How long are you wanting those weekend rides to be?
This week’s looks pretty long to me. 
Thanks Eddie, and I always appreciate ya being so active on the forums!
The weeks shown above were after I made adjustments. If I do a long ride on Wednesday, since I have more free time on that specific day every week, my weekend endurance rides tend be recalculated shorter than I had hoped for (usually around 2ish to 3 hours). The more I do, the less it gives me. I think it believes I need more recovery, which for many cases is probably fair, but it is still a bummer trying to increase weekly volume and then the system wants me to do less.
I know it’s probably doing that for my best interest, but sometimes I wish it could be put into a “high volume training block” and/or a “training camp” mode where it actively encourages an aggressive volume approach.
In my view, you focused only on work as a factor in your previous post. And I meant to point out there are many other factors to consider, and that it isn’t about fitting everything into your schedule.
It’s not touring either. You don’t time yourself, but depending on who you ride with and what routes you ride, you have very different experiences. It isn’t casually riding for long distances.
And you learn about what it takes to spend double-digit hours in the saddle, nutrition, equipment choices and such.
That’s something you need to know for an ultra event, and that’s the primary value of long rides if you are training for ultra events, not the fitness dimension.
That’s not been my experience. For me it is getting up early and catching good sleep. Scaling back on volume has been the answer for me. I do all my endurance bit of training during my commutes and when running errands.
There are ways around Fatigue Detection if that’s what you think is limiting you..
You’re free to use the product however you’d like, so by all means if you want to send it for a few weeks to see what happens, go for it! YOLO
Let me know if I can help with anything..
Since you averaged 7.5km/h on your bike. I would class it as pretty casual. But if that’s how you roll, no problem. However do that on an ultra and you would be out of time at next checkpoint.
OreoCookie
In my view, you focused only on work as a factor
Because that was the only thing you mentioned as the reason for not being able to recover from 15 hours a week. I am not going to focus on things you did not mention or bring up.
If the volume is stopping you from having the time to get good sleep then you obviously don’t have the time for it no?
If you have the time available was always the case when increasing volume, if it comes at the expense of sleep then that is obviously a problem.
Or am I misunderstanding?
Sure, if you include the time to have food and all, no problem. Having lunch at a Hütte or taking in views is part of MTB culture. It also allows slower riders (e. g. women) to catch up.
You are significantly faster if you only include the time you move. And when you are going up steep terrain, you actually can get quite slow even when you are at or above 4 W/kg.
But honestly, I have the impression you haven’t experienced this kind of riding. If you are a roadie, the closer analogy is group ride ≠ group ride.
No, you misunderstand. I sleep less well and catch less sleep even though my time-in-bed is identical. I’d often wake up at 3, won’t sleep until 4, 4:15 and at 4:30 my alarm rings. Instead of 7:30 hours or proper sleep, I’d get 6:15–6:30 hours. Again, I’m still in bed, just not asleep.
I think I just needed to hear this from another user of TR, like yourself. I just get too structured without realizing it, and forget that I can add more volume without being told to.
On the bright side, the fatigue detection isnt giving me red days, so it’s either given up on me, or has adapted to larger weeks 
It sounds like it’s working then! It’s designed to adapt over time. 
1 Like
No I have, but I was replying to your comment saying that ride was not casual. But now you say it was! I was highlighting how far away it is from ultra events. I was not saying those type of rides are not to be enjoyed. They are. But they are a long way away from the demands of an ultra event.
I think your math is a bit off here. Let’s say someone is gone for work for 9 hrs per day (including 30 minute commutes), and they sleep 8 hrs, that leaves them 7 hrs a day for ‘life’. So realistically, work is taking up at least 60% of your waking hours during M-F.
I’ll be the first one to say people can do a lot more, but 15 hrs (or even 10 hrs) is a stretch for a lot of people. Here’s my typical week:
- 3 days/wk, wake up at 5 a.m., 90 minute interval session or 2 hr endurance (wake up at 4:30 for endurance sessions), leave for work at 7:40, home by 4:30. Change, wind down for a few, play with 1 & 4 year old, eat dinner. Get kids ready for bed starting at 7 p.m., asleep by 8 p.m. Hang out with my wife until 9:30, winding down, to get about 7.5 hrs of sleep.
- Some of those days I add in a 1 hr weight lifting session for a 2-a-day. Some of my ‘off’ days, I lift weights in the morning.
- Most weeks I add in another weight lifting session, before work.
- On the weekends I target a 4-7 hr outdoor endurance ride. This is.. waking up around 5-6, eating/getting ready. Drive to trail head, ride for 4-7 hrs, get home around 1-2 p.m. Clean bike, unpack, all that..
I average around 8-10 hrs of cycling time/wk over the year, and around 1.5-2 hrs of weight lifting/wk over the year.
Could I do more? Sure, but I feel that I’m really on the line of being a present father/husband as-is. My family NEVER complains about the time I spend on the bike or that all our vacations seem to be around pre-rides/races, but sometimes on a beautiful weekend morning there is some guilt that I’m not at home with my 4 year old on her bike or taking the family to do something. My daughter comes down to the garage to sit with me while I bike on the trainer about 75% of my workouts and we talk a bit and she may watch some TV or sit on the treadmill next to me, less so during the hard intervals. Hopefully she does see the work and commitment as a positive thing as she grows up.
Ideal to clock up 5 hours of cycle training a week without trying. Just need to choose the right route for it.
If you can ride from the house. Then whatever the round trip driving time is, plus getting bike and kit in / out of car can be converted to training time. That might be an extra couple of hours a week with no extra time away from family.
I’m not sure where you live but many parts of the U.S. it is not safe to travel via bicycle. I would love to live somewhere that I can access my gravel/MTB roads by bike instead of a 30 minute drive, but that’s not in the cards at the moment. When I lived in Houston, I left early enough that I could ride to the trail I rode on weekends, but by the time I headed home 5-6 hours later it was not safe due to the amount of traffic.
Europe. Where it is safe to ride pretty much most places.
That would be great to commute by bike to work. I’m content with hundreds of miles of mountainous single track and gravel a 20-30 minute drive away, though.
It’s a mentality thing. I live just north of, and used to commute daily into the center of Boston, MA (Back Bay.) And we’re known for some of the worst traffic and worst drivers in the country. I still do a lot of road riding and road training even on the MTB and the first 5 miles every time - I need to be on my toes. But for a lot of interval workouts, I either need an hour each way before I start, or I just do them on the trainer.
For the most part - you have to get used to riding in an environment like that, and ride a certain way, but it’s definitely possible. (I’ll say a blend of defensive riding, and offensive when warranted)
I think for events like Leadville, there’s a group of people who do too much time on singletrack and not nearly enough steady state, never stop pedaling, low variability endurance and tempo.
YMMV.
I am 40+ with 2 kids under 5 and work 3-4 (usually 4) days a week 10 hr shifts in a town 1-1.5 hours away depending on traffic. I have to leave my house by 550am. I’ve been managing 8-12 hrs a week on the bike - I know everyone’s situation is different but I feel like across the board this is busy. So, it can be done. Keys are have your setup dialed, be consistent, eat right, go to bed, and listen to your body. Also, be willing to wake up early and get your time in before family gets up and moving.
Yep, this is how I justify it as well. Other than my weekend long ride, all my rides are indoors on the trainer before work and usually wrapped up around the time the kids are getting up and around.