There’s not anything wrong with the intensity you did ride at. If your goal is to increase fitness and hang with your friends then taking your long ride at 75% to 80% intensity would serve you just as well. So let’s say 140bpm to 150bpm, for example.
Then you might have a little more ‘in reserve’ for other rides where you really want to uncork it.
When I got back into riding, I was struggling to go up a somewhat steep hill. I remember a kid on a BMX bike passed me like I was standing still. I did not beat myself up,; I knew the fitness would come.
Reason for telling you this? You are riding and every day you are getting better. So don’t beat yourself up!
Pedal pedal!
I think what a lot of people here are telling you is to just do the rides. Keep a conversational pace (you can talk without much effort) and get some hours in the saddle. Look at the scenery instead of the heart rate monitor. Then when you get indoors in the winter follow a plan and only test when recommended. You will get better.
See, now, I have found the exact opposite to be true.
I’ve spent years (christ…decades now that I think about it) riding thousands of miles a year between commuting, and unstructed pleasure rides. I’d go for 3, 4, 10hr+ rides sometimes.
However, I never got noticeably faster until recently, when I replaced most of my longer outdoor rides with 60-90 minute, brutally intense rides on the trainer.
Edit: also totally agree with those who say just start riding. Make sure you enjoy riding, and more specifically really enjoy testing your physical limits, before you go about thrashing yourself on the trainer.
Know what your end goals really are…
That’s not the opposite 
That’s the exact same thing we’re talking about. You do the base training, then you do the intensity work after it to get faster. You’ve built an aerobic base, which TrHuster hasn’t yet. He’s starting out on the intense stuff. Base training, those long rides, logged loads of miles aren’t for speed, they’re for certain adaptations. Quite a lot of posts above have went into detail on what those are.
I want to thank everyone in this thread. It is really helpful for me moving forward towards a new future and hopefully stronger me. But still, i think my gains are superslow but i will accept it for now. 
Just remember, like someone has said already, you are already doing a great job of looking after your health and fitness compared to all the couch potatoes!
Well done, set long term targets and keep going!
Traditional Base Plan is what I improved the most with. I have done the base plan where I started base 1 mid volume and then then Base 1 high volume then Base 2 and base 3. You will get there. I am not that strong and I been cycling for years. I can race in crits. and hang in there but long hills I suffer and get dropped.
I need to listen to people like you I think. Being out of the house for 12 hours a day for work, including 3 hours commuting I only manage to get 150 hours a year. How much as minimum should one aim for? Power wise, how low is low? Z1 or Z2 ?
Cheers.
Like pointed out, thats not opposite. You said “when I replaced MOST” not all, so you are still doing some. OP need to do some as well, as well as the brutally intense rides on the trainer
Sorry this turned out to be longer than expected, maybe because the situation was a bit close to home…
The missus got sucked into that work routine (not the commute part, but the 12 to 14 hour work days) which sadly is increasingly common in the finance industry.
The fatigue levels she had just from work basically ended her ability to train. The solution was to relocate and change job, we both needed a drastic change anyway. Very difficult for us to, but we have just managed it and are in the middle of the move at the moment. Should be worth it, new job pays much more and the team say it’s more 9-5 with occasionally some later nights.
Not everyone has the luxury, motivation or ability to make that change. Especially if it involves moving two or more people a large distance to get that if the opportunity isn’t available in your local area.
But at least consider it. Work life balance has to come before cycling. For health and mental health.
When do you fit in workouts at the moment? And how tired to you feel when starting them. It can be hard to face a heavy sweet spot workout when you’re tired from working all week. I find it easier to ride low end endurance really early on a Saturday for 2 or 3 hours, then when I feel my body waking (drinking sugar water after an hour or two) and legs switching on, I’ll hit lap and test the legs with a threshold interval or VO2 interval. Seiler would recommend VO2 intervals. Huge Polarized discussion on those will link later. But you could even do sweetspot intervals there too. Basically getting in a huge monster training ride with low end and higher end stuff too. On Sunday get up early again and just roll around for hours at endurance pace, as long as you can handle. Riding until the legs really start to tire.
