Hi all,

I have the following training hours available to me each week:

Weds: 2 hours
Sat: 3 hours
Sun: Up to 4 hours (although normally 3 hours)

My objective is road racing in events between 2-2.5hrs duration on undulating terrain (few races have climbs longer than a couple of minutes).

At the moment I am basically doing all rides at tempo pace or above. The Wednesday session will include attacking rises in terrain at maximum or a couple of steadier threshold efforts. Saturday is basically the same but the longer climbs mean I pace myself more. Sunday I consciously try to keep a lid on going into the threshold zone.

I don't have a power meter so it is HR and perception of effort.

My question is: am I making the best use of my time? Should I add more structure to my Weds and Sat rides? Is it OK to insert, say, a 20min threshold effort into a 3hr ride or should I forget about what time I have available and do more classical intervals?

Thanks all.

No time at all to train on the turbo trainer? not even for 45 minutew late at night?

I could but I hate the turbo. I think I know what you are going to say next - I need to ride more frequently, without necessarily doing more time.

I may have to reconsider indoor training. I know the wife would prefer me doing that than riding at night.

Since you have 4 rest days a week. I would recommend that you cram as much structure (intervals, hill training ex.) into all 4 days, and of course focus on the areas you want to improve.

He advanced are you with racing?

I think your plan is good, more days would be better but it sounds like pure maximizing your time.

How is it feeling week to week? Are you feeling much improvement?

Maybe add a day or two of cross training/weight/pilates

Book: Time Crunched Cyclist

You need it

M

Time crunched cyclist won't be much use here. Requires short rides most days. Unless as otherwise suggested can get on for short workouts on trainer in AM or evenings. Personally I bike commute to maximize my training time. 47 km commute each way, I get 3 hours of riding in but really only costs me about 2 hours of time b/c it takes an hour roundtrip to drive anyway. If you hate the trainer that much get a good set of lights, some lights and a hill within a few minutes of the house, voila hill repeat workout in about an hour. Or run, yoga, or go to the gym or get onto an elliptical or treadmill, something to get HR up and build aerobic level. Put the kids in a trailer and ride the mountain bike with soft tires while spouse rides road bike is one of my family involved workouts (she still doesn't keep up, luckily kids are getting heavier).

Lots of weekend warriors have a similar schedule where they get most of their hours on the weekend and one day during the week. Any chance of riding a Tuesday night WC with maybe an hour to 1.5 hour warm up/cool down on your weekday ride. Nothing better at getting you in race shape than racing.

Last and most importantly buy a power meter and think about a coach.

Thanks for the replies all.

Yes, I do ride at night in the winter. I've just ordered a set of rollers so I'll set them up in the shed and add another mid-week session.

If I only had those hours available, I'd do at least:

Wednesday, 2x20 @ 95-100% FTP
Saturday, 3x20 @ 90-100% FTP
Sunday, 2x20 @ 90-100% FTP

I'd fill in the rest of the hours with slightly lower intensity riding, like 80-90% of FTP.

Basically, balls to the wall as long/often as you can handle

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Do you suffer more when you train, or cannot train?

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Thanks Kevin, that's what I thought I should be doing. Is it important to do the intervals in quick succession (with recovery in between)? I might struggle to find 45mins worth of flattish terrain but could find several individual 20min sections throughout a route.

No, I don't think it matters if you don't do them in very quick succession, the reason for the break is just to avoid boredom if you were doing this on a trainer, AFAIK.

During my tighter months mostly late winter I like to toss a couple of runs per week in there to help with endurance. I can get the heart rate up for extended times all in a shorter amount of time than I could if I rode. It sure leps on the long rides and Max effort hills.

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Let's finish the ride with a 20% grade.
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Your objective is 2 to 2.5 hrs in rolling terrain on the road.

Based on your schedule you have plenty of time to train for it weather permitting or any other life changing situations.

Go out and ride similar courses on the road each time accessing how you feel and writing down your HR, distance, average speed, time, road temp, weather conditions, wind speed.

Since you do not have a power meter it would be good to get one if you want to be serious about the data you will be getting. But if you can't you can still write down some of the data I mentioned and see trends from it.

Asses how you feel at the beginning, during and at the end of each ride so you can either Increase your effort over each course over a month time or take more time to recover.

I assume this is a road race you are doing so I would spend as much time on the road as you can and get accustomed to riding in all manageable safe weather conditions. Do the trainer to maintain your form so you can get out the next day.

Of course this is my view on this and do as you see fit. Good Luck.

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