@Grateful Dude thanks for the response, Dude. I've been just riding like 20 minutes around the neighborhood to get back into cycling. I have done HIIT in the past, but I didn't know if that was the best way to improve cardio. I also got a cycling... stand? Whatever lets you prop the back wheel up and cycle in the garage, so I can not kill myself here when it starts to rain.
Can't wait for my RHR to get down to 20!
Not sure how much you want to invest in this, but there are some really cool resources available. I have a buddy that uses this service:
Trainer Road: Cycling training, Planning, and Analytics
Cycling’s Most Effective Training App: Personalized, AI-powered cycling training adapts to your goals, performance, and schedule, giving you the right workout every time.
www.trainerroad.com
The offer things like:
adaptive training programs - science based coaching to adjust your training program; the right workout every time kind of thing
Planning - Training plans designed to meet your specific goals
Training programs - Base Phase, Build Phase, Specialty Phase, etc.
Analytics
I think they also have their own forums for people to interact or exchange info about training
I think this is about $20/month, or a discounted rate if you buy the whole year. But if you use it, it's actually not too bad. As a comparison, my wife does spin classes once or twice a week, and those cost $20 to attend each class.
This may be deeper than you want to go, or maybe more $ than you care to invest, but I just wanted you to see that there are some incredible resources out there. Road cyclists go deep with this stuff, so others have already worked out all of the kinks and dialed this kind of training in. I only mountain bike, but a couple of my peers use this service, and it definitely kicked them up a notch or two as their fitness improved. Personally, I don't know much about training - I just go ride my bike a lot
. But I know that if I buckled down and started a program like this that I could make some leaps with my fitness.
Good luck, buddy!