Training on only 4 hours per week

Gareths7

I ride regularly (every day very short commute to work) and for fun at weekends, evenings and sometimes at lunchtime at work. Family commitments mean that I can very rarely go for a long ride 1 hour max most weeks at this time of year, 2 hours once the days get longer. I averaged about 3 hours per week last year (varied from 2-5 hours most weeks).

What is the best way of getting faster with such limited time. Realise this is even less than the time crunched cyclist which talks about 6-8 hours a week. Having said that my goals are less ambitious as I won't be racing and I am unlikely to do more than a 3 hour ride at any point in the next year. Picking a goal, its increased fitness I am after but I would measure this in terms of going faster on strava segments and improving my unoffical 10 mile time trial time from a best of 33 mins last year to below 30 mins. I would also like to increase the distance I can cover comfortably (not all out) on a two hour ride.

I have a heart rate monitor and know my LT heart rate etc. What recommendations would people have for such limited training time? Would any periodisation be in order (zone two rides for a month before doing some intervals) or is that completly unbeneficial with so little training time?

ShutUpLegs

Gareths7 wrote:

What is the best way of getting faster with such limited time. Picking a goal, its increased fitness I am after but I would measure this in terms of going faster on strava segments and improving my unoffical 10 mile time trial time from a best of 33 mins last year to below 30 mins. I would also like to increase the distance I can cover comfortably (not all out) on a two hour ride.

Increase power output, lose weight

marz

If only 4 hours then I'd plan two one hour interval rides (sprint, recover, repeat) and a fast two hour ride aiming for highest average speed as possible.

For interval rides, there are loads of variations, google 'em and pick one.

Maybe consider cheap a trainer for the home. When my daughter was younger, I'd put her to bed and then spend an hour or two watching a movie while pedaling on a trainer. Wasn't much, but helped get the miles in.

Also if possible, take the long way to work and extend your commute a mile or two.

Gareths7

Shutuplegs - All the work has to be at the power end of the equation; I am 6 2" and barely 12 stone so don't intend on losing any weight.

Marz thanks for this. If I train intervals for two one hour sessions and then do my two hour ride fast (tempo then?) will I be training too intensively or is this not a risk on 4 hours a week?

twotyred

You are in no danger of over training on 4 hours per week.

Trev The Rev

Gareths7 wrote:

I ride regularly (every day very short commute to work) and for fun at weekends, evenings and sometimes at lunchtime at work. Family commitments mean that I can very rarely go for a long ride 1 hour max most weeks at this time of year, 2 hours once the days get longer. I averaged about 3 hours per week last year (varied from 2-5 hours most weeks).

What is the best way of getting faster with such limited time. Realise this is even less than the time crunched cyclist which talks about 6-8 hours a week. Having said that my goals are less ambitious as I won't be racing and I am unlikely to do more than a 3 hour ride at any point in the next year. Picking a goal, its increased fitness I am after but I would measure this in terms of going faster on strava segments and improving my unoffical 10 mile time trial time from a best of 33 mins last year to below 30 mins. I would also like to increase the distance I can cover comfortably (not all out) on a two hour ride.

I have a heart rate monitor and know my LT heart rate etc. What recommendations would people have for such limited training time? Would any periodisation be in order (zone two rides for a month before doing some intervals) or is that completly unbeneficial with so little training time?

How short is your short commute to work?

Sometimes people forget that even a very short session can make a big contribution to fitness particularly if it is regular and intense. Any reason you can't put in some intense intervals on the way to work and the way home? Over time these add up. Even one on the way in and one on the way home is 10 intervals over the week. These intervals could add up to far more than you could manage in a 2 or 3 hour session. You may as well maximise the time you do spend on the bike.

danowat

There are a few people who do quite well on minimal hours, however, the focus has got to be on 100% quality of training.

As such, the commute (unless its a solid unbroken ride), is likely to be junk.

If you really want to get fast, you'll have to make time, get up early a get an hour in on the turbo, something like that.

I'd scoff at the idea that anyone is too busy to make an hour a day for a quality training session if they really want to, how many hours to do sit on the sofa watching TV a week?

Trev The Rev

danowat wrote:

There are a few people who do quite well on minimal hours, however, the focus has got to be on 100% quality of training.

As such, the commute (unless its a solid unbroken ride), is likely to be junk.

If you really want to get fast, you'll have to make time, get up early a get an hour in on the turbo, something like that.

I'd scoff at the idea that anyone is too busy to make an hour a day for a quality training session if they really want to, how many hours to do sit on the sofa watching TV a week?

Not sure I agree here. Perhaps you are thinking in terms of specifically training for long distance TTs? But even a short commute can consist of a little warm up then some hard efforts. Even if the hard efforts are 30 seconds, a minute, or 3 minute or 5 minutes, they all add up if you do them day in day out. If training for anything other than long TTs, even 10s, short sharp intervals are going to be beneficial - even beneficial for longer TTs. Can't agree a commute has to be junk. The commute can be unstructured, fun, intense and productive. Just because it is not measured, controlled , and recorded as data to be analysed does not mean it is not good training.

danowat

Depends on the commute.

I just to have a very good commute, 17 solids mile each way, brilliant training, my new job is in the city, and only half of it is any good, the rest is junk, traffic, traffic lights, junctions etc.

GiantMike

4 hours is sub-optimal. 20 hours may also be sub-optimal, depending on your aims.

