What have you done to increase your training consistency?

Training
21

While most of the suggestions focus on building rigidity into our calendars – keeping some flexibility helps too. This last week I had a rest week going on but we were planning on being away on the weekend. So I crunched all of the workouts to the week – so instead of Off, TR, Weights, TR, Weights, TR, TR. I had a off, weights + tr (NY day so I had the time), TR, TR, TR, off off off. So this lets me get the work done and visit.

Anything you can do to reduce “friction” and increase your sunk costs help to keep you going.

Next week maybe a repeat.

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22

Nah, some people just don’t get on with stationary / indoor riding. Just isn’t in their DNA. I know plenty of local guys that will ride outside in the winters here vs. be stuck indoors, even though they have / had good setups.

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23

Does she wear earplugs? I can’t remember the podcast, but Nate or one of the guys talked about having a standard routine, avoiding media, making the room cold, wearing ear plugs and an eye mask, etc., and it really made a big difference in sleep for me and the wife.

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24

I started with a coach at the end of 2016 with the aim of getting better at TT’s. I was fairly consistent there, probably because I had a goal. Up until that point I’d done a lot of riding but it wasn’t structured. I succeeded in 2017 and won the club handicap (Mainly because the best rider in the club wanted to concentrate on bigger things, the 2nd best broke his collar bone and the 3rd best who I was level pegging with was a big unit and didn’t fancy the qualifying hill climbs). Then in 2018 I became an old man overnight at just 42. It turned out it was a bowel cancer causing a catastrophic iron deficiency. Being in a decent shape probably saved my life and have that motivation for staying consistent now.

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25

My biggest drivers in order of influence:

  • Trying to live way more healthy and with that avoiding absence due to illness (look what a week or two do to your CTL…).
  • Moving to a zone with year around riding climate and nature starting 5min from my door.
  • Find a woman which shares interest in sport. I.e., for yearly summer vacations there are 4 bikes on the car with no questions asked
  • Have parents in law who live in the alps where we spend summer riding while they enjoy the kiddos :slight_smile:
  • Working less
  • Joined a local group for weekly group rides. Alone I’d just not be motivated to ride for 6h straight.
  • Still have the trainer ready for take off in case its needed once in a while
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26

Not sure I could get her to wear ear plugs but I’ll give it a try. I think it’s a heat thing … maybe I’ll bump up her electric blanket on my way out the door.

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27

Firstly, do you think you’re waking her (with a delayed reaction), or she’s just waking naturally but failing to drop off again as usual?

If it’s you, we got a better, bigger mattress, and were stunned how movements on one side are isolated from the other, aiding sleep.

If not, I wonder if the issue is that she’s waking to an unpleasant surprise, and then not sleeping again. I wonder if you left her a nice little note on her side table each time, she’d be reassured that you’ve just gone for a spin (and haven’t been abducted in the night), and just go back to sleep with her husband’s loving words in front of mind.

Not sure about the electric blanket boost, unless she says she wakes feeling cold.

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28

Trainerroad has definitely improved its offering substantially over the last few years - I’ve been around since 2014, when I used TR as overlay on the Sufferfest videos - and I believe that the TrainNow, Adaptive Training, and the ability to easily find alternative, relevant workouts (both duration and intensity) have made it so much easier to be productive on the bike on days that may otherwise have gone to waste.

Most of us prioritize cycling/training to a certain degree, and plan and reschedule things as best we can to accommodate the eternal chase of a higher FTP. Still, life happens - deadlines at work, logistics of kids, walking the dog, sickness, etc. - and sometimes it is hard to nail that 60 minute sweet spot workout that has been prescribed, whether it be lack of time, motivation or simply not being physically up to the task.

Before, if life took a hit on my training schedule, I’d think «ok, I’ll postpone tonight’s workout till tomorrow», and it would be 50/50 whether I get to do the session the following day. This invariably led to a backlog of hard workouts that needed to be done in order to keep up with the training schedule, with suboptimal training leading up to the season’s A races as the inavoidable consequence.

In 2024, I tried applying James Clear’s points from the book «Atomic Habits» in my training regiment by focusing on «a little bit every day will lead to improvements».

So now when I’m in a situation where I don’t have the time, the motivation or just too tired to complete a prescribed session, I’ll either find a shorter alternative, or do an easier ride today and do an alternative of the originally planned session tomorrow. That way, I’m getting something done, and doing 50% of a quality session is still infinitely better than doing nothing. And if it is impossible to get in a session on the trainer, a longer and more intense walk with the dog is also better than nothing. By always thinking «something is better than nothing», I managed to complete a training streak of 366 days last year, and in 2024 I logged many 30 minute sessions which would otherwise have been days without training. Active use of the TrainNow and finding alternative sessions has been instrumental.

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29

Before/during covid I was working on very flexible hours I used to train 5 days a week but then I moved to another country and started working 9 to 5 and couldn’t keep up on that cadence given the commute 3 days / week and the household obligation. First I got into a cycle where I miss a work out feel bad about it , next day didn’t know if I should stick to the plan or do another workout slowly the mental stress outweighed the motivation and I stopped for almost a year. When I got back I shouted for 3 days a week. No matter what I have to train 3 days. This was way more manageable and TR have helped get consistent by removing that feeling of guilt when I missed a workout. How? Adaptive plans easily adapt my workouts once I add time off or move one something I didn’t have with other apps. The other feature that helped was trainNow which comes in clutch when time is limited or motivation is not there.

One of my objectives for this year is to add cross training 2 days a week (just bought a set of kettlebells) and try to move my workouts to the mornings before work (negotiations ongoing with the wifey about the latter).

