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I'm currently shielding/not working and it looks like it could drag on until March. I intend to keep on riding locally as the weather allows but I reckon while my time is my own(in between the inevitable DIY) it is the perfect time to have a go at some proper training for once in my life instead of just going out riding. I have an indoor smartish bike and have had an hour or so on it everyday this week. I've got a pretty good idea of the range of workouts I need to do including some strength and flexibility work but I haven't really got much idea of the best way to structure a training week. I have read that when in your fifties (I'm 57) a training week should actually be across ten days. So, how do I go about knowing when to have rest days and how to spread the various exercises/rests over the week/ten days?
The book Fast after 50 by Joe Friel is the standard recommendation if you want to take a proper look at things.
But just getting started prob easiest to get a zwift or trainer road subscription, they have off the shelf programs ready to go.
All training programs will use the same three metrics to track progress overall, although details will differ - how much you're doing, how much fatigue it's causing, and the difference being your form or your fitness. Fatigue is necessary, but if you're doing so much that your form is constantly tanked then that is too much and what leads to over-training and ill-health. So tracking things like this allows you to build fitness in a controlled way and peak for an event, say.
You should just get started with it, though, and not try and think your way into it as there's just so much analysis out there it can get in the way. There's a huge amount of variation in how you will respond to training (some people don't!), what are your strengths and weaknesses etc that it's best to just pick a program and start pedalling.
I use Trainerroad, I'm 61, and it suits me. Others prefer Zwift. I've seen a 13% increase in FTP in a year, which for an aerobically fit rider is good going. If you want a month's free trial drop me a PM and I'll send you one. Generally it's a case of balancing workouts and recovery, the classic mistake is to think that you've plenty of time and go for the higher volume plans. I've been on the low volume plans, three workouts a week, for fifteen months, gives me time to head out at the weekends. The plans are a "one size fits all" so you may need to adapt them, some add extra recovery weeks for example. If you've a Garmin or Wahoo you can push the workouts to them and do them outdoors which I've been doing the last few weeks.
+1 for the Joe Friel book.
If you don't yet have one, get a decent fan, you'll need much more than you realise. I've a Cleva Vacmaster Air Mover https://www.cleva-uk.com/collections/vacmaster-air-movers/products/vacmaster-air-mover - you can use the code GS10 to get a 10% discount
Get a bluetooth HRM & then add Elite HRV (heart rate variability) to your smart phone (its free). Link the HRM to the app. Take a morning reading everyday - it will give a score that's based around a balance between your sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous system. In the loosest terms this tells you when you are ready to train harder /stressed need recovery. Just do an internet search on HRV for the real details.
Here's a really simple one
https://www.firstbeat.com/en/blog/what-is-heart-rate-variability-hrv/
Cheers Folks!
@Garry_Lager I'll check out the Joe friel book, I've heard others recommend it too.
@whitestone unfortunately my "smartish" bike aint that smart and isn't compatible with Trainerroad or Zwift for that matter but thanks for the offer. It only seems to work with two apps, Vescape which looks a bit odd and Kinomap which looks like it might be worth a try. The bike has some built in exercises which I've been using so far so but would like to try something else. There is a big fan sitting in our practice room that our drummer uses. It is a bit redundant at the moment so will borrow that for a while.
@carbonfiend can't pretend I understand that HRV stuff but sounds like a useful tool.
Personally you just have to work out what works for you. The rate at which one recovers from weights / cycling varies a lot by individual, age and training history. I use my resting heart rate in the morning as a good indicator of my recovery for cycling. For weights I generally know how much I can do, for each exercise, and how long I need to recover - just learnt from years of experience.
On the HRV stuff, I did spend a while looking into that (as my Polar watch measures it), but it turns out my HRV is very low (for my age), so low that anything you read about using it isn't applicable to me (I'm at -3 Sigma on the chart for my age group). I just gave up on it in the end and use resting HR, which seems to work (for me).