hours training/category raced

ozzzyosborn206

Hi before i get ten million replies saying its not about hours etc am just curious if there is a rough trend on how many hours a week people spend training in relation to what category they race. For instance would the average 2nd cat do say 10 hours p/w, and a 1st 15 p/w etc?

How many hours do you guys train and what cat do you race in?

I do about 11-12 hours most weeks and race as a 2nd cat although living in Guernsey I don't do that many races where I can gain BC points, like to think if I raced every week in UK or france i would be 1st cat.

davidof

I would say top level riders are training 20hours a week plus. However training 20 hours / week won't make you a top rider.

fish156

10-12hrs. 2nd cat.

sub55

20 hours ish 1st cat (retired)

dilatory

Is this 10+ hours of targeted training time?

imposter2.0

dilatory wrote:

Is this 10+ hours of targeted training time?

What do you mean by 'targeted' ? I doubt if it means 10+ hours at threshold, if that's what you mean. Recovery is also part of training...

dilatory

Imposter wrote:

dilatory wrote:

Is this 10+ hours of targeted training time?

What do you mean by 'targeted' ? I doubt if it means 10+ hours at threshold, if that's what you mean. Recovery is also part of training...

I mean 10 hours of intentional training. Intervals / Hill Climbs / Chaingang etc. Rather than 10 hours of riding a bike as fast as a medium/high pace.

DeVlaeminck

I suspect that the vast majority would include riding a bike at a medium/high pace in their training load. Personally I would include everything outside of riding to the local shops or tootling along with my kids.

fish156

dilatory wrote:

Imposter wrote:

dilatory wrote:

Is this 10+ hours of targeted training time?

What do you mean by 'targeted' ? I doubt if it means 10+ hours at threshold, if that's what you mean. Recovery is also part of training...

I mean 10 hours of intentional training. Intervals / Hill Climbs / Chaingang etc. Rather than 10 hours of riding a bike as fast as a medium/high pace.

Would you not consider 3 hours steady zone 1 or zone 2 riding, for example, as training :?

dilatory

I don't know, it wasn't a barbed question, just genuinely curious. I have only been riding since January and plan to begin racing next season. I can maintain around 19mph (give or take 1mph) depending on mood and weather for about 2 hours at Z4 on gently rolling routes (1,500 - 2,000 ft) but with winter approaching I am just curious what to do next to improve my riding.

Thinking about working through TrainerRoad plans with a club ride once a week and perhaps the winter chaingang weather permitting and was curious how people already racing divided up their time. Through the summer I've been averaging approx 12-15 hours a week but wondering if I could condense my training into more efficient use of my time.

ozzzyosborn206

madasahattersley wrote:

dilatory wrote:

I don't know, it wasn't a barbed question, just genuinely curious. I have only been riding since January and plan to begin racing next season. I can maintain around 19mph (give or take 1mph) depending on mood and weather for about 2 hours at Z4 on gently rolling routes (1,500 - 2,000 ft) but with winter approaching I am just curious what to do next to improve my riding.

Thinking about working through TrainerRoad plans with a club ride once a week and perhaps the winter chaingang weather permitting and was curious how people already racing divided up their time. Through the summer I've been averaging approx 12-15 hours a week but wondering if I could condense my training into more efficient use of my time.

In my own case those 5 hours were made up of 3 turbo sessions @ 40 mins each plus 3 hour weekend ride with 2 sweet spot effort of about 70 mins each and a 40 minute rest between. About as high in quality and as few junk miles as I could manage. On that training regime I also got national 25 title for juniors and about 385w at threshold. The extra hours I added in later were mostly hard group rides and the odd recovery spin. My threshold didn't go up much further but my general road racing ability did.

I don't know your full storey so may be wrong so feel free to correct me or tell me to do one. But to me 385W threshold for a junior is alot, but I am also guessing that to have such a high threshold at that age you are fairly heavy?

I have seen from previous posts you raced in italy for a few months but it cracked you. From an outsiders perspective I can't help but think you went to the wrong place? Maybe France or Belgium where its less about w/kg you may have found life a bit easier. Its sounds as thought you jumped in at the deep end rather than eased your way into it, learning road craft while increasing the level that you raced at.

Just seems a shame to me that someone with talent(proven by your nat 25tt win) at a young age cracked to quickly trying to realise a dream.

kingstonian

madasahattersley wrote:

ozzzyosborn206 wrote:

I don't know your full storey so may be wrong so feel free to correct me or tell me to do one. But to me 385W threshold for a junior is alot, but I am also guessing that to have such a high threshold at that age you are fairly heavy?

I have seen from previous posts you raced in italy for a few months but it cracked you. From an outsiders perspective I can't help but think you went to the wrong place? Maybe France or Belgium where its less about w/kg you may have found life a bit easier. Its sounds as thought you jumped in at the deep end rather than eased your way into it, learning road craft while increasing the level that you raced at.

Just seems a shame to me that someone with talent(proven by your nat 25tt win) at a young age cracked to quickly trying to realise a dream.

I was fairly heavy, about 76kg but then got down to 72 out in Italy. Not a nice existence being that weight at 6'3! But yeah I went to the wrong place with the wrong team.

But that said, I'm glad I realised sooner rather than later what I wanted out of life, so I don't regret it. Turns out "cracking" was the best thing that's ever happened to me, and my mental health and general happiness have improved and continue to improve leaps and bounds Cycling is a tough old game that's for sure.

Glad it worked out for you in the end. I raced with a guy in France who didn't make it and he went into a depressive cycle when he was 22, it really ruined his 20's and it took him way into his 30's to get himself back on track. I didn't make it due to injury - I found it pretty easy to digest, whereas if someone had just told me that I wasn't good enough it would have been harder to get my head around.

Grill

madasahattersley wrote:

dilatory wrote:

I don't know, it wasn't a barbed question, just genuinely curious. I have only been riding since January and plan to begin racing next season. I can maintain around 19mph (give or take 1mph) depending on mood and weather for about 2 hours at Z4 on gently rolling routes (1,500 - 2,000 ft) but with winter approaching I am just curious what to do next to improve my riding.

Thinking about working through TrainerRoad plans with a club ride once a week and perhaps the winter chaingang weather permitting and was curious how people already racing divided up their time. Through the summer I've been averaging approx 12-15 hours a week but wondering if I could condense my training into more efficient use of my time.

In my own case those 5 hours were made up of 3 turbo sessions @ 40 mins each plus 3 hour weekend ride with 2 sweet spot effort of about 70 mins each and a 40 minute rest between. About as high in quality and as few junk miles as I could manage. On that training regime I also got national 25 title for juniors and about 385w at threshold. The extra hours I added in later were mostly hard group rides and the odd recovery spin. My threshold didn't go up much further but my general road racing ability did.

That's more power than Clinton put out on this year's Nat 25 :shock:

Grill

Makes my 265 on a 10 look like weaksauce.