You are hereForums / Preparation / Training / Why aren't my times improving?
Why aren't my times improving?
I seem to have got to a stage were my times around local tracks have plateaued and it's starting to frustrate me. I wondered if anyone has any tips to help me.
I'm currently doing 1 or 2 interval sessions around Centennial park, consisting of 2:30 intense, 4:00 minimal, repeated 6 times. I also do at least one 50km road ride and if possible I'll do another 35km ride. On the weekends I'll go and do 20-30km on the dirt.
I don't really have much extra time to spend on the bike so I was hoping to train smarter, not longer.
I could probably do with losing 4kg so as of this week, I'm going to cut down the carbs a little. (I'm currently 84kg @ 5"10, so don't want to go below 80). I've also been reading that improving core strength can help build power and speed, so may give some core strength exercises a try. If anyone has a few they'd recommend that don't involve going to a gym, I'd appreciate it.
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
Centernial Park.....gawd I guess it could be worse. Alswo convinience plays a big factor. Great for interval stuff. But the interval sytuff can be done at home on a trainer or an excersise bike at lunch at your local gym.
just like in weight training your body wiill resond to change
However. You need to get some hills into your legs. Dont underestimate time in the saddle with real riding. even if you do road riding get some hills ijn there. maybe even repeats.
Road riding is probably more consistant. But mountain biking can be extreemly good as well. get yourself a HR monitor where you can see whats going on. Start riding longer distances but keep at it. just don't bludge. don't take the easy way either.
Then combine that with your interval stuff.
get yourself a few standard rutes that you like. make sure you have a few variuations so it doesnt get too monotinus. Get some serious hills in there too.
every 3 months or so change your routine sdo your body goes into a little shock.
spending time on interval stuff during the day at CP can be better spent in the saddle, if you can do the interval stufft at home. or during lunch.
Thanks for the reply, Stan.
I don't have a home trainer, any recommendations on one that won't break the bank? I only go to CP because it's a 5 min ride away and there are no traffic lights to interrupt the intervals.
http://app.strava.com/activities/40052190
That's 50km loop I've been doing, are more hills needed?
Try to train to a cycle, four week training cycles are very common. 3 weeks solid training and then an easy week to recover and allow your body to improve.
You could also try to gradual build up the load/intensity during the 3 weeks of hard training e.g. 2:30 mins efforts week 1 then 2:45 week 2 and 3 mins week 3 or 50km then 55 then 60. On the easy week drop the number of efforts to 3-4 and maybe do a shorter fun ride 30-40km.
Yea i figured that about CP. I understand what its like to have limited time.
Also its not about how many K's you so much as how much time you spend riding.
that ride you've linked is not too bad
So you've done about 560 Km this year so far you've spent 27 hrs riding 6000 m of climbing. You need to find more hills. But the interval training is a proven technique to increase fitness, so dont stop that.
get a HR monitor. get more acurate intervals at designated HR percentages.
I'm not fast by any means, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I've improved a lot in the last 12 months. I took 25 min off the same 50km mtb race and placed 1st in category within this 12 months. I also knocked a few minutes per lap of my fastest short course races and am much more consistent and maintain times throughout the race better.
The main thing I did was just increase the intensity during rides - no bludging.
I just got back from a 40km ride which took just under 1.5hrs on my HT mtb on the road and this was a recovery ride from a big one on Sat.
Was your strava link on a road bike? around 22km/hr on a road bike is pretty slow. I think maintaining upwards of 25km/hr and closer to 30km/hr would help heaps. Ride for the same time, but faster and a bit longer distance.
I also agree with the hill repeats. Climbing was my major flaw so I started doing hill repeats on the HT mtb on the road. I do 4-5 repeats, then ride to a different hill and do another 4 or 5 (then another if I'm feeling ok for 4-5 more) then spin my legs for a while (20oddkm) to recover.
Just smash yourself and you'll get faster!
Or listen to someone who knows what they're on about and you will get some better answers than mine..... as long as you enjoy it.
dont go crazy with distance and hills as you will probably do a lot of work for very little actual gain, I'd suggest thay you look into doing some targeted/structured training.
My regular commute is 44k's with more than 800M of vertical, now you would think that I'd be getting faster right? nope.. I find that the constant work wears me down and I get into a declining downwards spiral with sore legs and general fatigue; the body just gets used to the same efforts and I find I dont build any strength beyond what I have, where if I went for a structured program I really think I could do less work for more return.. but I'm lazy and just really like riding my bike to work.
