Increase your Cycling Power over the winter = Faster times on 2009 (Page 9)

^^^ what he said. what I try to do is to keep my optimal cadence even.

What my optimal cadence is? well the one I feel most comfortable riding all the time, for me it is between around 90-95 rpm. For others it might be anywhere between 75 to 100 rpm, that is not all that important, what's important is that you keep your effort at that optimal cadence when possible.

With that in mind when doing intervals shooting for an specific power/HR/RPE I up my effort by changing gears (one at a time) until I am on the goal effort but my rpms remain around the same (again for me 90-95 rpm).

Hi Jorge,

I was preparing my planing for next week and realised that the 3rd workout of the week gives a total of 55min. Is it normal or am I unable to understand your formula. 

Here's how I read it

WU - 5' @ (68-73%) 

MS - 2 x 10' @ (86-91%) / 5' @ (78-83%) then 15' @ (78-83%)

CD - 5' @ (68-73%)

That would give a total of 55 minutes, is it correct? 

Thank you in advance

I did this one last week for an early start.  I did the 10' set then the 5' rest interval, then the 10' set, then went right into the 15' set as it's the same %'s as the 5' rest interval set.  I don't know if this was right, but it came out to 50' total.

Ok people; get ready to start laying the foundation to increase your power over the winter!

Some will be starting today or some of us tomorrow. Remember to read the notes and details on this thread and on the blog. As I get more information I will continue to post on my blog and anytime anyone has any questions please post in here. You can always get links to the workouts and other info on my BT log or my blog.

If any of you haven’t really take any time off from training and you fitness is solid right now, then you can go ahead and add more time on the saddle while those of us who did catch up . You can add an interval; you can make WU or CD longer or just add some time at z2-z3. Just make sure you don't kill yourself and you will be ready to do the next session 48 hrs later.

If you are like me and took time away from the saddle and need to get back in shape, then do each session as you fitness allows you. IOW, if the session is too tough then make it a bit shorter; make rests a bit longer, etc. if it is a bit easy add an interval or make it a bit longer. Within a few weeks you should be able to have a solid idea of how fit you are and how much you can push. Just remember the key is consistency; it is better to do a bit less today so you can do more the next sessions rather than doing too much today and end up too tired to do anything the next session.

Sessions start at 40-50 min and will get to 1 hr considering this are geared to do on the trainer. If you are lucky enough to live in nice weather area then you can do this outside and ride longer.

The next two weeks are prep phase - let’s get use to the training routine, understand the plan, get the body used to training again, make sure our training area is organized and ready, etc

***Remember this is a general plan with general guidelines so each of you will have to do adjustments that fit your needs, but if you follow the core of it and are consistent getting all sessions every week you WILL grow fitter and stronger***

Enjoy, train smart, be consistent and let’s all push each other!   Don’t be afraid to post questions, post your progress and go and check on each other to see they are still on the wagon!

Rencor - 2008-11-17 11:10 AM I did the first w/o this morning. I'm pleasantly suprised to see I didn't lose that much considering I haven't been on a bike since September. Of course it's only the first stage so we'll see

good job, I will start tomorrow! My schedule will follow a Tue, Thur, Sat frequency

Ok, so here goes!  I did the first workout today.  I promise I won't do this with upcoming workouts, but thought some of you analytical types might want to look at this and give me some feedback and it may answer questions that others have as they embark on this program.  I have never had any real direction as to how to train other than reading and have never really done much in the way of structured interval training.  Here are my stats from today:

Oh, ,my estimated LTHR based on self testing is 167bpm on the bike.  I am trying to get it professionally tested.

Time: 40:08 min

AveHR: 132-79%

MaxHR: 164-98%

WU: ave-115, max 142- 69-85%

Intervals:

aveHR: 154-92%

MaxHR: 164-98%

10 min after intervals: Ave-144, Max 161-86-96%

CD: Ave-130, max 138-78-83%

I would say my RPE during the intervals was at 5-6, and the CD was at 2.

I will be following a Monday, Thursday, Saturday schedule due to my business travel and it may change from time to time at that.

This is going to be very good for me!

Gregkl or others...

Wondering what you use for HRM.  I am in the market to get a new one as I have a basic polar which does not allow a lap or pause function.  Therefore I can only get an avg & max HR for the entire workout.  I assume a lap function is how you got the avg/max for all the different portions of the training session.  Is this correct?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I like my Polar (models have changed since my purchase) as I can use it for the entire tri.  But if training is the main goal, I really like my wife's Garmin 305, though it doesn't like water, so swimming is out of the question unless you do some other steps that I wouldn't bother with.  

 Were still trying to figure out what it can do.  But I really like if for running and riding and borrow it whenever I can.  Another nice feature for those of us stuck on trainers is the cadence add on ($38 at Amazon), which will give you your cadence and mph (not sure how accurate but at least it's something)  There have been some threads regarding sales at Costco which is happening now and REI's may have them in a bundle package in the next week or two.  Might be worth checking into.

Just a little warning the altitude function can be a little out of wack.

for the next few weeks I would go by RPE 1st and HR second until we do the test. That been said, given the limitations of HR training it would be wise for you to learn to develop your RPE. You will use the HR to complement your training sessions and make sure you are on the right park but RPE will always should get you closer to the actual intensity you should be training at. It just takes a bit of time to develop that skill!

Thank you so much again for doing this, Jorge.  I, like so many others, really appreciate your valuable time.  I'm really, really new to all of this, and I just want to be absolutely clear that I'm proceeding correctly.  I'm really sorry if these questions are stupid, but could I trouble you to let me know if I've got this right?

I'm in the HRM/RPE group.  So, I go to your blog and scroll down to the "Cycling Plan Week 1 (HRM & RPE)" and find this chart.  I then see what I need to do for my first session or Q1.

The first thing I need to do for my first session is a warm up (WU), specifically WU #1.  So, I then find your WU chart for HRM/RPEs to see what the WU #1 looks like.

WU #1 will be 10' @68-73% HR + 5' as 30" @ 97-103%HR/30" 68-73HR.  So, I will spend my first 10 minutes getting and keeping my HR between 68-73%.  Then I spend the next 5 minutes and 30 seconds getting and keeping my HR between 97-103%.  Then I spend 30 seconds between 68-73%.

So, then I check out what the MS involves.  I spend my first 30 seconds getting and keeping my HR between 95-100%.  I take a rest for 30 seconds and repeat this 9 times.  I would then spend my next 10 minutes getting and keeping my HR between 78-83%.

I then do my cool down which consists of 5 minutes of getting and keeping my HR between 68-73%, with an RPE of 2-3.

So, I will have spent 16 minutes in WU, 20 minutes in MS and 5 minutes in CD with a total of 41 minutes.

Am I on the right track?  Thank you soooo very much!

- Lora