Working and Racing

innertube

So, how do people work 60 hour weeks, with family, and manage to do well in cat 2/3 races?

Would 3, 1 hour sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with a 4 hour ride at the weekend be adequate training?

How can anyone find the motivation to either, get up at 5am for a pre-work turbo, or get on the turbo having got in at 8pm at night from work?

Any hints, tips, suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

maryka

Not what you want to hear but my opinion is that for the average racers, doing all three well -- family, work and racing -- is pretty impossible. Pick two and decide which one suffers. Whether you're basically phoning it in at work, not spending enough time with your family (letting it all fall to your spouse), or not training enough to do well at races, one of them needs to give, there just isn't enough time to do all three well (unless you're just a gifted enough racer that cat 2/3 is easy for you, but that would mean racing at cat E/1 level would be hard).

If you just want to get round at races, get the occasional top 10 or finish a stage race and you can get a lot of your training done by commuting, then you'll be fine I reckon.

imposter2.0

I'm currently struggling to train effectively on a 35-hour week, but I'm probably a hopeless case. 60 hours? Please tell me you are a junior doctor, or something...

innertube

Imposter wrote:

I'm currently struggling to train effectively on a 35-hour week, but I'm probably a hopeless case. 60 hours? Please tell me you are a junior doctor, or something...

Almost, I'm a junior accountant. It can be more, it can be less. I have raced in my younger years, but it seems I may have to just ride for fun or do sportives! There's just something about competition that increases motivation, but I am not one prepared to sacrifice my family or career for such pursuits! Having said all this, I REALLY WANT TO RACE!! Hmphh...

jibberjim

So race, you can race below your level on not much training, so as long as your level is above the minimum standard required to race, you can still race. The only bad side is that when you're limited in time, the amount of time that simply getting to races etc. takes up that could be spent doing more important things.

If you choose a career that takes 60 hours a week though, you've already decided to sacrifice something for that... Now you just have to follow it through or sacrifice the cycle racing.

alihisgreat

I think 10 hours a week of focused training is enough to be a strong Cat 3 or a Cat 2? A power meter and a turbo trainer would probably help you do the right things and not waste time?

Results would probably depend on how good your sprint is - if its not that good you'll have to be a lot 'stronger' to get results via other avenues?

DeVlaeminck

On 60 hour work weeks it's probably not realistic if you don't want to neglect family. I know decent first cats who work and have kids but they aren't doing 60 hours and they are training Saturday and Sunday and doing training camps with their team without the family. It's a choice isn't it - I like watching my youngest play football - she often plays Sat and Sunday so I train one morning and watch her play the other.

I'd have thought you could do ok on 3 evening sessions and a weekend race or long ride though.

iPete

I've not read it but the book Time Crunched Cyclist springs to mind.
I'd say that using a powermeter would really help you make the best use of time along with a turbo trainer.

Is there any chance to ride as part of the commute?
Assume you are already racing and have done the Cat 4 bit?

sheffsimon

innertube wrote:

So, how do people work 60 hour weeks, with family, and manage to do well in cat 2/3 races?

Would 3, 1 hour sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with a 4 hour ride at the weekend be adequate training?

How can anyone find the motivation to either, get up at 5am for a pre-work turbo, or get on the turbo having got in at 8pm at night from work?

Any hints, tips, suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

Are you working 60 hours a week for your own business, or for somebody else. If I was putting in that amount of time at work for someone else, I would be looking for a new job, life's too short for that.

innertube

iPete wrote:

I've not read it but the book Time Crunched Cyclist springs to mind.
I'd say that using a powermeter would really help you make the best use of time along with a turbo trainer.

Is there any chance to ride as part of the commute?
Assume you are already racing and have done the Cat 4 bit?

Unfortunately cant commute, at different offices/companys all the time so its not practical. I could wake and get on the turbo for 5am to save me doing it after work, but thats a struggle in the Winter.

Done the Cat 4 bit, thanks for the book recommendation

SheffSimon wrote:

Are you working 60 hours a week for your own business, or for somebody else. If I was putting in that amount of time at work for someone else, I would be looking for a new job, life's too short for that.

.

Someone else, junior accountant, money's alright, but the hours are beyond shit. It varies depending on the time of year, sometimes less hours, sometimes more!

okgo

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

I think 10 hours a week of focused training is enough to be a strong Cat 3 or a Cat 2? A power meter and a turbo trainer would probably help you do the right things and not waste time?

Results would probably depend on how good your sprint is - if its not that good you'll have to be a lot 'stronger' to get results via other avenues?

I think the sprint bit is quite key. I don't really do more than 10 hours a week and much of it I work into my commute and managed to just about keep my 1st cat ticket and do a fair few of TT's last year. But looking back through results, I think a good chunk of points would not have been gained had it not been because I can sprint. It really does help, I think you are right on that.

What OP could consider is just limiting it to circuit racing, requires a lot less 'time' as you don't need to be in good shape after 3 hours of racing, or if you do have a decent engine then you could look at time trials too, I know many fast testers who do 10's and 25's on well under 10 hours a week, many get by just on turbo workouts in fact.

I can't think of many people that race at a high level, have a long hours job, and have kids, but I think cat 2/3 isn't that level. There are a lot of guys in this bracket who do just that and seemingly manage to balance it all without forgetting their kids names etc. FYI I work probably 45-50 hours and don't have kids thus far.

glasgowbhoy

It's a tough juggling act, especially when you also have a young family. Having juggled all three for a few years now and my kids now taking up their own sports, which invloves various dad taxi duties on a Saturday and Sunday, it will soon be impossible for me to continue road racing.
Keen to ride track and maybe some CX after this season as the event durations and training time are significantly less as mentioned above.

ozzzyosborn206

how much training you need to do depends how naturally gifted you are also if you count race time as training time, if you did a 3 hour race every week you could probably get away with 4 or 5 hours on top of that training during the week and be a good 2nd cat. Depends what you can cope with I know some people get up at silly hours to train before work so they can have family time after work but I would just end up getting run down and have no energy if i did that i think

DavidJB

People are forgetting all the additional time around training and racing...

Getting ready, showering, putting all the crap away, cleaning the bikes and traveling to races all adds up and thats 10 hours is actually more like 13-14...I think with a 60 hour week you'd struggle...I work 37 and it's hard! But I am a MASSIVE faffer.

cycleclinic

I work in my shop around 50 to 60 hours a week and even ag the high en i manage around 12 hours on the bike. I do have a family too. I do early morning rides up at 6am out of the door at 6:30 for a hour when i can two evening rides a week a sunday ride starting around unless i am rackng. Cant say it is doing much good in races though yet.

I am lucky thougb in that mh commute is a 10 minute walk. If you can make your commute a ride to work thats your hours right there. 5