long rides

[jim gravity]

I've been forced into doing a monster long ride on the weekend, and a few shorter rides / runs during the week. I'm sort of in a "base" mode, and I don't forsee being able to increase the total number of hours per week until there's more daylight.

This past Sunday was my longest ride ever, 6.5 hours of saddle time, with a few 15 minute breaks (in 29F weather too) in between. I've been getting in about 2-3 rides of 4.5-5.5 hrs per 4 weeks since October, about 10 hrs/week total. There were a few scattered rest weeks, where I only managed 2-5 hours of riding/running due to the holidays or the weather.

I wonder if I get the same advantages from these rides as I would get if I were to do more hours/week, but more evenly distributed.

As a relatively green cat4, I figure there's lots of room for improvement, so any riding will get me somewhere.

 

[jim gravity]

Maybe I should have more clearly asked:

will I get the same advantages from these epic rides as I would get if I were to do more hours/week, but more evenly distributed?

 

[RalleighOke]

Hi jim gravity, welcome to the forum.

In response to your question let me firts quote Vo2 (if I may).."what you need is TITS (Time in the Saddle)".

You have seemed to get more than the average time in the saddle than the casual cyclist with your 10 hours a week. I for one am struggling just to get 5 due to working constraints.

It also mostly depends on your training program i.e short distance sprints, high cadence, intense workouts or slow long distance rides. My recommendation would be to find a suitable training program and work your hours according to that, depending on what you want to achieve, weight management or race fitness.

I know that our pro teams do averagely between 3 to 5 hours trainging per day, but again, they follow a strict training program.

Whatever you do, more time in the saddle cannot be bad..as long as you take time off to rest in between. (Very important). There are also a few training tips on the forum from all the cyclists on what they do and when they rest.

Hope this helps.