I'm getting into cycling seriously having been forced out of other sports by injury. I'm wondering if anyone could advise me what, if anything, I could do usefully with a second session per day of about 45mins? I've spent years training at least twice a day and as a result I feel lazy if I don't! - and I enjoy it. But what can I do that's any use for cycling in this period?
I'm currently training after work every day for about 2hrs either on the road or the turbo. I'd just like to know what I can do in a morning session that might help me.
As you've probably heard a thousand times it all depends on your goals
If you were training for short distance time trials you could perhaps, one or two times per week, add an interval training session. If you're riding for general fitness and improving flexibility was one of your goals it might be worth adding in a dedicated flexibility session. Road race training might benefit from a sprint workout. You could just about fit a 2 x 20 min session at 1-hr TT power, a very benificial session, and save the longer ride for an enjoyable recovery ride later in the day, safe in the knowledge that the hard training has been carried out for that day
As you've probably heard a thousand times it all depends on your goals
If you were training for short distance time trials you could perhaps, one or two times per week, add an interval training session. If you're riding for general fitness and improving flexibility was one of your goals it might be worth adding in a dedicated flexibility session. Road race training might benefit from a sprint workout. You could just about fit a 2 x 20 min session at 1-hr TT power, a very benificial session, and save the longer ride for an enjoyable recovery ride later in the day, safe in the knowledge that the hard training has been carried out for that day
Cheers for the advice. Sorry, I know I didn't really give enough detail about what I'm training for. My main aims are 10-25ml TT (though I'm not averse to doing OK in the odd road race.)
Intervals are clearly going to be the way to go during the racing season, I agree. But is it a good idea 5x/week? And looking ahead, what about during the winter when I'm looking to just establish a base again - does it make sense to be doing intervals then?
Intervals definately not 5 times per week. What I was getting at, although probably not very well, was that you could do a mixture of the suggested sessions to fill the extra time slot. If you're already training 2 hours per day anyway I don't think you need a great deal more time on the bike. Intervals should be carried out no more than twice per week and if you're currently racing as well you should perhaps only do the one session. You could then do a thorough flexibility routine two or three times per week on top of daily stretching (essential for time trialists in my opinion to enable you to acheive a good postition on the bike). If you begin to veiw flexibility sessions in the same way as any other session you may start to feel that you are in effect 'training' thereby stopping the 'lazy' feeling you talk of.
If you want to use the 45 min slots to do some top quality training a couple of times per week you could use one session to carry out intervals of 3-4 mins (at a pace you can just hold for the duration of the interval) to prepare for ten mile events and one session of 2 x 15-20 mins at (or just over) 1-hr TT pace to prepare for 25 mile events.
