When do you ride?

[JuneHawk]

I did a search but came up empty handed.

When do you train? How do you find/make time? I'm a mom, full time college student and may take a part time job at the university soon. I really want to get start cycling for fitness and racing but I don't know WHEN I'm going to train!

Early in the morning, I'd have to get up at 4am so I can be done by the time my toddler wakes up. My husband usually does the morning routine but I do need to be around so my husband can shower, have breakfast, etc. I have found that working out in the evening doesn't really work for me, I need to do it in the morning.

So, again, when do you find time for training if you have a normal adult life going on?

 

[spacebar]

Im done with school until Sept and Im not working, so I do have a lot of free time. Having said that, I still prefer to ride as soon as I wake up (which can be anywhere from noon to 2pm LOL!) cause I find its the best way to start the day. Sometimes I ride again at night, a few hours before going to bed. I find it very enjoyable cause its nice and cool and also there are no cars..

 

[gman0482]

^^ Wow, must be nice..... wait till you get out into the real world.


It's not easy finding time to ride. I work 6 days/week, but I don't work 'per hour' so I can move some time around even if I shouldn't sometimes .

I guess the best way is to put a training plan/schedule down on paper, and tell yourself that you have to stick to it. For me, living in New England, I feel that I have to take every advantage of any nice weather that comes. Even to a point sometimes where I'm beat from riding days before and should take a day off, but if the weather is nice I'm riding.

Instead of looking at it 'during one day', look at your whole week and see if you can pick it apart to squeeze an hour here or there.

 

[BHOFM]

With it being so hot here, I have been getting out around 3am and riding till about
6am. This gets me about 25 to 30 miles with a couple breaks and a few breather
stops.

I get home, fix breakfast, wake the wife, eat breakfast, clean up the kitchen.

Occasionally the wife rides with me, but ten to twelve miles is her limit.

But I don't live in the real world, I am retired.

 

[Froze]

In between rain storms!! Usually late afternoon around 6PM, but with threat of rain I will adjust to go early morning around 6AM.

If my wife goes with me then I go whenever she wants because she's the boss...anywho, thats rare and she'll only ride a mile when she does.

 

[alienator]

In the morning.

 

[CalicoCat]

This is a really good question and one that most of us struggle with, and probably nobody has the best answer for. If you just want to RIDE, go out anytime you have a spare hour or so. However, you said you want to get into racing and race training. This will require a much more structured plan.

I recommend setting aside a set time each day for this in exactly the same way that you set aside time for school and work. 3 days/week I train after work, around 6pm. I don't even go home first because if I did there would be too many distractions. sat/sun mornings I either train or race or do a long group ride. I sometimes get a recovery ride in one morning/week before work.

The evening workouts mean that I get home pretty late (around 9pm) 3 days a week, and this combined with race prep, racing, and weekend training can be quite a time suck. I love it, so it is worth it to me, but I have definitely had to make compromises in my life to make this work, because at some point, we have to admit that we can't actually do it all.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

 

[Rych]

Well some don't like shift work but it suits me very well for spare time. I have more days off because I do slightly longer hours but I get 4 off in a row which can be on any days, half which fall on weekends.

This has allowed me to ride whenever, if I'm working a late shift I'll ride in the morning, if I'm working an early shift I'll ride in the evening etc. Then on days off whenever I choose. The only main thing outside of work I have to allow for is gym time as I love my weights and want to keep it up like I did before I started riding. So if I'm doing a leg's day ie squats I can't really ride after that or even the next day if it was an intense session.

I'm pretty interested to know how other people incorporate weight training with cycling?

But shift work = good for spare time, not so much social time..

 

[Froze]

Weight training has to be done with the mindset that your not trying to become a bodybuilder, or the mass will slow you down on a bike. Done right it can help with your riding. See the following for ideas, and don't forget to start out light and increase 10% per week, but don't go to far you just want to tone not bulk up if cycling is your primary goal. There is actually a gym device on the market that actually works without bulking up called the Total Gym...that's right the one sold on TV by Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkely. This unit does have leg press capability along with other leg and abdominal workouts using your own body weight for resistance. You can find these used on Craigslist and E-Bay with very little wear because people buy stuff and then don't use it.

See the below sites for more info and how to's:

Lance Armstrong's Strength Training Workout | LIVESTRONG.COM

CYCLING PERFORMANCE TIPS -

A Day with Chris Carmichael: Resistance Training

Weight Training for Cyclists

Cycling Training Tips

There's also a book available at Amazon for $20 and probably you can order through your local library called:
The Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Cycling

Anyway these sites and possibly the book will get you started. If you have a strong body core your cycling will improve dramatically.

 

[JuneHawk]

Well some don't like shift work but it suits me very well for spare time. I have more days off because I do slightly longer hours but I get 4 off in a row which can be on any days, half which fall on weekends.

This has allowed me to ride whenever, if I'm working a late shift I'll ride in the morning, if I'm working an early shift I'll ride in the evening etc. Then on days off whenever I choose. The only main thing outside of work I have to allow for is gym time as I love my weights and want to keep it up like I did before I started riding. So if I'm doing a leg's day ie squats I can't really ride after that or even the next day if it was an intense session.

I'm pretty interested to know how other people incorporate weight training with cycling?

But shift work = good for spare time, not so much social time..

