Per my FAQ, this may relate to the lack of motion from rigid trainers. Considering the two main points:
Thank you.
After reading the FAQ, I think it’s the lack of wind resistance that means too much weight on my arms and therefore I’m sitting too upright. I’ve already elevated the front wheel some. I have a broad cross section so I probably catch quite a bit of wind! I thought it was odd how much weight was going on my hands… 
I dare say there’s more to it though and I need to get some sort of fit done but I need someone that can fit a bike for someone built more like a football player than a cyclist…
He actually changes his intervals around but they always add up to 21 minutes. LOL I asked him how he arrived on the magic number of 21 and he just laughed. He didn’t know why.
This is a guy that doesn’t read training blogs, forums, videos or anything. He’s an engineer and that is his winter routine. In the summer, he adds more cycling volume through 1-2 group rides per week.
Despite all his sub optimal training methods, he’s a fast old geezer!
And he’s not giving up the swimming and gym. He continues to do that all summer.
It does show that a focused basic ass plan and some cross training can keep some people pretty fit. He’s super consistent at least! I’m going to tell him though that a national champ coach said to up the intensity on one of his sessions and lengthen the intervals on the other. 
Training with young children in the house you aren’t necessarily focused on what you “should” do but rather what you “can” do. The 30-45 min workouts on TR are dang tough. Intensity is high and recovery is short. You aren’t going to win any long endurance races off that but you can sure get plenty fit.
Personally, I only set my alarm as the time I need to get up to help get the kids ready for school. If I wake up naturally earlier I don’t lay in bed but get up and hit the trainer. Funny thing is I usually feel better waking up naturally than trying to go to sleep (which usually doesn’t happen anyways). Morning training when it happens is usually its around 30-60 min, but If I sleep in because I need it, then I don’t stress about it.
Most days after work I have about an hour to ride so doubling in the morning is the only real way to boost volume during the week. My wife will do her cardio/weights/yoga and I go hop on the bike. That means a late dinner but it is our routine. Weekends I just need to be back by 10-11 am so we can have the afternoon for family stuff.
Like I said, I wish I could do more but that’s Dad life.
Where is the pain exactly? It’s counterintuitive a bit…but moving the saddle back normally takes pressure off the hands.
I’ve often wondered about this…does sprint training benefit overall fitness, or just sprinting?
Sprint intervals offer some of the biggest bang for your buck training. Some of that is touched on here:
You can find more info out there.
It seems like every sprint interval study shows great gains for the untrained. They often show a decent short term boost in even trained cyclists who are probably anaerobic capacity deficient.
It would be interesting to see how fit one could be on a super duper minimal plan. How about 3x30 minutes per week:
Tues - 5 minute warmup - 2x10 @ FTP
Fri - 5 minute warmpup - 2x10min of tabata style intervals (pick your flavor)
Sun- 5 minute warmup - 25 minute tempo/SS
90 minutes per week
Back when I raced, like 30 years ago, I would force myself to ride the trainer for 45 minutes 2x per week. This was the days of my Minoura Mag trainer which took an enormous amount of mental effort just to climb aboard. (The days of no laptop or mobile entertainment.) I’d do about 5 hours on the weekend (group ride + endurance) and this this schedule would get me through California winters and fit enough to race in the spring.
Thank you. It’s pretty local and right on the sit bones and it’s a very intense pain that comes in quite quickly around 35-40 mins and is miserable at 46. And it spikes for a second when I get out of the saddle, as the pressure is released.
another link for ya
I’m not trying to convince anyone to do sprint training, however in my experience it has been invaluable throughout the year. All you can do is experiment.
Deep dive !
“SIT (sprint interval training) improves aerobic capacity in healthy, young people. Relative to continuous endurance training of moderate intensity, SIT presents an equally effective alternative with a reduced volume of activity. This evalu- ation of effects and analysis of moderating variables con- solidates the findings of small-sample studies and contributes to the practical application of SIT to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and health.”
