Training & Nutrition - Three days a week . . .

Ok, so I have just three days a week to train due to work and life schedule and I need to improve my overall strength for a stronger time trial. If I spaced my three days of training throughout the week, say Mon., Wed., and Thurs., with the weekend off for family, would I overtrain if I did LT intervals on all three days? My winter training time on the trainer is from 45 minutes to 1 hour. Any ideas of a better way to use my three days? Thanks.

Yes, you'll overtrain doing LT intervals and you also won't improve as quickly as possible either because that's not an optimum training programme. I'd do the following:

1. sprints, shortest ride of the week, 15-miles max. Do 5-8 all-out 100% sprints at to complete exhaustion with full-recovery in between.

2. LT-intervals, maybe do pyramid sets 1-2-3-2-1, up & down a hill, etc.

3. tempo, 15-20 min continuous, 4x4, long hillclimbs, etc.


One or two days of strength-training in the gym would help too if you can get it in.Hard to do real endurance workouts in the winter, 3-4 hours. It's easily to pile on the flab, so be careful with the holiday feasting. ;)

My feeling is if you're exclusively trying to improve your TT ability the best thing would be to do a 70-minute 2x20 workout three times per week. So 10 minute warmup, 20 minutes at LT, 10 minutes recovery, 20 minutes at LT, and 10 minutes to cool down.

If you did these M-W-F I think you would have enough recovery time.

--Steve

Ok, so I have just three days a week to train due to work and life schedule and I need to improve my overall strength for a stronger time trial. If I spaced my three days of training throughout the week, say Mon., Wed., and Thurs., with the weekend off for family, would I overtrain if I did LT intervals on all three days? My winter training time on the trainer is from 45 minutes to 1 hour. Any ideas of a better way to use my three days? Thanks.

Does your family require you to be home at 6 a.m. on the weeekends? If not, that may be an ideal time to ride.

for a time contrained training schedule try doing your power workouts on a trainer and your endurance and recovery on the bike......one of the things i like about doing power on the trainer is i can focus on it alot more and hence get it done quicker.......not sure where you are but near me its a pain doing intervals etc when i've got stop signs, and traffic etc.....i waste more time avoiding those then training.

and not sure how your family works....but try incorporating them into your rides.....especially on weekends.....either have them come with you or say agree to meet them in the next town and you cycle there...have lunch for example and cycle back.

for a time contrained training schedule try doing your power workouts on a trainer and your endurance and recovery on the bike......one of the things i like about doing power on the trainer is i can focus on it alot more and hence get it done quicker.......not sure where you are but near me its a pain doing intervals etc when i've got stop signs, and traffic etc.....i waste more time avoiding those then training.

and not sure how your family works....but try incorporating them into your rides.....especially on weekends.....either have them come with you or say agree to meet them in the next town and you cycle there...have lunch for example and cycle back.

I also incorporate commuting to stores or other errands with the bike. It doesn't take much longer than if by car and I get in a workout. Also, since we are approaching winter and riding indoors feels too much like chinese water torture, I ride for 30 minutes before work. It is much shorter than my summer rides, but I also supplement those rides whenever possible. At least I know I will get in my 30 minutes every day before work.

I also incorporate commuting to stores or other errands with the bike. It doesn't take much longer than if by car and I get in a workout. Also, since we are approaching winter and riding indoors feels too much like chinese water torture, I ride for 30 minutes before work. It is much shorter than my summer rides, but I also supplement those rides whenever possible. At least I know I will get in my 30 minutes every day before work.

thats a good idea......you're better off doing short, and i suggest intense, rides then none at all

Thanks for replies everyone. I'll try to squeeze those short intense rides in where I can.