Base miles advise

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

Any thoughts of the benefits of high volume but lower intensity over winter. Given I commute daily this suit me well. I am doing 20hrs a week at present but some of those rides are higher intensity.

Training plans dont really work so well if you are commuting well I can't see how to make them work anyway.

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Tomstr
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by Tomstr

I don't know what distance/time you're talking about but I'm doing something similar.

When commuting to the office or trainstation I use a Giant triple X (yes that's the real name) with the saddle set up very much like it is on my roadbike. (think of height and distance to bottombracket) so the pedaling motion is as similar as possible. It also has 172.5mm cranks and some gears.

I find that it helps recovery between efforts and spinning in general.
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Wingnut
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by Wingnut

Long and slow...short and fast...

bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

Distance this week will be 550 km. Time approx 21 hrs. Most commutes have been slow but I have done a couple of 4 minute rides at race intensity and found my heart rate to way lower than it would be in a race for the same effort. That progress I hope.

Nothing crazy this week. Just hoping it will have the desired effect.

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jekyll man
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by jekyll man

Tiredness?
That's a lot of hours.
Is there any progression in what you are doing?

If you've been logging them hours or have a reasonable cycling history, I suspect you already have a big base.
Long and slow and commuting just equals tired in my book.

You've got a set of vectors, right? How are your rides actually composed, and have you done any baseline testing to set zones up and see what you are doing?
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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

I need to book a test it will be my first. I have noticed over the last couple of months the heart rate to sustain a power output (golden cheetah shows this very well in the power heart rate plots) has come down quite significantly. I have seen an ftp (according to golden cheetah) jump since I started commuting in september.

I actually don't feel tired which I find odd. The rides vary if my legs feel full of wood I keep it steady to recover. If after the initial warm up I feel good then I will
1) do a few 2 to 3 minute interval at ftp (I have a good idea what this from a few 20 minute tests) or 50 above if I am feeling really good rest of the ride easy on around 4 rides every week.
2) spinney 8 sec sprints to 150 rpm or above rest of the ride easy
3) one a week a hard 20 minute effort.

Starting again on some high gear hill climbs.

This sort of riding suits me quite well. I just need to get the most out of it as I would like to actually perform properly in races and tt's next year.

In the end this week I cut my Sunday ride short so I could take my daughter to a play centre so may be 19 hrs and 500km.

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by ico

Hi,
I don't mean to hijack this thread but when doing base miles, is it necessary to stay solely in zone 2 or once a week a group ride in zone 3-4 is still ok?
Thankks

Marin
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by Marin

As far as I know, there is no scientific evidence that "base miles" yield any benefit whatsoever.

Whatever makes you faster in spring will also work in fall. Weather permitting, I will ride through winter doing roughly the same intensities as in summer.

chipomarc
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by chipomarc

Marin wrote:As far as I know, there is no scientific evidence that "base miles" yield any benefit whatsoever.

Whatever makes you faster in spring will also work in fall. Weather permitting, I will ride through winter doing roughly the same intensities as in summer.


Proof that advice from internet forums is total and complete rubbish :smartass:

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devinci
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by devinci

I once was in the ''base is useless camp'' but my opinion has changed.

There are many ways to get fit and fast but if you can log long rides and get good weekly volume, then this surely is a great way to performance. Lower intensity, longer rides also means you can spend some energy elsewhere to get very fit. I would be very careful with overshooting the intensity on those longer rides and I would keep intensity below 70-75% maxHR as a rough guideline.

During winter, my new-ish mantra is '' get fit to get fast'', which for me, means a lot fo gym work and some specific, targeted work on the bike for a while.

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by ico

@devinci, Thanks.

Marin
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by Marin

chipomarc wrote:Proof that advice from internet forums is total and complete rubbish :smartass:


I'm sure you can point me to a study that shows how effective base miles are.

There are several good ones regarding other forms of training like HIIT etc., so it shouldn't be hard to find one that proves the worth of doing long slow boring rides :D

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jekyll man
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by jekyll man

Marin wrote:
There are several good ones regarding other forms of training like HIIT etc., so it shouldn't be hard to find one that proves the worth of doing long slow boring rides :D



Base doesnt have to be slow- think focussed rather than plodding.
You'll be surprised how hard it is to stay Z2/3 for 3 or 4 hours...
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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

I am actually enjoy riding more now doing slower base miles than before alway riding to some sot of plan. So it is not boring far from it.

This morning ride was on the MTB 22 miles and 10.7 mph slow but fun never less (it was fairly muddy and the had going in places but heart rate was 102 bpm average with a peak around 125 bpm).

Sunday I did the club run 83 miles in total on the 29er with XC tyres great fun and not that slow either.

3rd week in a row putting 20 hrs (the previous 12 months I did 12hrs average) and what I have noticed is I am not getting fatigued so easily now. I am feeling good more often than not and can hold higher power puts for longer and do it more often. If I could have ridden like I can now over summer I might have got my cat 3 licence.

I agree the riding becomes more focused and metered rather than plodding but this is good as I am learning more about pacing myself than I ever had before.

Marin
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by Marin

Sounds like you're having fun and becoming faster - just do what feels good for you I'd say.

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