This type of short sprint training doesn’t substitute for a well structured program with a lot higher volume, but, it’s way more effective than you would think and it’s really efficient if you’re time crunched. Its not a good way to train to win races but if you don’t have much time and you want to just stay healthy fit versus race fit it works
Here’s one involving UNtrained men and women, ages 50-68:
15 minutes, 3x per week. 4 second sprints. And recovery between sprints
”By progressively decreasing the recovery period between sprints from 56 to 26 s, over the 8 wk, the rates of oxygen uptake were systematically increased over the 8 wk from 45% to 75% peak oxygen consumption (V˙O2peak) (unpublished observation).”
That’s a pretty low time commitment but again untrained.
My version, at sixty one, is lift weights and include hard max/near-max sprints from 5 to 30 seconds.
I’m going to drop in here and just offer my N=1.
I’m a father of a young child, 30 years old. When my son was < 1, I went racing several times on just 2-3 hours per week of training. I’d be doing SST workouts at like 45 minutes duration. I survived my events but it wasn’t pleasant. At a 20 mile MTB race last fall, I ended up cramping pretty bad a few miles from the finish. I won’t bore everyone with all the details, but it seems from my personal data that getting those 1-1.5hr workouts for me makes a big difference in my durability and ability to absorb the load in 6hr type races. If you’re riding shorter events, I would think 2.5-3hrs a week will certainly get you enough fitness to go out there and finish the race and have fun, for sure.
You could try adding tights over your cycling shorts. The added slippery-ness might help move your butt around more like outside. They also make padded underwear for cycling. This could help with cushioning but can be too thick causing other issues.
What should you do, if you only have 1-2 days a week where you can train, but have more hours?
I am also a dad but find it worthless to dress for a 30 minute workout, and i can together with my girfriend find 1-2 days where she has the kids. (1 and 3 :o)
Should it be 2 hour ride with 30 sec sprints in between, and/or some 20/40 ish intervals? how would you do to keep most fitness?
Does running have an effect on keeping some cycling fitness, and would i keep some endurance if i run 1-2 hours in slow endurance zone?
I would spread them out over the week and ride for as much time as you have on those days and do some treshold intervals in the first ride and some shorter efforts in the other one. For example: 2-4 hour ride on Tuesday or Wednesday with 3 x 10m @ 95% of FTP and a 2-4 hour ride on Saturday or Sunday with 10 x 30s all-out with full recovery (endurance pace) in between.
Below 6 hours of endurance sports, any movement is probably better than sitting on the couch, but personally I found very little carryover from my running fitness to my cycling fitness. Vice versa (cycling fitness → running fitness) on the other hand there was a lot of carryover; I ran my fastest 10K on cycling only, despite being a recreational runner without any cycling for years before this.
That would be my experience too - cycling fitness does seem to translate to running (notwithstanding joint/ muscle/ tendon DOMS after doing it!), but when I’ve been away and trying to maintain fitness by running, it hasn’t really helped. Obviously, overall fitness benefit, but doesn’t translate back.
In terms of the OP - anything is better than nothing. There’s the time crunched plans, and now workout alternatives. Consistency is king. There’s always a debate about commuting, but also look at that as an option for extra volume. With families, I take the approach of get it in when I can. So that means some commuting, spins while they’re at training, morning workouts…
At some point as your available cycling time diminishes it’s helpful to transition away from the mentality that you’re training for cycling to the broader mindset that you’re trying to be generally fit. This opens up a much wider range of options, many of which take much less time than riding. Having a bigger range of possibilities for fitness activities gives you more flexibility in a busy life than just being limited to a bike.
you nailed it: consistency. He also might not be focused on true performance gains, which is totally cool and all good! But variety is key if he truly wants to improve and be his best.
part of the recipe for plateau’ing or getting stale is just doing the same thing over and over again.
either way, he’s gotta love what he’s doing, and maybe this makes him happy. but yeah a couple small tweaks might make him even faster!!!
Lets GOOOOOOO
I think that makes a whole lot of sense even from just a volume perspective. I have no issues banging out a 3 hour ride comfortably, but I am not at all confident I could even complete a 30 minute run…