Weekday workouts start right after work at 4:30pm. Sunday leave the house at 8:30am.
I commute 5 days a week totalling 5 hours throughout the week (I don’t count this), so I average 10h (15h if you consider commuting).
This is my base phase, for other phases, I’ll just replace my Tuesday and Thurs sessions to TR workouts, Volume drops but intensity increase. In the summer I’ll go back to MTB on weekdays and the odd MTB race, so the volume is similar to my base phase or higher.
I’ll learn from you guys and try to squeeze in a short 1hr or 2hr zwift race/ride on Saturday. My Girlfriend cycles too so we sometimes hike or bike on Saturdays, but generally only in good weather. (which is rare here in Ireland).
Due to work/life/kids/wife etc I find 10-12hrs is the sweetspot for me.
Mon-Fri 1-1.5hrs @ 05:00
Sat/Sun 2-2.5hrs @ 06:00
(all training done before anyone in our house is awake)
Bed @ 22:00
Once a month I’ll have a 15hr wk by doing a 5-6hr ride at the weekend.
Managed to get to 4.5w/Kg on this (after 3 very consistent years).
I’m averaging 14h per week this year, but January (14h total) and February (35h) was very low volume for me due to sickness and lack of motivation, so in reality it is a bit higher. I am usually between 15-18h, with the occational high volume week. Five weeks over 20h so far this year (23.5h is the biggest one).
After I started logging my training online 12 years ago I have been between 450-600h annually, but I have been very active all my life except 2+ years mostly on the couch after an ACL tear.
I converted to “full time” cycling 3 years ago due to arthritis from an old toe injury. Prior to that I was mostly running and cross country skiing. I can handle a lot more hours on the bike. More than I have time for with a normal 8h work day, 5 days a week. With the hours I’m at I do 3 high intensity workouts per week consistently. In comparison, running 10h weeks with two interval workouts used to be killer, and lead to overuse injuries long term. If combining it with rowing or roller skiing it was manageable.
For clarity I should add I’ve done some sort of endurance excercise all my life (5-6hrs / week running or cycling) so had a big base, it’s just 3 years ago I focused on cycling with a very specific goal and was very discliplined.
Since my event the hours and discipline has dropped slightly so has my w/Kg
Winter 8 - 10 hours/week - 5-6 hours bike, 1.5 hours weights around 2 hours of running.
Summer 10 - 12 hours - 10 ish hours of cycling and 1 - 2 hours of running, no weights.
I race 10k road running races in the winter and 10 - 50 mile TT in the summer with the odd 5k evening road running race. Aged 55 weight 62kg FTP is around 270-275W on the road bike (last TT was 269W for 30 miles so a bit more distance than the classic 25 miles…I never measure my FTP on anything other than a full hour race effort as Ramp tests have always overestimated my FTP) - although I did 293W for a 21 min road bike 10 mile TT which is about in line with the 20 min test protocol. My TT bike FTP is about 20W lower and I can still run 18mins/37-38mins for 5k/10k. Don’t think many more watts are available at my age but I have just ordered a new TT bike which of course will be much faster…
I’m usually between 12-17h, average for 2023 so far is 10h45’ incl. 2 weeks of off-season, but due to a race end of December last year (off road duathlon 14k-125k-28k) I only started training again end of February.
Had a niggle after that race that kept me from doing much.
My biggest week was 21h (incl a 40h work week):
Monday: 1h20’ easy spin (2.8W/kg)
Tuesday: 2h15’ with 6x4’ (5.2W/kg) in there
Wednesday: 4h Z2 (3-3.1W/kg)
Thursday: 3h20 with 4x20’ tempo (4.25W/kg) in there
Friday: Off
Saturday: 4h Z2 (3-3.1W/kg)
Sunday: 6h Z2 (3-3.1W/kg)
Hours from Strava. I put my age, height, usac category and best finishing category for context. A lot of racing comes down to handling, positioning, fueling, and experience. It’s funny how with these things I can compete in 1,2,3 fields (in NYC) having less than 4w/kg.
Nice, so let’s tell people who want to better themselves that riding for an hour is a waste of time.
Great way to get people less active and not riding bikes. I hate when people or “clickbait” coaches say shit like this. If you can only ride an hour that’s better than no hours. Don’t care what science thinks even if it’s not “optimal”.
I mention height because people typically become butthurt when you have an FTP above 300. Part of being taller means that I am absolutely stronger, on the flip side, it also means the lower limit on my weight is 80kg, which would put me right at 20 bmi. It also keeps me on TR instead of Zwift because being tall on zwift means you have all the aerodynamics of a penny farthing, so between having a suboptimal w/kg and being very tall, I can barely hold on in zwift group rides with people in real life that I could easily drop riding in zone 2.
interesting anecdote, does Zwift need height? Can’t remember. but you are v tall for sure.
To me, all the w/kg stuffs doesn’t make as much sense as raw absolute power IRL. Like you said, being climber skinny (but I’m no climber) I can supposedly climb (but I can’t - no power) and then on flats, I can’t catch up to guys like you w that raw absolute power.
TBH, I did’t even bother reading the article. Any movement(exercise) is still good movement.
As always, it depends, there are several guys I ride with who blow me away in terms of raw watts in FTP (by ~50w), but I drop them regularly either because I am lighter, I have a longer TTE or I am way more aero……or some combination of all 3, depending on the situation.
don’t be afraid to push yourself faster here. If you can do 3x20, you can probably do 2x30 and there is a very good chance you can do 1x60 already. I went through the same progressions last season and plan to do it again. I found 1x60 easier than 2x30 because the recovery interval kind of let’s you off the gas.
I grew 5cm from 180cm to 185cm between my 20th and 25th (officially measured for passports). I could try to find papers on that. In dentistry/ orthodontics it is well known men"s facial structure changes until 25 y/o
