# Building base on a tight time budget?



## dot (Mar 4, 2004)

Initial conditions: indoor training (rollers), 4-4.5 hours/week, 4 days/week.
What would you do to squeeze the maximum possible out of this time?


----------



## alexp247365 (Dec 29, 2009)

how many weeks?


----------



## dot (Mar 4, 2004)

oh, I wanted to put that too. Full-mode indoor phase started in mid-November and will last till late March. I'll try to raise my volume up a bit, up to 5 hours in February.


----------



## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

Why limit yourself to indoors?


----------



## dot (Mar 4, 2004)

kbiker3111 said:


> Why limit yourself to indoors?


bad weather, limited time. I got out once, it was -12 and very icy and and I went back home after 10 min.


----------



## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

Then your best bet would be x-country skiing, speed skating and the like. 

If you insist on riding inside on your torture device, a lot of tempo and SST is good for base.


----------



## multirider (Nov 5, 2007)

Indoor is definitely the best use of time. When it is cold out, it takes me 20+ minutes to choose clothes, get dressed, make sure I have more clothes in case I under-estimated the coldness yet have some room in case I need to take something off, and decide on a route that is least likely to have snow/ice/drainage/gravel. When I get home, I have to undress, wash some or all the clothes (sweat for the inner layers, dirt/grime on the outer layers, and I hand-wash because bike clothes are expensive!), and probably apply some TLC to my bike. And, if it is early or late, I have to find my helmet light and my rear tail light. I hate to ride without my "blinky" (Cateye Opt-cube for the rear). 

Indoors, I'm pedaling within a couple minutes, there is no coasting, I get a solid ride in less time. When I'm done, I get off and hit the shower. It's not nearly as much fun, but it is far more time efficient and effective.


----------



## ZoSoSwiM (Mar 7, 2008)

Have you considered getting up in the morning to ride? You can fit an hour in before the day begins.. it'll boost your metabolism as well so you might lose a little more weight. (if you're trying to that is.)


----------



## dot (Mar 4, 2004)

ZoSoSwiM said:


> Have you considered getting up in the morning to ride? You can fit an hour in before the day begins.. it'll boost your metabolism as well so you might lose a little more weight. (if you're trying to that is.)


getting up at 5:00 after going to bed at midnight is not conducive for fitness as well as nights are colder than day, -15 C or less outside most of the time. I also posted on early morning activity: I don't think it's a good idea, not for me. 



kbiker3111 said:


> Then your best bet would be x-country skiing, speed skating and the like.
> 
> If you insist on riding inside on your torture device, a lot of tempo and SST is good for base.


Obviously, xc skiing is such a time-wasting activity, I can't afford that. Rollers aren't torture, I enjoy them.

There are my thought on by base training and how it's going. I'm copying this from my reply on MTBR forums with some corrections:

I've been training on rollers since mid-November doing 4h/week in 3-4 sessions. I've been doing 5-7 min "intervals" at RPE level "moderate or moderate to heavy", 5-6 on the scale and usually 75-80% of MHR, not an intense exercise at all, and once a week I usually do a series (4-5) of 30 sec all-out intervals and ocassional sprints when I have enough energy left. I keep track of average HR and av. speed (since conditions are consistent on rollers it equals "power").

Analysis of the data from my rollers sessions shows that my average speed and heart rates at my "moderate" PE are going up and speed is going up faster than HR. If I were doing more intense, steady state intervals, I know I would overtrain soon even on 4 hours/week. This is not the first time I noticed that a bit larger volumes of tempo is more productive than "sweet spot". Sweet spot/steady state or cruise intervals, whatever the name, are more taxing and fatigue accumulates much faster.

Some time ago there was a notion of no man's land in terms of intensity, where sweet spot now takes its place and I'm coming to conclusion that in my case I'd rather avoid sweet spot, it's indeed a no man's land, at least for me.


----------



## Dream Plus (Feb 4, 2004)

I would gradually increase the length of my intervals. Adding stress gradually seems to be the way to increase either training time, or intensity, without overtraining.




dot said:


> getting up at 5:00 after going to bed at midnight is not conducive for fitness as well as nights are colder than day, -15 C or less outside most of the time. I also posted on early morning activity: I don't think it's a good idea, not for me.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## spade2you (May 12, 2009)

Out of curiosity, what are the fitness goals. I know that there's no real consensus of the value of base, but I think there's value to doing it. It's hard to duplicate the true feel of a 50 mile race without putting much time in the saddle.


----------



## dot (Mar 4, 2004)

spade2you said:


> Out of curiosity, what are the fitness goals. I know that there's no real consensus of the value of base, but I think there's value to doing it. It's hard to duplicate the true feel of a 50 mile race without putting much time in the saddle.


As usual, be faster. Since I've got a unstable work schedule and work regularly long hours on satudays I can't plan too much forward. I race 8-10 times/year and my major goal is the last week of August. 

What I understand under "building base" is, firstly, creating ability to recover from later workload and only then building endurance. That's why I'm not so sure about doing work closer to LT, only when I feel like being able to increase the workload I do. I've done the CTS Field test though.



> I would gradually increase the length of my intervals. Adding stress gradually seems to be the way to increase either training time, or intensity, without overtraining.


I would too but I need to give some relief to my nether parts, wipe sweat and swig some water every 10 minutes.


----------



## plx (Mar 28, 2011)

1 hour tempo
1 hour ftp
1 hour z2
1 hour tempo


----------



## LatvianRider (Sep 14, 2008)

Train what you want to excel at. With only four hours of riding each week, you will be fine working only on the attributes of the types of rides you want to excel at. I would suggest a Tabata protocol, a hard threshold workout and two sweet spot workouts. PM me for more details.


----------



## kamikazeDad (Sep 14, 2012)

@Dot, you didn't say what your races are. However even if you are a match sprinter, I would say you need to find at least a few weeks where you can move your time up to at least 8 hours once per month. Doesn't need to be every week or month, and it depends on your job as well. If you work on your feet 10 hours a day it is not as important, but if you sit at a desk all day and this is your only exercise you will see some better improvements by finding a way to get some extra time on the bike.

Also since you are talking base, if it were me, I would be keeping it steady 2 or 3 times a week at 45 minutes to an hour at a decent pace. 1 time a week at 30 minutes and then as long as you can once per week. For the most part during base I just keep it breaking a sweat but not breathing too hard, aka zone 2, aerobic, etc. It is way too early to worry about intervals, IMO, but I always add in a couple of efforts at least once or twice per week that are just random during base to bump up the heart and keep things interesting.

A couple of keys for me when I get on a tight schedule are getting at least 3 days, but mostly 4 days on the bike each week, 5 is ideal early in the base. Getting one long effort in each week (100+ minutes, 3 hours is ideal for me) is the next most important for me. Finally adding in some interval work towards the end of the base.

Good luck and try to squeeze in that one long ride per month (on rollers I would break it up to 2 medium rides on the same day).


----------

