Anyone Interested in Bike training program?

[pranavnegandhi]

I did a longer than usual ride this morning of around 45 kms at an average speed a hair below 25 kmph. For the past week or so I have upshifted to the 42-16 as opposed to 42-18 that I kept to for most of my rides this year and the bike has felt much more solid for some reason. It propels ahead very smoothly on every stroke of the pedal. The good part is that I was able to maintain my cadence at 100 in spite of the upshift.

I've ceased interval training since my accident last month, replacing it instead with hill climbing. I found a 800m hill of easy gradient nearby which I ride 10 times up and down at high cadence.

My weight loss plan has completely taken a hit though, crowded out by the flu, injuries and deadlines. Hoping to lose at least a couple of kgs before December end.

And the gruesome scene I saw on my way back. This incidentally is the same road which I showed some days back which I really like for its shady cover. At least the tree didn't fall over.




.p

[prabuddhadg]

While I can now maintain a cadence of 100, I have consciously reduced my cadence and moved to the bigger chainring because I tend to feel a little stiff in my knees after a long ride at a high cadence. Only when I am on a slight incline, I reduce the gearing and spin faster. Otherwise, its mostly 80 rpm. In fact, the 111km ride of last Sunday showed an average cadence of 76. As my leg muscles get a little stronger, they are become capable of taking some of the strain. In any case, I feel that beyond a point, a high cadence is not good for the knees.

[pranavnegandhi]

That's true, PDG. I target 100 and usually end up in the early 90's. But I'm happy I've been able to maintain the same cadence even at a higher gear. A year ago, this would have been impossible. I've increased my average over such rides from <20 kmph to 25 kmph after 11 months of scattered training effort. I'm happy for now.

[kk27]

& certainly not good for speed ....

Even I've switched to what Prabu mentions, & I too am happy with it & sometimes consciously grind on a higher gear to compensate my strength training at the gym.

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

Somehow I do not want to start a new thread as I fear it might get lost and hence come back to this legendary thread. Ok, I am hoping to resume my training after a gap of two weeks followng a fall during a criterium race. Though not seriously injured, I got a bad gash on my knee which took all this time to heal. Cannot wait to start riding again .

I was in the third week of my interval training on 39 when this happened and I am thinking of repeating the whole month as the last two weeks have pushed me back on the fitness level. So, the whole of Dec on 39 and then Jan on 53 would be the plan for now. And then I might do some cycling in Switzerland starting Feb (whether permiting) .

Cheers
Pankaj

[sumitpal]

cycling in Switzerland starting Feb (whether permiting)

Ah, riding with Cancellara?

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

cycling in Switzerland starting Feb (whether permiting)

Ah, riding with Cancellara?

Not interested .

And then I might do some cycling in Switzerland starting Feb (whether permiting)

Weather and not whether .

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

To make whatever good possible of a bad week, yesterday I planed to ride to Nandi Hills (Bangalore).
This was my first attempt at climbing Nandi on my road bike and I was a little sceptical about the possibility of riding it non stop with 39/23 minimum.
I have done it twice earlier on my MTB but then there is a great difference between 24/25 and 39/23.

From HSR Layout I took the Airport Volvo with my bike (the driver knows me now ) till just before the Airport turn on Bellary road. Started from there to the Idli point riding with a moderate pace, averaging around 30 kmph for a distance of 22 kms. Stopped for water and bananas.

At the base of Nandi Hill I reset my cyclocomp and started off with 39/19. The weather was cool and nice. At the six km mark I geared down to 39/21 and the climb did not feel very hard. At the mid way the gradient got a little steeper and I went down to the minimum, 39/23. I was still going at around 12-13 kmph and my breathing got a little faster. Tried not to worry much about the effort and tried enjoying the scenery but it is not easy to enjoy the landscape when you are in pain.

I was alternating between riding on back of the saddle (with gluteal muscles) and riding lurching forward on the handle bars. It was working good till the last few hairpin bends when I got off my saddle to climb the very steep portions just after the bends. But surprisingly, although the gradient was a lot steeper in the last section of the climb, my breathing was better and my legs did not feel the same pain as felt at the mid way.

Finally, entered the legendary gate of the fort and felt very satisfied. My computer showed 32:15 min which I think is not bad. Met Dipankar on the top who was cooling down. His was training for the Bombay-Pune race and he timed around 25 min (he was not happy about it as his best is around 23 min).

Met Vikram Natrajan too on his Firefox roadpro. We cooled down a little, had a tender coconut and started our decent. I was missing the V-brakes of my MTB while descending. By the time we reached the base my fist was hurting like hell holding on to the brakes all the time.

Had a breakfast of idlis and wadas and rode back to my place (another 60-70 kms) with Vikram via the Devanahallu - Hoskote - Whitefield road. I liked the road very much as it is very smooth with very light traffic. Good alternative for people living near Sarjapur Road to avoid the overcrowded Bellary road.

Now I need to get back to my training seriously.

Cheers
Pankaj

[deepakvrao]

Congrats - that's a great timing and a tough gearing too.

How do you carry your bike on the Volvos? In the luggage compartment?

[sumitpal]

That sounds like a great effort, you seemed to have settled down to a nice rhythm in the second half of the climb. Congrats on you first nandi on road bike, by the way, what kind of time difference do you have with your MTB climb?

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

How do you carry your bike on the Volvos? In the luggage compartment?

I take the airport Volvo which does not have a luggage compartment. If you have observed them they have two push down seats in the middle (in front of the entrance). One can easily sit on that seat holding on to his bike without blocking the pathway. Works out good in the early morning buses when the bus is not crowded.

If you want to try it then it is better to go to the starting point of the bus so that you can talk(convince) the driver. Helps if you can talk in Kannada.
I think it will be difficult to get on those buses on the way as it might be crowded and the driver might not be interested in getting you on.

