carleton

This is an informal anonymous survey. We all can see the results, but not who posted what responses. Feel free to post your survey responses in the discussion thread below the survey if you so desire.

I'd like to know how much time we spend on track related activities per week. From Sunday - Saturday.

So, to remove some ambiguity:

- Choose the time period that corresponds to your most busy month of the year. So, if you are training and racing a lot in mid-summer, choose a value from then. Not from mid-winter when you aren't as busy with the sport. OR if you are really busy training in the winter (lifting 3x/week, lots of LSD rides) but racing season is less intensive, then choose the winter months. So, what would a typical week look like in that busy month?

- Please consider all prep, setup, travel, and break-down time in your estimate, not just on-bike time.

For example, on a typical track day: if you take 15 minutes to load your car, travel 30 minutes to the velodrome, do a 2 hour workout, travel home 30 minutes, then 15 mins to unload your gear, that is 3.5 hours for that day: (15 + 30 + 120 + 30 + 15 = 210 mins = 3.5 hours). Same for a road, gym, or swimming workout, if those are part of your training for track.

- Also count any other related activities that you do as part of your training for track (gym, jogging, criteriums, road racing, swimming). If you primarily do that activity to enhance your Track ability, please count it.

- Some things to consider that are relevant activities:
- - On-bike time
- - Trainer rides
- - Travel time to/from the velodrome, gym, road rides, etc...
- - Time spent evaluating power files
- - Time spent with coaches
- - Time watching videos, reading forums, etc...
- - Time spent on bike maintenance and repairs. Time spent in bike shops.

- Do not include unexpected things like:
- - Your wheel broke and you built another from scratch and it took you 10 hours. That's an unusual circumstance. However, gluing on tubulars should be a regular maintenance activity.

Remember, it's just a rough estimate.

Maybe this thought exercise will be as enlightening to yourselves as the results are to everyone else

taras0000

Training right now is mild for me. Exercise/prep is probably only about 8 hours a week of "training" right now. I can't even call it training. It's mostly just exercise right now, running the pup. I view it as prep for the work that I'll be doing in the spring. On the other hand, my job as an industrial/commerical plumber is pretty physical (not as intense as a bricklayer/roofer). Being one of the bigger buys, I probably spend about a quarter of my time on a jobsite working with 4" steel pipe (11#/ft, 21' long). That work is my "base miles" lol.

carleton

Thanks!

carleton

BTW, you can select multiple values if you are between 2 and are having a hard time deciding.

Also, if you would like me to change your response, just PM me and I'll update it on the back end for you. I can't see who posted what, but I can adjust the tally for each response category. So, just tell me what you posted before and where you'd like your vote to be re-cast and I'll minus 1 column and add it to another.

dunderhi

How should I count driving to the track Friday afternoon in the RV, setting up camp in the thier overflow parking lot, and spending the entire weekend at the track? I think you might need a new category.

weavie

FYI: the poll component is not visible using the mobile theme.

carleton

Hahahaha!

Thanks for the feedback! I'll pass it on to the admins.

wens

Hmm, how do you count a three day stage race, or the possibility of driving up to ivbp for a three day? I'm somewhere in the middle three blocks pretty much all the time, so I guess I'll just pick the 10-15 option.

gtrob

during regular training, where Im not taking a break or traveling excessively, I would say 15hrs. Track is an hour round trip, I spend 30mins getting ready there, on track 60-90min a time, 3-4 days a week, plus 2-3 days in the gym. Not sure if road riding counts, I would do that regardless and its most days in the summer (usually for coffee)

Racing can really eat up time. A typical race day is a full 8-10hrs here. Something like provincials or nationals you feel like you live at the track for a weekend, even though you are only riding briefly.


I won't count the socializing at the track

taras0000

Prep and travel time to get to the event. Time spent warming up/racing/winding down (this includes the hour or so of prep time for next days racing, or packing before leaving the next day). Time spent to get home from event and unpack. I wouldn't count a three day stage race as 72 hours of training.

wens

I mean, I really think the answer to the question asked is, it depends. Someplace between, say, 21 or so hours at the high end of "normal" and seven and a half a few times a season when I'm shedding fatigue some and recovering.

This is going to be quite influenced by how you set up your training and where you live though, in New England driving two hours to race is a long haul. In the Midwest, that's ordinary. If you train at a gym or track, you're going to spend time going to or from, why does that time away from home count differently from a stage race in a hotel? What about people who commute by bike for time efficiency, do they count ride time, or just how much longer it is than the driving/public transit alternative.

What I'm getting at is, I don't think my number matters for anyone else, or vice versa, and my time involvement is so all over the place anyhow I don't think any one bucket in the poll adequately reflects it.

carleton

Again: Count ALL time. Not just bike time.

This is time in the sport that we are counting.

If you are gone from home 72hrs for a race...count it.

carleton

Basically, if someone asked your significant other how much time you spend "doing anything related to track racing" what would they say?

