Does training hills make one slower or?

[lechatnoir]

riding on my own makes me slow. when riding with faster friends, i feel i get better. also, doing HIIT on IDT - basically, on my own, I can hide  and call junk miles 'good miles'. there's no hiding in HIIT sessions... very much a case of HTFU

['Dale]

I find I used to not rest enough and train too hard

Especially with other life responsibilities

 

It’s difficult to measure the impact on situational or life stress on the average amateur’s performance

 

Must monitor, opening poster

[FirstV8]

Hi First V8 . My advice as an almost 62 year old. Most of us have a circuit near the house that we love doing.

You need to mix it up a bit. Twenty five days of four times the same circuit, means you've done the same thing a hundred times.

Some ideas.

 

Day 1 . Your normal circuit . 

Day 2. Ride shorter cut out some hills , go a bit faster.

Day 3 . Rest

Day 4. Cut out some flats do the hills . Recover between them.

Day 5. Normal circuit . A bit faster or a bit slower than usual . Depends on your legs

Day 6 . Rest.

Just an example . Nothing written in stone. Rest is important. Don't always try and beat your best time.

 

 

Also vary what you do . On the hills for example. Drop a gear now and then , see how you feel .

The variations are endless. I play gear and speed games all the time.

Try the heart rate monitor and or just rate your rides on a scale from one to ten.

You work it out in your head and you feel the 'good' day coming and you bring that time down.

I hope this makes sense. 

I have incorporated a lot of the advice from fellow Hubbers . 

Riding my circuit in reverse is not an option as i am then going clockwise and need to cross too many intersections . I did one day on very small gears and the next on as big as i could handle and the time difference was only 4 minutes . I cut out some climbs and added in flat sections to give me the +_ the same distance . That felt good and i was able to push hard for the last 6 km home and not feel overexerted . I set my HR monitor to chime at a lower no 125 and rode according to that and that was also beneficial . On the last day i rode hard and ignored all signs of hurt and fatigue and i got my time and average back to 22km ave . on a circuit with 600m of climbing .  I have proved to myself that i was getting into a grove and not changing training options around and not getting slower but "BORED " 

[Ashchest]

Some advice I received was:  Go slow to go faster"  

 

Every Saturday morning I attempt to have a "go slow" ride.   Although not always that easy, I try to stay in zone 1 and little bits of zone 2 for about 40km's and do an average of 20 km/hr.    You need to stay focussed because it is so easy to go harder, especially if you encounter and is passed by other cyclists. 

 

The ride still consists of flats and climbs but I just sit back and keep it very low.  

 

Sunday mornings I will  usually go out and do a zone 4 to 5  ride (80 - 90% max) of 80km's or more.

 

Mondays's I rest

 

Tuesdays I will do a comfortable ride and push whichever way I feel comfortable.

 

Wednesdays and / or Thursdays depending on other commitments I will  usually try to ride and push the limits for about 1 & 1/2 hr and try to do a good workout.

 

But I feel that the 'go slow" ride on Saturday's plays a key role in me getting stronger ???

[FirstV8]

I set myself a target for February to do 1000 km and 10,000m of climbing . I did not achieve it  and only did 879 km and 8282 m of climbing . There were just a few days of rain and personal commitments that derailed my training . I was on the road on sunday morning and hooked up with a bunch of roadies along the way . They were doing a comfortable 36 kph average when i noticed two riders had broken away from the bunch so i decided to chase and close the gap of about 100m . It was on a slight incline and i surprised myself closing it so fast and with very little effort . So my conclusion is NO " hills dont make you slower " but definitely increase strength and fitness . Im going to do more speed work this month and try to do the 1000 km / 10.000 m again next month . Ill give feedback on results . 

[The Ouzo]

I set myself a target for February to do 1000 km and 10,000m of climbing . I did not achieve it  and only did 879 km and 8282 m of climbing . There were just a few days of rain and personal commitments that derailed my training . I was on the road on sunday morning and hooked up with a bunch of roadies along the way . They were doing a comfortable 36 kph average when i noticed two riders had broken away from the bunch so i decided to chase and close the gap of about 100m . It was on a slight incline and i surprised myself closing it so fast and with very little effort . So my conclusion is NO " hills dont make you slower " but definitely increase strength and fitness . Im going to do more speed work this month and try to do the 1000 km / 10.000 m again next month . Ill give feedback on results . 

I saw you yesterday, but it must have been as you were getting started, you were just getting onto Atlas rd, I was on my way back.

I was going to comment that it looks like you were taking it a bit easier, but obviously from your post above, a few km down the road it was HAMMER TIME .

 

 

i learnt yesterday that you are what you eat.

Had double helpings of roast lamb for lunch and supper on saturday, my body felt great for the first 10-15km of sundays ride and then .............. flat line.

[Warrenlee]

Mamil you are a class act bru. Really enjoy your approach to cycling. Pull in to George sometime with your mtb anytime. Sickest trails ever out here!

 

 

Echoing all this advice from people who know more than I do and having gradually adopted stuff from podcasts and articles -

 

1. Rest is vital. 25 days of 40k at fast pace is waay too much.

2. Varying intensity is vital - long aerobic rides essential and shorter high intensity rides also. Riding at one intensity forces the body to make adaptations to that intensity and then adaptations stop - flattening off of fitness gains is the result. Your decreasing speed is fatigue for sure but you won't get fitter if you just rest more - you must vary intensity to go beyond doing your 40k loop at 23kmph.

3. HIIT - varying intensity whithin a ride - used to be called fartlek or interval sessions. One that hurts a lot is 40/20's or over unders. - eg, warm up - 5 minutes where you ride flat out for 40 seconds - noodle for 20 seconds. Repeat that 5 times with a 3 minute noodle between each repeat - cool down afterwards and then go to work buzzing with the endorphin kick.

 

Now if I can just work out how to co-ordinate all of this so that I end up peaking at race time instead of 3 weeks before .....