Six hours? Call that time-crunched?

bompington

I am trying to take training a bit more seriously, my target is to pare my time for the Etape C down from last year's 4:20 in the general direction of 4 hours.

I would certainly consider myself to fall in the time-crunched category, so I looked with interest at the thread on the time-crunched cyclist, as well as looking up the book.
My definition of time-crunched is obviously not the same as Carmichael's, though: seeing as how I have things that are more important to me than riding my bike my available time looks likely to be more like 2 X 20 mile commutes a week, plus the odd half-hour on one of those bingo-wing tamer exercise bikes with the massive seats that sits gathering dust in our gym at work; maybe a few 2 hour weekend rides later on.

Any suggestions for how to maximise training from this?

Another thing is that I spend a fair bit of time walking or running the dog (don't get a Collie unless you want to do lots of this), I've seen a few threads about how running fits with cycling but not a lot of evidence either way on how helpful it is, does anyone have any?

jgsi

bompington wrote:

I would certainly consider myself to fall in the time-crunched category, so I looked with interest at the thread on the time-crunched cyclist, as well as looking up the book.
My definition of time-crunched is obviously not the same as Carmichael's,

Having so to agree with the sentiments here.
TTCC expects you to be able to train 4/5 days out of 7 if you inspect his training plans.
And you will sacrifice your weekends come hell or high water.
I bet he can afford to pay some muppet to tile his kitchen etc etc and etc
Yes, very 'ideal' for the ordinary bod who do hath other things in life to be concerned about.
My training time is a maximum of 3 out of 7...so obviously I am going to be as old and slow as I was in previous years when it comes to putting in a few races this year.
Sigh... I shall just pose on me planned new Kharma ( at least I have permission to have this in the budget) when it comes to the real crunch and enjoy it.

DaveyL

Probably a lot to be said for just going as hard as you can for the time available.

inseine

I've never really managed more than 7 hours a week but I think that's doable for most people. Most families are not that active Sunday morning so you can get out and do a good ride of 3-4 hours and be back for lunch when other people are just finishing the Sunday papers. that's fine as long as you don't spend the rest of the day snoozing!
Been riding second cat races for nearly 30 years on that volume.
Definitely use running time for cycling if you can, it's much more value.

4.20 is alreasdy flying for the Etape C. It's 80 miles isn't it?

singlespeedexplosif

Most families are not that active Sunday morning so you can get out and do a good ride of 3-4 hours and be back for lunch when other people are just finishing the Sunday papers. that's fine as long as you don't spend the rest of the day snoozing!

yep, same here - only a bit earlier. I get out for 4 hours on a Sunday, and get back in time for a late breakfast with the family. You just have to accept that if you want to get a decent ride in, you might need to get up a bit earlier than you may like.

MatthewBulmer

I've a young family and a pregnant wife, so very early in the morning is my aproach to training and riding as well. TBH, I like going into work knowing that I've put in a good session.

I think with very limited training time you just need to be as orgainsed as possible to maximise its impact. Know the puspose of every session and make sure you give a good account of youself every time you sit on the bike. I can't see why the sensible use of 5-7 hours a week can't produce reasonable gains.

bompington

Thanks for the helpful advice on how to fit in all those hours training, but you're not listening - I've already determined my priorities (family (incl. dog!) & friends, church, work) and how much time that leaves me for cycling. Sunday morning is indeed a great time to be out cycling, I have on occasions got up at 5 to fit it in, but at the moment I'm just too tired.
So the point is that I am not looking at how to fit in more training time, just how to get maximum value from the time I have chosen to commit to it.
I've seen a lot of stuff about intervals & mostly chosen to ignore it, so I'm asking for indulgence here & not "go look it up", but can anyone give me a link to a nice easy explanation, summarise in 2 sentences (I often suspect I have adult-onset ADHD) what it's all about, what are the benefits, and some pointers to how I might try and fit it in to a 20 mile ride with quite a few short hills?

