Optimal Training to Ride Faster/Longer/Efficiently?

[bagusbagus]

My Goal is to be able to ride 20miles a day most days of the week rain or shine at a reasonable pace,
I'm a weak skinny-fat 27y old office worker with no endurance/power whatsoever, currently after riding 20miles in one go I feel knackered and out for 2days. I can maybe sustain riding 6-7miles in good weather every 2days with no effects at the moment.

How do I get there and train my body in the most efficient way to achieve this without overdoing it and messing myself up?
How often/ in what way/ at what speed and for how long /with what kind of increases the training should be done?

I realise this is a lot like weight lifting and most of the gains comes from hitting it the right amount and having a good rest.

Has anyone been in my shoes? How did you got there? What was your experience?

[TwistingMyMelon]

Best way would be to do 2/3 days a week and pace yourself, then 3/4 days etc and match your diet to reflect the extra activity

However...i've been comuteing 3-5 days a week for 5 years or so, usually do 3/4 days a week then a long ride at weekends. Only way to do every day is to pace yourself throughout the week and then it comes a bit of a means to an end and you only really get good at riding every day. However paceing yourself gets a bit dull so I prefer doing 3 decent commutes a week and extending the route to vary it. If I didnt have free parking and a hassle free drive I would probably cycle everyday though

Also don't underestimate the importance of rest days, Recently ive been down to only riding 1 day a week from 4 or 5 and its made me realise how I never really rested my joints and riding so many junk miles stunted any progress and meant I always ached without realising

[Marcellus]

I think you need to define some of your figures as well as 20miles every day!

What sort of pace do you want to ride these 20 miles, what sort of climbing is included on the route etc etc etc.

When you know what the target is you then need to look at where you are now and put small increments to get from now to there!

You're probably not too far off being able to do it already but you may be approaching it the wrong way.

Without knowing what you're doing already my suggestions would be;
- do 20 miles monday, wednesday, friday, sunday, Tuesday etc
- do these 20 miles 10% slower than you are now.
- change the route, and vary it.
- once your body gets used to this changg the programme to;
- ride monday & tuesday, Thursday & FRiday, SUnday & Monday
- keep pace as above

- then increase pace

- then try ride 3 days have a day off

[nammynake]

Gradually increase your distance, speed, frequency until you can ride what you want. Take rest days when you feel they are needed. No need to be more scientific than that.

[Chicken Chaser]

Ride more, eat well, put some rest days in there but hard interval efforts if you're time limited is the quickest way to getting fitter and faster.

[bigdom]

As above. From your initial email, it would appear you don't have much base fitness, this takes a while to achieve, and is the foundation you need.

At the moment I'd discount the 20 miles per day, although keep as something to work towards. Get comfortable increasing the 6/7 miles to where you can do that daily. Then cut the frequency, increase the distance and build up again. As mentioned, have rest days.

It's not really comparable to weightlifting, you can isolate in weightlifting. Cycling is mainly aerobic, weightlifting anaerobic.

I came back to a proper amount of cycling 5 yrs ago after a house move, I'm now 47. I'm not fast, circa 18mph. Although i comfortably do 100 ish miles commuting a week without any issues, during the nicer weather last year and weekend rides 2 or 3 times that.

[Daveyraveygravey]

Variety! Don't get into the habit of doing 20 miles every time you go out, and then feeling bad if you have 2 or 3 days off. Rest and recovery is almost as important as actually pushing yourself. Research time crunched cyclist which talks about how to get the most benefit from the riding you can fit in. Typically one long ride a week, and two or three where you do different things. One could be hill repeats, one could be 10 seconds sprint then 20 seconds rolling, a third could be 10 minutes tempo 3 minutes recovery. Can you get a heart rate monitor to train by, or better still a power monitor

[Daveyraveygravey]

Also accept we're all different. I ride 3 to 4 times a week, I like a day or three off! The thought of a multi day event scares the crap out of me! Others can beast themselves over and over

[Paul Drawmer]

Initially it's going to be more about getting your heart/lung working properly, then you can start working on endurance and strength.

I would suggest using an exercise bike on a daily basis to start (as others have said, do take the odd day off as well)
In the first stages, all you need to do is get breathless, recover, repeat a few times. At first you will just have to stop because you are out of breath. Walk briskly to get places as often as you can, introduce activity into your lifestyle.

The aim is to get to the point where you can do an effort of 30 mins where you just run out of muscle power and are too tired to continue, but even though you are breathing hard; you're not stopping because you can't breathe.

Once you've encouraged your heart lungs back into proper operation, you can start on all those strength and endurance routines.

You won't have to do a lot to feel you're changing, and you will get better at it all.

[BeirutTaxi]

Try the Maffetone method to start with (basically holding the top end of zone 2/bottom end of zone 3 for 1-2 hours several times a week - try to lower intake of refined carbohydrates and monitor rides with a heart rate strap or power meter).

Once you've got some basic fitness try to combine endurance and intensity levels e.g. Long easy rides and hard rides such as Jo Friels cruise intervals (http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/11/coaching-novice-athletes-part-4.html)

BTW the 'over doing it' part of your post is important. Have hard days, medium days and easy days but don't try and ride hard all the time all year.. You'll just end up with an injury.

Edited by BeirutTaxi on Thursday 12th April 19:10

Edited by BeirutTaxi on Thursday 12th April 19:10

[MC Bodge]

I'd also suggest doing some other activities and/or some bodyweight strength training (think army basic training: pressups, squats, split squats lunges, burpees, pullups, step-ups etc.) alongside the bike riding.

You are only 27, you will be able to get fitter.

Edited by MC Bodge on Thursday 12th April 19:37

[BeirutTaxi]

MC Bodge said:

I'd also suggest doing some other activities and/or some bodyweight strength training (think army basic training: pressups, squats, burpees, pullups, step-ups etc.) alongside the bike riding.

You are only 27, you will be able to get fitter.

This isn't a bad idea Jo Friel recommends to do it in early base and I quite enjoyed doing squats and leg press. You could also try Force Reps however they are very risky for the knees http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/11/force-reps.ht...

[MC Bodge]

BeirutTaxi said:

This isn't a bad idea Jo Friel recommends to do it in early base and I quite enjoyed doing squats and leg press. You could also try Force Reps however they are very risky for the knees http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/11/force-reps.ht...

Never mind what Joe Friel says, MC Bodge recommends it.
You don't need a gym or weights for decent results, especially starting from the beginning. You can do a lot without them.

Edited by MC Bodge on Thursday 12th April 19:43