My advice to anyone starting out is to, as we say in the industry, spend time in the saddle. Simply put in laymans terms, the body does not measure in kms it measure time. eg. If an untrained cyclist rides at 20km an hour and lets say his work rate is 80% of MHR (max heart rate) in your terms RPE (rate of percieved exertion) 8 out of 10. And an experianced well trained cyclist rides at 40km at the same intensity of 80% MHR then both cyclist have trained for 1 hour, only difference being the experianced one cover double the distance and will recover a lot quicker. We could go on and on.............. To answer your question, best advice would be to spend the next 12 weeks building your base (aerobic capacity) less than 80% MHR (easy enough to comfortably chat to a training partned. What ever numbers of hours you start with on your first week never do more than 15%- 20% more the following one. Every 3 weeks take 4 complete rest days and move on to your next macro cycle i.e. in the 12 weeks you would have 3 macro cycles and they should resemble an increase each macro. eg week 1- 5hrs, week2 - 6hrs, week3 7hrs 30m the the 4th week drop to 3-4hrs and start the 2nd macro cycle with 6hrs then week 2 7hrs 30m and the 3rd increse to 8hrs 30m and your rest week back to 4-5hrs and the 3rd macro cycle start week 1 at 7hrs 30m and week 2 8hrs 30m and week 3 up to 10hrs and your rest week 4-5 hrs. By this time you will have an excellent base and you can take it from there. Should you require any further info on training feel free to contact me.
