Originally Posted by
JeffOYB
Masters, old farts, and busy career ppl with short time need a different approach to training. ...My impression is it tends to mean that typical workouts are harder than for younger riders or those with more time.
I've read all the books and most of the info out there. Too bad I don't retain it very well, but I do still have an impression of what is suggested for older, short-time riders.
Workouts should be varied. Not the same kind of hard every day. But my impression is that one easy day a week is enough for the easy part. Two or 3 easy days when you're old.
When you only have a half hour or hour to cover the weekly needs for a race and for speed, intervals, power, skills, strength, endurance, it means that you ARE going pretty hard in some respect for your other 3-5 weekly outings.
Whattayathink? Is that about right?
I'm only kinda old at the start of masters 35+ but going hard 5 times a week is too much. 3 times a week is about all anyone can sustain for weeks on end. Hard can be different types of ride though depending on the time of year as you approach the season. During base that means sweetspot and threshold extending those workouts out as long as possible and with as little rest as possible but still sticking to 2-3 days of hard. During build for ~6-9 weeks hard workouts are primarily threshold and over unders with some V02max work towards the end 3-4 days a week or some 5+ hour tempo rides. About a month before the start of the season 1 hard day gets replaced with CX specific drills like hill running repeats or sprint starts. Skills practice days can be hard or easy depending on what you are working on and if there are racepace practice rides in your area. I generally only go hard during specific sections of those courses and do more sustained hard work without having to mix in skills. Once race season starts you are doing 1-2 races/weekend and then recovering for ~2 days. You might be able to get 1 more hard day in the middle of the week or combined with a skills/practice race, then some easy spinning the following day and then openers. Any more than that and you'll likely burn out and/or tank your season. Younger guys can probably get away with a bit less recovery.