Pizza Man

I was wondering how much time guys who race are putting in during the off season.

I started my base building after a 2 week post season break and have 12 weeks in so far.

During this period I have averaged 11:20 per week (roughly 200 miles). My high week was 16:10, and my low was 7:30.

I hope to average around 12 hours a week during the next 3 months before the real season starts.

What about the rest of you racers?

PM
35+ Cat 2

branman1986

I'm a measly cat 5, soon to be cat 4, but I'm putting in about 8-10 hours per week. Although I've done absolutely nothing so far this week :/

longest week was 16 hours though(just under 300 miles)

botto 

kind of a crappy off season this year. was burnt out at the beginning of october, and my knee felt weak (a first) so i backed off big time. then work kicked in, and i had to move, yada, yada, yada...

if truth be told, it's not such a bad thing - it keeps me pschologically fresh for the season (i tend to overdo it if i'm not carefull).

i don't really have an average week, varying bewtween 7-11 hours on the bike.

Things will change in January.

jrennie

Up until the crap-tastic weather this week, I average about 11-13 hours a week with a high of 18 but I lack structure or discipline, I just love to ride and hate the trainer.

35- Just a cat4 schmoe

R600DuraAce

Gee, you are a cat2 and you are asking us?? As the saying goes, is not how much time you train but what you do with those time that matters. This year off season I train a lot less than my last one. 3 days and maybe 4 days the most. Last year off season I was pretty much commuting 4 days a week and adding one or two days doing long distance ride. This year I ride less but with greater focus on intensity and duration. 10 hours the most and on average about 9 hours. About 150+ miles a week.

Snuffleupagus

Since getting back on the road after my knee surgery my low mileage week has been 180, and 350 has been the high.

It's a lot, but I'm young and seem to respond well to high volume training.

CAT-4 (bleh)

YMCA

avg 10-12 hours a week, no intervals, only fast groups and races, age41 - cat1

I used to train 20-25 a week in my early years, but with a family and etc now, 10-12 seems to be perfect and I still get results when motivated.

botto 

R600DuraAce

Are you a crit specialist?? I mean......most Pro12 fields do 4 to 5 hours road races. You think it is actually doable to train less than 15 hours a week do well in those road races, as a cat1??

Snuffleupagus

Speaking strictly second hand here...but I rode with a very solid CAT-2, and he didn't spend a whole helluva lot of time on the bike. He said his results improved when he rode less, with more structured rides. Focused on crits and TTs.

branman1986

wow! I doubt you'll be a 4 for much longer! Wow, sounds like the knee surgery went as well as one could have hoped

Snuffleupagus

I hope so! I'm only at 50% on the knee tomfoolery though, I'm scheduled to get a second ACL op done in February. Which kinda sucks, as the surgery date got bumped from December to January to February...effectively taking me out of contention for some early season upgrade points before everyone has had the chance to race themselves into shape

branman1986

... :/

that sucks, man. Speedy recovery!

If I'm ever back up in Raleigh(my hometown) I'll swing by Fayetteville and we can get a ride or two in or something. I always have a hard time catching rides in Raleigh and I feel like I lug the bike back and forth for nothing.

Snuffleupagus

Good deal man, the Saturday club rides are almost always a good time.

www.crosscreekcyclingclub.org

ed073

~25 hours a week will get you into good shape for racing.

fine tune from there.

botto 

hell i used to do 40 hours a week.

got my upgrade points to be a cat 2, but was so burnt out from all that time on the bike, i took 5 years off to recover.

skandal20

18-20 hours a week. Mostly in my endurance range which is 140-148bpm, but also I spend about 2 hours a week at L3, and about 45min a week at L4. Obviously thats going to change in the upcoming months, where the interval training will be the bulk of my workouts with total hours of riding lessening. Im a Cat 4.

DrWJODonnell

I give myself a schedule for 500 annual training hours. Did this last year and came in at about 575 hours. Plan on doing the same this year. I am strong and do not have a desire to ever be pro, so I am not going to let training eat up more of my life than is healthy and fun.

During Base this translates into 12-16 hours per week.

ed073

35ish was getting up there trying to squeeze in some hours at the bike shop, on a training camp 40 was de rigeur...some of my old training diaries are scary. One of them has about 22 straight days with an entry!!

Poor, skinny, sunburnt bike racer who's always hungry or asleep.....every girl's dream guy.

El Diablo Rojo

Right now I'm doing about the same @ 12 hours per week. Ave miles are 175 and this includes two days in the gym. My weekend rides have been 3-4 hour and 60-70 miles.

TheKillerPenguin

Around 17-21 hours a week so far, around 325-375ish miles per week...the past couple of weeks have been around 10-12 hours each...between finals, bad weather, and the holiday I haven't had much time. Getting myself back on track for tomorrow, I'm aiming for 22.5 over the next 7 days.

Stallionforce

I had the ambition to keep the Killer Penguin's schedule but I've only managed between 12 and 15 hours. Most of that has been LSD with a couple of group rides thrown in per week. In January I hope to hold the volume but increase the intensity steadily. The plan is to peak once in early May and then again in mid-August.

branman1986

god, I'm shamed seeing you guys' numbers. I'm now resolved to put in at least 10 hours a week.

Vinokurtov

I'm in base right now, 6-7 days per week. Recovery weeks are 10 hours, and it ramps up from there to 18 max so far. Next week finishes base off, I'm scheduled for 20 hours including a three day camp in Death Valley. Couple days a week of weight or power work thrown in, and trying to keep two days a week for core.

Don't really track miles because so much of my training is uphill (average has been around 15k ft climbing/week), but I punched in the data from Cycling Peaks and the most was 274/week.

I've been concentrating as much on TSS/IF as hours though, to make sure the actual work load is a ramp up and build process. I'd rather miss an hour or two on volume over the week and keep those numbers right.

On top of all this is trying to manage/lose the weight I chucked on towards the end of last season. Was going good till Christmas, when I fell off the wagon for a bit. Still lighter though, and everything is pointing towards a nice improvement from last year. Power numbers are as good or better than my best last season, and that's testing at altitude.

Sea level is like getting a nice shot of EPO, I did Diablo a couple of times this weekend; Saturday I did the traditional race route in an hour at just above tempo HR average without ever really pushing at all, I thought the Ergomo was reading high until I looked at the ride time.

The hard part is keeping it going now that winter has landed. I did a couple of hours xc skiing on the top of the mountain today (9,000ft), but it's hard to keep the heart rate up.

UmneyDurak

None now, no bike.