Hi there!
Tomorrow I’ll be going back to work with a 50+ hours schedule and have a significant other and church responsabilities.
My question is: when and for how long do you train (those who reach 10+ hours of training).
My idea is to train 1 hour every morning before work from L-V and get a 2-4 hours ride on saturday and rest on sunday but I’m still far away from the 10+ goal.
How do you guys get it done and when?
Thanks in advance!
Jose
Its hard…
I wake up at 4:15 most morning…
Do one wo… pause, then do another one once my wife and kids are out to work/school.
Ive been able to hold 10:30 hrs this way…
(this is training for a tri, which is a whole different beast)
If I may ask a counter-question…
Essentially, I am wondering why you have that specific target in mind and if it is really relevant to your goals?
Depending on your training history (and current time availability), it may be far more time than you need or can handle.
Most important to consider right along with training time is actual recovery time. It doesn’t matter if you can sneak in 10+ hours if you can’t recover appropriately to actual absorb the training load. failing to recover well will often end with you blowing up eventually.
Sometimes the “less is more” aspect of training is important here. Stepping up to longer training time can be useful and even necessary if you aim to go to a new level of fitness. But keeping in mind the total picture of your life and goals is important.
Determine what aspects of your life you’re willing to spend less time and energy on and how to fit that in. I recommend discussing your plans with your partner in advance, rather than in the middle of a training plan.
10-12 hrs/week was the max I could ever handle and I had to give up a lot of off the bike socialization. I was laser focused on AM workouts and getting myself to work. I would find every opportunity to sit at work, (I don’t have a desk job). After a bit, I’ve determined that that amount of training doesn’t leave me feeling like a well rounded human. Don’t compare yourself to others doing much more than 10 hours too, I’ve done this a lot! And the question that Chad just asked is a good one. Be sure you need that much training and don’t forget to include adequate recovery time as well. Chasing volume isn’t the be all to end all.
For me 1 hour in the mornings doesn’t do it consistently. I start at 4:50AM and make every effort to get 90 minutes in 4 days per week during the work week. That puts you at 6 hours or nearly there before the weekend. That gives you more flexibility, whether it’s 2-4 hour rides on Saturday or Sunday or 1-2 hour rides on the other day. If I don’t maximize those daily morning workouts, i don’t hit 10 hours consistently.
This isn’t the ideal way, but, 3h Saturday and 5h Sunday ride, plus a couple of workout sessions during the week.
how do you manage to get to bed so early? I finish work at 19-19:30 and have to have dinner at 20h, but it’s very difficult for me to go to sleep before 00:00, do you have a routine?
3x2 hour ride during the week. 4h rides on Saturday and Sunday. Leave my home at 6 am, back by 8 am start work at 10 am. 14 hours a week. It’s tough the first 2-3 months but now it doesn’t affect me in any way.
Some call it “sleep deprivation” , other call it “been always tired”
Its super fun! 
Luckily (?) for me, my wife also needs to be up somewhat early (around 5:30 am) so usually we are in bed by 9:00 pm.
I’ve talked to a trainer that told me that for me to get to a 4 w/kg (being in 3,1-3,3 at the moment) I needed to jump from 4-5 hours to around 10 to get it done (plus focusing on having more hours on the bike and not so much on the gym, yoga and so on)
I’ve been reaching 8+ hours over the last few weeks and although it’s been challenging at first, I find it doable in holidays, the challenge comes now with me back to work (and having trouble to get asleep).
My goal is to balance body, mind and spirit but having the right balance is always difficult.
With the bike the problem is that there’re so many aspects (train indoors, go outdoors, do gym, train for the upper body to not descompensate, train some legs muscle to compensate, stretch…) plus, train some enduro technique to perform well in competitions, so many aspects and so difficult to prioritize.
The problem here for me it’s not only fitting the training but setting goals: I had a target of reaching 250 watts in Q3 and now that I’ve done it, the logical one sounds to be in 4 w/kg, but: how difficult and how much time it requires escapes me.
A trainer that I think I’ll hire was the one suggesting I had to increase volume to almost double (he’s a trainer and a triathlete).
Good info. My uneducated thought would be to first stabilize and adapt to the 7-8 hour schedule before trying to exceed 10 hours. If you are really topped out with 4-5 hours, it seems there is real potential to gain from hitting 7-8 hours reliably. Doing that may help you determine the way to set your schedule for now, but also eye the future of 10+ hours and how you might fit it into your life.
This makes sense.
However, what really made me change my “I don’t have time” mentality was that a friend of my SO (who is a triathlete) with a SO and a demanding job was able to reach 10+ hours. This made me question myself and trying to know how can be done to try to reach for more.
Thanks to that I’ve been able to increase a lot my training (and thanks to TR) and change habits that allow me to get to that.
But, having in mind how would be possible to reach that amount of time will allow me to understand what other habits have to be change in order to get it done.
So, I take your advise whilst still trying to figuring out what needs to be changed. Otherwise I think I’ll be stuck in this amount of time as I were over the past year with the previous amount.
10+ sounds good, and if you can do that, then great. You sound like you have a full life and are looking for balance. That will require either/both a fair bit of discipline and/or flexibility in your schedule. Discipline to go to bed/wake up at the right times, efficiency in getting your other life commitments done and not burning time through procrastination, and flexibility to move some things around to find the right block.
In my experience, 8-10 hours can provide similar gains, and the extra 2 hours might be super useful. Consistent with TR plans, you could do 90 min Tues+Thurs - hour long intervals +30 endurance. W and F easy 1 hour endurance (or 2 hours on 1 day), then 2 hour interval Saturday, 3 hour endurance Sunday. Rest Monday. Mentally, I love rest Mondays.
I am choosing less volume this year - more like 6-8 - and finding way more time for other things while still seeing gains.
How do you go to work? I used to do 15+ hours weeks when I had an extremely long commute (2.5h each way) that I did 2-3 times per week. It’s hard doing intervals during that, but for just volume, it’s good.
Tbh I think your 50h work week plus losing the Sundays to church service are your real limiters here.
Maybe you can fit the gym/strength work/stretching into your lunch break?
I work from home most days, that’s what makes me easier to train before work.
My idea is to work from 6 to 7:30, train from 7:30 to 9:00 (counting preparation and shower).
Working less is kinda (very) difficult, but training in sunday afternoon is possible (but shouldn’t there be a rest day?)
Most people I know have Monday as their rest day - but that’s because they usually do long club rides on the Sunday.
Someone I know who’s working from home does a 90min “commute” before work - just a big loop.
Life is about priorities and tradeoffs.
Coming from a single guy with no kids - move the rest day to a weekday when you are a bit more crunched for time and get long rides both Saturday and Sunday. Extend weekday rides by 10-15 minutes on cooldown, that will add up. But like others said above, the goal of 10 hours per week seems a bit arbitrary - maybe rethink the importance of hitting 10 hours and instead focus on quality 8 hours, or whatever fits.
I work currently 80% from home, kids are in school 8-9am and 13-15 pm. I’ve started with two sessions a day (maybe 4-5/ week). One session in the morning (45-75min on the trainer) when kids have left to school. A second (45- 90 min inside or outside) session in the evening when kids have evening activities and wife is happy. If weather is good a longer ride outside during a day or weekend is enough (2-4h). Usually I include 1 rest day/week. I’ve found that two sessions a day is good way to get decend volume and a good mix of training in different zones. You just need to carefully plan the intensity distribution and enough sleep. And ramp up slowly. This way I’m able to get pretty easy ca 10-12hrs weekly and still take care of responsibilities at work/home. Autumn arriving I probably scale down for couple of months.