Basic Training
Training Zones
For this section I wanted to give some basic training tips for anyone that wants to lose weight by riding a bike or wants to start their journey to the Tour de France.
Many people ride just because they enjoy it, others to lose weight, and other to get into or maintain racing form. People who ride just because they enjoy it aren’t going to care about this section. The people who are already racing aren’t going to care about this either. This section is for the people that want to use the bike as a weight loss tool (which it is one of the best tools there is). People that want to lose weight may think that they are working hard to do it when in fact they aren’t pushing hard enough. On the other hand some people may be pushing too hard and are only doing damage to their bodies.
Like I said on the other page one of the accessories that I suggest anyone remotely interested in losing weight by cycling needs is a heart rate monitor. This is, obviously, so that you can know exactly what your heart rate is at all times. Now, I guess that you could check your pulse every five minutes and make sure you’re in your target heart rate range, but that wouldn’t be very safe. You should keep both hands on your handle bars as much as possible.
Now once you have your heart rate monitor you need to find your maximum heart rate or MHR. Because everyone’s athletic threshold is different everyone’s MHR is going to be different. Finding your MHR is important because when I start talking about training thresholds I’ll talk about them in terms of percentage of MHR. There are many methods to determine your MHR. One method is an equations that considers your age when determining your MHR. The equation is 220 minus your age in years. It's a good start, but not super accurate. I have a Polar brand heart rate monitor and it has a built in function to find your MHR. It involves running, I don’t like running, so I like the method from the book The Lance Armstrong Performance Program: Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride. It’s a great book that includes 3 levels of training, diet, and other biking tips. Here’s the method:
- Find about a five mile road with a slight uphill or a flat road with a slight head wind.
- Start out at a moderate pace and ride for about one mile.
- After a mile start pushing as hard as you possibly can.
- After about a minute riding that hard shift to the next hardest gear.
- Switch to the next hardest gear every 30 seconds.
- When you get to your hardest gear push it even harder for another 30 seconds.
- As the book states, “When your vision clears and you can see your monitor, the number on the screen is your MHR.”
Like I said this is my favorite method. There’s a great feeling after pushing yourself to the limit then pushing just a little bit more.
So now that you have your MHR lets talk about training levels. I mentioned before that you’re supposed to measure the training levels in terms of percent of your MHR. For instance, my MHR is 202 so if I exercise at an aerobic capacity level I would want to keep my heart rate at 70-80% of my MHR or 140-160 bpm. Here are the Training Zones defined by Lance Armstrong’s book.
- Zone 1 – 60-65% MHR – Easy riding, recovery training
- Zone 2 – 65-70% MHR – Endurance base training
- Zone 3 – 70-80% MHR – Aerobic capacity training
- Zone 4 – 80-85% MHR – Lactate threshold training
- Zone 5 – 85+% MHR – Maximum aerobic training
Anyone trying to lose weight should stay out of the zone 5. Keeping your heart rate that high puts you above your lactate threshold and all that’s going to do is make you sore. Anything above your lactate threshold starts essentially eating your muscles and not your fat cells. If you really want to lose weight you should stay in high zone 2 to low zone 4. Staying in that area, your body will get its energy from burning fat cells, which is what you want if you’re trying to lose weight.
When putting together a training plan it’s a good idea to use a good mix of all the zones during a ride. For example start out at a zone 1 for the first 5 minutes of the ride, then ride at a zone 2 for 30 minutes, after that rotate between zone 3, 4, and 5 in 10, 4, and 2 minute intervals respectively, for about another 30 minutes, finish it off with another 5 minutes of zone 1. If you want to train for a more specific discipline (i.e. time trial, mountains, sprinting, etc.) there are specific trainings that you’ll want to follow. Go out and buy a copy of The Lance Armstrong Performance Program: Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride. It's a great place to start. There are a number of coaching facilities and companies that will help anyone to get further in their training. One of the largest and well known is the coaching firm that Lance Armstrong's coach started called CTS: Carmichael Training Systems. Another option is to go to your local bike shop and join the cycling club that they sponsor. There will bound to be some great cyclists who will mentor you and help you get into the shape you want to.
Well I hope this helps you get started. If you have any questions, complaints, or comments feel free to email me. And if you don’t follow any other advice at least follow this advice, if you’re going to ride wear a helmet and obey traffic laws. As far as the laws go bicycles are considered cars (and yes, that means you can get a speeding ticket on a bike).
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