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2025 – How to train for your first 100 miles?

Happy 2025!

Kicking Off 2025: Fitness & Vlogging Goals

The new year always brings a wave of resolutions and new initiatives. For me in 2025, a major focus is on enhancing my fitness and documenting the journey through vlogging.

shrikrishna.me-canyon ultimate SLX

As an avid road cyclist, I’m setting ambitious goals: significantly increasing my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) and conquering a challenging 100-mile ride. I’ve successfully completed 100km rides before, but the allure of the century ride has always beckoned. I’m deep into my training program, and I’ll be sharing the specifics of my plan in an upcoming blog post.

To share my passion and insights with others, I’m launching a YouTube channel. My vlogs will cover various aspects of cycling, including:

  • Structured Training Plans: Finding the balance between intense training and a fulfilling personal life.
  • Nutrition & Diet: Fueling my body for optimal performance.
  • Strength Training: Building a strong foundation for cycling endurance.

My Cycling Setup:

I’m firmly rooted in the Garmin ecosystem, utilizing an Epix Gen 2 watch, Edge series GPS devices, a Tacx Neo 2T smart trainer, and a range of essential accessories like a heart rate monitor, speed sensor, and the Varia rear light. My trusty steed is a Canyon Ultimate SLX, which serves me well both indoors and outdoors. I’ll delve deeper into the specifics of my equipment in a dedicated video soon.

I’m excited to embark on this fitness journey and share my experiences with you. Stay tuned for more updates and insights as I progress towards my goals.

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Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

Maximum Heat Rate is the beats per minute (bpm) when the heart is under maximum stress.

Represented as MHR or HRmax. MHR varies by age. There are three ways to compute your maximum heart rate.

1. 220 – Age This is the most commonly used formula to calculate MaxHR.

2. 207 – (0.7 * Age) This formula is more accurate and precise for people over the age of 40.

3. 211 – (0.64 * Age) This is catered to the set of people who are very active.

Note: the above formula and MaxHR values are for theoretical calculations and references. They don’t take into account the gender or type of activity. For some women the MaxHR is 5-10 beats higher than Men.

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Zone 2 training (using HR)

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Cycling is a fun activity and can lead to a lot of health benefits when combined with a good training plan. Training is essential if you are looking to build good aerobic fitness, maintaining steady pace for a long ride or even to burn fat in a simple way. A few essential accessories are needed to do training and measure the effort of riding. A Heart rate monitor and a power meter.

Heart rate monitor will help you understand what is the current heart rate and how much of it is being exerted.

Power meter will help you understand the power that has been transferred from the feet to the spin the crank.

Heart rate and power both have zones. What do zones mean in this case. Let’s go with heart rate for this case — zones are basically a split of heart rate ranges from 50% of max HR(max heart rate) to 100-105%

Zone 1 – 50-60%

Zone2 – 60-70%

Zone3 – 70-80%

Zone4 – 80-90%

Zone5 – 90-100%

Zone6 – 100%+

What is Zone 2 training?

As the name suggests the training done in zone 2 for a maximum period of time during the workout is a zone 2 training.

Typically let’s assume an average cycling ride is anywhere around 1hr – 3 hrs. During this session your heart rate should be in the zone 2 range for 90% of the ride. The other 10% can be endurance level (zone 3 or zone 4). The longer you can stay in zone 2 then the slow twitch muscles will be exercised and also help burn fat instead of generating lactate.

Try an hour of zone 2 training at least 3 times a week and target a long ride on weekends (any zone).

Ride safe!