15 Hours/Week

shamrock122

Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster here

Background:
So, i have been cycling for approx 3 years now and i want to take my training to the next level for next season. For the first two years of my cycling career i was only interested in cycling for fun with my club and did lots of sportives etc. I averaged about 2500 miles per year for those first two years. My averages speeds were decent enough but i could never hang on with the best guys on the club, always got dropped 3/4s of the way up a climb.

However, this year i dipped my toe into racing and well, i am hooked! I mainly competed in club league events and i did surprisingly well - i got two top 5's during the 8 rounds of the league. I was really enjoying racing but i definitely feel that my fitness level has plateaued a bit towards the end of the league.

Previous training
I think there may be a few reasons for this. Firstly, I did absolutely no winter training last year - looking back on my strava stats i averaged 12-15 hours per month from November to February. I definitely feel this was the main reason i plateaued later in the season - i just didn't have the base to call on later in the season.
I only began training properly for the league approx 6 weeks before it began and i used TrainerRoad approx 3 nights per week to bring me up to speed. I felt this really improved my fitness quickly and made me race-sharp.

I continued using the Trainer until about the middle of May and at that stage i moved all of my training to the outdoors. In hindsight, this was a bad decision as i wasn't pushing as hard outdoors compared to when i was on the trainer. I was inclined to go out and ride for 2-3 hours and a moderate pace (approx 70-80% of my max). The lack of high intensity training (as i was used to on the turbo) resulted in me losing my top end explosive power and i struggled in the last 2/3 rounds of the league where i was dropped :oops:

The plan
So my plan is to get a decent winters training under my belt and to get upgraded from 4th category early next season. I also want to do well in the local league which begins next May. I have decided that i want to give my training as much focus as i can this winter as due to a number of factors, i am fortunate enough to have quite a lot of time available to train. I have decided that i am going to train for 15 hours per week starting as soon as possible.

I am aiming to peak initially in February of next year as that is the biggest race in my hometown and it would mean a lot for me to win that. After that i will take a break and work towards peaking again in May for the start of the local league.

I am in the middle of reading The Training Bible by Joe Friel and my rough plan to begin with is as follows:
Monday: 3 Hours LSD Zone 2
Tuesday: 1 Hour turbo (HIIT) + 40 min Weights Session
Wednesday: 3 Hours LSD Zone 2
Thursday: Off
Friday: 1 Hour turbo (HIIT)
Saturday: 3 Hours LSD Zone 2
Sunday: 3 Hours LSD Zone 2 + 40 mins Weights Session

So i would be interested to hear what people think of this plan? Obviously as the race season gets closer i will be changing the plan to encorporate more HIIT, Hill reps, sprint work etc.

The logic behind all the zone 2 work is to build a solid base. As mentioned above, i did absolutely no base training last winter and i feel that this really worked against me later in the season.

Any feedback/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Alex_Simmons/RST

Ramping up training loads too quickly is one of the most common training mistakes. Training should be done that is right for you, not what happens to fit the time you have available.

All the best with your riding though, stay safe and keep it fun.

wavefront

Firstly good luck!

I will also add that 15hours riding a week is alot! Not sure what other commitments you have, but even if you think you have the time, factor in the prep, maintanance, working out and making appropriate food plans, uploading files, and analysing!!! It adds up!!

I trained hard for one year, with my weeks ranging from 10-15hours a week (plus occasional big weeks of 20hrs). I was working full time, which meant my life was either working, cycling (training/prep etc), or sleeping. Pretty intense, and there were some weeks where I almost gave up. Be careful about it - make a plan you think you can sustain or you will give up and start skipping sessions. I'm a fairly focussed person and had one aim that I was committed to so only missed 3 sessions during the year, but I came close to packing it in a couple of times.

The golden rule is to make sure you schedule rides which are for enjoyment and not just training!

VamP

You should work out your volumes based on what your current fitness will support. Plucking an arbitrary number of hours may not give you the results you want.

How are you going to monitor your zones? Depending on the method, you may want to utilise a Performance Manager type of software to track your training stress balance, which will give you a better insight into where you are (and where you're going )

I find the maxim 'train more, so you can train more' really useful - you have to take incremental steps in ramping up your training, you can't just jump from doing 3 hours a week to 15 hours a week and expect to benefit.

