mattscq

So my office has a fitness challenge but to be inclusive, it's time based as some people don't have the hardware to track things like heartrate, pace etc. This is fine and well and the more people who take part, the better, but as I would like to do well in the challenge, one strategy is to max out my time on the bike. I've never done a ride every day for weeks before unless you count short moderately paced commutes but I only had to span a mile and they only lasted about 20 minutes with traffic.

If my goal is to spend as many 2-3 hours a day on a bike, maybe with some longer 4-8 hour days on weekends, is there anything I should look out for to prevent injury or fatigue? Should I ramp up to it somehow? I'm relatively fit but I also need to put in more hours than I ever have had. Prior to the challenge, I maybe only do about 10ish hours a week, maybe half of that above tempo.

Preferably I can build up to be able to do some intense 8 hour sessions (though breaks are ok) on the last few days if I need to make up time.

Random11

Make sure you're eating and drinking early on so you don't get dehydrated and depleted.

Interesting that you have an office job that will allow you enough time to ride 2-3 hours a day.

mattscq

I don't have kids and I don't have to commute anymore and I'm lucky that my office is pretty respectful of our schedules. Also helps that I'm not high up enough to have people emailing me at random times after 6.

MattTheHat 

If you’re in reasonable shape, you’ll be fine. I’m an over 50 Clyde and today marked my 227th consecutive day riding. I ride 2-1/2 to 3 hours a day. My lightest day this month was 34 miles. I generally ride half of that time in the early morning and the other half in the afternoon or night.

When I get tired, instead of taking a rest day I do an active recovery ride or two. If I’m really tired, I might do easier rides for 2 or 3 days.

If this is an ongoing thing, consistency helps. Try not to start the month too hot or too light. Catching up isn’t too hard to do, but the added work really messes with your resolve on days when you’re tired.

Longer weekend rides help too, as long as you don’t just hammer it and get too tired for the following week.

Machka 

What's the goal? Is it a 24-hour spin bike challenge or something like that? Or does it go on for days?

Rides4Beer

We did something similar at my work to raise money for charity, I peaked at 548 miles in one week, that was 32 hours on the bike, lot of early morning rides before work and then doubling in the evening. The key is to go EASY, zero tempo efforts or anything even remotely hard. I kept my elevation to a minimum, as much as I could in this area, and kept the effort easy on every ride, no sprints, no going after segments, etc..

As mentioned, the other key is sleep and fueling, have to get as much rest as you can, and make sure you're eating enough to fuel the effort. I ate everything that wasn't nailed down and still dropped 5lbs through the seven week challenge.

If you have time before the challenge starts, then def start ramping up your volume. But most importantly, keep all the efforts easy, then it's just investing the time.

mattscq

I wish. I goes on for weeks until Dec 3.

Carbonfiberboy 

This. Besides challenge being good for you, you'll be amazed at your results after the challenge when you'll cut back the hours and pick up the intensity.

caloso

If it's just time based, I agree that the best way is to just go easy. This is a real opportunity to explore.

tomato coupe

Will you be able to follow the progress of the other people?

mattscq

To an extent. It's early on the challenge right now so everybody is still gathering bonus points (one tricky thing is you have no idea what bonuses people have already gathered) but there is a finite amount of them. I would presume that after a couple of weeks, the bonuses should settle down a bit and everybody should settle into a pattern of just cranking out time. I think the best strategy still is just to move (walk/bike) as much as possible and try to hit those bonuses during the next 6 weeks (like jogging, etc.)

Riveting

My employer, which had 1000+ employees, and with maybe 20% participation, had a challenge like this in 2016 that lasted a year, but had monthly awards. Thankfully that was the year I was training for a 24 hr. endurance ride at the end of the season, and I was commuting 20 miles RT every single day consistently, so the miles came pouring in, something like 1,000 miles per month (all certified via GPS on Strava), and even with those numbers I just barely beat some of the hardcore Ironman triathletes, every month!

Rides4Beer

Absolutely! There have been definite fitness improvements from that high volume block.

mattscq

So I made a bad mistake of trying to jog yesterday (only for 25 minutes at a staggeringly epic pace of 13 mins/mile) but having not run in forever, I definitely felt it. Cardio was fine (thanks bike!) but the legs are definitely sore. I did a little light trainer session yesterday but would it be ok to just keep doing sub tempo loops?

Dan333SP

IME, sore legs from running don't really impact riding all that much other than being uncomfortable. Just keep riding.

mattscq

You are correct. I just did 2 hours on the turbo in total today at a low power output and my legs actually feel better than before. Oddly some tiredness in my neck and hands though which I haven't experienced before.