I need help for figuring out how to maximise my small amount of time

[mtb2005]

Hello everyone!
First off, I'm 16. Second, a brief background: I've been in the mountain bike racing scene for a while, since roughly 99/00. I've raced in the past without much training at all, yet still done fairly well.

So, lately, I've wanted to start actually training for a season, to see what sorts of things I can accomplish. I'm homeschooled, so that gives me some flexiblility, but still, I don't have much time to ride. In the past, I've just done 5 miles or so a day due to my time constraints, but doing a 5 minute time trial around my 2.3ish mile (VERY hilly) neighborhood--one of those, ride till you feel like throwing up.

Now, the maximum I could see myself having time to ride would be ~5-7 hours a week. The past two weeks, I've been doing a mixture of a 25-40 mile relaxed ride, 25 mile fairly intense ride, and those intense shorter 5-7 mile rides around my neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods.

About myself:
140-145 pounds, 6'1", HRMax=226 (is that dangerous? from what I've heard it's high); Resting, haven't got yet, but I know 60 at most. I generally am good at climbing and sprinting.

As far as goals, I'd like to try a few road crits this year, in addition to some mountain races and maybe a TT or so. I just have a HR monitor and cadence, no rollers or power meter in the forseeable future.

I know this is a random mix of stuff. In summary, I want to know how I can train for crits/mountain bike races within my sadly short time limits. I'm pretty new to the training circle so I don't know how to plan my rides around my week:
Sunday: The only riding would be going on the slow 30-40 miler
Monday: tight 30-45 minute max
Tuesday: flexible 1 hour max
Wednesday: flexible 1 hour max
Thursday: 0 free
Friday: flexible 1 hour max
Saturday: flexible 1 hour max

I'm grateful for ANY help you can give me! Thanks so much.

Joshua

 

[Bailsibub]

Hey Josh,

You can definitely train hard on your limited time. The key to maximizing your time is the turbotrainer, but make sure to get a good one since you want to get a road-like resistance. Really, it's a good investment and time saver.

The workouts would center around L4 and L5 training. So you might get on the trainer, warm up for 15 minutes then do 2x20 min. at L4 power with a 5-minute recovery (if you don't have a powermeter, stick a rear-wheel speedometer on your wheel...you can track your increases in fitness and also pace yourself this way). On the weekends, if you have more time, try 3X20 min. if you are fit enough. This will greatly improve your FTP.

Racing well is all about having a high FTP and an ability to go hard and recover, so you would also want to do standard intervals at certain times of the year. Many people do these on the trainer, but for some reason, I like them much better outside. The loop you do might work for them. You will be going 100%, so it needs to be a safe route with no stops. Here's a page with some info on intervals: http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=critspalese

I myself started riding again a year ago after a long hiatus. In this past year, I was able to:
-do three huge races and place in the top ten
-do an across-the-country Tour of Korea, which is where I'm living now (280 miles in two days, averaging over 19 mph)
-lose 20 lbs

And this was mainly on a steady diet of the workouts I described every other day (I work 12-13 hours per day, so I, too, don't have much free time).

Good luck Josh!