Forget that it's lances and try this workout it's really helped my core strength over the summer
http://www.menshealth.com/celebrity-fitness/lanc...
Other things to try
I've never been able to do intervals out on the road but I started doing a buch ride over the holidays with some mates basically what they have done is pick a shortish loop that we do nearly every morning they then strava' d every pich climb on the route so these become our intervals it's a great way to train and lots more fun than standard intervals I've really noticed some improvements In my riding since I have started doing these sessions. I assume that you live in the eastern suburbs There are plent of places where you could come up with your own loop with some nice punchy little climbs
+1 for the structured training and recovery weeks. Being well north of 40 ive taken Joe Friels advice and made mine 1 in 3. 1 in 4 is good for under 40s.
Introducing the recovery week really helped get me back on an upwaed path again.
In my prep for the Mont ive just ended the base part of the cycle and have moved into build, so my midweek rides now include some intervals at 105% of my threshhold heart rate... uuuuhgly lol At least they're a bit shorter
As others have said, get yourself a HR monitor and then try and train in specific zones.
You want to concentrate on shortish intervals as well as some longer ones as well, when I say short, maybe 3 mins or so and then maybe 10mins or so. I used to do and still do Bobbo Hill Repeats up the steep side, 4 x Hill Repeats up that made me pretty strong. Before I had a Powermeter I just used to ride up there with my HR in the 180's.
Concentrate on your cadence as well, you want be turning the pedals at close to 100rpm as much as possible.
Definitely get a turbo trainer if you can afford it, there is nothing better than destroying yourself quickly in a hour, getting off the bike and knowing you have done your workout.
Come and join me at Fatness First for some excellent conditioning training! I normally go to the BJ ones.
If you haven't tried it, it can yield some excellent results.
It sounds like you are putting in the time and likely the intensity but maybe need to break things up to force your body to adapt.
If you don't have a lot of miles in your legs you probably need to work on threshold power. It is tempting to go and smash it everytime you go out but it will tend only to develop your power at the VO2 max, but the main factor in race performance (particularly the long mtb events) is your threshold power. To develop this you will need to spend some time at lower intensities. This has the added advantage of training your body to use fats as a fuel, rather than higher intensity work which use sugars and glycogen and we all have a lot more fat to burn than glycogen. Summer months are the time for base training - the long slow rides which build threshold power.
It is also a long process. I have been training pretty seriously for 2 years but from what I can gather I have another year or two until I will be a decent racer.
Good luck!
Thanks for the great replies, everyone.
So, what I gather from this is:
1) I need to get a HRM.
2)Mix my rides up a bit more to include a few more hills or even repeat the ones I'm already doing.
3)Keep doing the intervals.
I'll take a look at the core strength exercises and let you know how I get on.
Edit:-BLKFOZ, that strava link, along with all my road rides, is done on my old 26" HT with knobbly tyres. I've been using the rides between the interval sessions as a sort of recovery rides, as I'd read somewhere that it's good to have two interval sessions a week and do longer recovery rides in between. Also, it was blowing a gale when I did that ride and felt like I was constantly riding into a head wind - I don't know about you, but riding in the wind is the frustrating thing ever, all that effort and going nowhere. I was even having to pedal downhill to get 30km/h at points!
Microdosing
http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management...
I havnt read everyone ses comments so im sorry if im repeating.
Best core strength exercise is the plank and side plank.
http://youtu.be/kiA9j-dR0oM
Feel free to take photos of planking in obscure places and share
jks
This article was written in Australia Mountainbike Magazine a year or two ago. Its an article on how to train for 100km races for people with only 4-8hrs a week to train. It is written by Mark Fenner who is a top cycling coach in Australia.
Page 2 & 3 - http://www.ftptraining.com/images/tips/training%...
I got this off Mark Fenner Training site . It had the link to the first page of the article but it just showed up with the 2nd and 3rd page.
The only important bit on the first page is how to find your threshold heart rate which is done by:
if you been douing the same training ride on the roadie for 50 Km for a while you should know where the hills are get off your arse & let the legs do the work . I have improved my road ride in a few months that I regularly do at 23kmph average to 27kmph average on the same route ? You might need a training partner to push you , someone your pace or a bit better to push each other ..