Really depends how much time you can cram into the weekends and how early you’re prepared to get out of bed. You might just be best sleeping in and doing some fun workout in the afternoon on TR and Zwift or whatever so you don’t fit yourself into a black hole for work the next week. Really depends on a lot of stuff and what you can handle.
Funnily enough I met a riders two weekends ago who works nights shifts. We were in a local climb just taking it easy up it, he would be mid 50s. Didn’t say what he did but his routine was ridiculous. He would ride into the city from his home over 30 miles away! Then ride back after his night shift.
I couldn’t handle that, but he said he’s been riding since he was a child and does huge audaxes. Needs to keep the miles in his legs. Done rides over 26 hours without sleep. Longest ride without sleep was 400 or something, but he does huge multi day rides much longer.
You can definitely train yourself for volume and not get too tired to work I guess but must takes years. Think that would be too extreme for me. How much sleep must the guy get. How much family time does he have? Maybe not married. Who knows!
Thanks for the advice. Currently, getting up @ 5 A.M. two weekdays and can only ride for 45 minutes or so then try to get longer rides for the weekend.
Weekday rides are done fasted, but it is hard to ride intensely. Saturday rides are usually good, but Sunday is only good if I ride insanely slow on Saturday. Trying to have the discipline to ride for hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Cheers
Yeah, I used to commute on the bike 2-3 times a week, 38 miles one way. Then a longer ride on the Sunday usually something between 80-120 miles. Easy to get the miles in that way! Did it for about 2-3 years. Not doing it this year for various reasons, so now trying to train “properly”, hah!
It takes time man! Be patient, keep putting in the work. You hear pro guys talk about it taking YEARS to reach a certain level of fitness. Your strength will build on itself year on year.
Are you managing your weight at all? How’s your sleep? Are there lifestyle things you could improve to compliment your on-the-bike training?
Enjoy the prorcess,
-Hugh
my blog: ex-prosays.blogspot.com
I have gained less than most of my friends that also is new to cycling and most of them have less hours on the bike. But sure, i can not do anything about that. I can only keep on going, put in the work and hope that gains will come with time.
Weight is the same as the last 20 years or so, 65kg (143.3 pounds). That has never been a problem for me even before i started training.
I feel i am in a good place lifestyle wise. Work is good and sleep is good. I think i will try Traditional Base Mid Volume when weather start to get bad, and that is not too far away. If that not give me any gains i guess i will go back to Sweet Spot Base again.
You will likely lose FTP doing the trad base, takes a bit of experience to be okay with losing FTP while logging traditional base miles and not be bummed about it
Yea i guess that can happen. But then i have tried it atleast. I know i need better base.
Just a sidenote, when comparing short uphill strava segments around 1 minute to the really fast local guys in my club i am actually abit faster than most of them. No clue why really. Maybe i just try harder and they don’t.
One min uphills are some of the hardest and most heavily contested in a lot of areas as the effort is short and sprinty. Can always have a go even on commutes. You might be strong at the anaerobic and neuromuscular stuff.
You’ll know by filling out your power curve with maximum effort tests. 30sec, 1min, 2min, 5min…
Try those when fresh. You could do the 30 sec to 2 min maximal efforts in a single trainer session.
5mins are dirty hard, best save those for a separate session a few days later.
They all have varying degrees of neuromuscular and anaerobic contribution. You might find you’re a bit of a sprinter, maybe even a short power kinda guy. Sufferfest has a test for this actually. Tells you what type of rider you are and what your weakness is. Take it with a pinch of salt but it can give you a good idea of where you’re at.
Just for fun guys. Did a new Ramp test. I got 181 FTP. So from November 11 when i got 175 FTP it is more or less the same for 9 months now. Not that great. One “big” difference was max bpm. Nov 197 bpm, Today 186 bpm. I link both my results.
It is raining outside so i thinking about to try out H.A. & A.C. Power Profile Test. I just wonder if i should i be seated during the intervals?