Roobay_today

What are yalls thoughts on training and time between recovery? My son and I are getting ready for a 177 mile two day ride in April he is 15 and a swimmer in shape, i'm middle age fatboy thats been losing weight. I love to ride in the morning, my son cannot as he has to be at swim at 5:45 am. My plan is to ride in the morning for 20 miles 5 days a week, and 15 miles with my son in the afternoon, and the afternoon ride would be 3-5 days a week depending on his need to study and other obligations. and then we would ride on Saturday +40. As fit as he is, he lacks the speed on a road bike, so he needs as many miles as possible.

Is there anything wrong with me riding 1- 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and then 9 hours latter doing it again? If not clear I can try again to explain.

StephenH

Sounds like a plan to me.

JOHNinIL

Only your body can tell you about recovery. My recommendation is take it easy, you don't need an overexertion injury to ruin your future trip. Ease into your weekly plan, a shorter route or every other day to see how your body is getting used to it. Good luck and post some pictures of your ride.

merlinextraligh

No problem with riding twice in a day. You need to build in some rest days also though. Typically, one day completely off, and one day recovery ride.

Also as you get some miles in, add some intensity in the form of intervals. ( they don't have to be terribly structured, it can be as simple as going hard every other sign, racing each other to signs, etc.)

Shorter rides with intensity will improve your ability to ride longer distances. They're not a substitute for long rides, but they help.

Also find some group rides, and do those.

dtrain

Lots of folks ride both ways to work. Maybe not 20 miles, but many approach 45-60 mins.

Roobay_today

Well forget the part about him needing more training time. Got him a cadence sensor and now the dude is dropping me.

Clipped_in

^^^^ Excellent advise. I'm 50 years young and during the warmer months (I live in northern Utah) I ride 18 miles twice a day 5 days per week. Then, I do a 75-100 mile club ride on Saturday mornings that is certainly not with the powder puff group.

Two really important things for me are to not go very hard on my two-a-day rides. I have one fairly short but steep climb right at mid-ride where I get my heart rate up and keep it there for a few minutes. Other than that I keep it fairly easy for a nice warm up and cool down. I push just a little harder Tuesdays and Thursday, but the other times it is somewhere around a recovery pace. the club rides get me the intensity. Sundays are off the bike, and Mondays I ride for recovery even though I often feel like tearing the crankes off my bike--but I don't. At least not usually.

One thing that is very important to keep me going strong day in and day out is eating/drinking for recovery. At the end of each one hour ride I have one can of regular Coke and a banana. After longer rides I have a protein powder/glucose powder fruit smoothie - I include some BCAA throughout the ride as well. This regimen has proven to do better for me than anything else I can find, not just nutritionally, but also for convenience. I know a lot of people will scoff at it, but it works very very well.