What discipline is best to start off with as beginner in cycling?

Training
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Hi I have started cycling spring this year. And now I have gotten an indoor trainer.

What disciplin should a beginner like me focus on.

FTP, endurance, vo2max?

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Normally it goes like this:
Base
Build
Specialty

Have you a TrainerRoad acct yet?

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Fun

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There is no best. Beginner’s can just ride for fun and get fitter and fitter. Just find a plan and follow it.

The real magic is in the consistency of training.

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The best thing to do at first is “just ride”.

Honestly, going from not riding to riding a bunch, almost everything will result in fitness increases and pretty quickly.

Play with what seems fun and enjoyable and gets you motivated, then once you are ready to start a proper plan to keep seeing gains, or you want to jump in straight away, then Base is the first place to start, which is basically, increase ride volume and not go too hard ( sounds like what I was just saying too lol )

Whether you chase ftp, vo2, anaerobic really depends on what increases you want to make, and what your natural strengths are.

If you naturally have good burst power but have a hard time keeping up with the overall intensity of a longer ride, it’s gonna be ftp

If you can keep up for days but sprinty guys get away too easy or you wanna crush people jumping for the next light, go for sprint and anaerobic oriented programs.

Want to drop fools on 5 minute climbs, or just have good hard ability to force a breakaway? go vo2 max

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Ive been struggling with exactly this myself.

Cycling is a weird one, if you’re practically minded like me, you keep you should be going through steps i.e if i work on this specific ill improve in this specific.

Im coming to realise exactly what people are saying “just ride” in all reality it all helps. Minor gains across the board are better at this stage than chasing specifics

Remain consistent and you’ll improve

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Thanks for the thorough answer.
I wil focus on consistency and a ftp plan based a Gran Fondo distance.

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As others said, fun and just getting out and riding is really the base of it all!!

And like @TrekCentury mentioned, as you get into structured training, you’ll find that plans are generally organized into Base, Build, and Specialty periods.

Here’s a good guide we have for athletes who are getting started:

Hope that helps out as well – feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions as you get underway!

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Should I do 2 - 3 month plans one FTP as a goal and one with vo2max, or should I do 1 - 6 month plan with FTP - Grand Fondo?

I generally just want to be faster on 2 - 3 hour’s ride and up gradients.

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Either of those approaches would work! I think they should yield similar results over that period of time, too.

If you prefer having shorter-term goals you can complete within a few months, maybe going with 2 separate 3-month plans would be best for you. If you don’t mind having a plan laid out for a more medium/long-term duration, then the 6-month plan would work as well.