2 a days

Most people don't do enough miles.

A lot of people do 2 rides a day - to and from work. There is no reason to do them easy. But if easy fits into your training there is no reason that easy is not apropriate.

Whatever fits your schedule works. Sometimes a L1 or L2 ride in the AM can be better that just resting prior to a hard session in the PM.

Some guys, like ultra distance hard ba$tard Andy Wilkinson, used to do several endurance sessions per day, something like 2 hours each with an hour in between. Old school road guys like Plankaert and DeVlaminck used to do four or five hours, head home for food and a quick warm up and then head out for another few hours to get the miles in...

Hi lean,

I really miss right now my chance to do my 25 miles each way back and forth on my commute. Great TSS scores and not easy miles at all. I like the breaking it up myself and believe you still get the benefits based upon my personal results. I do add though CT sessions even on good ride days to add the challenges I can not get here locally.

-js

thanks for the comments. i am going to start getting in an am and pm ride 2 times a week..

swampy, i remember reading that ONLY the pros need to get in those kind of miles, as most of us amatures do hour crits, or 30-75 mile road races.. hour weekly rides and longer 3-4 hour weekend rides are the most one should do for these kind of races..per current pros..

i remeber reading in a cyclesport magazine that a pro commenting on when he was an amature in belgium did hour rides 4 days a week, and 3-4 hour rides the rest of the week, as he said thats all you need for amature races. and these are the 50-120 mile belgiun hard races..

as a pro, he said he does what he HAS to do to be good at 120-150 mile races.. 30 hours a week training..

at a seminar i heard andy coggan saying to the group, "your wife will love you more if you go by my training plans , as you really dont need to put in that many miles, and you'll be home more..".. and this was for the 30-75 mile rr's.

i still dont know if my 10 hours a week is plenty, (1 long day, 4 hours, three 1hr ez rides, and two 1.5 hour rides a week..and an off day)..if i do 12 hours come spring and summer are those 2 extra hours gonna make me any better?

thanks

It all depends on your long term goals are, what your current strengths are and what training you need. The Pro you mentioned probably has a bit of a head start in the ol' genetics department which means that for him nearly all the amateur categories were reasonably easy until Cat 1 and then a bit of work needed to be done. For the rest of us, there's work to be done pretty much from the get go. How much work is determined by what you desire to do combined with your level of success. You could do 20 hours a week and suck donkey balls in 4th cat races - so 10 hours may serve you just as well but if you're putting in those 15 hour weeks and you're getting results and slowly but steadily climbing the ranks then at some point you're gonna have to make the jump to more hours should you find yourself with "no gas in the tank" during the latter parts of the longer road races done by the cat 1/cat 2 lads (or lasses)... ... And the lad raced in Belgium - so by default he's as hard as nails. No pissy crits for him on smooth roads that are that wide you could land a 747 on and you don't need to hit the brakes on entry to the corners... Kermesse hell on [censored] roads just wide enough for two mules and THAT North Sea wind.

I have done it both ways, right now I am doing 2hrs in 1 lump in the morning, which I typically do on the trainer 5:30-7:30. Although this a.m. I could not pass on a 50 degree day and threw on some lights and headed outside. It was actually quite enjoyable and I felt reasonably safe. So I get 10hrs M-F and 6-8hrs on the weekends, all at around 60%. I will try to do this every day for 1 month and then move into a 12hr SST 2x20 type plan with a real long ride on the weekend. I really decided this year that I don't get paid for this, so I am not going to kill myself or sacrifice tons of family time, so for me it is what it is. 2 times a day is ok, but I felt like I lost time getting dressed and set up twice a day, plus for me it was mentally draining and felt like I was never done. I also struggled a bit with recovery, especially with harder workouts.

I'd go for it.

That's how many/most good runners train. No reason you can't apply it to cycling, too.