"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Suggestions for minimal daily riding

Fact 1 - I only have so much time per day to ride
Fact 2 - I only care about time trials

I only intend to race my bike no longer than 54 minutes at a time. This bodes well since I really only have an hour per day to ride. I'm looking for suggestions from those who race against the clock with minimal time to train.

Would you:
1 - do long intervals above my one hour power
2 - sst for the entire ride
3 - short intervals way above one hour power
4 - ride the estimated power requirement for as long as possible
5 - all the above

Regarding #4, has anyone tried progressively doing longer intervals at a given wattage over the course of several months? How many times per week can a person pull that off without death?

i don't race against the clock and don't have minimal time to train, but I'd be doing #3 right now.

^5

Pacing intervals (http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/05/last-pacing-post.html)! My favorite!

I can do this three times a week. I did a lot of 2x20's at 95-98% in the winter time. Work out your power at threshold. I don't think you need to work out VO2 much, except when you hit a plateau and need to pull it up some.

You need to be able to put yourself in pain mode and stay there. So workout in that area as much as possible.

How many hours a week do you have? 6? 8?

i don't race against the clock and don't have minimal time to train, but I'd be doing #3 right now.

why?

How many hours a week do you have? 6? 8?


5 days per week and 1 to 1.5 hours per day is what reality is giving me.

You have plenty of time then, for TTs. It would be nice to have a 2-2.5 hour ride on the weekend, but for the most part, I'd go with pacing intervals, 2x20s and SST. 15 minute warmup, start your workout, 10 minute cool down.

Pacing intervals (http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/05/last-pacing-post.html)! My favorite!

I can do this three times a week. I did a lot of 2x20's at 95-98% in the winter time. Work out your power at threshold. I don't think you need to work out VO2 much, except when you hit a plateau and need to pull it up some.

You need to be able to put yourself in pain mode and stay there. So workout in that area as much as possible.

How many hours a week do you have? 6? 8?

i really like the the pacing workout and did a bunch this year. higher avg. wattage for the cumulative work portion was always higher than i can do for a 20 minute or longer interval. I suspect it's due to having some nm power or anaerobic component to each rep. therefore, I considered the pacing workout to be more along the lines of a vo2max interval workout, and while valuable to incorporating into a program like cat4evers, I dont think it's a "substitute" for longer duration aerobic work (sst, 20+ minute intervals, ...).

without defining fact one further this thread is a waste of time

You'll eventually need to work on VO2 power when you start plateauing.

5 days per week and 1 to 1.5 hours per day is what reality is giving me.


without defining fact one further this thread is a waste of time

...

got it, thanks.

2x20s
3x30s
1x60s

hate your life for the time you're on the bike 3x a week. go easy the other two days.

The thing about the pacing workout is that it puts your body into a higher wattage area for a longer cumulative period of time, hence triggering adaptation. I could do similar wattages for 2x20s, but the mental fatigue was far worse.

I do believe that 2x20's, 1x30's, 1x40's etc at ftp would be great for TTs to help with mental strength (in addition to physical adaptation).

Also depends on what days off you're being restricted to. Is it Sat/Sun off? Can you pick your days off? If so, I'd block train M-W, Thurs off, train Fri/Sat, Sun off.

If it's M-F training, I'd block train threshold M-W, Thurs 1.5 hr endurance, Friday 4-5x5 minutes, Sat/Sun off.

IMO, 1-1.5 hrs per day, 5 days a week doth not require active recovery days.

Adding - at 5 days/wk, 1-1.5 hrs per day, you have to maximize effort to get your desired adaptation. That's a reality.

Fact #3 - You'll need to suffer lots to get lots.

Also depends on what days off you're being restricted to. Is it Sat/Sun off? Can you pick your days off? If so, I'd block train M-W, Thurs off, train Fri/Sat, Sun off.

If it's M-F training, I'd block train threshold M-W, Thurs 1.5 hr endurance, Friday 4-5x5 minutes, Sat/Sun off.

IMO, 1-1.5 hrs per day, 5 days a week doth not require active recovery days.

Could depends on age. I couldn't go hard that many days no matter the duration.

Aye... the challenges of seeking coaching advice from the masses.

I'm just asking for suggestions, not specific coaching advice. The "days off" will vary due to a haphazard schedule (last week, I rode zero miles in zero hours). This week I had two and a half hours so far.

