Training & Nutrition - Maintaining Fitness...

Alright I hate to come to this but...

I am graduating in 4 weeks and school right now is lets just say busy... i.e. 7 am to late at night, then work. There is absolutly no time to train right now, last week I got in 2 days of riding, Tuesday and Sunday. I have a race this weekend and the next and I feel like I have not been able to train nearly what I need to to be ready to do well in the races. I still feel very strong when I ride, but not quite (close but) to where I was when I had the awsome race a few weeks back. Of course this is probably mental because last Sunday I pulled a paceline at 25 - 27 MPH for quite some time and I am riding faster and stronger than ever.

The next four weeks I can not expect very much training wise. My main focus has been on the itt in 2 weeks so I am spending all my time on the tt bike training for that. School is just taking all of my mental and physical strength lately. The question is the following...

How much is required to maintain my current fitness level through the next 4 weeks where training time is very limited? Is maybe one day of intervals and one long 40+ mile fast group ride enough? In 4 weeks summer starts and I will have lots of time to train but I am feeling real bad that I have not been able to train the last 2 weeks very much.

Thanks as always

ditch your car and commute via bike

Given how strong you are now (judging by your posts lately), I wouldn't worry too much about it. Squeeze in whatever rides you can; whatever days you don't ride consider as recovery days. I trained for 3-1/2 months for last Saturday's first Century, then didn't have the time to ride at all in the week prior to the event. I stressed! I also finished! So the resting isn't such a bad thing.

Keep your priorities straight...school is a big deal. Put your energies where they need to be. (sorry, but what do you expect from a parent?! :) )

Good luck!

Sheldon

if i were you and could only do two days of training in a week i would do a tempo ride and an interval ride. during the interval ride i would vary the intensity and length of each interval (maybe do a pyramid style) and work on doing a few jumps and sprints of varying lengths. could you possibly add a trainer ride of like 30-45 mintues for recovery? that would actually be a pretty good workout if you could fit that between the two.

I am sure a trainer ride can be done. Today I did some intervals on my TT bike... actually 2 mile loops to simulate half of the tt route I have in a few weeks. I definitly need more time on the tt bike to be at optimal fitness for it. Pushing 25 - 26 MPH on the tt bike really makes my quads suffer (a good thing) after about 1 mile.

I think you are right, on a non race week if I can do intervals on Tuesday and at minimum a trainer ride on Friday with the fast group ride on Sunday I am fine.

One nasty side effect is I need to tone the calories down a little, I am starting to gain just a little weight...

Thanks for the advice.

maintain on 2 days a week? it's possible but you may see a decline overall I would say. 3 days a week would be better, just train really hard when you do go out as you'll be getting plenty of rest on your 4-5 days off the bike each week. Don't stress too much, there will be MANY more races to come, lots of us are older than you and have been doing this for a long time, other things need to take priority to the bike sometimes. :)

I definitly agree. Right now my first priority is graduating in 4 weeks... after that I can get back to my 5 day a week training schedule. This is a building year anyway, if I get 10 - 12 races in I will be very happy (money and time limited). I plan on upgrading to 4 next year and at that time I will have 100 times more time to devote to cycling. I just do not want to lose all the gains that I have made in the last 4 months, although I do expect a little loss, that is fine.

Ontario criterium this weekend will tell me alot about my fitness level. When summer starts I will be able to start a new training plan and get stronger.

Thanks again!