Hope as the festive season draws near you are all doing well?
TLDR:
Regular training past 18 Mo - 8-12 hrs avg.
Stopped riding completely Aug this year due to, well, Life.
3 Mo of no riding at all started back again about a month ago.
Past month - following TR LVB1 to slowly get back into it. Avg 4 hrs a week
Plan - Complete a ‘training camp’ over the Xmas - NY period of two weeks adding 3 extra hours to my schedule (7 in total) followed by a rest week then picking up the TR training plan at MV.
Questions for discussion.
Is 3 hrs too much or too little to get any training benefit? I plan to only do Z1-2 riding for the extra hours.
If too little, how much extra would you think is reasonable to not out me in a hole noting my most recent riding history?
If anyone has any other advice I’d appreciate the discussion.
I would go for it, will it be a fun training camp? Friends and a sunny destination or are you just staring at TrainerRoad and a TV? You could create you own Festive XXX, set a time goal or distance you could do in 7 hours.
As you said, just don’t hurt yourself, focus on recovery, eating well, sleep, etc.
I think the only risk is injury, burnout, or not recovering.
when I am kind of falling into that "lost the love for riding… I was training for big race a few years ago… I would go and map out rides going to places that are local-ish but specifically picked destinations I haven’t been, or routes where I had never ridden. I would look at the heatmaps and go elsewhere. The sense of exploring and not focusing on “training” made it enjoyable. I would load up on food, drinks, and head out. Now I did map some roads that said “pavement” when they were clearly gravel or some combo, I also rode on a highway I wouldn’t have selected, but overall is was very enjoyable and mentally refreshing.
I think it would be a fun idea if you have the time!
3 extra hours seems like a good balance to me – definitely enough to get some extra training benefit, and, if balanced properly with good recovery over that period, it shouldn’t derail you, either.
I’d recommend really focusing on that recovery, though – especially as you mentioned above that you had “lost the love of the bike.” If you start to feel a loss of motivation or excess fatigue, don’t be afraid to back things off again for the sake of long-term sustainability.
I also love @MikeMckinney’s suggestion to find some new routes if that’s an option for you – finding new places to ride often gets me excited again, too!