Just make sure that when you ride to do it for a training reason, so that you feel like you've earned a recovery at the end of it. There is a lot of gumph about HIIT providing significant training benefits from about 5 mins per week, apparently backed-up by significant scientific research.

If I had 4 hours in a week I'd probably do a couple of road interval sessions* and a longer 2 hour ride at tempo (working quite hard but not maximal).

*A regular road interval session is 7 mins at 340W (this is hard for me), then 3 mins recovery interval (RI), then 6x340W, then 2.5 RI, then 5x340W, then 2 RI, then 4x340W, then 1.5 RI, then 3x340W, then 1 RI, then 2x340W, then 30s RI, then 1x340W, then 15s RI, then 30s x 340W, the 5 mins RI and then tempo all the way home. Easy to remember as the RI is half the length of the next work interval. Without a power meter you can use speed or 'feel' as a proxy. HR would be troublesome due to the delay between work and HR reaction.

Tom Butcher

Without wanting to sound rude if you only have 4 hours a week to ride the bike why are you bothered about making it optimal - you don' t race and unless you are very talented would struggle to do well off that volume of riding anyway. Why not just go out - ride hard if you want to - and enjoy it ? Maybe sort some local training loops out and see how fast you can ride them or if you are tired take it easier.

Of course we are all different and each to their own but for most structured intervals aren't fun - it's about deferred gratification - the pay off comes when we ride away from our mates on a training ride or make the break in the local road race league or get a pb in a 25 etc. Unless there is a goal I think it'd be very hard to really commit to high intensity intervals.

jgsi

Tom Butcher wrote:

Without wanting to sound rude if you only have 4 hours a week to ride the bike why are you bothered about making it optimal - you don' t race and unless you are very talented would struggle to do well off that volume of riding anyway. Why not just go out - ride hard if you want to - and enjoy it ? Maybe sort some local training loops out and see how fast you can ride them or if you are tired take it easier.

Of course we are all different and each to their own but for most structured intervals aren't fun - it's about deferred gratification - the pay off comes when we ride away from our mates on a training ride or make the break in the local road race league or get a pb in a 25 etc. Unless there is a goal I think it'd be very hard to really commit to high intensity intervals.

'Training' is the the new 'golf'
I agree with ya Tom, training is a pain in the backside and bloody pointless if you aint gotta racing aim or big etape or gran fondo tp go for.

Trev The Rev

Nothing wrong in training for training's sake. Improvement & reaching self set goals is just as important to some as winning or being competitive is to others.

4 hours a week may not be optimal but for shorter events (up to 25 miles) you can go a long way on less than 4 hours a week.

The mere fact so many cyclists, with and or without coaches, put in so many hours of training for such little improvement and achieve such ordinary power to weight ratios despite those hours, does not mean you can't consistently improve on a few hours training a week.

phreak

If you take the approach of intervals during the week and a longer ride at the weekend then I suspect a lot of us get by on 4 hours of training during the week, so all it'd be lacking would be the longer ride. I suspect you could still improve by doing those three good interval sessions a week.

Trev The Rev

twotyred wrote:

You are in no danger of over training on 4 hours per week.

It is possible though. If you did nothing but a 30 minute full on all out record breaking test every day with no recovery or rest days even a rider with a strong constitution would get into serious difficulties eventually. Mind you if you ponced about riding in some daft zones sipping sports drinks and downing a gel every 10 minutes you would be right.

Tom Butcher

More than possible - one reasonably well known local rider went so deep in an inter club roller racing night a few years back he had to take the next day off work because he felt unwell from it !

Trev The Rev

Tom Butcher wrote:

More than possible - one reasonably well known local rider went so deep in an inter club roller racing night a few years back he had to take the next day off work because he felt unwell from it !

I will get this one in first. That would be over reaching though rather than over training. But if he kept on doing it over and over it would become over training. But then it all depends on the recovery and rest. Not sure I particularly like the over training and over reaching terminology.

bigmat

I'm a bit concerned that commuting miles are "junk", as that means I haven't done any training since November! Ironically, the racing during that time has been going quite well. 4 hours is limited, but if you make the most of the time then it is more than enough to work on overall fitness. I'm guessing that a large chunk of that is your commute so you need to remember to push yourself - Strava segments, keeping a note of overall average speed etc - rather than just pootling along. An urban commute is probably better training for the typical circuit race than going for a 3 hour ride in the countryside - lots of stop-start, needing to stay focused on what is going on around you, short bursts, fighting for position etc.

Trev The Rev

The volume of training should not expand to fill the time available, but should only increase as when and if necessary.

kevin69

have a look at the training plans on trainerroad.com.
many of them average under 4 hours a week, but have enough intensity
to acheive improvements

good luck

a_n_t

I did a short 21 minute 10TT on 5 hours a week last season. 2 of those hours were funking hard tho!

ruarigrant

Yeah i'd say just make them as high intensity as possible..

Gareths7

a_n_t: very impressive, how did you get such a quick time off 5 hours (apart from genetics). Were you coming off a base of training for much longer hours?

If the two hours were hard intervals (VO2 or threshold?) what did you do with the other 3 hours; or were those hours the easy riding between two hours of intervals?

a_n_t

2 x 1 hour sessions on the turbo (L4 and L5) and a longer 3 hour L2/3 ride on a sunday.

Babies get in the way of decent training.