Cycle CV Training

[J9R4W]

Hi all,

I'm looking to improve my general CV ability without adding more runs into my week, and cycling currently seems like the way to go.

It's been a few years since I was last into road cycling and I was wondering what a good cycle session would look like? Should I be aiming for a certain amount of milage in a certain time etc., or is just about getting some time in the saddle and getting the heart-rate up?

Thanks

 

[Chelonian]

It's been a few years since I was last into road cycling...

Disregarding the obvious truth that cycling is not a requirement at CTCRM I believe that it has real value when integrated into a focused phys routine.

Others here far better qualified than I am (hopefully they will comment) but various flavours of leg-shredding, heart-bursting climbing might be worth considering.

My run training partners tell me that cycling is pointless. My cycle training partners tell me that running is pointless. Both are wrong.

 

[J9R4W]

Cheers, before the pandemic I found swimming to be a really good extra CV session, though since then I've only been running. I think an extra session during the week would be helpful, especially on hills as you say.

 

[The guide]

Cycling on something such as an indoor trainer can add real value to your training - low impact - minimal injury risk if bike well set up, and you can work on both muscular endurance, which is key at CTCRM for everything but yomping especially, you can also undertake directed training focusing on your CV specifically, a hard CV session with leave you on your back if done right on a trainer - why indoors - well the obvious you don't have to go anywhere.!! , riders or new ones tend to overestimate their fitness and you can find yourself miles from home, but just having to pedal back slow time because your spending, a home trainer allows you to get maximum from your time! , you can swap up your training and get a real gauge of gains in terms of heart rate/power output, and even if the weather is a tad poor - there is no excuse because you are staying indoors!.. To give you an idea the RN Captain of medical bords is part cyborg (due to age) but he swears by his trainer and recommends to nearly every RM rank that goes via medical board (sick or injured guys).

 

[SCOTTY6]

Listening to Dean stott on the jocko podcast and he said in prep for the hills on selection all he did was spin bike. If it works it works!

 

[J9R4W]

Cycling on something such as an indoor trainer can add real value to your training - low impact - minimal injury risk if bike well set up, and you can work on both muscular endurance, which is key at CTCRM for everything but yomping especially, you can also undertake directed training focusing on your CV specifically, a hard CV session with leave you on your back if done right on a trainer - why indoors - well the obvious you don't have to go anywhere.!! , riders or new ones tend to overestimate their fitness and you can find yourself miles from home, but just having to pedal back slow time because your spending, a home trainer allows you to get maximum from your time! , you can swap up your training and get a real gauge of gains in terms of heart rate/power output, and even if the weather is a tad poor - there is no excuse because you are staying indoors!.. To give you an idea the RN Captain of medical bords is part cyborg (due to age) but he swears by his trainer and recommends to nearly every RM rank that goes via medical board (sick or injured guys).

That's great I've never thought about using an indoor trainer - do you know where would be a good place to start or types to look out for?

Listening to Dean stott on the jocko podcast and he said in prep for the hills on selection all he did was spin bike. If it works it works!

Awesome I'll have a listen to that Jocko's great.

 

[Sprint0205]

One of my favourite bike interval sessions:
find a 5 mile + road with no interruptions (traffic lights etc) or do it indoors (spin bike, turbo trainer etc)

15 minute warm up
4 sets of: 8 minutes of 30 seconds flat out, 30 seconds recovery
I normally have a 5 minute recovery in between the sets but if you want a real challenge you can shorten it to 2/3 minutes. I promise you if you do it right you will struggle to walk for the rest of the day!

 

[The guide]

Ebay or local add sites ,Facebook market place as well are good places to start to pick up a trainer as not cheap if bought new..loads of types around -so chose within your budget - if you use RGT cycling app it,s free to use others have some cost attached.

It,s not for everyone- but it has loads of plus points.

 

[Chelonian]

@J9R4W Indoor trainers are useful. Far cheaper options available than Peloton and all that hype.

My very basic turbo trainer cost me £1 at a charity shop which didn't know what it was.
But it allowed me to belt out 100 RPM cadence as well as might be done on more sophisticated kit.

Using Zwift on a Wahoo trainer now so that I can remind myself how inadequate I am riding up a virtual Mont Ventoux. But it works for me because I belt out a lot of miles between November and February.

Obviously you are aware of the risk associated with cycling on roads but it can't be beaten particularly if one lives in a hilly location.

 

[J9R4W]

One of my favourite bike interval sessions:
find a 5 mile + road with no interruptions (traffic lights etc) or do it indoors (spin bike, turbo trainer etc)

15 minute warm up
4 sets of: 8 minutes of 30 seconds flat out, 30 seconds recovery
I normally have a 5 minute recovery in between the sets but if you want a real challenge you can shorten it to 2/3 minutes. I promise you if you do it right you will struggle to walk for the rest of the day!

Cheers that looks pretty challenging I'll give that a go! Do you know if there's much benefit to longer slower rides around 30+ miles or are intervals the way to go?

Ebay or local add sites ,Facebook market place as well are good places to start to pick up a trainer as not cheap if bought new..loads of types around -so chose within your budget - if you use RGT cycling app it,s free to use others have some cost attached.

It,s not for everyone- but it has loads of plus points.

Thanks, I'll have a look out. Yeah there does seem to be a big variety in terms of cost/function but trainiers/turbos do seem like a great option.