I actually like shift work, I miss my ER working days. As for the weight training, I can give you my runner's perspective. I do my lower body weight training right after a run that way my legs recover in the day in between (I run every other day right now). I do upper body weight training and another type of work out on the days off running (this is where I'd like to incorporate cycling). This is the ideal arrangement but of course it doesn't always work out this way.

I am a girl so I don't really have, chemically speaking, what it takes to gain a huge amount of muscle. My goal is toning and strength.

 

[davereo]

Just a thought. Do you have a bike you can leave locked up on the campus somewhere. If so you can do your regular commute and daily routine. You can then go for rides between classes. I cant imagine that you would not have a few hours of down time a week while at school. This may not be perfect but there is only 24 hours in a day and your present commitments are very important and time consuming.

 

[Sid Nitzerglobi]

During the week it's after work for me, usually 6:30-7 PM to 8:30-9PM ~4 nights a week when sunlight, weather, and work permit.

Now that the sun is going down earlier and earlier I'm going to need to either get a trainer or start coming into work earlier so I can leave early enough to get in an hour and a half or two each night.

Before work just isn't going to happen for me. I'm so completely not a morning person.

Weekends I'll usually go around 9 or 10AM for a 2-3 hour ride.

 

[Froze]

I am a girl so I don't really have, chemically speaking, what it takes to gain a huge amount of muscle. My goal is toning and strength.

Toning, not bulking up, muscles is the best for cyclists regardless of gender. Bulking up will only slow you down, but toning is important for strengthening those core muscles that cycling requires.

The Total Gym I mentioned earlier is a very good device for toning, it cannot bulk you up. You can get these things used with very little use on E-Bay for about a fourth of the cost of a new one. Total Gym sells there top of the line model 3000 for $1,700, on E-bay their $300 to $450. I got mine for for $375 and it was the top of the line unit and it came with all the materials the Total Gym web site said it came with, and it was packed in it's original box and packing-in fact it looked like it had never been opened. I really like mine too, but I'm not interested in bulking up so having a weight station or a BowFlex is not in my interest.

 

[kdelong]

When it is not raining, I ride to work. Right after work, I'll log about 2 hours of riding the back roads and several trails that are nearby. On holidays and weekends, I like to get up early and ride as the sun comes up. Unfortunatly this does not work with my girlfriend's sleep schedule, so my Sunday ride usually starts around 2:00 PM.

 

[roadhouse]

I just got off a jamis dragon one (steel) two niner that i took around a parking lot and down a street a few times with a conversion gearing of 44 x 11 ss. it.was.sweet!

first ride in over a month.

 

[gman0482]

Toning, not bulking up.

I'm glad you explained that to the girl. I was 100% sure she wanted to bulk up.
I also didn't know that muscles and working out were important for cyclists, but that's another lesson for another day.

 

[Chavez]

Chris Carmichael wrote a training program for those of us in the "real world" with full time jobs, spouses, kids, etc etc. called The Time-Crunched Cyclist.

In the book, the training program is based off your power-meter numbers but I think if you don't want to drop the $$$ on a power-meter (which should cost you well over a grand), you could probably work it almost as well with a heart-rate monitor. But it's getting you race-ready on about an hour a day. The downside is you don't get the base miles, so any layoff of more than a day or two is going to hurt you.

I am going to give it a whirl next year, but others on the forums may have already tried it.

 

[Mojo Johnson]

I have a full time job, a wife and two kids (3 years and 1 year). As you can relate, finding time to ride/train is difficult. This is what I do:

a.) Commute to work by bike at least 4/5 days of the week. 25 Mile round trip usually gets me over 100 miles on the bike right there. The morning commute is easy spinning while the trip home is flat out. I duck out early so I can get home, shower up, and pick up the kids from day care.

b.) Saturday morning early rides. So as to not burden my wife with being home alone with the kiddies for too long, I leave the house at about 6:30 on Saturdays and ride until about 9:30 or 10:00 (alone or with friends).

c.) Sunday family rides - pack up the kids in the trailer and bring the wife along on her hybrid to ride to a playground and get lunch somewhere - usually about 30 miles round trip.

d.) Weight train and run in the evenings after both kids are in bed. Usually from 8:00 - 9:30 is spent running and performing light weight training, sit-ups, and push-ups.

I usually reserve running for days that I don't ride a lot. Running helps burn a lot of calories and works out different muscle groups.

 

[roadhouse]

I just got off a jamis dragon one (steel) two niner that i took around a parking lot and down a street a few times with a conversion gearing of 44 x 11 ss. it.was.sweet!

first ride in over a month.

just so we're clear, not a single one of you do i respect for owning a bike and being a certified member of cyclingforums.com. and i mean it, not one of you do i consider a cyclist, especially you alien.

so we're clear.

 

[Froze]

I'm glad you explained that to the girl. I was 100% sure she wanted to bulk up.
I also didn't know that muscles and working out were important for cyclists, but that's another lesson for another day.

You obviously never rode competitively because in order to be successful at racing you have to. You should get off the forum with BS like that. Oh, wait, I can hear your reply now..."I'm a cad 3 racer, I've been racing for 6 years"...blah blah blah, hell you probably don't even own a bike. Jackass.

You want to join the heated discussion on this subject go see to other thread at: http://www.cyclingforums.com/cycling-training/475817-wieght-training-cycling-27.html#post3964841 And join some of the retards over there that believe like you even though 99% (if not 100%) of all the pros including their coaches, and all the web sites on the subject say otherwise. And then when your 50's and 60's and your diagnosed with weak bones you can get back on here and explain why.