Time Crunched Plan Results

[foo on patrol]

Your best training will always be racing and riding with blokes and girls, that are better than you.

Foo

[Xplora]

I'm interested in a plan of some kind right now, I'm doing a LOT more kms than most people doing these things - the bike is transport as well as recreation/masochism/Strava slavery... but I'm definitely not achieving what I want to achieve within the timeframes I have.

[you cannot be sirrus]

I've read a couple of Joe Friel's books and they seem to be pretty good, one of my mates is following them and getting huge results. He commutes to work on the bike and then puts in big hours/effort as well and it is clearly working for him. My problem is I work long hours and drive from home (plumber/service tech) Mrs does shift work and just can't find the extra time for more riding at the moment.

[Xplora]

Sirrus, in fairness you can't ever really expect a lot of results if you don't put in the time. If you ride 12 hours a week, you're going to be a better rider than the guy doing 2 hours a week, unless you are solely interested in sprinting on the track. I'm a slow twitch kinda dude, so it's the 12 hours a week for me

[boss]

+1

One guy I ride with every now and then doesn't understand how I keep getting faster. It's not rocket science, I'm consistently on the bike in the hills 10-15 hours a week. He'd be lucky for 8.

Right now my regime is incredibly unstructured but I am disciplined with early starts and keeping my hours consistent. I kinda like the variety of no structure but can't help be curious as to how much better I could be given some kind of a plan.

[toolonglegs]

The less time you have the harder you need to ride and push yourself... 8 hours a week should be able to get you to a pretty good level.
Problem is a lot of people don't push them selves hard enough.

[Xplora]

boss, you're doing some serious kms... keep the riding going, try to include some racing in there and that's probably going to be it. I'm suffering from a lack of longer base ride fitness I reckon. I do a lot of 20km commutes on hills which is great but awful for teaching your body to HTFU when it comes to paceline time.

[trailgumby]

I think any plan is better than just riding around racking up kms, but this one seems a bit gimmicky, a bit like the lose 10kgs in 5 weeks diet books you see in the shops.

Nail on head.

[boss]

Thanks Xplora. 250-400km a week and 3500-8000m elevation on the roadie is manageable and sustainable right now. Plus time on my BMX. But anymore than that will ruin any semblance of balance in my life haha!

I'm not sure if racing is for me, at least not yet. For one, my roadie handling skills still kinda suck.

[stinhambo]

If anybody wants mine, it's theirs for the price of postage, or I can hand it to you in Sydney's CBD. PM me. Otherwise, I think I'll toss it in with the paper recycling.

I'd be interested!