@J9R4W Indoor trainers are useful. Far cheaper options available than Peloton and all that hype.

My very basic turbo trainer cost me £1 at a charity shop which didn't know what it was.
But it allowed me to belt out 100 RPM cadence as well as might be done on more sophisticated kit.

Using Zwift on a Wahoo trainer now so that I can remind myself how inadequate I am riding up a virtual Mont Ventoux. But it works for me because I belt out a lot of miles between November and February.

Obviously you are aware of the risk associated with cycling on roads but it can't be beaten particularly if one lives in a hilly location.

Right got you, haha yeah it would be interesting to see where my cycling is at now using those cycling apps, I'm sure it wouldn't be great after having a few years out. Yeah where I live is very hilly, bit of a nightmare for running but good for cycling!

 

[Chelonian]

Right got you, haha yeah it would be interesting to see where my cycling is at now using those cycling apps,

I only measure heart rate and cadence. It is possible to get bogged down in metrics. One of my training partners has a watt meter on each crank and he is constantly obsessing about why one leg is 0.01% weaker.

An HRM linked to a smartphone is arguably the most useful metric as it can also be used for running.

 

[Sprint0205]

Cheers that looks pretty challenging I'll give that a go! Do you know if there's much benefit to longer slower rides around 30+ miles or are intervals the way to go?

Yeah there is definitely a place for them to build endurance as long you keep pressure on the pedals. Being low impact, It is much more sustainable to do a 2/3/4 hour ride every weekend compared to running

 

[Dan8696]

If you've not got the money for a turbo, you can always buy yourself a set of rollers, can be a bit tricky when first starting out on them but they're a low cost alternative to a turbo. I'd also say buy yourself some pedals & shoes where you clip in, you can deliver power a lot better than being on flat pedals. I love cycling, probably be one of the things I miss most should I be successful in getting down to CTC, nothing better than being out on the road for a few hours up and down countryside hills

 

[J9R4W]

If you've not got the money for a turbo, you can always buy yourself a set of rollers, can be a bit tricky when first starting out on them but they're a low cost alternative to a turbo. I'd also say buy yourself some pedals & shoes where you clip in, you can deliver power a lot better than being on flat pedals. I love cycling, probably be one of the things I miss most should I be successful in getting down to CTC, nothing better than being out on the road for a few hours up and down countryside hills

Yeah that makes sense, a HRM and rollers seem like good set up. Same actually, I used to cycle quite a lot with local road clubs but never really kept track of the fitness/stats side of things. Though I’m looking to get back into it now to boost cardio. Have you found it benifited your training or is it more recreational for you?

 

[Dan8696]

Yeah that makes sense, a HRM and rollers seem like good set up. Same actually, I used to cycle quite a lot with local road clubs but never really kept track of the fitness/stats side of things. Though I’m looking to get back into it now to boost cardio. Have you found it benifited your training or is it more recreational for you?

Massively, I see a noticeable difference in my mins per mile in summer compared to winter, the hills I cycle from spring to early autumn help my running a lot, I don't tend to touch the bike through winter, having a carbon aero bike, I have no desire to damage it or come off during the icy/ cold & wet times of year aha. I do a lot of gym work too so it comes full circle with all the training I do, I treat it more as a recreational thing than a training thing, but me being me going up and down hills it turns into a leg day of its own

 

[Mosquito]

Massively, I see a noticeable difference in my mins per mile in summer compared to winter, the hills I cycle from spring to early autumn help my running a lot, I don't tend to touch the bike through winter, having a carbon aero bike, I have no desire to damage it or come off during the icy/ cold & wet times of year aha. I do a lot of gym work too so it comes full circle with all the training I do, I treat it more as a recreational thing than a training thing, but me being me going up and down hills it turns into a leg day of its own

I can second this. Whereas before teenager me used to struggle with hill sprints from not having the drive and sheer power to keep propelling myself forward, cycling often and always incorporating a big climb for a couple years really helped the power in my legs and now I can do them a lot better than before. As well as incorporating leg work at the gym (i.e. squats) cycling is one of the better accessory exercises you can do with your running.

 

[Biggles]

Hi lads,

As a PT I must say I have found assault bikes absolutely worth their weight in gold not only in my own training but in training clients some of whom are competitive athletes. True it is not conventional cycling as such but a hell of a total body workout nonetheless.

There is also really utility in being able to handle large doses of lactic acid systemically rather than just isolated to the legs. I hired one when training for 1.5 miler as I had an injury in my ankle and had to be careful weight bearing on it but still wanted to train.

Got my time down to 8:15 running once every 8 days and doing lactate drills on the bike 2-3 x per week.

But then again can't beat getting out on the road back and tackling some beastly hills

 

[Dan8696]

But then again can't beat getting out on the road back and tackling some beastly hills

Don't come near my King of the Mountain segments on starva!

 

[J9R4W]

Cheers for the info lads, looking forward to getting back in the saddle and quite possibly on a roller as well!

 

[Mattys]

I’ve heard a lot about spin biking myself and the benefits it has.
One of my good mates who’s a PT at the gym takes the spins classes and the benefits are next to none if you put the effort in.

I did a lot of outside biking but as something similar to what the guide stated the stop and go is not the same effort as if you was inside on a bike where you should be putting in a 100%.

I purchased a spin bike this morning which arrives on Monday on the cheaper side of the market at £349 compared to what penagon go for around £2,300! So hopefully it should be a good buy based on the reviews!