I have a question that is hard to answer definitively given the highly individual nature of training, but I know there are a lot of smart people here. I am 70 and moved from CA (elevation 60’ above sea level) to UT (5100’ above sea level). Between packing up my bikes, the move, and getting settled. I was off all bikes for the better part of 7 months. I packed on a few pounds and lost all fitness.
I started back about 12 weeks ago. It took several weeks for my body to adjust to the altitude while training but I am pretty good with that. The fitness is coming along and I have dropped 17 pounds to below where I was before the move. So here is what my current training looks like with a simple question. Would you structure thee seven days any differently? Thanks in advance.
| Day |
Ride |
Intensity |
Duration |
| Sunday |
Active Recovery |
50% of FTP |
30-60 Minutes |
| Monday |
Hard v1 |
|
60-75 Minutes |
| Tuesday |
Zone 2 v1 |
60-70% FTP |
60-90 Minutes |
| Wednesday |
Zone 2 v2 |
60-70% FTP |
60-90 Minutes |
| Thursday |
Hard v2 |
|
45-60 Minutes |
| Friday |
Zone 2 v3 |
60-70% FTP |
60-90 Minutes |
| Saturday |
Zone 2 v4 |
60-70% FTP |
60-90 Minutes |
That’s a pretty good structure; a couple of hard days that are separated by easier days + a recovery day. Just make sure to keep your easy days easy and really give it some mustard on your hard days.
i don’t know your objectives, so difficult to say whether your volume could use tweaking, but right now it looks ok for general maintenance. Keep an eye on your fatigue level since you might want to vary the duration of your Zone 2 days, especially if you end up riding in a group situation.
i’m just a few years younger than you. The biggest omission in my opinion is strength work. It helps on the bike and is very good for general health (particularly for us guys & gals that are sporting a few wrinkles). If you want to keep it simple, try the Systm Strength modules. Virtually no equipment required, good variety, and generally easy to follow. I think it’s excellent for “in season” strength training.
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Well, I am older than both of you, and I cannot emphasize enough the importance of strength training. Not only for helping you on the bicycle, but for enjoying the rest of your life as you age.
The individual differences you mention only grow greater as you age. Just as a year or two made a big difference when you are young, the same thing happens as you age.
That being said, I would suggest you take one day off without any exercise, and swap two of your cycling days for strength, mobility, and flexibility work. One of your hard sessions should be a HIT workout that exercises your MAP. You may find over time that two hard sessions a week is too much.
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Thanks for the input. Yeah, that piece of information would have been helpful. Now that I have my general fitness moving in the right direction I would say my objective would be, in this order:
Improved General Fitness - Improved Endurance - Improved Speed Over A 120 Minute Ride - Drop A Few More Pounds And Maintain.
Kinda vague I know but off the top of my head, this is what I got.
You need to be flexible and experiment a little based on trends of how you’re feeling (mentally and physically), but here’s a few more suggestions/recommendations:
-
don’t refuse to use the trainer… even when the weather is great. Sometimes, a short workout on the trainer (eg cadence drills) is the perfect add-on to a strength session. A long outdoor ride could add too much fatigue or the conditions are too variable to get in an effective short session. Besides, when you keep riding the trainer, it makes the outdoor rides than much more special.
-
think in terms of 3 or 4 week cycles, not just individual weeks. After 2 or 3 weeks of some solid efforts, your mind and body can really use a break. That’s when it converts that work into fitness.
-
set up a training program in Systm, including strength as a minimum, ( add yoga and mental training if you want) and substitute some of the workouts with your outdoor rides. Aim to achieve similar outcomes with respect to the ride structure and intensity but don’t fuss it too much. The idea is that the program will indicate what kind of ride or other workout to do and it also schedules recovery periods. This reduces a lot of the thinking on your part.
Item 3) is basically what I do now. I have options to ride on road or gravel with my bike club or friends almost every day of the week. If I do everything that’s available to me, I’ll plateau or burnout, or both. I let the training plan loosely guide me as to whether I should hard, go easy, or not go at all if the outdoor ride doesn’t fit very well with what the plan says. The key to my sanity is applying this approach “loosely”.
I could reveal more details of my particular schedule and approach, but then I would have to kill you to protect its secrecy. 
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Again, solid advice, thanks.
I would like to double down on this.
This sounds extreme and kind of heretical, but doing most of my bike commuting on an ebike has made me a faster cyclist, because I can actually take the easy days easy and have the energy to make the hard days hard.
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