TheKillerPenguin

lol. It's interesting, you totally get used to the volume. The only thing that prevents even more hours is having to make money. The hardest part of it physically is making sure you take in enough calories because otherwise you start to fall apart. A normal day is 6-7k kJ including BMR, so it is a real pain in the ass. The hardest part of it mentally is the time commitment prevents much else from going on. I am hopeful that this racing season is a successful one as that will make it worth it, otherwise it becomes hard to justify when I could be like, hanging out with my girlfriend (who is EXTREMELY supportive and understanding).

globecanvas

I'm telling one of the 4 others that you didn't notice them.

TheKillerPenguin

We established I can't count when we were talking about the mohonk century!

wktmeow

Wow, I'd definitely have trouble fitting in 20+ hours regularly with a full time job. I'm happy if I break 12 most of the time x_x. Wife and dog commitments definitely limit what I can do as well. I can't imagine getting 10 hours a week with children. Those of you who do are some sort of supermen in my eyes.

Today I did 3x15 at sweet spot on the trainer on my TT bike because I hate myself. And I didn't want to deal with wind and rain. Just shy of 14h this week and 800ish TSS. Thinking about Santa Barbara RR next weekend.

Wylde06

2 hours super easy today. After yesterdays team ride wasnt sure how I would feel today. My sister wanted to go for a ride so I went with her. Guaranteed to ride easy.

9:15 and 530 tss. Feels good to be back in the swing of things with training.

scheibo

friday: 1hr on the trainer 2x20 w/ 2' @ 250-260W + 30" @ 300-320W = first trainer workout that i didnt absolutely hate. targeting a much lower average power makes a huge difference - i guess i never did the math on what 'sweet spot' actually should be. also, i seem to have improved my fan placement/distraction setup quite a bit, making indoors bearable.

saturday: 4h30 (270 TSS) pedaling around and occasionally exerting some power to get up over hills = pretty much just me having fun on the bike. i was planning on doing a different route but the climb i wanted to do was closed because of mudslides or something so i had to improvise. a little cold and damp, but i dressed well and it was all good.

i've started back into running a bit and also ran friday and saturday morning before my rides - my legs were pretty tired after a slightly faster paced run friday morning and they're still a little tired now. i took today off and just did 1hr on the trainer easy, but its quite a shock to the system to be juggling both running and cycling again. strangely, in the past ive kind of always viewed it as cycling was basically just a stop-gap between the periods where i was able to run, but this time around im excited enough about cycling and the prospects for doing some races and being on a team etc that im having trouble figuring out how the two fit together. i can ride 20hr weeks no problem (eg. a lot of last oct/nov), but a 13hr week (765 TSS) with only 30mi of running beat me up. i think i didnt notice it in the fall when i last got injured running because i was pretty much always training in a permanently beat up mode, but now i really notice it. i guess thats a good thing that im currently better at listening to my body about those kind of things, but its a little surprising to observe.

my game plan this year is to set some conservative caps on my training (like say 15hrs cycling and 50mi running / week or something) and to look to intensity instead of volume as the lever i play with to try and progress. i think that's safer for me because i can always slog on for more hours/miles but if i dont feel good enough to hit a certain intensity it just wont happen, so my body should kind of regulate itself better.

mattm

As your coach, I detest the idea of running a lot during the racing season.

Unless you plan on adding swimming too.

scheibo

funny, my track coach feels similarly about cycling! as for swimming... that was going to be my top secret workaround to my self imposed volume limit on running and cycling. gotta get my cardio fix somehow!

realistically though - right now i have zero running races on the table (well, one in june, but thats a ways off) and plans to do cycling races once or twice a weekend for the foreseeable future. i also didnt run during team camp last weekend! so thats pretty much as focused as im willing to get right now

TMonk

I'll bet you'd make a pretty damn good triathlete, no joke.

On a separate (but related) note, I enjoy a good swim every month or so , usually on easy weeks.

furiousferret

Since I can't race or do anything that may increase the risk of a crash, I may run.

According to one doctor I can puncture a lung easily in the next few months, and am at risk for a heart attack if that happens.

More than likely I'll just do trainer rides and easyish rides outside until June. The good thing is a spin studio with Computrainers opened up about 5 blocks from here.

TMonk

Yeah, you probably don't want to rush that one.

aaronmcd

Did a couple hours today just riding around before the rain. A bit tired from 2 hours of z4 work yesterday! Started one climb tempo, picked it up to z4 when I say a cyclist ahead, finished the last minute or two at 400 watts cuz I had to pass the other cyclists! All cat 4 ish on the team my old teammates switched to.

