Originally Posted by
maartendc
I mean sure, that works. But for people with limited time on their hands, it is beneficial to switch up the training a bit. I am currently training for a century, and the schedule is pretty much this:
- rest day
- tuesday: fast ride or intervals, 1 hours
- rest day
- thursday: steady ride. 1 hour, increasing in duration week after week
- rest day
- Saturday: Long ride, 4-5 hours, increasing in duration
- rest day
I don't see the point in meticulously mapping out FTP's, heartrates and wattages. But there is definitely benefits to be had from riding intervals occasionally, etc. versus just "riding long" or "riding hard". Especially if you don't have time to go riding 4 hours, 3 times per week.
Good plan. I like to see a total of ~45' of Z4 HR for the week, i.e. the long ride should be hilly, and push your limits on the hills. You don't need more than 4-5 hours for that ride. If you make it longer, you'll have to reduce the intensity and it's the intensity that's important. IOW you actually get slower doing longer rides. If the century is this summer, I'd start with 30 mile rides or even shorter and gradually work up to 60 miles just before the century. If you can't hold lactate threshold or very close to it on the hills, there are too many of them = too long a ride for your current fitness.
For "riding hard," you really need a metric, either HR or power. Most folks have no idea how hard it's actually possible to ride because they have no metric, just that it feels hard. I'm in the middle of a ride series right now which will have us going from 33 miles to a century in 8 weeks, but these are experienced riders doing this. This past weekend it was 48 miles and 2600'. My
average HR for the ride was 90% of my lactate threshold. I had to lay the bike down at the end because I couldn't get my leg over the saddle. That's how it's done.