Plan to cycle faster with limited training time.

NITR8s

So I plan to increase my average speed but with very limited training time. My current average speeds are anywhere inbetween 15 to 17mph.

My current plan is a simple 10mins a day on the turbo trainer keeping a pace above 20mph on a medium resistance and once I can do this with limited effort, increase the speed/time.

So far Ive done this since saturday, do you reckon it will make a difference or am i kidding myself with this limited training?

imposter2.0

Good luck with that. If you genuinely only have a maximum of 10mins a day to ride the rollers, then you will be wasting your time doing that. It's not even possible to warm up sufficiently in 10mins, let alone put in any kind of useful effort. On the other hand, if you mean you plan to spend 10mins at intensity (after warm up, etc) then you would be better off riding the session at threshold or above - in other words, riding at an intensity which you can only just sustain for the duration of the session.

sloppyschleckonds

Fartlek?

NITR8s

Imposter wrote:

good luck with that.

Thanks, I will let you know if it works.

imposter2.0

NITR8s wrote:

Imposter wrote:

good luck with that.

Thanks, I will let you know if it works.

it won't. See my edited reply above.

NITR8s

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Fartlek?

I suppose it kinda is in a short lazy persons way.

danowat

10mins a day?

Do you have any idea just how much training hours it takes to become faster? :roll:

imposter2.0

NITR8s wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Fartlek?

I suppose it kinda is in a short lazy persons way.

If you mean it's actually nothing like fartlek training, then you'd be correct.

NITR8s

Imposter wrote:

Good luck with that. If you genuinely only have a maximum of 10mins a day to ride the rollers, then you will be wasting your time doing that. It's not even possible to warm up sufficiently in 10mins, let alone put in any kind of useful effort. On the other hand, if you mean you plan to spend 10mins at intensity (after warm up, etc) then you would be better off riding the session at threshold or above - in other words, riding at an intensity which you can only just sustain for the duration of the session.

I do warm up before hand, by cycling at an easy pace for a few mins before I start. This currently does leave me gasping for air and finnishing in a puddle of sweat. 20mph may not seem fast to you, but for me it is very tiring to do this for 10mins. My fastest 10 mile was at 19.1mph, so 20mph is fast for me.

NITR8s

danowat wrote:

10mins a day?

Do you have any idea just how much training hours it takes to become faster? :roll:

A lot of time if your already fast, but if your not very fast then i would suspect it is vastly different.

imposter2.0

NITR8s wrote:

danowat wrote:

10mins a day?

Do you have any idea just how much training hours it takes to become faster? :roll:

A lot of time if your already fast, but if your not very fast then i would suspect it is vastly different.

Sounds like what you're really after is for people to agree with you, rather than try to help. You've already had a few suggestions for alternatives, but if you're determined to do this 10min nonsense, then I would just crack on.

NITR8s

No i am open to suggestions, but other than fartlek training I dont appear to have received any.

I knew that my current idea wouldnt be liked, my idea is that I am teaching my body to cycle at a faster pace in small chunks. At the end of the day I have cycled an additional 45mins than normal over the last 4 days at 20mph average.

I do aim to increase the intensity and time, once I get better with an aim to do 25mph for 30mins by the end of the year.

Phil_D

If you've only got 10 minutes in which to cycle, what is the point of going faster? At 15mph, you can go 4022 metres in 10 minutes. At 17mph you can go 4,558. At 20mph you can go 5,363 metres. The difference between the distance travelled at 15mph and 20mph is 1341 metres. At 15mph you can do this in 3minutes 20 seconds. Can you not just increase your training time by 3 minutes 20 and not bother worrying about increasing your speed?

danowat

Why is your training time limited?

I refuse to believe that 99% of people don't have at least an hour free a day in which to train, most of those who think their time is limited are just lazy and want short cuts.

There are no short cuts, if 10mins a day worked, everyone would be doing it

10mins would probably be at your LT, LT sessions are best done at a total of about 40mins a session (4x10, 3x15, 2x20 etc etc), 10mins wouldn't give you enough adaption, and then you are only focusing on one area, what about Vo2Max?, what about anaerobic?, what about neuromuscular?, there are reasons why training programs are balanced..........

jotko

Speed/distance on a turbo trainer is meaningless anyway - depends on the turbo and/or resistance setting.

I would work on increasing your threshold and general fitness.

Not a lot you can do in 10 minutes - maybe some HIT type exercises?

NITR8s

I do club rides on sunday morning and commute a round trip of 14 miles once a week. I also plan this year plan to do the club 10mile TT.

With Work & studying I dont have much freetime so I like to spend it with my wife when I can. Therefore limited time for cycling on most days.

At the end of the day its not gonna make me any worse.

danowat

NITR8s wrote:

At the end of the day its not gonna make me any worse.

It could do, you could just be knocking away at any base you have without bringing the benefits that training at higher intensities gives.

danowat

jotko wrote:

Not a lot you can do in 10 minutes - maybe some HIT type exercises?

Even HIIT sessions total about an hour overall

imposter2.0

NITR8s wrote:

No i am open to suggestions, but other than fartlek training I dont appear to have received any.

like I said to you earlier - read my edited reply above.

Fursty Ferret

Mate, all that's going to happen is that you will end up training yourself to ride for 10 minutes at 20 mph. Which means that when you are out on the road, that's pretty much all you're going to be able to do. Which, if you think about it, is pointless.

I

Monty Dog

There are high-intensity session that can be completed in less than 30 minutes - but you really need 15-20 minutes of warm-up beforehand. Basically it involves all-out, maximum efforts for about 20 seconds, recover for 10 seconds - repeat 6 times (if you can). They are also known at Tabata or HIT

jotko

Why not just commute more than 1 day a week?

simon_masterson

At risk of sounding like Graeme Obree, you need to train for the event you intend to compete in. There are short workouts you can do, but the bottom line is that if you want to go faster over a given distance/course/duration, you need to increase the intensity at which you can ride for that duration.

Jim C

Without a good warm up, and cool down (minimum 5mins and 3mins) this will result on injury. Not advisable. With 10mins to work with, I can't suggest anything of any intensity on the bike

NITR8s

Jim C wrote:

Without a good warm up, and cool down (minimum 5mins and 3mins) this will result on injury. Not advisable. With 10mins to work with, I can't suggest anything of any intensity on the bike

I do this warm and warm down as you have suggested, with the 10 mins inbetween. So Really i suppose it is more like 18mins when you include this.

supermurph09

I'd be interested in your daily schedule, by posting that it may help to identify where you can grab at least an hour. Like someone said above, I refuse to believe 99% of people cannot find an hour for exercise in the day or every other day. Its all about sacrifice.

team47b

Not having a dig, honest, but how many hours a week do you spend watching TV?

marylogic

I sympathise with your cramped schedule.

Would it be possible to do fewer sessions for a bit longer? Even if you weren't spending any more time training (although clearly that would be better) you would be spending more time actually training

At the moment you are spending nearly 50% of your time warming up and cooling down

If you trained for 40 minutes every other day you would be spending only 25% of your time warming up and cooling down.

jotko

marylogic wrote:

If you trained for 40 minutes every other day you would be spending only 25% of your time warming up and cooling down.

That's more like it.

You can do sufferfest Revolver in 45 min, A very Dark place is 53 min, The wrteched 49 min.

Stick them on rotation using trainerroad and you will get stronger for sure.

NITR8s

Thanks for the advice, I will have a look into sufferfest vids. Never heard of them before. Their website seems to be down at the moment, so will have a look a bit later.

simon_masterson

Just one hour twice a week (including 20-25 minutes warmup time) could improve your fitness hugely...