PS @inseine - thanks for the compliment re the Etape C, TBH 4:20 is the ex VAT (very annoying tacks) figure, but I would like to think that the time I spent fixing punctures didn't really give me much rest - hard to tell really. I'm quite proud of the chase I put on in the third quarter - I was, I think, one of the last ones through the Schiehallion control before they stopped the race there, while I was fixing my third puncture no-one came past me for ages & I thought I was on my own, until a bunch of 20 or so went by just as I was pumping up, I leaped on and pedalled like stink for about 15 minutes (that's on the clock, my memory says about 2 hours) to catch up - annoying to miss out on one of the great joys of the Etape C, which is the opportunity to wheelsuck your way merrily round 81 miles of quality countryside.
That's a long winded way of saying that I can't really say what my real time was last year, but I'm competitive enough to want to beat it this time.

keef66

I have the book, but I'm still raeding the introductory chapters. I don't have a turbo or a hrm; I think I need to acquire at least the latter before I start the programme.

At the moment my rides are like yours; up to 20 miles with a fair sprinkling of shortish hills. I just use the hills as interval training, hammering up them as fast as I can while remaining seated, and trying to gauge the effort so I only just make it to the top. Recover by spinning down the other side, and repeat until back home. I've already been able to get up a couple of the hills in a smaller sprocket than previously, so it must be helping.

Gav888

singlespeedexplosif wrote:

Most families are not that active Sunday morning so you can get out and do a good ride of 3-4 hours and be back for lunch when other people are just finishing the Sunday papers. that's fine as long as you don't spend the rest of the day snoozing!

yep, same here - only a bit earlier. I get out for 4 hours on a Sunday, and get back in time for a late breakfast with the family. You just have to accept that if you want to get a decent ride in, you might need to get up a bit earlier than you may like.

Same here as well, I tend to go out at 7am, sometimes earlier and get back last morning so the afternoon is free for family time.

ride_whenever

I do a lot of early morning training, the trick is to try and get to bed early, and eat a decent dinner so you have energy. Up at 5am, then train before work. Work all day then have life in the evening.

Brixtonfixed

I'm in my first year of following a structured training plan with a goal of being a slightly less incompetent ageing 4th cat road racer. As I understand it, intervals are mostly about raising your power and ability to sustain high speeds for longer. You're basically practising pushing yourself. There are many different types and recipes - but all the sessions I've been doing can be easily fitted into a one-hour ride.

On a hilly commute you could use the gradients for interval training. Just going very hard for say 10 minutes, then resting and repeating a few times is a simple recipe, but I wouldn't presume to know what formula would be best for you. There is loads written on the subject elsewhere on this forum and the web - so you will have to go looking up the detail I suspect!

Also, 'tempo' training is good for the 'time crunched', This means riding at a very consistent pace (too fast to talk but not balls-out) Doing a 20-mile commute at this pace would be a good way to fit solid base-fitness training into a short period of time. The key is to keep the effort constant, which means backing off on the hills and going harder downhill.

garetjax

to the OP.

I don't want to dispirit you but I found that just doing 2x20 mins didn't help my fitness. I did loads of them on my turbo using Power and HR. I really went at it; however, I found for me you can't beat a 3-4 hr ride, throwing in the odd hill.
It's tough getting the time in though. I know that!!

Alex_Simmons/RST

Time, used wisely, can be very effective. Jayson Austin set a new world record for Masters hour - 48.317km. He averaged 8.2 hours/week in training in the 6 months before that.

Slow1972

But the OP doesnt want to do 3-4 hour rides, he says he has other things he'd rather be doing and only wants go on rides up to 2 hours.

Personally, and depending how much training you put in last year, I think the time you have available (which sounds like about 4 hours max per week) is going to limit your improvement for the longer type of ride you're targetting. I'd just work at doing a tempo or sweetspot rides on the commutes with some higher intensity threshold intervals on your 30 mins sessions and ride your odd 2 hour weekend rides at a bit above your target pace. But what works for one may not work for another.

You've set your priorities, riding your bike isn't top of the list and that's fine, but you tend to get out what you put in. I'd just make sure with limited hours you make every session counts, twiddling along during any of the few sessions you do isn't going to help much.

And yes 4:20 for 80 miles is good, so good luck with your aim of a significant improvement to 4 hours, it doesnt sound a lot but means increasing your average speed from around 18.3 mph to 20 mph over 80 miles which is quite a bit. Best of luck on your limited training time .