I’m on a low volume plan but with two very young kids and a busy jobs I’m often only hitting two of my three rides a week. I either can’t spare the time or am just too tired to get out to the garage.
What I discovered last week though was that doing two shorter rides (30 mins each) across two days was actually easier diary-wise than doing one 60 minute one. Basically I can squeeze this in between nursery drop off and starting work.
I’m therefore contemplating shifting my entire plan to this:
- Mon: Rest day (busy work day, never going to get something in)
- Tues: 60 min ride
- Weds: 30 min ride
- Thurs: 30 min ride
- Fri: Rest day (kids)
- Sat: 60-75 min ride
- Sun: Rest day (kids)
To be honest, actually doing two 30 mins sessions is always going to be better than not doing a planned 60 min one, so I’m going to give this a try. But interested in views on whether two 30 min sessions is better or worse than a 60 min one generally? Or how to set them up to best effect?
My only suggestion would be to swap Wed and Sun if at all possible, otherwise you have a three days of work in a row (Tues, Wed, Thur).
The key factor to any training plan is consistency. If doing shorter rides allows you to get more days of riding in, that is absolutely the best option.
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As @Power13 said, consistency is key! Two 30-minute sessions you can hit consistently will definitely be better than one 60-minute session that you might only be able to do half the time.
As to how to set them up… It’s ultimately up to what fits into your busy schedule. Personally, during busier periods of my life, I like doing my workouts first thing in the morning. It gets them out of the way and then I don’t have to worry about them the rest of the day.
In terms of intensity, we generally recommend capping your hard days at 3x/week. Since you’re essentially splitting one of your existing 60-minute sessions into two shorter ones, though, you might be able to get away with keeping those two shorter rides as harder days if you feel up to it. If you take that approach, I think it would make sense to keep the rides similar to each other (e.g., if the current 60-minute ride is a Sweet Spot workout, then split it into two 30-minute Sweet Spot workouts).
It does sound like you’re very busy, though, so if that proves to be too much, don’t be afraid to turn one of those shorter rides into an Endurance zone spin instead – or even a rest day if you need it. If your 60-minute Tuesday ride is hard, then you could try doing Wednesday as an easy ride, then back to intervals on Thursday for the second short session. Then you’d still have the Saturday ride to get a second longer workout in.
It sounds like you’ve got the right idea on how to split up your training here. Try out those different approaches to spreading intensity across the week, but don’t be afraid to back off into some easier riding if you need to – especially with your busy schedule and kids.
Hope that helps – feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions!
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