# Winter Training Questions



## 1spd (Jun 14, 2012)

Ok, so my goal for next year is simple. I don't plan on racing (not at the moment though the thought is in the back of my head-been some 15+ yrs since I have raced a road bike). I simply want to increase my endurance.

I have a Garmin 500 w/ HR and have mapped out my zones this morning. I even went and did a recovery ride today doing my best to stay in zone 1 (holy crap that is hard to do). I know that I need to work on base miles over the winter even though I really haven't stopped riding at all. I mean, I feel like base miles means you are starting over and I simply haven't stopped yet. None the less, I need to figure out how to go about things this winter.

I pretty much road my SS mtb the past couple of years and just got back into riding a road bike this past summer. So I have options as far as bikes are concerned. I also have a fixie w/ a flip-flop rear wheel as well.

I can pretty much get in about 1-1.5 hrs a day of riding (I can dip out at lunch basically) or perhaps a little longer if I can get it on the schedule ahead of time. I can also put in a solid 2-4 hours on a weekend day (one weekend day as the wife will kill me if I try to ride both). I just don't know what I should be doing when. Do I progressively build up throughout the week? Do I do intervals in the middle of the week and then taper? Do I just pick a zone and try to stay in it or mix things up? 

Any help you guys have would be great. I'm sure my training plan will change once Feb rolls back around and things will get a little more intense at that point. I may try to look into a weekly training race that is held not too far from me as that will at least allow me to get out there in a competitive environment without being worried about being on a team or club and all that crap. Man to think that I would have to race with the Crash 5's is scary though.


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## mjengstrom (Apr 20, 2009)

I am not a coach, but will reply based on my experience. I was in a similar boat a few years ago. I think the key for the first year or so is to just get out and ride as much as you can and worry less about specific workouts or zones. Its fine to wear an HRM, but I wouldnt pay much attention to it. I would use it more as a way to learn how your body responds and gauge effort. 

How did you set your zones? I believe the easiest way is to to use a 20 min Test where you warm up for 10 min and then ride as hard as you can for 20 min and take 95% of avg HR of the last 20 min and that becomes your LT and you can set your zones accordingly. 

Unless you are doing high volume and/or intensity, I see no reason to ride Zone 1. There is also no reason to taper for training. Since you are just starting out again, just ride. Mix in some longer rides and hill climbs. 

To increase fitness, you will need to increase the stresses on your body. You can do this by either increasing volume or intensity. In the beginning, I found it easier to increase volume if you have time. Intervals can be a good way to increase intensity. Look to add volume at the weekly level, not daily. 

If you are worried about racing crits as a CAT5, see if you can find a local TT Series. 

If you can, hook up with a weekly group ride. This is a good way to learn from others and push yourself. 

Pick up Joe Friel's Cycling Bible - this is a good reference and can help you structure your plan.

Lastly, Pay attention to how your body feels and make sure you schedule recovery time.


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## 1spd (Jun 14, 2012)

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I certainly wouldn't say that I am a beginner at this point. I raced road bikes for about 6 years back in the day and was a Cat 3 for two of those years. But it has been ages since that time.

I set my zones up in a similar fashion however I did not do it at 95%. I simply did them right off the average max HR for the 20 min. 

For the winter the plan is to ride either the single speed mtb, the road bike or the spin bike. I like doing the intervals on the spin bike though it is boring. I like the MTB because the rides pretty much work like intervals with all the short little climbs I have to deal with. The road bike of course allows me to do longer climbs and get in more miles in general.

I like the idea of using my HR zones at this point and the plan for zone 1-2 is more of a recovery ride for me after doing intervals. I found this to be quite nice this past Saturday after doing intervals on the spin bike Friday. It was nice just tooling along at an average HR of about 125 and actually seeing the surroundings. Something I often don't take the time to enjoy. Yesterdays ride however consisted of two rides back to back. 9 miles on the SS mtb and then a 10 miler on the road. In total I managed to average a high zone 3 for the mtb and a low zone 4 for the road. Today is a rest day w/ no riding (great because it was hailing out earlier) and will probably do some upper body lifting this evening with a client/friend.

