Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
Kind of both, depending on the time period. I became a Cat 1 at 20 years old and I was riding 10-20 hours a week throughout the year. Then I quit and didn't ride for 7 years.
After starting again in my 30s, my training is squarely in the 6-10 hours a week range. I've done one 15 hour week in 7 years, and a handful of 10-13 hour weeks when building for long races.
So in my 30s, 8-10 hours to build up fitness (like this winter when I started after a 6 month break and an ftp of ~220w) to being competitive, and then 4-6 hours a week to maintain it.
Ah cool, thanks for the considered reply.
I used to do 6-8 hour weeks with a fair bit of high intensity but i found that the gains I had then didnt last - but then, I only started endurance sports in my mid-30s (and in my mid-to-late 40s now). Am doing an 80:20 polarized plan with 10-12 hours of bike+run, and am feeling that my foundation is getting a lot better. I also recognize a big improvement from doing long Z2 with very little time in Z2. I suspect that for me, i need to pay attention to the volume each yet and do atleast 2-3 months of volume focused efforts between more traditional intensity blocks.