Newbie Cyclists Training Guide
There’s a wide gulf between riding your road bike for fun and doing competitive racing. Usually the first time racer is amazed at how fast the racing crowd really is, at whatever level he or she enters. That gap between club rider and racer is large and difficult to overcome, unless the would-be racer has a plan. And that plan means a training schedule designed for your body type and what type of racing you plan to do.
Training on a road bike does not simply mean going out and riding hard every day. That would be a lot like simply riding for fun. With training, every day has a purpose. With training you’ve got to keep in mind the effort and recovery cycle. Almost like a weight lifter, who builds upper body muscle one day, then the next day works on his lower body while the upper body is recovering from efforts the previous day.
Below is a typical training schedule for cyclists that can be used as a basis for your workouts:
Sunday: A typical cycling training schedule starts on Sunday. Sunday is race day. Go out and race if you can, or at least find a fast club ride that can push you harder than training alone. If you get dropped, that’s fine. We just want to get as hard a workout as possible. Note to those just starting out. If you’ve never raced before, then do fast club rides first. Once you get to the point where you are not getting dropped and find yourself with some legs left at the end of the ride, then begin considering your first race.
Monday: Monday is a recovery day. Go out in an easy gear and spin. A nice easy ride, under an hour is fine. Your only goal is to flush out lactic acid buildup from the race or fast club ride on Sunday.
Tuesday: Tuesday is sprint day to build speed. Warm up for 30 minutes or so, then practice gaining top speed in the big ring (large front chainring). Here, it’s great to have a training partner you can draft. Allow you partner to ride in front and slowly build speed, then practice jumping around in a larger gear, then settle in at a high speed and hold it to your imaginary finish line.
Wednesday: Wednesday is long day to build endurance. Go out with plenty of water and some snacks and ride in the small ring at a pace just above Monday spin pace. You want to push a little, but mainly you want to go at least as far as your Sunday race length, but preferable longer. Say your Sunday club ride is 40 miles, you want to try to get a 50 – 60 mile Wednesday ride in. If you are alone, you should shorten the length here because you don’t have the advantage of a draft as you do on a club ride, so keep this in mind when deciding on ride length. Also, if you are a beginner, and are getting dropped on Sundays, then it’s fine to start out at 15 miles or so and gradually work your way up.
Thursday: Thursday is interval day. Thursday builds your heart and lungs. Get a good warm up. Then find a larger gear than your Wednesday endurance ride gear, but not a big sprint gear, and jump hard, then sit down and hold it for 45 seconds. Then when your heart rate goes down after a minute or so, jump again for 30 seconds. Then when your heart rate comes down, jump again for 15 seconds. Repeat these sets of intervals as many times as you can. Remember, early on, only do a few sets and build slowly.
Friday and Saturday: Friday and Saturday should not be too strenuous. A nice spin, less than Wednesday length on Friday, followed by a short spin on Saturday is fine. You want to be well rested for the Sunday race or club ride.
Throughout all of this, please remember to go it at your own pace. It is very easy to do too much, and ruin a good week of training. It’s far better to start easy and slowly build.
Brett writes about cycling, computers and adjustable safety razors. Take a look at his <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” href=”http://www.adjustablesafetyrazor.com/merkur-safety-razor.shtml”>Merkur adjustable safety razor</a> page for info on Merkur’s adjustable safey razors, and his <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” href=”http://www.adjustablesafetyrazor.com/parker-safety-razor.shtml”>Parker adjustable safety razor</a> page about Parker’s current safety razor offerings.
