I spent some time working out a "Cycling Cycle", and started it last Sunday, just haven't had time to post anything.
First off, this not “race training” which would have started last winter and by this point in the race season would be focused on tactics, Sport-Specific and continually ramping up Mental Emotional Preparedness. This go-round for me is more “cycling GPP”, the plan being to add miles incrementally and get in the “seat time” I neglected to do the last few years before the Big Ride in September, which made the riding at least, less enjoyable.
Since this is “tourist” training, with the focus on building mileage, I’ll use a HR monitor to track intensity, but that will be less dialed in because of so many variables on any given ride: weather, wind, traffic, riding with others, and route. I’m not going to ride the same routes all the time because I’d rather have unexpected intensity than always ride alone or go bonkers on the same stretch of road time after time. (If someone wanted to totally dial in RPE, a wind trainer would be the way to go, and I’ve had enough years of using those to shudder at the thought.)
In general, I’ll save the bigger hills (We have those here in Oregon, unlike say, Florida) for Mondays, but there are always hills (contrary to laws of physics, geography and common sense, some roads ARE uphill both ways).
Besides, touring is just that way -- racing has variables too, but you might go over the course many times before the event to plan your strategy; when touring unfamiliar country, you never know what you might encounter, so in a sense, this is a sport-specific workout also.
From the medium intensity to the high intensity days, I’ll add miles in increments of six. That’s a somewhat arbitrary number – five didn’t seem like enough, 10 are too many, six appears to be what my schedule can accommodate when the miles start adding up.
That schedule also dictated that it’s a 5x7 – no matter how good my intentions, there’d be no way, for instance, that I lead class until 7:00 on a Tuesday then ride 40 miles.
Mileages:
Week Sunday Mon
1 12 18
2 18 24
3 24 30
4 30 36
5 36 42
6 42 48
7 48 54
Total 462 miles
Since cycling benefits from upper body strength, but doesn’t build it, I also have a 2-handed, 20# Clubbell®® routine as part of this training cycle.
Flock of Pigeons (practically designed for cyclists) and Spider Monkey are my Flows of choice for those days. I'll continue with Thursday Yoga also.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
I/F
"Fluid Arms" warm up
clubbells - 2-handed 20#
5 reps, 3 sets, 2+ minute rest between sets
Mills
Parry Casts
Side Lunges
Hammer Swings (as in TBF)
12 mile day (actually closer to 14, still dinking with the bike computer settings.)
W/ Craig,
Sunday, June 1, 2008
I/F
"Fluid Arms" warm up
clubbells - 2-handed 20#
5 reps, 4 sets, 2 minute rests
Mills
Parry Casts
Side Lunges
Hammer Swings
18 miles, flat, a few rollers.
Forgot HR monitor. Next time.
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Originally Posted by Coach Gostnell
