More Training or ???

[DRIVETRAIN]

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Over the last few months my training partner & I covered some good distances doing up to 130k's..I realised he is not big on distance and have not been riding as long as I have, hills are a battle at times etc.. we the same age, he weigh's 82kg & I weigh 73kg.....I usually ride infront 90% of our rides & almost never ride away from him except on some hills I wait for him to catch up....

Ok so I upped the game a tad and took him on a 150k ride,,,very slow, cadence about 70/75rpm...at times 80rpm (to make him work)..he tried his best to keep up and did well..at times on our rides I let him take the lead but does not hold it for long and gives way for me to ride infront again...make no mistake he is strong..we want to do 94.7 as a team and by then we need to put in more training...

Questions: I'm trying to get him to a point where he leads without losing the pace--HOW? I mentioned more long rides like this one and I always incorporate some good hills..

Any suggestions?????? Oh & I did a few intervals with him already as well.....

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[MichH]

I certainly don't have enough experience to comment, but I wanted to say how great it is that you're helping your friend to stretch and grow!

[FanieFiets]

Buy The Cyclist Training Bible by Joe Friel. He explains it better than I can.

[willpower]

150 km is great for base fitness if you can handle the distance, but if you want to ride fast, then train fast.

So maybe if you average 25 km/h on your endurance rides, try to do a short ride where you average say 30 km for a section, swapping pacing every 30-60s. Maybe at first you will only last 5 km at that pace, but that is okay. Try this once a week and hopefully you will be able to last a bit longer, maybe working up at 20-30 km after a month or two.

The idea is that training slowly won't really help you ride fast. You'll just be able to ride slowly further.

For hills I find it's helpful to ride at lactate threshold (about 80-85% HR) up a steady climb. Keep it controlled. Then repeat (possibly on a different climb later in the ride). Slowly increase the length of the climb and the number of reps.

[Sir Fed]

My 5 cents

Up the cadence and the average speed and reduce the distance. It's perhaps a little late to be building solid base mileage and if you look at the time you spend to ride 150km it's probably double what you want to do in the 94.7.

Use the hills to do strength work and the flats to ride a high tempo. Start slow and build it up. A lot of cycling is about conditioning which may be why you are faster than him. You can't put a value in miles banked but these dont come overnight, rather they are years in the making.

You may also wish to focus on bike handling since being able to sit in a big bunch at high speed will always get you a faster time than riding on your own. In something like the 94.7 the bunches are very big and no matter where you start there will always be a group of fast riders. Being able to sit in with them and draft rather than wasting nervous energy trying to get out their way will be hugely beneficial.

[pastapouch]

Ya, it won't help anything to just go on distance, get some quality work in as well, each week must have one qualtity and one endurance session, the other 2/3 rides(depending on your program) must be easier recovery sessions! I also fell into the "too much distance and too little quality trap". Don't know what the ideal balance should be, maybe the more experienced dudes/dudettes can help there!