bryanquinn said:
Can someone explain to me the guidelines for training both in the morning and then in the evening?....
The guidelines are simple, the application to your specific situation is less simple and why coaches are worth what they charge. But basically you want to:
- Get enough quality work in during both workouts to justify the twice a day routine
- Recover well enough from the morning session to be able to maintain quality for the evening session (post exercise refueling during the critical half hour is key here)
- Recover well enough and quickly enough from the evening session to carry out your planned workout(s) the following day (again, critical half hour glycogen replenishment is key).
- Lay out a daily, weekly and longer term plan that targets specific fitness goals.
- Schedule your morning vs. evening sessions in a way that lets you stick to your plan and target your specific goals. A second session that degrades into junk miles is of little training value and may reduce the quality of subsequent sessions.
Anyway when I do doubles I tend to target the harder workout in the morning and the easier in the evening. So it might be VO2 Max work in five minute repeats in the AM and L4 or SST work in 20 to 30 minute blocks in the evening. Or the evening might be an hour of Tempo/low SST riding to target solid sustainable metabolic fitness without being too tough mentally or physically. But it depends a lot on what the following day looks like and where I am in my season.
Don't lose sight of the big picture and attempt to load up too many double or other back to back intense sessions and burn out or drop other workouts down into junk mileage territory because you're too tired or mentally fried from intense work.
Laying out a good schedule with or without doubles is part science and part art and there's no "one size fits all" answer. Again, it's where a good coach can be worth their weight in gold. If you go the self coached route then at least pay attention to your larger goals and pay close attention to your ability to recover from double workout sessions to make sure they help more than they hurt.
Good luck,
-Dave