Best use of a winter's week off work?

amc

I have my last week of annual leave early Dec. Kids will be at school until 1pm so will have some time to get some training in on the road.
I'm an average Cat 3 racer but work most weekends, long hours and have three kids so like many of us I am short of time as well as ability. This is for riding on the road as don't have turbo or rollers.
At end of this summer I did a two week block of (Vo2) intervals from the Time Crunched Cyclist (on road, without power meter) which worked a treat but as only have one week this and its v early in the the season I would appreciate any thoughts on best way to use my free training time?
Thanks

SBezza

How early can you get out on the road, there are plenty of things to do in your time scale. You don't want to think about the week as a one off, you need to plan for the winter ahead.

I would think it is pointless doing Vo2Max work unless you are doing a winter rr series, as unless you can keep them up until you do start racing, you lose the benefit of them fairly quickly.

You could do endurance work, tempo work, sweetspot work, or threshold work, but just doing them for one week and then not doing alot for a few weeks, you will likely lose any benefit you gain.

Pseudonym

A lot will depend on what the weather is going to be like that week. Not much point in planning a series of long rides that week if there's going to be snow/ice on the ground...

amc

Sorry i wasn't 100% clear on my general riding. I work 7am-7pm but commute every day (13 miles round trip a day), i try and get a pre-work run in with my boss once a week (gentle zone 2 style for 40mins) and once every 10 days i do a longer 2-3 hour zone 2 traditional winter ride.
So looking to take advantage of a bit more free time for something on top of my usual.
I'm pretty confident that weather will be fine in early Dec as i'm in London but if it it snows i'll deal with it best i can.

Pseudonym

like sbezza says, it's a bit early to be doing HIIT stuff at that time of the year, unless you are racing a winter series or something.

Assuming the weather will not be a barrier, I would combine long (3-4hr) rides with hill/strength work on alternate days. However, if that's considerably more than your 'regular' training load, you will need to build up to it in advance, or else you will be sh*gged out by day 3 and risk wasting the rest of the week lying on the sofa...

MatthewBulmer

I would be using the opportunity in a couple of ways. Firstly getting in some quality top-end endurance/tempo miles. As importantly, for me, I would also be using the opportunity to do some new routes and cycle in places I'd never ventured to before.