Most motivational piece of this thread for me. Thanks!
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@jmvicente90 I would approach this as what kind of training do you add to your current training to make you faster, better. More miles, more hours may not always be optimal.
First you have to look at what you are training for. 8-10 hour gravel events? Or a 2-3 hour weekly group ride? A 45 minute crit? Maybe the best thing you could do at this point would be a couple of hours of core and functional fitness exercises over two more hours of zone 1/2? Maybe in the winter the best thing you could do would be to lift weights?
I know there is this talk of adding 15-20 minutes to each ride so one gets an extra 1-2 hours per week. But is that the best quality 1-2 hours especially if half of it is cooling down?
Yes! Even if I had the genetics, the primary reason I could never be a pro is I’m not able to willing to suffer 5-6 hours on the bike every single day. I love a fast 2-3 hour ride. Four to five hours in and my feet are hot, my neck and hands are getting sore, and my mind is just tired of pedaling.
The other thing is that I can’t do 3-5 hour rides and then come home and live a normal life. I’m exhausted and just want to veg out the rest of the day. I don’t want to mow the lawn, work on the car, clean, stand in the kitchen, or do much of anything that contributes to the family. It’s not very conducive to family life at this time as we have a 10 year old.
I gave up racing when I looked in the mirror and saw that I was spending 20-25 hours per week training, driving to races, standing around at races, etc. We were usually racing for power bars or a $20 prize.
I had no life.
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When having real life responsibilities, this is where the grownup pants have to be pulled up if someone is going to ride like that. Can’t just say “I’m check out for the day.” It does require the discipline to make yourself mow the lawn after going for a long ride, cleaning the kitchen, finishing your professional school or job work.
I’m reply more to the thread here, not calling you out. It’s tough to do but most of the time just have to suck it up. Or pick up running since that takes less time.
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I disagree with you in the ‘man up’ department. I ride for enjoyment. I don’t want to go do a hard 3+ hour group ride if I have to come home and then do 2 hours of yard work, 2 hours of playing at the park, and then spend an hour cooking dinner. I know I’ll be miserable and exhausted.
Recovery is part of training. You have to plan for the recovery. I know some guys get up at 4am to train and as a result they sleep 6 hours per night. That doesn’t work for me. I’d be tired, miserable, and my eye would start twitching from lack of sleep.
The “grown-up pants” thing to do is to plan ahead and not to squeeze in training such that the rest of your life is miserable.
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I’m saying if you have a busy life, with a lot of responsibilities, and want to ride 10+ hours a week, there are going to be times where you need to suck it up and get work done. Where you cannot just lay around and recover.
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Amen.
I’m lucky that I can usually train during the week most days for 60-75 mins and usually train for 60-90 mins on ONE of the weekend days. The rest of my weekend…family comes first for me. Kids don’t care less if I come 1st or 100 in local mean nothing race…they do care if I’m about and ready to play/spend time on weekends.
That gets me around 6.5 hours total a week, I could be faster on more I imagine but not like 99% of us are ever going to be pro…so is it worth the trade off?
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People have different priorities, different things in life that make them feel good, I don’t think you should judge someone for choosing to do a lot of riding that they enjoy. It doesn’t matter if they are a C-Grade racer riding 20 hours, or a semi-pro riding 6 hours.
To the OP, I don’t have a lot to add that is useful as I do shift work and am also able to train at work so while I don’t train all the days (and don’t get to ride much on the weekend) I squeeze in between 2-5hours in the mornings on the days when the kids are at school/preschool. It doesn’t sound like you can shift any of your work to free up hours, but that’s what I do. I also do a lot of my riding on the trainer as the admin is minimal and I can be off and ready to go within 15min of my wife getting home or to within 15min of time to leave. As opposed to having to clean and lube my bike and get to and from the trail head.
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The thread is about wanting to ride 10+ hours per week and I’m not the OP. The answer for some is to ride less, but if your goal/priority is to ride more, there will be times where you make sacrifices.
I dunno, the op seemed to be asking a fairly simple question.
