Long Steady Ride

Out of curiosity, how many hours per week are you guys advocating / putting in a week? I completely buy into the philosophy and would love to ride 8 hours a week instead of 12-15.

 

I think I do about 9-12 hrs/week now, but frankly I never count. It's less in the off-season, because you can put more quality (intensity) into the indoor sessions (no coasting or traffic stops). I just do what needs to be accomplished each day. My weekly TSS is in the 600-700 range and I pay attention to my current CTL/TSB values. Granted, I was injured earlier this season and I'm just barely getting back in my pre-crash form. FYI, here's what this week will look like:

Mon: Off
Tue: 6 x 5 min VO2max (< 1.5 hrs indoors)
Wed: 2 hrs Fartlek ride (average in L3)
Thu: 1 hr @ L1
Fri: 1.5 hr easy with couple of short hills @ L4 and sprints
Sat: 3+ hrs race (72 miles)
Sun: 2- 2.5 hr team ride

 

That 200 metre sprinters do rides up to 2 hours....comparing training distances to race distances is not always that relevant.

No offence, but how intimately do you know Armstrongs program?

 

Armstromgs training log

 

do you actually think that this is what he really does?

 

I get about 6 but only because work, social event and life in general restricts me to 6 hours ,besides I am gettin old.
Back in the good old days it was more like 20 hours per week.
My philosophy is to get a lot of rolling miles in the spring, this will slowly increase your endurance and take off any unwanted weight. You can increase your output as the weeks progress.
Riding a trainer is like visiting inlaws, you know you gotta do it and want it ove with as quiclky as possible.

 

What do you think he really does?

 

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want his coach to spread his real training plan over the internet. And, even if it was the real training plan, it misses the description of the "rest & recovery" phase, that I think it's almost equally important (if not more).

 

What do you mean?
"it misses the description of the "rest & recovery" phase"

And is this not Adam Hansens training?

 

the training plan doesn't describe what he does when he's not on the bike.

I don't know

 

Well, it describes 5-7 hour training rides?

 

Does it benefit any of us to state "xxxxx the professional does 6hr rides so I should too'?

These guys have all day to train, eat and rest. It's their job. Let's see them come home from a ride then put in 6hrs in an office/lab/factory then spend some time with partner and children.

It just doesn't work.

If you have a work and family life, you shouldn't have time for LSD. The proponents of base as SST or threshold anchor their idea on having restricted time to train.

If you're a full-time rider, fill yer boots with long rides. If not, you have to be more choosy on how you train.

 

They are human beings and for some reason they spend 5-7 hours cycling a day, "when it`s a waste of time", go figure? It benefits me, I have more time to train/recover than them(no obligations towards sponsors etc.). I want my training program to be optimal, "The proponents of base as SST or threshold" often call LSD, "a waste of time".

 

As Piotr said, it all depends on how you ride it and how you interpret the "S".

I got a good reminder of why I no longer buy into the "mileage is king" camp this past weekend. With a 200 mile race coming up in a couple of weeks I agreed to hook up with a possey for an impromptu century. After a mellow rollout and warmup I looked down and was averaging 98 watts to ride their pace, these guys are racers and I was riding roughly half my warmup pace as the group was talking about sports and the weather. I suggested we pick things up a bit and was told "we're just here for the miles" so I rolled away and rode my own program.

Long rides ridden with some quality sure aren't a waste of time, but long slow rides ridden in the low reaches of L1 are hardly worth the effort. Sure if your definition of LSD starts somewhere around 60% of your FTP or higher then fine, but a lot of folks seem to think big mileage doesn't require focus or effort, just put in the saddle time and the fitness will come. IMO, that kind of mind numbing crawl is a waste of time.

-Dave

 

Yeah, i do level 2 LSDs.

 

Yep I think a conclusion has been reached.

Long SLOW rides, fairly dubious benefit.

Long Steady rides, great fun to smash yourself for several hours And I would say good for practicing and getting used to eating/being comfortable/burning kj's for a 200k race. As long as you don't put yourself back 3 days in your program.