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30

My cadence has collapsed over the last few years and Im putting it down to changes in sleep patterns from the Covid WfH period to the current hybrid working (home/office). I have a long commute because I like to get of the train 12miles early and cycle into the office. I might have to stop doing that and be more regimented on my WfH days to get a more consistent sleep.

31

If a long lunch can be accommodated on WFH days (e.g. with an earlier start), consider trying it. I was surprised how much easier I found it than mornings or evenings. Largely psychological I’m sure, but it worked for me.

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32

I use the alarm on my Garmin watch to wake me up, it’s vibrate only. Then I lie in bed a few minutes and sneak out as quietly as possible so as not to disturb my wife too much. Edit - just saw you’re already using a watch alarm.

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33

I think the thing that helps my training be consistant the most is making everything else consistant too.

Go to bed same time every day
Eat meals at the same time every day
Have the workouts at the same time and on the same days

If everything is a routine, and it all always happens then everyone knows what to exspect.

I think the next thing that helps the most is I do a lot of my training during my commute. I always commute by bike the other options are rubbish, so I HAVE to get on my bike. Getting on the bike is usually the hardest barrier, once you are moving then getting the workout done is way easier.
Doing sweet spot for an hour in the dark and freezing rain isn’t THAT much worse than riding easy straight to work for 30 mins.

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34

I’ve really noticed consistency is a lot easier when I am not travelling a lot for work. It seems sooooo blindingly obvious, but the more I am at home, the easier it is to work sessions in around my day. So I can ride in the morning and start work late, or take an extended lunch break. Also, if I am fatigued and just know I need to prioritise sleep, working from home means I can turn the alarm off, sleep until I naturally wake up and then work later into the evening. That kind of flexibility is invaluable. Over the next few weeks I am back out on the road a fair bit and I know I am going to struggle to perform as I would like on my training sessions.

Planning shorter sessions, knowing that I can extend them, really works well for me. This is particularly true for weight/strength work. If I plan an hour’s weight lifting it is far too easy to think ‘I can’t fit that in today’ or ‘I don’t have the energy for that’ However, if I plan a 30 minute session, or even 20 minutes, I know that’s all I ‘need’ to do psychologically, and normally I end up running over when I really get into the strength work anyway.

Planning shorter sessions I think will also work for me psychologically for the hard interval indoor work. Currently I have just 45 minute hard intervals on a Saturday, rather than the 1hr 30 minute threshold workouts plan builder likes to stick in. Those 1 hr 30 sessions seem to be a threshold block of over-unders with a large endurance block at the start and end. I’d much rather do the endurance work outside. Those tough intervals though, I’d rather just know I have them in the bag. I like not having to think about power, the ERG mode takes all the thinking out of hard workouts. Fitting in a 45 minute turbo session is easy, whatever is happening on a busy weekend.

I try and do heavy leg weights on the same day as training, and preferably the hard interval day/hard group ride day as otherwise my legs are too battered too often too many times in a week. That has also helped with consistency and I have seen significant improvements in strength and leg power.

Finally, if I am honest, I have also had to accept that, right now, at this point in my life, with all the commitments I have, I probably cannot train enough to do the ultra endurance events I used to. It breaks my heart, but I have got to accept I can no longer just go and smash out a 200 km audax for fun or as a training ride. Now a 3 hour ride feels like quite enough and I don’t have the time any more to build up the distance and time on the bike for the big adventures. Trying to ‘get back to where I want to be’ in 2024 was just a rollercoaster of building distance before crashing back into burnout.

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35

A lot of good insights here!
Like many, what increased my consistency is: planning all my sports activities with TR calendar (if you have too many places to look at, it’s messy), getting my kit, gear and food ready the day before for early morning training sessions, etc. This brings habits/rigidity into your plan.
I found that being also flexible brings a lot to the table: adjusting the length of the session, having a “plan B” when you can’t train (taking running shoes on a business trip if you don’t have access to a bike), doing sessions indoor (effective) and outdoors (during a longer ride for example), etc.
On a larger scale, understanding why you want/need to train is the foundation of all of the above!

36

Congrats! Similar story here although a bit of a differerent timeline as I quit drinking in 2019 and didn’t start cycling until 2022, but now I’m the fittest I’ve ever been in my life at age 43 and am thankful every day that I don’t have to worry about alcohol interfering with my training.

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37

I leave a $100 road bike attached to my trainer. There’s no way I’d be consistent with my indoor an outdoor workouts if I ever had to move a bike on and off the trainer. Sure it’s 5 minutes, but it’s still a hurdle.

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39

Cool. But no other habits established to meet the goals? Most of us can set goals. Meeting them is the tricky part :wink:

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41

I’m currently dodging the problem I was having with completing interval workouts in a hot, humid climate (southern hemisphere summer) with minimal willingness to train inside anyway… by switching to three rounds of Traditional Base 1 (starting MV, may later move to HV) + strength workouts, attempting to follow a protocol similar to the one in the study that Sarah & Jonathan presented in the AACC podcast 503. End of week 2, I’ve hit every workout so far, & I’m looking forward to next week. (RLGL is currently tsk-tsking me because I stacked a few days back to back. :flushed:) I’m really enjoying the change from the floggin’ I inflicted upon myself a few months ago. Change is a good as a holiday so they say, but it’s novel stimulus which could possibly mean it’s better, & the multi-hour audax adventures get to add to my training rather than derail it. But the proof will be in how I feel at week 7, or especially week 10. And of course in that first sweetspot workout when I get to TB2. I’ll see how I go over the next few weeks & hopefully months. :crossed_fingers:

Contemplating that because strength training is taking the place of intervals, maybe that’s what I should be prioritising in terms of fatigue management. :exploding_head: It’s a strange headspace for a cyclist to be in!

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42

I moved to a place that doesn’t get lower than 15ºC temps and only for a week per year :grin:

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