I've been doing a lot of reflection on my year on the bike so far and also research on how to use my training time more wisely. I'm a recreational cyclist and I always will be but I enjoy following routines and having some structure. My two main sources of information have been Sir Chris Hoy's 'How to ride a bike' and the Youtube channel of Dylan Johnson who is a coach for Carmichael Training Systems, both have fascinated me. They are very similar in their advice. I want to go longer and harder and they both recommend a blend of shorter interval and threshold work plus longer endurance rides plus some strength and conditioning.
However, I'm struggling to come up with a schedule that will not hinder either riding or strength gains or rest days. I've worked out that I can commit to 6 hours on the bike every week and 1 hour in the gym (I don't mean off-season) and I can do this around work and life commitments. It's just a case of how to schedule these 7 hours in a working week.
So as an example week:
Monday - Off
Tuesday - Indoor 1hr
Wednesday - Free
Thursday - Indoor 1hr (or gym)
Friday - Off
Saturday - Indoor 1hr
Sunday - Outdoor endurance 3hrs
Note the indoor sessions will be a mix of intervals, threshold and capacity. Hoy and Johnson say that any more than 3 isn't beneficial and Hoy actually prescribes 2 per week.
Monday and Friday have to be off days as I have commitments them evenings.
I need to fit in a gym session. If I go Wednesday then that will hamper my Thursday performance. I work long hours during the week so I can't double up on any night.
An idea that I have, which might be a load of rubbish, is do I cancel the Thursday indoor session and swap to the gym? Potentially adding some time to my interval sessions or even the endurance one to make it back up to 6 hours? What would you do?