Re: Intro -- was Re: Zefal Isotherm water bottle keeps water coldest? - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

07-14-2004, 10:05 AM

The Real Bev wrote:
>>Sounds like, apart from general lack of
>>practice/conditioning/fitness, you may be having trouble pacing
>>yourself. Slow down. Coast downhill, go easy uphill, and ride at a
>>relaxed pace on level ground.
>
>
> After 10 years you'd think I'd had enough practice, right? It gets no
> easier AND I go no faster AND I get just as tired.

*nod* When I was riding 13 years ago, I did exactly that -- coasted
downhill, went easy uphill, relaxed pace on what level ground I could
find in WV, and never got any faster. I can't believe that I can do the
same thing now, 13 years older, and have different results; it seems to
me that I'm going to have to challenge myself if I want to improve.

My websearch skills are abysmal (for someone who graduated university
with a 4.0 GPA, I'm astonishingly stupid with a search engine), but I
googled rec.bicycles.* on improving speed and took a look at the most
promising-looking of the gazillion results. Specifically, these came up
for training techniques to use: intervals, attacking hills, and
increasing cadence (spinning). Additionally, there were some
recommendations of increasing muscle strength with weight training.

Sounds reasonable to me. Any reason these wouldn't work for the over-40
female crowd?

These are things that I'm willing to try, and actually, I've been doing
strength training, started that before I started cycling again. I'm
inclined to do intervals on my indoor trainer, but my 16-yr-old son
would probably get a kick out of sprinting with Mom (and he's a
slavedriver when he decides to take on the role of coach/trainer

).
Hills I can find easily enough here in the Southern Tier. Spinning I
can do indoors or out.

I found a training regimen that incorporates most of it. Goes like this:

· Day 1: 1-2 hour ride with 30 minutes of hard effort
· Day 2: 1-2 hour ride at steady pace (65% MHR)
· Day 3: Rest
· Day 4: 1-1.5 hour ride with hills
· Day 5: Rest or 1-hour easy recovery ride
· Day 6: 1-1.5 hours with interval training
· Day 7: Rest or 30-minute easy recovery ride

Comments?

--
the black rose
GO LANCE GO!!!
proud to be owned by a yorkie
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