mrarkus

I have been cycling now for few months, and have hit a bit of a wall.

A bit of background - 53, overweight couch potato, started working out and eating better in May. Well on the way to better health. I do a functional high intensity workout 4 days a week for 45 minutes, and bike in the mornings on Wednesdays and either Saturday or Sunday (try to kayak the other weekend day). Limited to about an hour, but most of the time 45-50 minutes is where I get tired. 14-15mph average speed, 80rpm cadence, with my bpm around 140-150. My roads are a little hilly around me, and most of the time I'm riding on a 1x11 gravel bike.

Not sure how to go about building up endurance - is 2 days a week not enough? I have a Wahoo direct trainer, maybe jump on it for 30 minutes or so after work on gym strength days? Should I lower my intensity? I'm not really managing it right now, it's just what feels natural, and the higher intensity is what I settle on when not thinking about it.

I guess I just need some ideas/advice on what worked for you when you were starting out - how did you increase your endurance to a point where a 2 hour ride was no big deal?

seypat

I'm in the middle of training for a marathon in November. The training started first week in June. 24 week training plan. The first week was 3 runs during the week of 3, 3 and 3 followed by a long weekend run of 6 miles. The weekday runs gradually increase in distance as does the weekend run. On the weekend run, the distance increases for 2 weekends followed by a drop back week. So the first weekend run was followed by a 7 and an 8 then a drop back to 4 and so on and so on. At the halfway point in August, we had to run a half marathon distance.(13.1 miles) At this point in the training, the weekday runs are 5, 9 and 4. The weekend drop back distance is 12. The next 2 weekends will be 17 and 18 respectively followed by another 12. The longest run will be a 20 before taper starts. Do the same with your endurance training. You'll eventually get to the point where your drop back week is a distance you couldn't do before. Stay with it and you'll get there.

Iride01 

2 days a week will only maintain. 3 days a week you'll increase and do better, but you'll eventually just be maintaining unless you get and follow a well laid out plan. 4 days a week and you'll improve whether you want to or not! <grin>

Just a few months? I don't know what to say here without being insulting. So let's just say you need to keep riding. It takes more than a few months of dedicated cycling to get in half way decent shape to be able to ride further and climb better.. Part of cycling is learning not to go so hard that you wear yourself out before you reach your planned finish line. And even when you reach that finish line, you shouldn't be so worn out you can't make a really good sprint for the finish. Even if you are riding entirely by yourself and not racing!

mrarkus

Why would it have to be insulting? I'm simply asking what to adjust to push past it. This is 50+ group so hopefully feelings don't get hurt too often around here!

I went from a fat slob to decent shape in a little over 4 months thanks to F45 workouts. Endurance is what I'm still lacking, so that's what I'm trying to figure out. If the answer is, just go ride more, great, but maybe there is a more structured way that will help me get there faster.

PromptCritical 

Sounds to me like you are doing great! A 14-15mph average speed, 80rpm cadence, with a bpm around 140-150 and getting tired @ 45 minutes is pretty darn good shape. Plan for longer rides, adding maybe 15 minutes for two weeks and then another 15 minutes and so on. You are likely running out of energy stores at your current pace and should consider some type of fueling 30 minutes or so into the ride. Nothing fancy is required. Something simple like a banana, or if you want to any of the myriads of performance foods like power bars, glu, etc.

Jughed

Your new at this and this is just my opinion.

To build endurance:
-Cut the intensity down and up your volume. Intensity builds off a base, and you don't have a base.
-A base = LSD - long, slow distance. Don't worry about speed. Keep yourself at a pace where you can maintain a conversation, even on the hills (when possible, but try not to hammer up the hills). Do as much as you can fit in your schedule. 1 hour 5x per week is a start.


Once you have a base, after months and 1000's of miles - then add intensity. And only 1x per week to start. You will hear things like 80/20 or even 90/10. 80-90% at lower intensities and 10-20% at higher intensities. Endurance athletes at all levels and types of disciplines typically follow the 80/20+/- type of plan.

4x per week at high intensity with no base = burnout, injury, slow gains,..

Time - building endurance and speed takes time. Years even. Especially starting from scratch.

mrarkus

Thanks, makes sense. My only problem is time, as usual, but I think it might actually be better to maintain lower intensity on the trainer, so I'll add that and try to get on the bike whenever I can.

seypat

This.

Jughed

I get my best "base" miles on my trainer/zwift. It's easier to stay in the zone when there is no wind or hills.

But to the point of your 2 hour ride feeling "easy". I'm guessing you could do that right now if you slowed up a bit.

But no matter how fit you are, you can make a 2 hour ride easy, or really flipping hard!!

I don't know what your max HR is - but for me, that 140-150 BPM you listed puts me close to threshold levels - a two hour ride at that HR level would hurt. 45 min at 150-155 and I am toast. At 130-140 - 6+ hours easy.

Everything is relative to your level of effort. Even the slightest decrease in intensity can = a much longer ride.

Iride01 

If you read many of my posts, then many times you'll see me use overstated descriptors or exaggerated terms. It's just the way it is. Maybe I'd be better on a fishing forum talking about the big one that got away! <grin>
Endurance takes some time. Not just a few months of cycling. Jughed laid it out better. But essentially it boils down to what I said here...There is a level of intensity you'll eventually find that will allow you to ride all day long if you wished. However at first it's going to be much slower than you wish it to be. I'll suspect that right now, for your present condition you are just going too hard. Possibly you could sustain that harder effort longer if you eat or drink some carbohydrates while you ride. But that only helps you do those short high effort portions of your ride a little longer. It doesn't really increase your endurance. And for that you need to learn to start out slower so you can go further and longer.

While power meters have become the standard for training now, PM's are still a tad expensive along with the needed things to use it. HR (heart rate) training was the thing of recent past and still will help you see what pace you need to stay at to ride for endurance. So if you have a Garmin, Wahoo or other GPS device and a HR strap, then there are things you can learn from it. Training Peaks is a site that some use to track and help them with their training. I've read some of their articles and they are helpful.

One issue you might have that I have also is the hilly terrain. Where I'm at, I'm constantly either going up or down for short 15 - 50 feet of elevation change with few flats. It makes it very difficult at first to find that pace that lets you ride forever without tiring. So it might take you longer to get endurance. One thing that helped me with hills was learning to shift to a lower and ridiculously easy gear to climb them in. Many times I climb with a higher cadence over 90 rpm in a very easy gear and cruise at just over 80 rpm in a gear is a tad more leg muscle but not so much it drains my energy.

mrarkus

Based on the responses, I have a much better picture of what to do next, thanks!

big john

I would add try and keep it fun. If you enjoy riding it won't become drudgery. You mentioned riding with your son, that sounds great! Also, finding riding friends can keep you motivated, works for me.

As has been said, riding only on the weekends isn't enough to improve much. When work has been in the way, I found even one trainer session on a Wednesday helps a lot. I'm retired now, though.