Suggestions for 30 minutes at lunch

burnthesheep

About 3 to 4 days a week I either ride for 30 minutes at lunch or go use the gym. I might do weights in the gym or get on the Cycleops and do 1min/2min intervals.

If you've only got 30 minutes for those 3 days a week, what would you do each time? 1x weights, 1x intervals, 1x spin for fun?

Right now if it is on the road I will do a 10 mi TT at a solid but not crazy pace. If in the gym I do once weights a week and once or twice intervals. 1 min at 2x FTP and 2 min recovery for 30 min. The Cycleops has full power meter pedals and display, so opportunity is there to use that data in the workout.

I'm open to suggestions.

webboo

What is your objective.

burnthesheep

Webboo wrote:

What is your objective.

Utilize the 30 minutes to help be as quick/strong as possible for my other rides. The longer rides can have some enjoyment factor but the 30 minutes should really suck.

My actual rides are from 15 to 65 miles and anywhere from 300 feet to 4500 feet. I'm at a decent weight for my height so no work to do there.

I'd really like to get to an FTP of 250 at some point. 250w/74kg would be nice. I did 185w about two months ago. Been riding 8 months. Pretty fit otherwise. I can stay in the drops for a few hours if necessary, upper body isn't a concern.

imposter2.0

Tabata intervals.

webboo

I would be looking at doing intervals that would lead to my objectives such as hill repeats. Although in 30 mins I would be more or less just finishing my warm up before starting my warm down.

AK_jnr

I would use those 30 minutes as recovery for other specific sessions on the road or turbo at home.

supermurph09

burnthesheep wrote:

About 3 to 4 days a week I either ride for 30 minutes at lunch or go use the gym. I might do weights in the gym or get on the Cycleops and do 1min/2min intervals.

If you've only got 30 minutes for those 3 days a week, what would you do each time? 1x weights, 1x intervals, 1x spin for fun?

Right now if it is on the road I will do a 10 mi TT at a solid but not crazy pace. If in the gym I do once weights a week and once or twice intervals. 1 min at 2x FTP and 2 min recovery for 30 min. The Cycleops has full power meter pedals and display, so opportunity is there to use that data in the workout.

I'm open to suggestions.

I wouldn't bother doing anything if it's likely to compromise what you could later in the day when you have more time.

bobmcstuff

Depends - if it was the only ride of the day I'd just do the hardest interval sessions I could do - but as above if you're planning another ride later in the day you don't want to ruin that. If you're doing hard rides on the other days of the week you might be better just doing an easy spin.

I do this kind of thing sometimes first thing in the morning if I know I am not going to have a chance during the day, particularly if it's a busy week and I don't think I'll get much time for proper workouts at all. Some variation on a 2x10 is what I normally do.

cgfw201

Do some cadence drills or something like that which don't need huge physical effort but do some good at training leg speed.

Quick pyramid doing something like
3 min @ 90rpm
2 min @ 100rpm
1 min @ 110rpm
30s @ 120rpm
30s @ max

then flip it in reverse, have 3 mins off in between and do it again.

burnthesheep

I appreciate the input. I do admit having the cadence data with the power on that bike has helped my cadence on the real bike.

I feel some of these are good ideas depending on what the rest of the cycling work is for the rest of the week. Sometimes the hard intervals would fit the bill and other time some easy spinning cadence practice. And other days nothing.

I need to write out a weekly plan, and stick to it.

It makes me wish I had those data on the real bike also so I knew whether I was in the right range on an effort or am going to blow up too soon.

imposter2.0

burnthesheep wrote:

It makes me wish I had those data on the real bike also so I knew whether I was in the right range on an effort or am going to blow up too soon.

That's why I suggested tabata intervals. Power, HR and cadence data is completely irrelevant for them.

sloppyschleckonds

Imposter wrote:

Tabata intervals.

I hate giving advise, because people won't take it