- 1
Classes at Competitive Edge
by Competitive Edge
Hi All.
I thought I'd send out the Spin Class schedule for those of you wishing to
take your riding inside on those cold day.
If you are a member you these classes are free. For non-members you can
join us for $5.00 a class.
Any questions. my e-mail is sydkneeca(a)yahoo.ca
I typically teach the 5:30 Thursday night and the Saturday 10:15am.
Hope to see you there/here :-)
Ann
November
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
9:00am 50/50 spin
3
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
4
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
5
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
6
9:00am Spin/Core
7
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
8
9
9:00am 50/50 spin
10
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
11
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
12
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
13
9:00am Spin/Core
14
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
15
16
9:00am 50/50 spin
17
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
18
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
19
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
20
9:00am Spin/Core
21
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
22
23
9:00am 50/50 spin
24
12:10pm Pump It
(Resistance Training)
5:30 pm Spin/Core
25
7:00am Spin
9:00am Aerobics
12:10am Aerobics
26
12:10 Core
5:30 pm Spin
27
9:00am Spin/Core
28
9:00 Stretch
10:15 Spin
29
30
9:00am 50/50 spin
14 years, 9 months
- 3
- 2
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