My point is that we all think the number is much lower than it really is.

carleton

OK. Now you are just cherry-picking. There's no freaking way you can average 10-15 hours/week if you do 3-day stage races where the only reason you are in town is to do that race. That's 72 hours...plus travel time.

Man, the point of the survey is to see how much time we (ourselves) and others are spending in the sport.

If you regularly spend 72hours away from home to travel for racing...then count it. That's 72 hours that you are not doing something else.

If you drive 2 hours each way for a crit...count it. That's time that you aren't doing another activity.

This isn't about what is "normal". That is about what IS. Defining "normal" (the norm) comes AFTER we define what IS is. So, if everyone honestly marks their estimated time, then we can define what "normal" is for this group based on the limited sample size.


Hell, ANOTHER way to put it. If you were a coach following yourself around and billing by the hour...how many hours would you normally bill a week? This includes TRAVEL TIME, analyzing files, watching the workouts, research on forums and whatnot. It's all the same thing. TIME SPENT.

dunderhi

Does time spent reading this forum count?

taras0000

Time spent training and time devoted to your hobby in my mind are two different things. I get that time devoted is a good measure of how "deep" you are in the sport, and in a way quantifies your level of commitment, but to call it training is taking it too far in my mind. To me, training imposes a physical and mental load on the body that equates to stress. If I'm at a 4 day stage race, the time spend after the stage eating dinner and hanging out with my mates while I recover for the next day in my mind doesn't equate to training load and shouldn't be counted as such. That's something that I can do with my friends away from bike racing, the only difference is who I'm doing it with. If you're going to say a three day stage race (call it 2-3 hours racing a day) counts as 72 hours, what's to prevent me from saying three intense training days at home from counting as 72 hours? They are both placing the same training load on my body.

In other words, are you looking more into finding out people's time commitment to the sport, or training load?

carleton

Not once have I mentioned Training Load

It's always been about time.

carleton

Again, I'm trying to get a real estimate of how much time we devote to this sport, and conversely, how much time we "get back" when we move on from this sport.

There were times when I was wholly consumed by track racing. I was "all in". My days, weeks, and months were planned around training. Every bite I ate was considered (even if what I ate was not on the program). I studied videos, scholarly papers, books, training plans, power files. I studied photos of racers that I admired noting their positions on the bike, cleat placement, components, what they chose, what they didn't choose (i.e. running steel bars instead of carbon or 2-bolt stems over 4-bolt). I thoroughly researched equipment. I am an information sponge. Oh, and I trained on the bike or in the gym 5-6 days/week as well...including 2-a-days at one point.

It was like a 2nd job...it was a passion.

When I stepped back and made myself take a break, I was astounded at how much I had committed to the sport...the hobby.

If someone had asked me how much time I spend per week on my track hobby, I would have said, "maybe 10 hours" from the hip, just adding up my on-bike time. But, looking back, it was much, much more than that.

I've noticed that some of you "get it" and add all of your time together. But some of you folks just round down and simply add up the saddle time. That's like a professional baseball player quantifying his time on the sport by adding up the time he's actually on the field playing in a game. His time commitment is much, much more than that.

He's on the field actively playing for maybe an hour total. The game may be from 6-9PM. But he left home at 1PM to get there in time for a team meeting and warmup and didn't return until 11PM after shower, TV interviews, post-game meeting, drive home, etc... In that scenario, I'm not looking for 1 or 3 hours, I'm looking for that total time commitment for the day of 10 hours.

carleton

To put it yet another way: I watched as a long-time "full time master" leave the sport and someone who knew him well jokingly commented, "Wow...I wonder how his wife is gonna handle him being at home all the time now " But, the idea was real. Their relationship was probably about to change.

gtrob

I think for most of us its become more than a hobby, at least from the guys I know who live at the track the way I do. I would have to get another job or something if I gave up cycling completely. Or have kids.

rensho3

I just realized that when I had spending 20 hrs a week before last July, I had not thought about all the time, ie preparation for travel, travel to raced, the time spend actually racing, looking at training etc., going to races where I dont' actually race to help friends racing, but where I am watching and trying to learn new things. It is easy to see that 5-10 extra hours per week are spent doing those things.

JimiMimni

I've always wondered what I would do without training. Honestly, it's a little scary and unnerving. I'd be so fat, again.

Dalai

I had close to a full 6 months off the bike from July last year. Only exercise being some shorter jogs before the niggling injuries that stopped me running in the first place reappeared. Even carefully watching my diet I gained 10kg!

carleton

I'm unsticking this thread.

DMC707

Time cruising eBay looking for vintage track bikes for my man cave count? -- missed out on a oddly painted Makino not long ago, -- but i scored big on a set of Chorus brakes from the mid 90's for 30 $$$ recently (For one of the bikes i ride that is not a track bike obviously) ---