How many of you do "training sessions"?

[E65Ross]

I used to run quite a lot but due to various reasons that's a bit difficult right now so I'm cycling more and more. At the moment I'm just doing rides of varying lengths and that's about it. Some days I may pick a more hilly route and work especially hard up the hills etc, but on the whole it's just varying distances.

I know from my running days that sessions go an awful long way to improving speed and speed endurance....but you don't hear of many people doing this? I suppose it's a little more tricky on the bike because of traffic, road junctions and so on.

I'm going o use my bike a bit more for commuting but may start looking into sessions soon once I've got my base endurance back up. I have all my old running training plans which I could quite easily transfer over to cycling.

So....do you guys do any? If so, what sort of things do you do?

[okgo]

You don't hear of lots of people doing it? Errrrr, information about training sessions is everywhere and many many people good and bad are doing them. Huge numbers of riders also have a coach now too.

[E65Ross]

okgo said:

You don't hear of lots of people doing it? Errrrr, information about training sessions is everywhere and many many people good and bad are doing them. Huge numbers of riders also have a coach now too.

Perhaps I phrased it wrong. It appears far less common amongst cyclists than runners. There are several local clubs and almost of of the club training days/nights are simply going for a ride.

[nammynake]

I think the nature of cycling and "just going for a ride" means you tend to get a good workout as you encounter hills, accelerate away from junctions, fight against a headwind.

But as above, plenty of people do train. I guess by its nature, running is generally done by those wanting to stay fit or are training for an event, whereas cycling for many people is about getting out into the countryside for a few hours, meeting a bunch of mates and having a cafe stop. The fitness gains are often a nice benefit but not the primary aim.

[frisbee]

A lot of people train indoors. It can be difficult to do controlled sessions/intervals on the road.

[Daveyraveygravey]

Roadcc or Bikeradar have good training programmes. Intervals have worked for me, around heart rate. I can't stomach turbos or rollers but I live in Sussex so quiet roads are never far away. Ok so it isn't "controlled " and you do have to make allowances for traffic or the unforeseen.

[Herman Toothrot]

I have a training loop, basically 15 km cloning then 15km descending, after the up hill torture it's nice to have a reward.

[Get Karter]

Herman Toothrot said:

15 km cloning .

That sounds very scientific and beyond the reach of the typical club cyclist.

[Usget]

60 day free trial of Strava Premium at the moment, which comes with access to a bunch of different training plans. You choose the goal, they hand you a plan to suit. Could be a good place to start?

[Daveyraveygravey]

Herman Toothrot said:

I have a training loop, basically 15 km cloning then 15km descending, after the up hill torture it's nice to have a reward.

Where's that? I'm lucky to find 3km of climb down here in Sussex

[Herman Toothrot]

It's mostly gentle *climbing :-) Chilterns if you traverse you can get some good elevation in even if you only end up 290m above sea level.

[Daveyraveygravey]

Herman Toothrot said:

I have a training loop, basically 15 km cloning then 15km descending, after the up hill torture it's nice to have a reward.

Where's that? I'm lucky to find 3km of climb down here in Sussex

[E65Ross]

I've done some pretty lengthy climbs in North Wales. Did a 65 mile route with a friend which had around 7750ft of climb! That was a tough 65 miles!

[neenaw]

E65Ross said:

Perhaps I phrased it wrong. It appears far less common amongst cyclists than runners. There are several local clubs and almost of of the club training days/nights are simply going for a ride.

My club do regular weekly road and MTB training sessions, usually fairly well organised and structured and looking at some of the results so far this year, fairly effective too.
They use Hillingdon road circuit for road training sessions and they use a short local MTB circuit which has a bit of climbing and skills stuff in it. I've never got round to doing any of the training myself as it usually conflicts with work and I much prefer just going out for a ride instead!

[idiotgap]

Hey Ross,
(I might get absolutely panned for this - not sure if the classes I am about to mention are specifically forbidden by the rules!)

One option that could work is spin classes. I know some are absolutely awful, akin to star-jumps on a bike... but I used to have a really good class at my work gym led by a keen proper cycle coach who gave us a lot to think about and a very structured week by week differing plans with real targets. He did make a point of calling it indoor cycling as opposed to spinning.

What I found most valuable was the explanation of the thought behind the lesson plans - for example one week's class might have been focussed on shorter high intensity intervals and another longer efforts both with appropriate recovery between. The coach would explain how these help overall fitness, stamina, peak performance etc. in different ways which means you are better able to use your own training time to address whatever concerns or targets you have. Allowing sufficient recovery after a big training session is apparently really important to reap the advantage of the training.

Alternatively you could try sufferfest or zwift?

I did a little bit of cycling in North Wales last week - completely beaten by this mental hill just near our holiday cottage!

Regards,

Dave

[Gruffy]

It's not as structured as it could be, but I have one regular ride of 2 x 8 minute intervals around City Airport. I often do timed laps of Richmond Park (18 minutes) or three laps (55 minutes) and the rest of my 'training' is hill efforts on my regular rides. I don't do short intervals but I'm aware I'd probably benefit from them. I just enjoy putting my efforts into longer fast rides. It's not so good for Strava leaderboards but I find it more satisfying.