I agree, I need to just be out on the bike but I have put in about 1600 miles this year and have been doing exactly that. I am just trying to add some structure to my riding at this point with the goal of building up my endurance so that I can do some longer rides this summer and maybe even a couple of races.


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## bikerector (Oct 31, 2012)

I think you're over thinking it a little. For the base phase many of the ride will be steady paced sticking to the endurance zone, something you can maintain for a while and not "hit the wall." LSD (Long slow distance) gets referenced a lot when it comes to base miles. For an endurance ride to be effective, I would think it would have to be at least 1.5 hours in duration hopefully longer. Figure the first 15-30 minutes is warming up the body and the last 10 minutes a cool-down.

The purpose is to build a big aerobic base for the rest of the season. Intervals would be long and controlled most often during this phase, maybe 2x 20min at or below lactate threshold for a 1-1.5 hr session. A "hard endurance ride" could be considered an interval day for the base phase, basically riding harder than normal over the same duration, almost like a TT effort where you're working hard the whole time but even effort throughout the workout.

As mentioned above, base include higher volumes (overall training time) of training with less intensity. You start adding in intensity down the road as you start to enter into race season or whatever you wish to peak for. One reason to have lower intensity to start a training season is to help prevent burnout as well as getting the "race-like" training closer to the race, for crits speed and acceleration (high intensity intervals) is more important than being able to chug out a 5 hour ride (steady state).

Just for fitness, ride more is pretty much the best medicine; keep it enjoyable so you don't lose motivation. If you want to race writing down a training plan is a huge step in the right direction, starting with figuring out when you want to peak or race and working back from there.

Getting Joe Friel's book is a great start, "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" by Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan is a great book if you wish to train with a powermeter. There's a lot of information the books cover that won't fit into forum post.

Word of caution about HR monitor's, if you plan to ride in the extreme cold (winter) you HR will be different, at least they were for me. I find it very difficult to get my heart rate up in the winter even though the legs are maxed out.


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## 1spd (Jun 14, 2012)

Thanks for the info. I hear you on not wanting to get burned out so I think jumping between bikes will definitely help with that.

The hard part will be getting in those longer rides. I mean there is always the spin bike in the basement but I can't imagine being on that thing for longer than an hour not going anywhere. Barring the weather though I should be able to get out at least 3-4 times a week for a minimum of an hour (riding at lunch) and then shoot for a much longer ride on the weekends.

I don't recall having a problem getting my hr up last year during the winter. I pretty much rode the entire winter (mainly on my mtb) but still, no problems with getting the HR up there.

I think that for the rest of this month and Dec I will try to focus on what you mentioned and just get out there and enjoy the rides. Some slower than other and some pushing the pace a little bit just to mix things up and keep it interesting.


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## bikerector (Oct 31, 2012)

Yeah, I hate stationary riding systems so I have to ride all year, it's a sanity thing. I live in Michigan so it can get wicked cold in January and February, especially if it's dark. That's when I see the HR troubles, could be the garmin too at that temp as well I suppose but it's all comparative anyway, just have to perform another fitness test. 

Sometimes I consider wearing ski/snowboard gear, snowboard goggles were a great investment last winter.

Good luck with the training.


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## MerlinAma (Oct 11, 2005)

Don't know if this applies to you or not BUT - 

If your body composition isn't near peak (ie you have extra fat), then this is the perfect time of the year to make progress in that area. 

Read this - Joe Friel - Question on Power & Weight

If you need to have a calorie deficit, the easy way (for me) is to both burn a few more and cut back on intake. But when running a deficit, you need to keep the riding in zone 1 & 2, 

After you've achieved your body composition goal, you can get serious about zones 3-5, long hard rides, intervals, etc.

Even if you don't need to make progress in that area, I'd stick to low key riding until January anyway unless you have a big event earlier than April. Three months is plenty of time to go from "active" to "peak".


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