How do you get 10+ hours to train?

This is a great strategy that I’ve applied myself with good results :+1:t2:

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Skip the yard work. That’s effort to make the neighbors happy. Do the neighbors raise your kids or pay your bills? Also, try to live next to a couple who does just worse than you in the yard work department. That’s my strategy.

Also, running a weber grill for a shoulder roast takes way more than an hour, but also is pretty low exertion.

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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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Currently remote, so following mid volume (with an extra endurance on the mid week rest day), and get up before I’m needed in the house.

I generally try to do at least a 75 minute workout, so it depends on phase. I tend to tack on some endurance to hour workouts, but sometimes take the 75 minute “alternative” of the hour and half ones. Club spin over the weekend is then generally circa 4 hours (volume rather than training). I follow Monday to Saturday, so Sunday off.

However, I’m not really targeting 10 hours - if family or weather dictates no club spin, I’ll do the “Sunday” workout indoors or zwift.

Not just you personally, but how are you guys finding club rides to be spins or otherwise easy :laughing:

Ours are always balls-out climbing smashfests…

But then I am really bad at letting myself get dropped, and I always put myself in the fastest group I think I’ll be able to hang on to. So it is probably my own fault :smiley:

5 different speed/ distance official spins in my club. I tend to go with the one down from the race group, as it is a social outlet for me. I can get around with the race group-ish, and do sometimes, but I prefer the balls out on the climb but re-group at the top spin, with coffee stop!

It is training, I guess it’s not structured and how hard depends on the route and group. I swap it for the “Sunday” sweetspot at mid volume. It’s probably debatable for me whether this group or the race group is more effective to be honest, given how deep I have to go, and when the up and overs start with the race group. I’m following my plan, so I’ve done my hard work during the week rather than that spin being a key workout like it is with some of the people.

Please move next to me. I hate mowing and only do it to “keep up” bleh. You make a very valid point! I’ve let go a lot of maintenance this year, and while I don’t love how it looks I’ll be dammed if I’m going to spend 20 hours/week doing yard work.

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I sit up, and tell them to wait for me at certain points on the route. Most times they end riding with me. Helps that I’m a senior member of the club. But it’s not about me, but rather the welfare of the general club member that doesn’t know how to pace their efforts.

It wasn’t always like that, but neither was a calendar with zero racing.

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Yeah we have similar, but I find even when I go with the intermediate group (where I can feasibly do the climbs in high Z2/low Z3 without being the last up), there will always be someone who gives it a big effort and I am really bad at letting people ride away from me… Although to be fair in my last recovery week I did manage to take it fairly easy, I’d normally skip the group rides during a rest week but the weather was too good to miss.

I follow an LV plan and then do Wednesday-Saturday club rides. Often I will do the Wednesday with the intermediates, Saturday with the fast/race group - doing the fast one on a Wednesday means I end up with a really hard block Tuesday - Thursday which can be a bit too much. Usually Friday off, Monday easy.

This year I’ve had a variety of schedules but the one that worked best was M,Tu,Th,F:

07:00-08:00
12:00-13:00
18:00-20:00

Wednesday rest

Weekend free unless I missed a session or I had a 3-5hr workout.

The short answer - it depends on the season.

I’ve 4 kids, so definitely no lack of things to do around here, but I prioritize my time and squeeze in 8-12hrs on average.

I’ll do 1.5-2hr rides Mon-Thu evenings after bedtime (indoor or when there is enough daylight) or a shorter lunch ride (spring/fall when days are shorter). Sat/Sun I’ll do 4-6hrs total, and every other week try to squeeze in a 4-5hr weekend ride plus a 2hr.

I don’t really have any other hobbies and don’t watch any TV (unless I’m on the trainer). That frees up the time significantly. Otherwise, I organize time w/ my partner either to overlap or to alternate (she’s a triathlete), depending on what’s happening. A bit of planning, understanding, and flexibility is definitely needed!

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Don’t have kids.
Don’t work more hours than you are meant to.
Minimise commute.
Rent so house maintenance is minimal.
Don’t go away on the weekend.
Don’t be too social.
Cut responsibilities.

Reading these comments i guess I’m quite lucky. I have desk job that requires me to work 40 hours a week. My commute when I’m not working from home is 5 mins.
This leaves me with 3 time slots on weekdays per day. Roughly 7.00 till 8.00, 12.00 Till 13.00 and 18.00 till 19:30. One of them generally i need to walk the dog and one is my evening where i can do what i want. 4/5 hour group ride on Saturday morning. Longish run on Sunday.
Looking at this template i should be able to train closer to 20 hours per week but i don’t because i don’t like waking up so early :joy:

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I’m not married, no kids , easy and flexible job from home.

