Originally Posted by
mike868y
i guess i don't know exactly what the extent of your time constraints are, but if you're focused you can build pretty amazing aerobic fitness on 8-10hrs a week if you're focused. obviously if you're a p12 doing 80+ mile road races this goes out the window to a certain extent but for sub three hour races you really don't need a ton of time, you just need to be more efficient.
Not sure if this is directed at me, but I'm answering anyway.
Time constraints vary. I can ride 1-2 hours during work every business day. They can't always be intervals because they're during lunch and/or boring conference calls where I sometimes need to be able to pause and respond.
I have a 2-3 hour hard Wednesday group ride. So I usually don't do a 'workout' that day. (Summer months, winter it's trainer work every day)
If life lets me make the Saturday group ride, it's 3ish hours. If not, I'll usually get 1-2 hours during the kid's naptime.
Usually if I ride Saturday, I don't ride Sunday, but sometimes I do, same 1-2 hours during naptime.
Altogether best case: 16 hours/week (this never happens)
Altogether usual case: 7 hours/week
If I really make an effort: 10 hours/week is doable but it's emotionally taxing trying to fit it in while meeting all of my work/family/life obligations.
As I said before, I've been terrible with those 7 hours in the past. WAY too much intensity. If some intensity was good, then lots of intensity is better? Right? No.
I'm doing a full reset. Focussing on the aerobic base for a while. I'm okay with losing some top-end for now, I'll work to bring that back later.
A coach might help me make better use of my time, and when I had one, they did. But right now I'm not racing, so the monthly expense isn't really worth it.