Please leave your message for Cycling Weekly's Fitness editor Hannah Reynolds here...
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Nigel
Please leave your message for Cycling Weekly's Fitness editor Hannah Reynolds here...
Thanks
Nigel
Hi Hannah
There was a thread on the Fitness section here about someone riding right after giving blood for the first time. How long do you think someone should leave riding/training after giving blood, and have you got any other advice on being a blood donor and riding/racing? Is it compatible?!
R808
I'm planning to do some road racing next year and want to get my base training right so that I'm fit and strong enough to survive races up to 90 miles. How long would say my leve 1 and level 2 rides should be between now and March, to give me a sufficient base to acheive this. I was thinking that level 1 should be anything up to 6hrs and level 2 up 3hrs. What do you think?
Hello Hannah,
I'm not a fan of dark chocolate (Last weeks CW wonder food), is milk chocolate any good for me? I prefer Galaxy but will make do with Dairy Milk.
GB
We asked the Blood Donor agency for their answer for that particular feature. They reccomended not training for the day you gave blood and to stick to very light training for another week. It will take several weeks to re-build your blood levels. While it won't affect your training too much in the off-season, as long as you follow guidelines and take care of your diet, it is best avoided during race season.
great - thanks Hannah
A general rule of thumb is that you don't need to do more than 20% over your race distance in base training. You can also get away with up to 10% less.
Remember when planning your training although there is an ideal length of base there is also a realistic one for you. Have you got time to do 6 hour rides? There is also a point thats right for you for recovery - remember over training is a hazard of winter base training.
Periodise your weeks so that you have three hard weeks leading up to an easy week. Later on in the year when you move out of base training try holding a set number of hours (say about 14) for the three weeks
ie
1 - total hours 12 - long ride 4
2- total hours 14 - long ride 5
3 - total hours 15 - long ride 6
4 - total hours 7
Hi Hannah,
I'm a bit fat and haven't ridden regularly for years. Can you recommend an ideal regime for somebody who has been sedantary for a long time to get back into cycling. Also, when I used to ride, my legs would get quite big quite quickly, is there any way of avoiding this.
All the best
No sorry milk chocolate doesn't have the same benefits as dark chocolate.
Even Galaxy doesn't have the same health giving benefits. It's the 70% cocoa type you are after. Dark chocolate is higher in antioxidents per 100g than most fruit and veg so if you want those benefits you'll have to learn to love the dark side.
I've got about six to ten hours a week to train, and my target is to ride well in a mountainous sportive, hopefully the Marmotte, next year. What is the best use of my time? How should I prepare?
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