Also, you should be aware that the value of zone 2 riding does not enjoy 100% consensus and your time may be better invested, particularly depending on your specific power profile.

And finally two sessions a week weight training? What do you hope to get from these?

diy

OK so your goal is to get faster? Is the aim of the weights sessions to improve HR recovery or off-set the down-sides of the Endurance training? Or is it simply to look less scrawny?

I'd also do them first, rather than second. Depending on what you are working, you'll get better recovery and may even have a benefit of pre-fatiguing the muscle. Unless its high rep/low weight.

You want to avoid pyramid or 5x5 otherwise you'll be adding muscle mass in places you don't need for cycling.

remember diet/nutrition is everything - with that workout, I'd be looking at your intake ratios and reading up on the right balance.

mamba80

i might be wrong but your training plan doesnt sound anything like the JF one at all.

he isnt rec hitt work during winter and he would be ramping up each week during base 1 2 and 3, if your going to follow JF then thats what you need to do, not ad lib as you feel like it.

DeVlaeminck

Couple of hard sessions and a lot of miles, looks fine to me if you can stick it. Don't discount doing your hard sessions outdoors, just because you dropped the intensity when you stopped using the turbo doesn't mean you necessarily have to - I found 2*20 sessions on the road easier mentally than doing them on a turbo - ie they were hard but no longer a form of self inflicted torture.

diy

One other thing... Recovery weeks! It may be that your lifestyle forces these upon you - her in doors demanding a "family" weekend :roll: or a work trip away.. but if not then you should think about recovery weeks.

Tom Dean

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19713254#p19713254]diy[/url] wrote:

You want to avoid pyramid or 5x5 otherwise you'll be adding muscle mass in places you don't need for cycling.

Are you talking weights here?

diy

Yep

The OP said he was planning on 2 x 40 min Weights Session a week. He didn't expand.

Duncanandthemachine

From what you say it sound like you are in a very similar position to me about 5 years ago. I started out following Joel Friel, worked out at about 10 hours per week (planned). Despite starting out with lots of motivation and best intentions I found this difficult to sustain week after week - both from the perspective of work taking over and poor recovery. After two years of patchy progress I started work with a coach, which, three years later I can say I found to be transformative. However, its taken me a long time to find the balance of training, life and work.

In broad summary I'd offer the following:
- Plan a level of training no more than 10-20% higher in terms of hours, you'll dig yourself into a hole suddenly doubling the duration you train at
- Plan a level of training you can do consistently. 6 hours per week every week, will do more good than 10 hours, 6 hours, 2 hours, repeat.
- A year of training and racing will go by rally quickly, next summer seems like ages away right now, but it'll be on you before you know. Aim to learn how your body responds to training year on year and make gradual improvements. If you are lucky with life not getting in the way you might have years where you make big jumps. In my, and most of my club mates experience, this is rare, and modest year on year progress is more likely.
- owning, and using correctly, a power meter is invaluable to see where you're at.
- If you haven't already, join a club and talk regularly about training and its challenges with your club mates. They'll have seen most of the challenges you experience before and can help. Don't be THAT guy who thinks he is special!

Don't forget it is supposed to be fun, and enjoy

shamrock122

Hi all,
Thank you all for your respones.

I posted a very long reply last night but it does'nt appear to be showing up in this thread? I got a message saying that my message looked like spam and that it needs to be reviewed by a moderator.

If a moderator is reading this, could you please clear it? If not, i will right out my reply again later tonight.

diy

We thought you must be out training

cycleclinic

Last autumn and winter I up my riding to around 10 to 12hrs a week . Doing longer rides mide week and longer one at the weekend pressing on pace or the best I could manage. It did not help much though as the races I did in April through to June all involved me getting dropped. Then I peaked when there were no race went into another dip in late July and August and seem to be heading to another peak. No of this I predicted so I am not sure how your plan will lead to a peak in feb.

Going from a low volume to a high volume may just result in fatigue and going backward. Ramp up the volume more slowly. So you are on the right lines but I would not do so many long rides. Zone 2 ride to me are at pressing on pace which is too much so many times a week.

It has taken all year to get to the point where I can ride Monday to sat 1 hr in the morning and 1hr in the evening and race or do a long 5hr ride on sunday without fatigue being an issue (not every commute is a training ride most are not). Only 20% of your riding time needs to be intense the rest can be LSD or recovery.

You have to enjoy it as well.