Originally Posted by
furiousferret
For me its really hard to put training in perspective of hours because the differences in intensity really kill me. A really hard training day could put my leg out of commission for 2 days, but an easy 5 hour z2 ride I'll be fine the next day.
People respond differently to stimuli, some guys need big volume to do well, others don't. When I was younger the only way I could compete as a runner doing 5k's was to run 80+ miles a week. Other guys could do it on half that. Since running is the only real thing I've had success in, I tend to apply the long distance = better performance algorithm to cycling.
My times are around 12 hours a week right now but I can tell racing is really going to affect it; especially since crits around here are on Sunday which throws big Saturday rides out the window.
Why does it throw big Saturday's out? I'd still do big Saturday's most weeks. It's good to do 2 hard days in a row, IMO.
And on running/miles, that's probably why I couldn't get faster than about 20' for my 5k time. I only did about 20 miles a week:
a "long" day ~10 mile trail run or 12-15 mile flattish run
an easy ~3 or 4 mile day
a 3 or 4 mile interval day
a 3 or 4 mile threshold run.
I never built a base. But I did do pretty well in the 1/2 marathon distance Spartan Races (tons of climbing & lots of upper body strength required).