I find that with no real discipline or structure, I tend to ride an average of about 11/12 hours a week. Last week I rode 15 hours and it buried me a little. I am shirking training this week, I’ll struggle a bit to keep to the 10 hour a week target without doing something that hampers recovery.

Your post inspired me try to get better discipline and reclaim some time slots that I don’t use for training for sheer lack of discipline, and thus make my riding and recovery more consistent.

I’m doing HV time trial plan to prepare for 1.2 mile swim/56 mile bike “aquabike” race. I’m up before 4:00am 7 days/week (old Army habits never die, they just go to Hell and regroup). Walk daily 1.25-1.5 miles; core and weights (~30min) MWF; swim Tue/Thu/Sat/Sun around 6am. Work early some days, late other days, so Tue/Thu/Sat are high intensity/threshold workouts in am; MWF recovery rides afternoon (after work), Sunday long ride (3-4 hr). Don’t really have/want a social life, don’t watch much TV, don’t spend much time on cycling forum boards (sorta). Number one rule: Never let work interfere w/ training. I actually resigned as a clinic manager (was ~44 hours/week, went down to 34 hr/week) so I could start training for Ironman races again. As stated above, it’s about priorities. Helps to be single, too.

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I do this. Have kid. No forum. Inside mostly. No TV. No full sentences.

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I gotta give kudos to those training with commitments. It’s possible to do the hours if you can plan it around your schedule. It’s good to remain flexible though as life can get in the way sometimes. Some weeks you won’t be able to get the hours. Just make sure it’s sustainable.

I used to train 13-15 hour weeks for the terrible two double century, but I neglected all about my other duties that I had to take care of. I sacraficed sleep as well which was a bad idea. I’ve lowered my hours since and things are much more balanced. I’ve been spending more time with my cats and they’re much happier now. Don’t get too obsessed over the hours like me.

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Need to show this thread to my wife so she realizes I’m not the only crazy one out there. Cheers to everyone else out there grindin!

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Jose, I’m a bit late to this thread and it seems like there’s already been some mostly good advice here. However I thought I’d share what I personally do. Even though everyone’s live varies to much, maybe this will help on top of what’s already been sadi. I work full-time as a software engineer (though 40hrs not 50), am a 3rd year University student, and have 2 kids under 4 yrs old. My wife is also a 3rd year university student but she doesn’t work, which absolutely helps with kids. We both have church responsibilities as well. Note, we are both fortunate enough to do university online since 2020 and wi.be until done with our 4yr degree. This is a big help.

I average 10-14 hours on the bike per week during the year. This is, for the most part what I do:

