Road Bike Racing - how long is your season?

i'm feeling a little burnt out myself. i'm at about 3 months of racing just about every weekend. some weekends had no races scheduled but i'd train hard those days anyway. so, all in all, i've been training pretty hard for about the last 5 months, after riding all winter too. is this fairly normal? do you guys have significantly longer\shorter seasons?

All year round here. Road, Track and MTB racing in winter, MTB, Crits and Track in summer. Cyclo-Cross will be added to winter soon also. You have to pick your peaks, get a plan, have some rest periods where you don't race or train hard at all.

Why not modify your schedule so you can last longer? If you're constantly stimulating yourself (or rather, exercising at high intensities, as opposed to being master of your domain), you'll find your season finishing pretty quickly.

A lot of people really do think they have to train hard all the time, but they don't realize how far from the truth that actually is. If you want to extend out your season, you're going to have to scale back your training. Train smarter, not harder.

Koffee

Mine started from middle of March till my last race on 10/18. My last ride would be the MS Bike Tour. :D Is gonna be a fun ride. I make sure I had a mide season break (June) and gotten enough base miles would also help. Usual, I make sure I have enough sleep when possible. On my day offs, I sleep. I make sure I drink a lot of water and try to eat heathly. Cut down the pizza and fatty food.


i'm feeling a little burnt out myself. i'm at about 3 months of racing just about every weekend. some weekends had no races scheduled but i'd train hard those days anyway. so, all in all, i've been training pretty hard for about the last 5 months, after riding all winter too. is this fairly normal? do you guys have significantly longer\shorter seasons?

My season began in late February and goes this year until the beginning on August. Normally the season is year round with itt's from September to February and Racing February to September. In order to race well in the itts I have to incorperate a little higher intensity work to maintain fitness for the itts.

Friel says there are some time period in which burnout starts and to avoid that is to take time off the bike and taking it easy, time off is the best medicine sometimes.

yeah, maybe i just need a nice break and do something different for a little while. i'm sure i'd retain most of my fitness too.

i do take 2 recovery days per week and am careful about overtraining (i look at my resting HR, sleep enough, etc.) but for the most part my training has been very similar week after week. and that's probably why i feel like i do now.

If you have that tired, icky feeling, it's probably overtraining. It can make you feel listless, tired, bored, sick, etc.

I'm seriously down to training 4 days a week. Now that I'm in a warmer climate, I can train longer, so to make myself last, I've found that I've had to cut back on my training. I'm still seeing a lot of progress, though. I'm getting faster and I'm dropping pounds, and I'm satisfied with my results so far. Still, I know (especially as I get older), that it's all about the quality of my ride, not the quantity.

Koffee

what makes this seemingly easy thing (take time off the bike) so difficult for me is that i have a stupid work ethic that my mom and dad instilled in me over the course of my childhood. we were never allowed to be sick from school, miss appointments, miss guitar lessons, etc. if we didn't feel like doing something too bad, suck it up and go. i guess i'm bringing that mentality with me on the bike too. old habit are hard to break, even if you know what's good for you.

I think buying Friels book would be a good start for you. He hammers the point that recovery is as important as hard training.

What you are doing is like playing the guitar all night long so that you would get better..don't think your mom would have gone for that....

What you are doing is like playing the guitar all night long so that you would get better..don't think your mom would have gone for that....

she didn't! but my dad did :) he got me hooked on guitar playing when i was 10 years old, and i got interested in playing classical so i would literally practice anywhere from 4 to 8 hours a day thoughout middle school and highschool.

as you can probably tell i get hooked on things easily, and it's hard for me to tear myself away from stuff i like to do.

Another nod for Friel's book.

tudor bompa's periodization in sports is worth a read also.

Friel's theories on training in his book are based on Bompa's teachings. If you really want to get deep with the training, I would definitely second that recommendation for Bompa OVER Friel's book. Bompa even wrote the forward for Friel.

Koffee

i have Serious Cycling by Ed Burke. it's pretty good. one thing that i would absolutely love is to find a resource that gives me actual schedules. such as day 1, do sprints in this fashion - day 2, do this many intervals, day 3 - rest or take an easy spin for x hours, day 4, etc...

i found one schedule like this so far, and it's worked great for me up to this point. i'd like to find more though.

Yea Burkes book is more about the physiology if I remember correctly. Not really about training methods. My season is cut short thanks to a crash this year so I am slowing down to gear up for cyclocross. But I think the norm is that you pretty much have to ride all the time to be fit for racing. Taking a month off over the Fall/early Winter used to be common practice. I still do that. You have to take a brake some times. Taking a brake for me includes just commuting 10 miles to work nice and easy. I’m still on the bike but hardly working.

I would say that Burke's book does have more physiology than Friel's, but I would definitely say it's a great training book. The second edition of "Serious Cycling" is way more informative than the first (not to say the first book wasn't awesome either). But actually, I would call Burke's book more user friendly when it comes to training, since the Friel book is more for the competitive cyclist and doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for the non-competitive cyclist (though Friel's book is equally as awesome, but just different).

Koffee

I didnt race this year, but i've been on the bike like religion since mid may for my first weight loss phase - 250 to 200lbs by October. After the Oct 8th Seagull Century, I'll take a 2 week break and start serious race training for 06. 200lbs seemed to always be my winter weight before I slimmed it down to 185 (im 6ft tall). This time around i plan to go farther still and shoot for 175 by start of the sesaon in March and try to get down to 165 for the summer road races in July.

i have Serious Cycling by Ed Burke. it's pretty good. one thing that i would absolutely love is to find a resource that gives me actual schedules. such as day 1, do sprints in this fashion - day 2, do this many intervals, day 3 - rest or take an easy spin for x hours, day 4, etc...

i found one schedule like this so far, and it's worked great for me up to this point. i'd like to find more though.

timm, I havn't read Burke's book but one of the keys to making a periodized schedule work is variation or "cycling" volume (time on bike) and intensity (not to be confused with simply rest or time off). Most effective schedules I have seen will taper volume quite a bit every 4th week or so, while raising intensity. Say for example you typically spent 15 hrs/wk training, your taper week may be only 8 to 10 hrs w some fast stuff. You really dont slack off, just change focus. As well as avoiding burnout you can gain a lot of speed on this type of plan. Keep experimenting and you will find what works for you.

Burke's book has a section dedicated to periodized training schedules and gives charts for you to work with, much like Bompa's books. Burke also gives examples of how to taper and peak for your training. It's really a very good book, just that it takes more time to go through the "why's" of training than Friel's books.

Koffee