how to train this winter

Good question. Been wondering how to make best of the 10-15 hours a week I have to train this winter. Right now I'm focused on regaining the fitness I had at the beggining of the month after a two week hiatus. Mon-fri, 1 hour of tempo on the trainer with an avg of 160'sh HR. Weekend group rides. I'll continue with this routine for another three weeks, then up it to around 2 hours a day with tempo. I wont do any sustained (20min) threshold work, 173-185bpm, untill about mid nov. From what I understand, for the lack of time you have training, you should focus on the intensity. Just a curious cat 5 here. 😄

What about engaging a coach? With 15 hrs a week you will probably not be a Cat 5 for long!😉 And you can sure do a lot of good with 9hrs too!

Sam83 said:

Good question. Been wondering how to make best of the 10-15 hours a week I have to train this winter. Right now I'm focused on regaining the fitness I had at the beggining of the month after a two week hiatus. Mon-fri, 1 hour of tempo on the trainer with an avg of 160'sh HR. Weekend group rides. I'll continue with this routine for another three weeks, then up it to around 2 hours a day with tempo. I wont do any sustained (20min) threshold work, 173-185bpm, untill about mid nov. From what I understand, for the lack of time you have training, you should focus on the intensity. Just a curious cat 5 here. 😄

Personally I think 5 consecutive daily 1 or 2hr tempo sessions per week is too much tempo. I would mix in one 5min interval session, one 40 second interval session, and one recovery session. Do the 20 minute threshold sessions once a fortnight perhaps. If you want to ride criteriums it is also worth adding some 5-10 second max intensity interval sessions.

1 hr of tempo after or perhaps even before 1 hour of intervals is probably more effective use of limited time than 2 hrs solely tempo.

you should indeed focus on the intensity, but personally I find it much more rewarding and interesting to focus on the different types of intensity and mix them up. I think with your current plan you'll get really good at riding tempo, and doing 20 minute threshold sessions, but there are many more areas that a good rider should work on. Try to vary your schedule, monitor your progress and work on the areas that you feel need improving. It will make those hours on the home trainer more interesting too I'm sure.

jrstevens said:

So I just read Ric Stern's affirmation to a reader's assertion that LSD is pretty much useless which I'm pleasantly surprised to hear. I intend on riding 3-4 days per week this winter until next March. My "long" rides on the weekends are ~ 3 hours and during the week I ride for about 90 minutes. If I got out for 4 rides that would give me roughly 9 hours per week. Any advice on how to most effectively train for those 9 hours. Should I cut my weekend rides shorter and add another weekday ride? Do I need a recovery day on 9 hours of training and no racing? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

JS

It's not "useless" there may be a need for some long steady rides (or long non-steady rides).

It would really depend what your goals are, as to the best way to train. As Alex suggests the best way of improving is with a coach (preferably a coach who knows what they are doing).

Ric

Sam83 said:

Good question. Been wondering how to make best of the 10-15 hours a week I have to train this winter.

Your comment caught my eye after some conversation with a training partner the other day. 10-15 hours a week is plenty. I know cat 1/2's who train at a similar volume. Obviously training history, genetics, etc, all play a role. But 10-15 hours a week of steady intensity is plenty, and may even be more than a lot of people need. I suggest reading some of the "sst" threads on the power forum.

whoawhoa said:

Your comment caught my eye after some conversation with a training partner the other day. 10-15 hours a week is plenty. I know cat 1/2's who train at a similar volume. Obviously training history, genetics, etc, all play a role. But 10-15 hours a week of steady intensity is plenty, and may even be more than a lot of people need. I suggest reading some of the "sst" threads on the power forum.

Agree - regardless of your owning a PM, that forum is extremely useful.

jrstevens said:

So I just read Ric Stern's affirmation to a reader's assertion that LSD is pretty much useless which I'm pleasantly surprised to hear. I intend on riding 3-4 days per week this winter until next March. My "long" rides on the weekends are ~ 3 hours and during the week I ride for about 90 minutes. If I got out for 4 rides that would give me roughly 9 hours per week. Any advice on how to most effectively train for those 9 hours.

jrstevens said:

Should I cut my weekend rides shorter and add another weekday ride?

Are the weekday rides on a trainer? If so, these can be incredibly efficient rides and 90 mins is just about the right amount of time for L4, L5 or L6 efforts.

jrstevens said:

Do I need a recovery day on 9 hours of training and no racing?

I don't think so, but I have a high tolerance for volume and intensity. If you ride MWFSaSu, you could make a lot of progress.

I agree that the best plan is to get a coach because regardless of how elegant your plan is you will need to do performance tests along the way and modify the plan accordingly. What I think many don't appreciate about training plans is how quickly the original plan goes in the trash based on periodic performance tests. Lots of people can give you a good plan for the first 4 weeks. It's what you do based on performance tests before and after those 4 weeks that calls for a coach.

RapDaddyo said:

Are the weekday rides on a trainer? If so, these can be incredibly efficient rides and 90 mins is just about the right amount of time for L4, L5 or L6 efforts.

I don't think so, but I have a high tolerance for volume and intensity. If you ride MWFSaSu, you could make a lot of progress.

I agree that the best plan is to get a coach because regardless of how elegant your plan is you will need to do performance tests along the way and modify the plan accordingly. What I think many don't appreciate about training plans is how quickly the original plan goes in the trash based on periodic performance tests. Lots of people can give you a good plan for the first 4 weeks. It's what you do based on performance tests before and after those 4 weeks that calls for a coach.

Hey thanks for being the only one thus far to actually address my OP. Unfortunately finances (lack thereof) make a coach cost-prohibitive. Hopefully I'll be able to get outdoors during the week. 60 min seems to be the longest I can stay on a trainer for.

JS

jrstevens said:

60 min seems to be the longest I can stay on a trainer for.

I've been getting up before work lately with just enough time to do about an hour on the trainer. Instead of just riding tempo all the way through, I warm up for maybe 10 minutes then proceed with a 20 min high intensity effort. My heart rates usualy around 170, what I call lvl 4. Recover for maybe 5-8 minutes, then do it again with a short recovery before hitting the shower. I'll stand up a couple of times and try to go hard for the last min of two of the intervals. This leaves me feeling pretty worked out for the rest of the day.

I think you should XC ski. 🙂 Why waste all that snow? Lemond does, so does Tyler.