Maintaining Fitness

bobhitch

Evening ,
Summer has come and gone and i've now completed my main annual goal (cent cols pyrenees)
I trained pretty hard (for me) over the last six months .
Training roughly 12-15 hrs per week and I entered the event probably as fit and as motivated as I have ever been.
I have, like most, a busy life -busy job, 3 children and I'm also lucky enough to have a very understanding wife.
I'm really keen to try and maintain a relatively decent level of fitness but can realistically only commit about 6-8 hrs per week to training .
Suggestions as to the best way to use those 6-8 hours would be greatly appreciated .

Cheers Bob

colinsmith123

bobhitch wrote:

Suggestions as to the best way to use those 6-8 hours would be greatly appreciated .

Cheers Bob

With your wife and children for 6-8 weeks. This might be a good time to earn some of those brownie points for next year's target event. They only stay understanding for so long before recognising they've become Cycling Widows.

Just ride for fun, 2-3hrs on a club runs on a Sunday, commute to work a couple of times a week, family swimming, afternoon walks for example.

A change from training to exercising for a couple of months might well give your body a much needed rest. And, realisitically, can you keep motivated all year round? It's a fine line between motivation and obsession. Ask my wife

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90137

During this 6-8 week period you can then research your best options for a training plan for next year's key event. Whilst there are a few detractors on this forum, Chris Carmichael's book, The Time Crunched Cyclist is a very informative book and has recently been updated.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Crunched-Cyclist-2nd-Ed-Powerful/dp/193403083X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349506459&sr=8-1

Hope this helps. But if not, makes your wife smile that all-knowing smile.

TakeTurns

Simple answer; get a turbo trainer. A hard effort/workout on a turbo machine can be the equivalent of several hours on a bike riding outside.

It also saves a lot of time too overall. Having said that, don't completely ditch the outdoors, however try and incorporate turbo sessions into your training regime.

ut_och_cykla

Less time to train = harder sessions, more rest - will maintain what you have in broad terms though not peak fitness of course - and perhaps a nice gentle month or so - just doing what you feel like/have time for is a good idea. Look after wifey - we like being looked after!!

jesica1

Just when we running really starts to click, life tamper. Work unexpectedly gets debilitated, there's a family crisis, or something suddenly surfaces that means your daily running is going to be greatly compromised for the next however many months. How are you going to maintain fitness and daily health, although likely decreased, health so that when things return to normal you're not back to square one with your running as daily basis?

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video colposcope

diy

Maintaining fitness is much easier than developing fitness. As others have said, shorter harder sessions and maybe some full body training, off the bike.

markhewitt1978

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17912992#p17912992]bobhitch[/url] wrote:

Evening ,
Summer has come and gone and i've now completed my main annual goal (cent cols pyrenees)
I trained pretty hard (for me) over the last six months .
Training roughly 12-15 hrs per week and I entered the event probably as fit and as motivated as I have ever been.
I have, like most, a busy life -busy job, 3 children and I'm also lucky enough to have a very understanding wife.
I'm really keen to try and maintain a relatively decent level of fitness but can realistically only commit about 6-8 hrs per week to training .
Suggestions as to the best way to use those 6-8 hours would be greatly appreciated .

Cheers Bob

If you want the absolute best most efficient use of time then a good quality smart trainer such as Tacx or Wahoo Kickr, and Trainer Road. that'll put you on top form.

Turbo work isn't for everyone of course, it can take a specific mindset to get into it, but if it's time efficient training you want more than anything, then that's what you need to do.

Personally speaking I'm aiming to do 2x weekday turbo sessions and a longer Sunday ride (substitute a low intensity turbo ride if the weather is bad), but then I have rather less time available then yourself, and with Baby 2 due for arrival at the end of November even that is optimistic!