Potential Improvement %?

DinaElla

Folks, not sure if best place to post this - is there a maximum % target improvement to aim for when training and a way of working out your limit??

My example is that i'm 39 and fairly new to cycling but have trained hard this year and not seeing great improvements at all - my avg over 100k would be 26 - 28kph and I can't seem to improve on that while I see people that complete much less training and exceed this with ease. My main issue is hill climbing so have spent a lot of time (twice a week) climbing training but still seem to be limited on increasing speed/time.

It came to a head for me last weekend on the tour of the lakes - I rode with the 2nd group and was very comfortable for the 1st 40k until the hills started dropped to the back of the pack within mins .. and stayed about 10 mins behind them for rest of the ride .. and i suffered

my frustration has me thinking about leaving cycling be and taking up something else at this point but then i started thinking .. maybe this is my limit - maybe your body just has a limit and I'm at mine ??? or is that complete rubbish and I just need to get my arse in gear and train better and harder????

thanks for any advice

IM0

few things..

If you think thats where your limit is then guess what..

If you want to ride faster you need to go much faster than your use to for much shorter time, and repeat, this is called interval training. This is also probably why the people you mention are faster than you with less time training. Ask yourself what you actually want. do you want to faster...for the sake of going faster? or do you want to cycle lots of miles and take in the countryside, or do you want to race answer that and youll have a better idea of what you want out of it and what your prepared to put in.

Lumen

Don't give up! You are nowhere near your limit, which takes years of hard training to reach.

Some people adapt slowly to training, others adapt faster. Since you're not trying to manage a professional cycling career it doesn't really matter.

A bit of focus on shorter, faster riding will pay dividends. Don't worry too much about hills. If you get faster (and lighter, if possible) the hills will be easier.

Set yourself some targets, put together a training plan.

Are you racing? It's fun, and beating people is very motivating.

TinyExplosions

Lumen wrote: »

Don't give up! You are nowhere near your limit, which takes years of hard training cash to reach.

Some people adapt slowly to training, others adapt faster. Since you're not trying to manage a professional cycling career it doesn't really matter.

A bit of focus on shorter, faster riding will pay dividends. Don't worry too much about hills. If you get faster (and lighter, if possible) the hills will be easier.

Set yourself some targets, put together a training plan.

Are you racing? It's fun, and beating people is very motivating.

FYP

Lumen

TinyExplosions wrote: »

FYP

If only. I'll be posting about that later...

papac

Good advice above.
You might also consider that you simply have hit a plateau in your fitness gain. This is normal and affects everybody to some extent at one time or another.

The max percentage gains are always made at the beginning of a training programme.E.g A couch potato will make massive gains in Vo2Max and Lactate in six months-After that the gains are harder to achieve and getting to the last 10% off your max potential is a serious slog.

Relax and enjoy your training. Take a week off now and then. Don't get hung up on average speeds-they are a poor guide to fitness imo.

Above all don't do anything as silly as giving up cycling.:)

There is some good basic info on exercise physiology here.http://home.hia.no/~stephens/index.html

Chips Lovell

What training have you been doing?

blorg

26-28km/h over a distance as large as 100km is not bad at all. What are your aims with this? If you are not racing does it particularly matter? You could see if you could do 200km... I'd just enjoy yourself on the bike- although the pointers given are valid if you do want to go faster, you can build speed with high intensity and it doesn't particularly take a large amount of time on the bike. Hills take practice and losing weight if possible.

tunney

Get a compact and a 27-12 - then you'll be flying.

It takes lots of time for the capillarisation process to occur and as far as I know this is what makes the major difference in supplying oxygen to the muscles. So hang in there.

LCD

Are you cycling to get faster or because you enjoy/love riding your bike?

If you want to get faster you need a HR montior & an turbo trainer (plus a towel & the ability to suffer like a dog:))

Getting faster takes years and requires riding faster than you are able for. Try racing get dropped after 5miles this week, 6miles, the next, 7 the next etc. The IVCA has a lot of events. Join a club & go on the long group rides.

I would recommend Joe Friel's The Cyclists Training Bible.

DinaElla

Thanks for all the advice ... really appreciate it

The main reason I ride is just because I really enjoy it and need to exercise for health/weight loss. I find it way more enjoyable than running ... but I also want to improve and enjoy the feeling of being a better cyclist.

The guys I ride with are all 32-35kph avg riders and my goal is to be able to ride with them and be comfortable so i'm not always holding them back - and do the sportive runs with them and not get dropped ... although have to say have met some great people when dropped on these cycles who kept me going. So my goal is to hit 32/33kph avg's at the moment.

I'm not following a training plan and prob have the wrong approach but this is what I do - I have been training 3 to 4 times a week - Tues & Thurs are 40k runs over the Wolftrap and The Cut for hill training (do this in about 1h 45) and then either a 60k on sat and 80k on sun or a 90k on sun (no sat). I have not been doing any interval training but have been trying to push harder up the hill climbs and watching the HRM to do that ... I have tried to add in 2 runs a week but find running tough.

I have felt myself getting stronger and more able for distance but Sunday hit home for me being dropped so easy on the Tour of the Lakes once the hills started - and made me think hard about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it (felt like a kick in the backside ... a very wet one on Sunday)

From the advice it looks like I need to re-focus on shorter faster runs and start to really push beyond my comfort zone on those runs - I'm happy to train hard just when you don't see results its really frustrating ..

I really want to do the Sean Kelly 160k this year as well .. I did the 100k last year and found it tough going.

papac

Sounds like you are pretty dedicated.
Might be worth having a look at position.
Aerodynamics plays a big part as speeds increase Try to get as small to the wind as possible.Pracise riding in the drops is very important I think.

You'll be grand for the SK 160. It'll be tough but thats the general idea.:)