So very, very often on forums, the podcast, etc, we hear about time crunched cyclists with kids, serious professions, school, etc. Asking for advice
It’s not very often we hear people that have a lot of free time asking about training ideas.
For instance: I’m currently on low volume, I tried mid volume a bit but I don’t think I can properly recover from it and think low volume is a better choice. On top of this I weight lift 3 days a week, and I meal prep healthy meals to make sure I stay on top of nutrition.
What other things can I be doing with my free time that will benefit my cycling, but won’t tax my legs anymore than they can take? I’m thinking about maybe adding a yoga class into the mix to help with flexibility and core strength.
Thanks for posting that. That was my next question. Are there any certain trainer road rides that are good to add 1 or 2 days a week that won’t quite be as taxing on the legs as going mid volume?
I am studying but would surely not say that I am time crunched since I can dedicate 20-25hrs a week to training.Needless to say that I don’t have a girlfriend,kids or any of the other stuff to worry about.
Yoga is a great option to incorporate into training and depending what sort of study you look at may aid recovery and prevent injuries. Otherwise get yourself a set of rollers and use them for 2 low resistant rides and leg work
and then you have some great 1-hour recovery level workouts like Lazy Mountain and Lazy Mountain -1. And to split the difference between Trad Base 1 and recovery, I’ve used Workout Creator for a couple longer mid-week aerobic endurance rides that are low stress (flat 56% FTP at 90 minutes, and flat 60% FTP at 90 minutes).
Awesome thread topic man! For people like me it can be hard to relate as I don’t have kids and work a fairly flexible job. Training up to 15 hours a week in the summer is doable but we never hear anything about us.
My recommendation would be to change to a more pyramidal plan vs the threshold/SST model. By putting in additional hours in Zone 2 and reducing the intensity I would be surprised if you couldn’t make some good gains…and that doesn’t mean just an FTP number. FTP isn’t everything…
How many days can you train per week, for how long, and what type of racing do you do?
That’s what I’m thinking id like to add is at least one long z2 ride per week. I race xc mountain bike. My races this year will be about an hour and a half long.
I am time crunched but still manage to get in moderately high volume when I need to. I do so my adding 3-4 one hour rides at 40-50% ftp. I found this allowed me to still manage with hard workouts (both bike and run) on the same days.
Typically I’d do these types of rides early in the morning. Sometimes fasted other times after breakfast.
This is what a usual week for me is more or less at the moment. I am doing basically a traditional base/build type of plan high volume. I split long workouts if I really have to but try not to do that.
In January I’ll transition into a more VO2 type of stuff with maybe 1 SST or Tempo ride.
Mon, Wed ,Fri, Sun is stretching for 30 min + 1,5hr yoga on Wednesdays
If the goal is being a better cyclist and you’re on a LV plan then the priority has to be figuring out how to spend more time on the bike. Which would include:
Cutting back on the strength training, or at least reduce the amount of leg lifting you’re doing to leave your legs fresher for the bike
Supplement your plan with Z2 riding. You could also try gradually working your way up to the MV plan e.g. by substituting a workout from the LV plan with the longer equivalent from the MV plan
Sleep! If I could get 8 hours a night and a 40 minute siesta I could handle a lot more volume
Make sure your healthy meals have plenty of carbs to fuel the training
Yoga or pilates are good for maintenance, injury prevention and recovery
Foam rolling, massage sticks, etc can also help with the recovery
I have all the time in the world atm to spend it on training but have a hard time handling anything more than mid volume.
I was curious what you guys think about splitting the endurance work into 2 workout throughout the day. 1 in the morning 1 in the evening. II have tried it in the past and handeled it really well.
I guess I would qualify myself as pseudo non time crunched. I work from home so I’ve got time to ride during the week. I think 9-11hrs/week is the best I can do without digging too much into my work time, and on weekends I ride in the morning while my wife is still in bed and our son is old enough to just hang out on his own watching tv while I ride. I do sweet spot but would be curious about putting in mega hours of endurance over the winter.
i’d make your endurance rides longer. If you added some endurance riding to make 1 midweek ride 3 hours and have two weekend rides 4 hours +, you’d get amazing aerobic adaptations and then can use the other hours to recover with foam rolling, stretching, and yoga!
Full time job, three kids, wife seems happy (well, she works strange shifts in a hospital).
Despite this:
however, I don’t have any other hobbies. Actually, I’m not interested in anything else. Being super flexible and willing to leave the comfort zone is key. And the special circumstances of my job (virtual office, project driven). And I’m not interested in a corporate career. Wife has a good job, I have a good job. No need to climb the ladder.
Two-a-days is a great way to build slowly volume. Runners do this all the time, otherwise they couldn’t handle the volume.
But I consider it even extremely helpful for more experienced athletes.
Apart from this, if you have the time but can’t handle the volume: slow down. really slow down. do long rides in zone 1/2. And build from this.
Jealous lol. When the kids were in MS/HS, doing 8-11 hours a week resulted in an unhappy wife and her calling my bike “your girlfriend.” Now that she is working a demanding full-time job again, and the kids are gone, I can do 8-11 hours/week. But beyond that I cannot keep up with my job (telecommute from home, no mgmt responsibilities) and keeping up the house. With the kids gone I could probably squeeze in a few 12-14 hour weeks.
