Road newbie, to competent 100km+ cyclist.

Popoutman

5 years of MTB experience, built like a sprinter not a climber and not extremely fit. New bike on BTW scheme and a willingness to spend some time on it getting fitter and road-adept. Full-time college and full-time work mean that I don't have a lot of time to spend till the end of the summer, so my progress will be not that fast. I'm currently 5'10 and 200-205lbs, carrying maybe a stone of excess at the moment. I'm in my early to mid thirties and in good enough health, non-smoker and fairly clean living.

Current state of play, I can cycle ~20km in about 50 minutes, heartrate of about 170-175 average, then turn around and retrace my steps. I have a 6.7km route that involves a failrly long hill in Castletroy in Limerick that I will do laps of depending on how much time I have available.

I'd like to be able to keep up with the Limerick Saturday morning cycling groups, comfortable at an average of 28kph for 2-3 hours, and to be able to do a 100km cycle without feeling dead afterwards.

Next year I'd like to be able to take a week's holiday near Briancon and hit a few of the Cols for fun. I've been kayaking out there a lot and I know the region, and I'd like to say I cycled up to the top of the great climbs. That's a plan for next year instead

I know that I've to start cycling to my heartrate, going for ~2 hours at 140-160 and trying to extend the time that I can cycle, and as I adjust to that, gently pushing the pace a bit. I'll try to update fortnightly as I get miles in the saddle.

Current odo reading ~110km.

pointer28

Hi Popoutman,

Good luck with the log, in the same situation myself but I have a log in ART as it also involves running.

I do three bike session a week. 2 short ones, 60 - 90 mins which I push a bit say 140+ bpm, and then one long one, 2.5 hrs and over where I keep the heartrate below 140. The general concensus is that long, slow and steady is the way to build endurance.

As mentioned, I'm also running 3 times a week so this helps my aerobic base.

Popoutman

I've got no real ability to plan my cycling at the moment, so I tend to take what I can get when I can get it.
Equipment-wise I've changed the saddle for a Fizik Antares, and a pair of Ultegra 7700 brake calipers arrived in the post and have been installed on the bike - big difference for both the saddle and brakes, I now have more confidence on the bike.

Recently I've completed 5 laps of a ~8km loop around Castletroy with two hills on it (groody r/b, bloodmill road r/b, old tipp road, golf links road, schoolhouse road, past Superquinn, along the Dublin road inbound until the Groody r/b again) 42km at a rate of 2m 32sec per km average. Heart rate for the first two loops was ~175 then I dropped back the pace to a comfortable 160-165. Total time about 1h45.

I did 3 laps of that loop this afternoon between waking up and work for 1 hour on the bike and ~24km distance, trying to keep my heartrate under 175 and mostly succeeding, average was 164 for the hour.

Odo meter reading is currently at ~175

Popoutman

Got about a 2-hour window today to go for a cycle, so I did 7 laps of Castletroy, for a distance of 54km, in a time of 2h10 or so. Pace of 2m24 per km, average speed of 24.97kph. Average heart rate for the 2 hours (including a 7min pause for a bar and a drink after lap 4) was 154 - that's a big improvement for me.

Ass is not that sore after the cycle, but I have found that I am getting lower back pain across the muscles either side of my spine, from kidneys to pelvis. I think my fitting needs fettling..