Training & Nutrition - meeting weekly hour goals with long vs. short sessions

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PDA
UMassAm
11-10-12, 06:42 PM
current weekly goal is 7 hours/week. are there any differences in cardiovacular/performance benefits or recovery needs by satisfying the goal with either several shorter sessions (four 1hr sessions and one 3hr session) vs. longer and fewer sessions (two 1hr sessions and one 5hr session)?

benlees
11-10-12, 09:04 PM
Depends what your long terms goals are. Racing? or something else? What are you doing in the one hour sessions? Takes me 30-45min just to warm up!
UMassAm
11-10-12, 10:07 PM
Depends what your long terms goals are. Racing? or something else? What are you doing in the one hour sessions? Takes me 30-45min just to warm up!

racing criteriums next spring. base mileage.

Carbonfiberboy
11-10-12, 11:02 PM
I'd go the four 1 hr. and one 3 hr. More frequent is better. Never go more than 3 days between workouts. Actually, I'd probably make it 6 days/week. Active recovery for 1/2 hour on trainer or rollers is helpful. You can make up for the shortness of the 3 hr. ride by going harder. For base, I go hard on the long ride, then do the others for base. I guess I find that more interesting, i.e. exhausting. I know most folks do the opposite, LSD on the long ride and intervals on the shorter ones. Even during base, I do some hard work each week.