Training once per week

dome said:

In the pecking order of the priorities of life I can only fit in one training ride of 2 to 3 hours per week. My only cycling ambition is do a 100km+ ride at the end of the season in as short a time as possible. What is the best strategy to follow in my weekly training rides?
When possible I do sometimes ride other events in place of my training ride and as a guide will finish a 80km flat ride in 2h30, so I do have a bit of a base to work from. In these rides I will typically go as hard as possible, but suspect that I may get better long term gains by limiting my efforts to some extent. Any advice on how to approach these rides also?

once a week is not enough ! I only get out on the road once a week also. but I get on an indoor trainer on four other occassions. This is not as good as the road training but the volume of work is still around 9 hours a week. I don't think you need to this much work but to two one hour sessions during the week and one long ride on the weekend will give you much better results, because in seven days you detrain some-what.

Point taken. I do try fit in two or so midweek indoor rides of about 30 minutes, but it takes me about 15 minutes to warm up so I do not think that these rides contribute much to my fitness.
I am hoping for some advice to make my main focus weekend rides as valuable as possible.

dome said:

Point taken. I do try fit in two or so midweek indoor rides of about 30 minutes, but it takes me about 15 minutes to warm up so I do not think that these rides contribute much to my fitness.
I am hoping for some advice to make my main focus weekend rides as valuable as possible.

People often think that all training has to be very very hard to have value. This is not true.

Try seaching this forum for the Hadd thing and give it a read, it's about 26 pages

dome said:

Point taken. I do try fit in two or so midweek indoor rides of about 30 minutes, but it takes me about 15 minutes to warm up so I do not think that these rides contribute much to my fitness.
I am hoping for some advice to make my main focus weekend rides as valuable as possible.

I'd suggest you need to change your goal here. Just to say "ride 100K as fast as possible" is a recipe for frustration....you'll never reach it. A better goal would be "ride the club's annual 100K event 5 minutes faster than last year".

But, why do you need a time goal at all? If you've only got 2-3 hours a week for a bike ride, that ride should be relaxing recreation, not "training" to reach an ever-higher average speed. To me, that just sounds like another stress event in your busy schedule. If you enjoy your weekend bike rides, and feel relaxed and refreshed afterwards, that's as "valuable" as it gets.

dome said:

Point taken. I do try fit in two or so midweek indoor rides of about 30 minutes, but it takes me about 15 minutes to warm up so I do not think that these rides contribute much to my fitness.
I am hoping for some advice to make my main focus weekend rides as valuable as possible.

I've found that if you have limited time then doing intervals is the best bang for your buck.
You could do intervals on Tues and Thurs of your indoor rides then you can have your long 2-3 hr ride on the weekend.

Lou.

edd said:

once a week is not enough ! I only get out on the road once a week also. but I get on an indoor trainer on four other occassions. This is not as good as the road training but the volume of work is still around 9 hours a week. I don't think you need to this much work but to two one hour sessions during the week and one long ride on the weekend will give you much better results, because in seven days you detrain some-what.

Using an indoor trainer makes sense for most people for the days that they cannot get out. To break the boredom and add some interest to the sessions on the IT, make use of either the Tacx RLV system or if you only have a manual indoor trainer the Chasek Indoor trainer routes are pretty good as well (and much cheaper than the Tacx RLV)

dome said:

Point taken. I do try fit in two or so midweek indoor rides of about 30 minutes, but it takes me about 15 minutes to warm up so I do not think that these rides contribute much to my fitness.
I am hoping for some advice to make my main focus weekend rides as valuable as possible.

Why dont you make your session in the trainer at least an hour. That way, you have enough time for the warmup and the actual workout itself plus cooldown. Focus on the intensity of your workout to have the most benefits. It doesnt have to be a long workout (quantity) to have a result. Good luck.