A little info first. My primary rides are MWF 2.5+ hours (working my way up), sometimes I can ride long on weekends sometimes I can't. For the other days where I have time limitations I was wondering if rides are too short to be considered beneficial while riding zone 2? Would a Tues/Thurs 1 hour zone 2 ride be too short? I'm trying to decide if waking up early would be worth it, and if so how early . Should I do z3 or get up earlier and make the ride longer?

Also somewhat related question. Would 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening work? I know that everything helps, but I would rather spend my time on more efficient training even if that means having to wake up earlier.

In general, more hours are better provided you're getting enough sleep. If you only have an hour you could do 2x20 sweet spot intervals. They aren't too stressful and can be done every day once you're used to them. If you're doing 7.5 hrs plus longer weekend rides you should probably rest on one of those days. Not much point in getting up at 4am to do a recovery ride.

Because I commute, most of my training is in the form of 60-65min rides every 12 hrs. I do very few rides over 2 hrs these days and it seems to work fairly well when I have to do longer 5hr rides. I just mix up the intensity of my commutes. I have a few short hills that I can go all out on for 30 Secs to 3min. I also have a section I can ride without interruption for 30 min which makes longer intervals possible.

Like Greg, I commuted about an hour each way for years. I found that mixing up the intensity - mostly Z2, bit with the occasional tempo ride and threshold ride - worked well. I'd certainly regard two one-hour Z2 rides, one morning and one evening, to be useful.

I've found that anything helps, down to 30 minutes. Longer helps more, but hours per week is still what I go by. There's a balance somewhere. 10 X 1 hour is better than 1 X 10 hours for a weekly total. But 5 X 2 hours is probably better than 10 X 1 hour. So ride when you can, that's what's most important. Sometimes I'll get up a little early and just put in 1/2 hour on my rollers. That helps too. I try not to go more than 2 days without riding. Holding it to 1 day off is better even if all I can do is 1/2 hour.

Thanks guys! Good input and motivation help. I remember reading something about more consistent riding is better than fewer long rides, but forgot about it.

Depends on what you're after. Doing mostly long, slow rides will make you good at doing long slow rides. It won't help much if want to do some type of racing whether road, off road or TT. You really need a least 2-3 days of much harder, higher intensity riding/training to make good gains.

Even during base training? I've noticed that I'm becoming better than I wanted at riding long and slow, but I'm doing it because its supposed to allow me to see greater gains when I do start adding in interval training. I'm really a newb on all of this so please school me if I'm wrong.

What are your goals? Advice would be much different for training for a multi-week tour than for, say, racing crits.

It sounds like you're fairly new to cycling. If so, IMO the best idea is to ride when you can in Z2-3 over the winter. This would give you a base upon which to build your abilities at higher levels. As spring approaches, you can do intervals that target your specific goals.

I recommend you plan to take a day or two off the bike each week. This gives you a mental break and helps your body rebuild itself stronger.

Good luck!

I have about 3-4k miles on the bike so far, but that's primarily from tri training so spread out over 1.5 years. I just started focusing on cycling alone for about the past two months, and look forward to racing next season.

Okay, what kind of racing are you planning on doing? Post-base training can vary based on the type of racing you want to do. I'd recommend doing some reading over the winter so you can plan your training year. The usual reference is The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel. My copy is on the bookshelf in front of me. Most racers have a copy - they may not use it, but they have it. Another useful book is Base Building for Cyclists by Thomas Chapple. One or both will get you started in the right direction.

Get TrainerRoad and use their 3 part plan for whatever it is you want to train for. There is no minimum mileage before actually training for a specific goal.