jmio

what does everyones schedule look like? how many days a week do you ride? how many miles? if you do "train" what days do you do what and what kind of training is it?

I just recently got back into long distance biking, a horrible military accident destroyed my lower back and now anything over 20 miles was nightmarish. But now I have a recumbent that totally lets me ride for hours of pain free riding. i know I know they are silly looking, I was a hater for the longest times. I got the rans xstream and its actually getting me faster speeds that my old road bike was.

So i'm thinking about my upcoming year and really want to get into some events, this winter I am planning on just going out 4 days a week, not smashing the pedals or doing intervals but just base miles and build up a great aerobic base. for 3 of the rides I was going to focus on shorter lengths from 20-40 and on the 4th day focus on longish days(over 50 miles) and then come april start working on lengthening my long day, try to get a century in a month and maybe a double century in here and there, but on my short days start doing speed work and intervals once a week.

Does this approach sound like a good formula? I know the old saying time in the saddle is the best approach, but i dunno if i would have time to do 40-60 miles 4 times a week. I can usually get 20 miles done in or under an hour and feel like doing that 3 times a week wouldn't be a big deal, and then once a week spend a few hours on the bike for some distance. let me know what yall do and i'm all ears on trying to improve my training. Oh, one of my goals is to do a 5 hour solo century. I'm pretty close at the 20 mph average, just gotta extend that to a 100 miles, my longest ride is 53 miles since I got the bike last month.
thanks for your time and knowledge

Machka 

Generally ...

Shorter rides 3-4 days during the week (25-35 km)

Longer rides on the 2 days of the weekends (over the past 4 years, it's been anywhere from about 50 km up to 300K ... prior to that, the upper limit of the distances was longer)

StephenH

I usually ride 20 miles a day through the week, skipping one or two days for whatever reason pops up. On Tuesdays, I've been doing a club ride, and riding to the ride, which can get me 40 miles or more. On Saturdays, rando rides. On Sundays, 30-40 miles.

skiffrun

Prior to this year, I usually had a Tuesday or a Thursday (sometimes both, and sometimes "Thursday" was on Friday) 25 or 30-mile spin-out-the-legs or "time-trial" ride to augment weekend rides.

Haven't done a single one of those spin-out or "TT" rides this year due to circumstances -- I do miss my solo 30-mile "time-trials". I did manage a baker's dozen (maybe one or two more) Friday 14-mile spin-out-the-legs rides -- a few times I decided to turn half those spin-outs into work-the-cadence or work-something-else rides.

Sometimes I'll have a virtual long-hot-interval in the midst of a 200k ride. Sometimes, on the same ride or maybe not, I'll fall off the back with someone that is struggling -- sometimes the one that struggled was me. But, this year, mostly I have just ridden to enjoy the ride and the scenery and the company. Almost exclusively on the weekends.

37 rides on Saturdays so far this year. Avg dist -- 101 miles.
33 rides on Sundays so far this year. Avg dist -- 88 miles.
Remaining 25 rides on M-F. Avg distance -- 58 miles (those 14-milers really cut the avg distance).

(note: 400's + 600's that spill over onto Sunday from Saturday -- the entire distance is counted in the Saturday stats.)

Road Fan

skiffrun, you still have around 10,000 miles this year!

The Octopus 

--I commute to work pretty much every day, so that turns into anywhere from 60-100 miles per week, depending on the route I take. This is just solid aerobic work. I just ride a comfortable pace on my commute.

--I try to get in one or two very hard sessions during the week for 1-2 hours each. Ideally, these are interval workouts. Find the fastest people you can. Go try to ride with them. Rinse, repeat. When you get to the point that you can ride with them, start attacking. If you're not getting dropped, you're not riding hard enough. Doing these rides solo works for some (though I usually need a group to keep from slacking). When I lived in a cold climate, these rides would get done indoors on the trainer during the winter months.

--I try to get in one long ride on the weekend. Pre-kids, Mrs. The Octopus and I would ride centuries on both weekend days two or three times a month. Post-kids, the only centuries and longer rides that I do are events -- things that get put on the calendar months in advance and are special -- worth spending time away from the family for. Typically that's a full brevet series, a fleche if there's one nearby, and two or three really meaningful century rides. That's it. The "long ride" for me these days is 50-60 miles unless I'm doing one of these special-occasion rides.

--I find that this routine is enough to keep me in plenty good shape for randonnuering at a pace where I never have to worry about my finish time. Add it all up and it's a lot of volume -- I'm at 8,400 miles for the year. If I wanted to be a competitive distance cyclist, it wouldn't cut it, though. The short, hard rides are fine but I'd need to find more time to do some longer rides and back-to-back long rides.

jmio

ahhh, very good, that does make sense to have back to back long rides. I work 3 12's a week and can usually get in 20 miles before work. that leaves 4 days off a week where I can really start getting some time in the seat. I am going to start commuting soon, that will add 90 miles a week. I am still looking at some lights and can't figure out what to get, (affordable) and usable. I'm 90 percent sold on the niterider minewt 600 cordless and 2 planet bike super flash for the rear. I work 3-3am so I will be riding home in complete darkness, excited and nervous, but I here its great to ride in pitch black. So I think my schedule overall has a lot of room for adjustment and I am trying to figure out how to participate in the 1000 mile per month club.

skiffrun

8077.

seedsbelize 

25 km 6 days a week, on my city bike, and 100 miles, or 200 km on Sunday on the road bike.

Richard Cranium

Ride when you can - train when you can't.

jmio

wow thats deeo lol