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Old 07-13-20, 12:51 PM
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tgenec86
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Unstructured riding can be extraordinarily frustrating when you don't see results. You can push yourself hard, week after week, but don't seem to be getting better. Part of that is because you're starting out near your max, burning all your matches, then struggling to recover. No different than putting too much weight on a bar, struggling to push out max reps, but not being able to do more reps after a few weeks. Your muscles are certainly stronger, but your aerobic base hasn't improved. Intervals are too often interpreted as "go balls to the wall" for a minute, rest, then do it again. They're a lot more complex than that. Where you're trying to go says that you should be doing extended sessions at maybe 75-80% of your max, resting, repeating. A workout might go something like 4 sets of 5 minutes each with three minutes of recovery (the variations are endless!) - for three days a week, then increasing to 5 sets, and so on, in an every increasing progression of time and effort. Intersperse those with 10-20 minutes at 60% X 2 efforts. Sprinting at 95% for 45 seconds five times in a row for a few weeks will just enable you to keep up with the group for an extra five minutes. The amazing thing about measured, extended efforts is the payback vs. time. You can do training sessions that only last 45 minutes, but they're targeted efforts that are dramatically improving your aerobic base. The payoff is suddenly you can do a two hour ride with the fast group as long as you ride smart, conserve energy, and don't work when you don't have to. Think a powerful track sprinter - they can put out 800+ watts over a couple of laps, but could never survive in a 4000M pursuit where they'd need to average 350-400 watts over four minutes. Now apply that to your group ride. You start out, but after doing four or five minutes of high effort in your training sessions, you're accustomed to that initial burst, and can settle in to a solid pace - just don't play the hero trying to pull though and increase the pace, and suddenly you're an hour into the ride and you having not exceeded your limits. I saw where you mentioned being able to hang, but suddenly there's a 10 meter gap that you just can't close. That's from maxing out, desperately needing some recovery, slowing up and then being forced to sprint again just to catch a wheel. Two or three times in a row and you're toast. The other thing to keep in mind - if the group starts out from the parking lot at full speed, give yourself a few minutes to warm up. Some of those guys probably have years of conditioning - or rode to the ride start, so they're ready to rock. No one in their right mind starts a 10K run at a full sprint, so don't do it at a bike ride!
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