I don’t think theres a need to start analysing the if’s-why’s-but’s of the question like a lot have decided needs doing.
I hesitate to post only because I do ride 10+hrs a week, but I do work from home full time, so that facilitates things a lot. But I don’t have unlimited time on the weekend, so I keep my rides to generally 2hrs max. Generally speaking, I think a lot of us could find enough time by cutting out some of the fluff we do, like sit around and mindlessly play on our phones or what tv. I think downtime to do stuff like that is fine, but I think many folks can cobble together decent training time by cutting out some stuff.
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No kids and a wife that loves to train also means I get to set my priorities around my training as I wish. I probably could do more than 10+hr a week if I want but with other stuff I want to fill my time with also I think 10hrs is about average. Most of my training is done before starting work (I go better early and like to get it done before the day is underway) and is generally achieved as follows:
Summer:
- M - 1 hr (spin)
- T - 1.5hrs (vo2 club laps ride)
- W - Rest
- T - 1.5hrs (Intervals - SS/ Threshold)
- F - 1.5hrs (z2)
- S - 3hrs+ (fast club ride - kitchen sink!)
- S - 3hrs+ (social club ride z2/z3)
In the winter, the Tuesday ride and at least one of the weekend rides are generally replaced with trainer work as part of a structured plan. To achieve the early starts though I do have to prioritise sleep - bed at 9-930pm…
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I somehow missed your reply. Apologies.
I do all my rides in the afternoon/evening, as I have to drop my girls at school in the morning, as well as a few other “chores”. My wife also works late (from home), so if I go to sleep early to wake up early, then we hardly see each other. She’s also happy that I don’t wake her up, like I used to when training early. That is why I skip a Friday workout, as it means either a coffee ride at 04:30 with everyone else, after a hard Thursday workout, or a Friday afternoon ride that’s before a big/long (early) Saturday ride.
My Saturday club ride starts at 05:00 (we call it early bird) followed by the main club ride at 06:15. It’s the opportunity to get some extra distance/time/mileage in before the club ride, and allows the slower guys a chance to ride with the faster group. As I do all the route planning for my club, I might throw in a hard session followed by endurance to finish off the ride. Then I’ll plan my week around having that ride as my second hard ride for the week.
Edit: Giving up TV time allowed me to focus on training time, and still get to the other “chores”.
I edited my previous reply to include this:
TV time reduced.
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I usually do between 8 and 17hrs a week. I’ve been able to do this consistently for about 5 years. Or more to the point, I’ve been able to do big weeks whenever required, without issue, since working much fewer hours per week. I do 35hrs work maximum, compared to well north of 48hrs in my previous employment. In my experience work is the biggest detrimental barrier to fitting more cycling in (both physically and mentally), so if you want to ride more drop the work. Easier said than done though!
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I think adding volume can do a lot to level up your fitness but it is important to make it sustainable. I think I could ride more volume most weeks but would not be able to recover well and live the rest of my my life. I have a job and a family and there are days where those things need to be the priority but there is a lot of opportunity to get in the volume over the course of the season and year.
I plan on riding hard on Saturday and for volume on Sunday, taking Monday off the bike but getting in some strength work. Two structured sessions during the week on Tuesday/Thursday, with Wednesday for endurance miles and Friday for active recovery.
I am really fortunate to have a lot of flexibility at work and bing able to get in riding hours during the day. Always a balancing act, helps to have a partner who understand how important training and racing is to me and is on board to work together and to make it all work.
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Its a matter of priorities. If its something you value, you find time. For most this is in the mornings…
I work 50+ hours a week, train 16-18, schedule generally is 2hours before work during the week, and 2x longer rides in weekend (also kinda early).
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This is a great strategy that I’ve applied myself with good results 
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This is a great strategy - I go for a nice 3-4 hour group ride in the morning then spend the afternoon sitting in front of the Kamado “cooking” (drinking beer).
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I simply refuse to work 50+ hours a week.
I try to keep it 30-40 hours a week to allow time to have a life outside of work.
I also live below my means and enjoy a debt free life.
Finding 10 hours + a week to train is easy.
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