Building endurance - Triathlon Week

b1105 · 01-01-2003, 10:44 PM

Hi, im a 15 year old trying to increase my stamina for rides. I feeel i get exhausted after an hour or two, and want to increase riding. Besides riding more, what other ways could i achieve this? SWimming?thanks

Robert G. · 01-02-2003, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by b1105
Hi, im a 15 year old trying to increase my stamina for rides. I feeel i get exhausted after an hour or two, and want to increase riding. Besides riding more, what other ways could i achieve this? SWimming?thanks

Swimming is a great workout, but IMO may not be the best way to help you with your cycling. Running might be better, since you will be working similar muscle groups.

One thing I would recommend is trying intervals on your bike. Since you are young, you should check with your coach or parents before starting any training program. Also, make sure that you have been riding enough to be safe when doing the intervals, since people can get sloppy when tired.

What you do is just go out for a normal ride and warm up for about 20-30 minutes. Try to ride somewhere safe when doing the intervals so you don't have to worry about traffic or potholes or the like.

After warming up you can try a set like this

1] 30 sec on/60 sec spin
2] 30 sec on/60 sec spin
3] 60 sec on/90 sec spin
4] 90 sec on/120 sec spin
5] 60 sec on/90 sec spin

For example: 30 sec on/60 sec spin means that you ride at about 85% of your maximum for 30 seconds, then spin in a lower gear for the next 60 seconds to drop your heart rate and rest. Try to finish each interval stronger than how you start it, meaning, if you start at 70% and finish at 85%, thats much better than starting too hard and slowing down at the end. When resting, keep your pedals moving and err on the side of it being too light.

After finishing your intervals, try to ride another 15-30 minutes at your normal pace to cool down.

If you do these on hills, you can build strength as well - but first get comfortable with them on flats.

This is just a start, and I'm sure others here will have some ideas to help you as well.

- R

brettbastian · 01-10-2003, 05:04 AM

It is great to see young athletes interested in cycling. There are several ways to increase your endurance. In the off season you should focus on building your aerobic base. MHR < 80%. Once you have 500 miles in the aerobic zone you can start doing interval training. Hills, sprints, power workouts on the bike. A good alternative is cross training. Running, cross country skiing or snow shoeing. Make sure you allow for recovery days after the interval workouts. Everything I have read suggests no more than two interval workouts per week. The biggest thing is figuring out what distance you want to compete in.

2LAP · 07-15-2003, 05:00 AM

You may be suffering from glycogen depletion caused by a poor nutritional strategy when riding. Consider taking food along with you (high carbohydrate) or a weak energy drink on any rides over one hour.