That sounds like a great effort, you seemed to have settled down to a nice rhythm in the second half of the climb. Congrats on you first nandi on road bike, by the way, what kind of time difference do you have with your MTB climb?

Thanks. I have not timed my MTB climbs but I am sure it is more than my road bike attempt (low gears - less speed).

Cheers
Pankaj

[bonigv]

Sounds like a great climb.Congrats. Never been to Nandi hills!

Does anyone have the summary of this 3 months training program? After wading through much of the posts on this mega thread I understood some things in piece meal. I am summarizing what I understood.

1. Month 1 = Base Building @ > 100rpm in low gears on easy terrain : 50k rides thrice a week : One 70-100k weekend ride in high rpm + A recovery ride.

2. Month 2 = Interval Training : Keeping in low gears ride to exhaustion, hold it there for 1mnts - 3mnts as the fitness improves. Each hilt followed by a quick 2mnt cool off. Do in sets.

3. Month 3 = Form Maintenance (No idea what it is)

Is the program somewhere in this thread? I'd like to start on it from Jan.

[Pankaj_Chuladhara]

Does anyone have the summary of this 3 months training program?

I have been doing this training for the past two months (not to the actual target though) and this is what I have understood.
This training is from a road bike perspective with standard gears (39/53 in the front/chainring).

1. Base riding: 5 months
Like you I too got it wrong initially. Base riding is not actually the part of this 3 months training. It is a preparation for the training where you ride around 5 months on low gears and high cadence (~ 100 rpm with 39/19 base). This is basically the time needed for one to get used to be on the bike and riding in a more aerobic manner. I had already rode for around 5 months (~ 2700 kms) on my MTB when I started this training. And as I got it wrong I actually rode the first month on 39/19 with ~ 100 rpm. It actually helped me as riding high cadence was new to me. So, even if you are riding for some time I would suggest you ride on this combination for atleast a month if you are not used to high cadence riding. You will notice a lot of improvement in your aerobic fitness with this part of training.

2. Interval Training 1: 1 month
Once you are done with your base riding you can move to interval training on 39 chainring. In the first week you can do one set of 3 (1X3) intervals, each of around 2 min followed by a 2 min recovery. So, (2 min (39/17-15) - 2 min Recovery) X 3. In the next week you can increase the interval to 3 min keeping the recovery period same (2 min). In the next week you can do multiple sets of the same intervals. In the last week you can do some hill repeats (around one km long).
Two interval trainings in a week is sufficient. My week plan during the interval training.

Tuesday: Interval training
Wednesday: Regular ride without intervals but with sustained effort throughout (39/17 as base).
Thursday: Interval training
Friday: Regular ride without intervals but with sustained effort throughout (39/17 as base).
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Long aerobic ride (~ 100 kms)
Monday: Recovery or rest

On the weekdays I ride around 25 kms (time constraint) but you should ride around 40 kms if you can.

3. Interval Training 2: 1 month
In this month you need to do the same interval training as in # 2 but on 53 chainring.

4. Form maintenance: Even I am not clear about it. Will ask Rajesh when the time comes .

This is a very nice training whether you are racing or just want to go faster.
Hope I have summarized it well. Please point out if I am wrong somewhere.

Cheers
Pankaj

[bonigv]

Thanks Pankaj, The post clarified the Base building duration as well as the first two months cleanly. Good that you posted right after. I really hope nobody picks up my summary as THE PLAN!! It would be nice if Abhi or Rajesh can put up a sticky with THE PLAN.

Now I have a problem. My bike is an MTB, Trek 3700 and on that Crank has 42/34/24 , the Cassette is 13-15-17-19-21-24-34 7 Speed. So I will need some loose translations of the training program to fit my bike.

May be I can do the base building on 34/17? I am not sure. Once I can comfortably hold the cadence over a 100k I can move on to the interval.

Interval 1 : 34/15-13?
Interval 2 : 42/15-13?

Would it work? In any case I am sure it will benefit. Any suggested cadence for the Intervals? Looks like HRM and Cyclocomp are must to follow this.

To put my current level in perspective: Khadki - NDA [Pune] round trip 33km is my daily ride (5 days). I usually ride @ 34/15 to NDA - mostly positive gradient and 42/13 on the way back. The small climbs I usually do @ 34/15-17 - including the chandni chowk climb. I also commute on my bike. So in a day I ride about 50k. Weekends I do 70K and am planning to take it to 100k from two weekends from now. The current speed is 20.5-21.9 kmph range. Riding for two months now and must have ridden about 1700km so far.

[prabuddhadg]

Interesting ride, Pankaj. Though I have never been to Nandi, from what I have heard, yours seems to be a pretty good first effort. I also have a similar style of moving back and forth on the saddle; in addition, I also do short cycles of off the saddle riding.

About your feeling less discomfort on the second steeper part of the climb, it would be mostly because you found the right ratio for the day. For all riding, and particularly for climbing, finding the right rhythm is very important. Great going.

[sumitpal]

I finally switched to road bike from the MTB today, hopefully, I will be able to train for three months on the road bike now and meet my season targets at the end of it. I rode a short TT just to set an initial benchmark, averaged 37.5kmph for 7kms and then I had to ease up due to some health problems but I am still very happy. Last year I had a hard time averaging 32kmph on the same course, and I even had my office backpack with me on today's ride!

Training certainly helps!

[cryptic_abbreviator]

I do not expect many to keep up with the training. It is tough and needs a lot of time but it is fun. Even if you do 40% of it you should see a marked improvement in your cycling.

I know there is a newer thread, and that the quoted text is about a year old

If possible could you please share the training program ?

thanks
gr