Improving General cardio/fitness

[Mongooser]

Im interested to hear what you guys do to Track and improve your cardio for longer distance rides and climbing

Started doing 40km tokai loops on my bike. was unstructured and random so didn't see much improvement, then didn't ride for 4 months????

 Trying to get a benchmark so Im guessing I should do a FTP test of sorts to see where im at?

would like to work up to doing 50-60km on an enduro bike.  

If anyone has a training plans of sorts or Advice the fastest way to build up fitness again,

Thanks all

[Frosty]

Technically speaking, it’s “cardiovascular”, not cardio. With that out the way, how would you track it?

1. Ride lots, at an easy pace where you can talk through most of your ride. (RPE 3-4, you can say a few sentences without struggling). Your heart rate would be in the upper level 2 (70-75% of max).

2. Test yourself monthly on the same route, same/similar conditions, and see if you can (1) ride faster for the same effort, (2) ride the same speed for a lower average heart rate or RPE score.

3. Is there a program? 
Cardiovascular endurance is a slow, long process. You can’t rush this phase of your training, if you’re coming off a period of little to no base, 8-12 weeks should see an improvement, but it all depends… 

depends on your historical fitness, your ability to ride for 50-60km if you haven’t done it before. If 40Km is your limit, then increase the distance by 5Km and keep the speed the same. If it feels good and you can ride comfortably, then do the same distance faster. Then increase distance and keep the speed the same and repeat.

 

nothing scientific about this, just what could work for you.

[FirstV8]

Agreed on those aspects . Keep it simple . One thing i find works wonders for testing oneself is to map out a short 2.5 to 5 km circuit close to home . On completion of a 40 or more ride then test your time riding as hard as you can  on that circuit . Keep a  log of those times  and if you are  gaining fitness , losing weight then the times will come down and you should feel the benefit . My policy has always been RIDE ,RIDE AND RIDE SOME MORE . 

[reteid]

to track your fitness levels i found that the best is to invest in a hr monitor and have the different zones correctly set up.if the zones are wrong you can go and ride with a casio stopwatch as it will tell you the same. if you can cover the same distance under similar conditions with less effort you are improving.it takes time however as the adaptations take about 8 weeks. i use training peaks and garmin connect to track.