I am still curious if anyone has ever tried to hit a wattage number for as many minutes as possible and tried to increase the time and NOT the wattage over a period of xx weeks/months. I'm leaning toward trying this as I guesstimate xxx watts over xx minutes at a weight of xxx will yield a time of xx:xx. Seems like if I know that 350 watts (or insert obtuse number here) will lead me to the promised land, should I not shoot to hit that for 54 minutes (for example)? That's not saying that 350 watts will give me an average of 27+. More like 28+, but I'm rambling now.... :thumb:

are you sure you'll be out there for 54'?
maybe you meant 49'?
that would make all the difference in how much you should train.

Don't forget 2 to 5 minute intervals. They build slow twitch muscles a lot more efficiently than long intervals. I'd throw in those at least once a week for 3 to 4 weeks at a time.

Interesting thread. I'm not specifically training for TTs but have the same time limitations. And considering how bad I suck getting my FTP up is probably my best bang for time spent. So I have kept and interested eye on this thread as well.

I'm just asking for suggestions, not specific coaching advice. The "days off" will vary due to a haphazard schedule (last week, I rode zero miles in zero hours). This week I had two and a half hours so far.

I am still curious if anyone has ever tried to hit a wattage number for as many minutes as possible and tried to increase the time and NOT the wattage over a period of xx weeks/months. I'm leaning toward trying this as I guesstimate xxx watts over xx minutes at a weight of xxx will yield a time of xx:xx. Seems like if I know that 350 watts (or insert obtuse number here) will lead me to the promised land, should I not shoot to hit that for 54 minutes (for example)? That's not saying that 350 watts will give me an average of 27+. More like 28+, but I'm rambling now.... :thumb:

I don't believe it will work, but only based on my limited knowledge of the way the physiological systems adapt - though I think it also depends on how close you are to that number. If you're at 300 now, and 350 is the goal, then 350 is probably only ~5-10 minutes at best for a single interval, not necessarily long enough to build the aerobic engine to do 350 for 54'. I think you're better off spending time at 300-310.

If you're at 335-340, then spending the time at 350 may be 20-25 minutes of interval time, which is then in the right ballpark for building FTP.

I think you told me that you'd be coming into my age group next year. If that's the case, you should spend all your riding time in the little ring, keeping your HR as low as possible. You'll need to save everything for race day. Yep, that's what you need to do.:thumb:

Greg Lemond is an advocate of an hour a day training. But, it has to be at such a high level of intensity that you need a basterd coach to push you the whole time.
http://blog.spout.com/wp-content/uploads/madame-souza-triplets-of-belleville.jpg

I follow a pretty normal workout plan, just shorter durations. I'm getting about 6 hrs/week right now. I start most cycles with steady SST for a few weeks, then add in the Friel pace intervals (I call them STUCI -- same time until can't improve). Afer a few weeks of SST + STUCI, I add in the VO2Max once/week. Then to top it off, a 1125211 interval pyramid once/week. About a month after that starts, my fitness is crazy. A few weeks later, I'm pretty toasted, take some time off, and start over with nothing but steady SST.

I wouldn't realistically expect much out of 5 hrs/week when your contemporaries are all probably 12+ next year. Just sayin

I follow a pretty normal workout plan, just shorter durations. I'm getting about 6 hrs/week right now. I start most cycles with steady SST for a few weeks, then add in the Friel pace intervals (I call them STUCI -- same time until can't improve). Afer a few weeks of SST + STUCI, I add in the VO2Max once/week. Then to top it off, a 1125211 interval pyramid once/week. About a month after that starts, my fitness is crazy. A few weeks later, I'm pretty toasted, take some time off, and start over with nothing but steady SST.

But you are a beast.

Your program sounds similar to Carmichael's TCTP.

Well, for what it's worth, I only know of one other rider who's replicating a plan like mine on small volume. He's my main training partner and a teammate of EDR, RX, and I, and now he is just as strong as me (and he's a Cat 4). He's moving up to Cat 3 after the state champs, and has won several races this year, attacking like RX. He even won an M35+ race in a 2-man break that held off the P/1/2 state TT champ.

So, it's still a small sample size, but it does appear that you can get some really good results with the right focus on small hours.