On the way back I stopped at a light, then a car came up and stopped behind me. 2 lanes. Light turns, I go, car is trying to pass, then squeezes between me and the left lane with like 6 inch gap. I yell, we both stop at the next light. Guy asks me if I think I own the road, so I say no, do you own the road? Light changes and he is yelling at me. He starts driving and stops, daring me to get in front of him again. I decline, he insists, I decline and finally he goes ahead. I take his plate down and call the cops.

topflightpro

A couple years ago, I did a lot of big-hour weeks. It helped that I was working from home and my wife was out of town, so just me and the dog.

After 3 or 4 weeks of ~20 hours though, I was done. It totally burned me out. I remember calling my coach one Sunday morning, and he asked, why aren't you on the bike? I said, I just don't want to ride anymore.

As for my training, I got 2.5 hours in on the rollers on Saturday and 2 hours in on Sunday. I really wish it would stop raining here.

TheKillerPenguin

Yeah I work for myself so I can ride whenever and arrange my work schedule around it. What helps with the riding is it has been a steady progression over the last 2.5 years when I first got a power meter, if I immediately jumped into 20hr weeks I would've bugged out and done something else pretty quickly.

If I had a steady job I don't think I have the discipline necessary to ride nearly as much as I do now. Like 75% of my team wakes up at 4-5am to ride their bikes for a few hours on the trainer before work, and I don't think I have that in me. I also have no idea how triathletes do what they do, the amount of time is just as high but your level of organization has to be like 5x higher.

ancker

I'm fortunate enough to work from home. So M-F I can easily get my workouts in. The weekends are a bit tougher. The guilt of knowing my wife and kid are upstairs playing and I'm spending 2 hours on the trainer is rough.

I would do the early morning thing but my kid is always up early, especially on the weekend. We're lucky if we get to sleep past 530.

hubcyclist

Yeah that's been a thing for me as of late too, and it's frustrating. I work from home 3 days a week and I try to get in some time if there aren't a lot of work commitments. But my son usually doesn't nap anymore so a large window of time I could have used on the weekend is gone. There have been a few weekends recently where I haven't ridden at all. Plus my wife is training to try her first triathlon, so I've been trying to make it so she can go swim/run on the weekend since she's usually so busy during the week, so that eats into any potential riding time too.

furiousferret

Did Triathlon's for 3 years, it's basically a second job. The swim part is the worst, since you have to drive to a pool, change, etc. Even though it's a 30 minute swim, its a 90 minute commitment.

Burnt out in Fall 2015, after a few weeks of 15-22 hours on the bike I was sick for 6 weeks, and just didn't have the fire once I was healthy again. Took me about 6 more weeks to get back into (part of it was the cold of the winter).

I work from home 2 days a week, and there's no way I set my alarm at 4 am to train.

jdms mvp

not training for racing, but training to lose these holiday pounds. -33 tsb yesterday felt good but weird

hack

Time on the bike the past two weeks were pretty light due to getting over some sinus stuff and stormageddon. Weather and head cleared enough that I was able to get out both Saturday (~4.5hours) and Sunday (~1.5 hours) this weekend. Man, it's easy to lose a lot of fitness over a couple of weeks minimal riding.

topflightpro

That is what I do now.

ancker

Kinda half and half for me. I've got a coach and a plan, but no real planned events. I might do a crit or two and would like to do a road race or two if I can. (Minimum 2.5 hour drive)

Down 15lbs since Oct 1st (see my Fat Loss Tips thread).

caloso

My biggest week in 2016 was 15 hours and that included a near century. More typical is 10-12 and I'm one of those 5:30 am getter-uppers so I can do 90' combined commute/workout on the way to work. Lately though with the rain and needing to help my wife out more, it's been Netflix or Zwift.

Wylde06

My biggest week was something like 15 hours. As it is right now, I cant imagine doing that all the time. Im typically more in the 8-10 hour range..although if I had the flexibility I would definitely work up to longer hours regularly...mostly because I just like to ride

wktmeow

I am really excited for this season so far. My fitness is feeling really good for January. I think I'm near last summer's levels, minus maybe some of the anaerobic stuff. Really hoping to crush it this year (and to not crash or get sick). First race will be Saturday, at UCSB!

TexMac

no wreck last year just bent bars. Different wheels. It rained and flooded and rode through high water. Should've let the water dry before riding again.