What is the benefit of doing intervals/recovery/long rides? Just trying to figure out if I should be incorporating these things into my rides ~ right now I'm playing a bit of “beat the clock” I ride out hard as I can for 20 minutes and then come back ~ Trying to improve my time/miles each ride. Then a longer ride on the weekends.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

@Jackie: Jackie, I can understand your questions. I’ll try to answer them the best I can (hopefully some of the more experienced riders will jump in as well).

All my training is going towards riding my first century in late September and I’m following a specific training plan out of Bicycling Magazine (June 2009 issue). The purpose of my rides are to build up being able to ride comfortably for the 6+ hours it’ll take for me to ride 100 miles. Intervals are periods of higher intensity riding followed by a period of lower intensity riding. For my 4×8 intervals I do 8 minutes of high intensity followed by 8 minutes of lower intensity repeated 4 times. This repetitive process allows your body to learn to adapt to higher levels of energy exertion thereby improving your overall fitness. The recovery rides I do are usually the day after a hard ride. This gives the body a chance to recover before you torch it again on the next ride. Your body has to be able to rest and recover or you stand a chance of suffering from over training or injuring yourself. The long rides are helping me build up my mileage and getting me comfortable to being in the saddle for long periods of time.

I don’t know if that answered your question but if you have more please post them.

What is the benefit of doing intervals/recovery/long rides? Just trying to figure out if I should be incorporating these things into my rides ~ right now I’m playing a bit of “beat the clock” I ride out hard as I can for 20 minutes and then come back ~ Trying to improve my time/miles each ride. Then a longer ride on the weekends.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.