  • Have a weekly spouse meeting
    • Every Sunday for 15-20 minutes my wife and I talk about our goals, finances, plans, school, work, etc. after the kids have gone to bed. Part of this includes exactly what time I will be riding or at the gym. (not only is this good for your marriage but for your riding too. It also may help you prioritize what matters most in your life and balance everything.) The Art Of Manliness has a good article about a weekly meeting, but over time our meeting has become a little bit more simple (I’ll attach a pic at the bottom of this post). Make sure it’s not only about you and the bike, find what your wife wants to do and make sure all her things are on the schedule too. My wife likes the gym and going to the park as a family, so before I even decide cycling time, I make sure she has her time on the schedule. Together we add events to our shared Google calendar.
  • Have 1 day per week where I ride in the evenings, if possible
    • I realize this isn’t always possibly. But for me, this is Wednesdays as there is a group ride during the summer on Wednesday evenings I enjoy riding with. During the summer, I’ll go with the group maybe every other week, and the other weeks are me just getting in some good miles. I normally do two-a-days on Wednesdays with intervals in the morning, then a long endurance ride (or hard group ride) depending on the training phase I’m in. Every week we talk about this on Sunday in our meeting. I’m ready to go the moment I am done working, normally between 4-5pm, so I don’t waste any time getting ready. On this subject…
  • Have everything ready to go for the ride
    • I used to have an alarm that went off every day at 8:45 pm where I would plan on getting things set out for the next day, but I find it much more efficient and less-likely to interfere with my family life if I get ready for the next day’s ride the moment I finish today’s. Once I get home from my ride, I look at my next day’s workout, and weather in the morning, then I quickly make a route plan in my head. This gives me everything I need to know: what gear I’ll need, what nutrition I need, and when I need to be out the door (if I have a 1hr 30min ride, and I need to be back at 8am, I’ll be out the door/on the bike by 6:15am, giving myself 15mins of lee-way. Best case, I’m home early, worst case, I’m on time (extra worse case, I’m a few minutes late). This may be more or less depending on where you’re riding and how often you have stoplights, technical issues, etc). I rinse out or wash my bottles, fill them back up, and put them in the fridge, lay out the next day’s kit and gear right by my bike – and put bike on trainer if I’ll be indoors.
  • Skip recovery rides most of the time (always, if school/work/family has any lingering tasks)
    • Sunday is completely off the bike for me, and because Wednesday I ride in the evenings, Thursday is my typical recovery-ride day. Recovery rides are normally 30, but by the time you kit up, get your bike, think about a route (or connect up everything to the trainer), ride, then look at the ride, the time can easily get to 60 minutes. I find it more valuable to just make Thursday a catch-up and strong focus day where I normally sneak in an extra 1-2 hours of work/school and add in 30 minutes to the other rides. It makes the rides more quality, and adds more time to my life outside of cycling.
  • Talk to your boss about cycling
    • I realize this depends a lot on what you do for work and who your boss is, but I’ve found that even my boss who could care less about cycling, is a lot more open to me taking slightly longer lunch breaks, getting off early, coming in later, etc. every once in a while now that he knows I really cycling is something I really appreciate doing. It’s given me some “9-5” flexibility where I might leave early one day and come in early the next, or take a longer lunch to get a missed ride in, or come in slightly later when things at work are going smooth.

That’s what has been most helpful to me. As always, be SUPER open with your spouse and understand it’s okay to not get every ride in. You might find success in occasionally getting out for a big week when work or life eases up for a little bit. This could be some “catch up” time if you feel you aren’t getting enough riding under normal circumstances (maybe your life won’t allow more than 8-9 hours, but twice a year, you could get a 15+ hour week in.)

I try to be as “programmed” as I can with my eating and schedules. Every Sunday, normally during or just after the spouse meeting, I make a spreadsheet where I know pretty-much exactly what I’ll be eating on weekdays and at what time. After a few attempts, it only takes a few minutes comparing meals to my workout plan, and while filling out the meal plan, I’ll make a list of grocery shopping items and add to a shared spousal calendar, which my wife appreciates.

I would also recommend reading Cal Newport’s book, “Deep Work”, or even watching some YouTube summaries of the book. This made a big change in my life, by kicking out distractions and making sure I have the most quality in everything I do to have the life I want. I won’t get into it too much, but basically, if Work Accomplished = Time Spent x Intensity, then increase the intensity and drop the distractions, so you get more done in less time.

As far as schedule, this is what my week normally looks like:

  • Most weekdays
    • 5:15am - awake, study for 1 hour
    • 6:30am - bike ride
    • 8:00-8:15am home, breakfast, take kid to preschool, shower
    • 8:45am-5pm Work. Normally I’ll have a lunch break in here where I can get in 30-60mins of studying
    • 5pm onwards, whatever
    • 9:45pm - bed time
  • Thursday
    • skip bike ride and study more or start work early
    • maybe go out with son around the block and call it my recovery if i’m itching to get out
  • Wednesday
    • bike ride 5pm-7/8ish-pm
  • Saturday
    • No studying, no work
    • Find what time makes sense for me to be home and make sure I leave on time, normally at 6-7am to bank on some weekend sleep. Typically 3-5 hours, with one really long weekend ride twice per-quarter.
  • Sunday
    • No studying, no work

So that’s… 1-1.5 hours M, T, W, F. extra 2-3 hours on W, and 3-5 hours on S. Minimum: 9hrs, max 14hrs if things go smoothly.

My church responsibilities take up maybe 3 hours during the week (not including actual church). I try and schedule most events in the evenings on 1 day per week, or get them all in on Sunday. My chuch has a big focus on Family > Work > Church. I hope yours is the same.

Good luck, hope this helps even in the slightest.

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WfH let’s me train most days and even if I wasn’t I’m single so I can devote my spare time to what I mostly see fit, which is cycling. A long commute may see the number of days reduced but with the weekend I’d probably still be 10+ hours.