# Base training on a limited schedule?



## Raven1911 (Apr 28, 2002)

I have been cycling for 20 years, raced from 2000-2005 as a cat 3 and have recently been off the bike for the last year or so due to kids, family and job. I decided this year to get back racing, although not every weekend, I am shooting for maybe a crit every month or so for the season and maybe some triathlons in the summer as well. I have a limited schedule like most that have kids, family and a job. I have most evenings and weekends off. I have been training for a 1/2 marathon for the last 3 months so my cardio is pretty good but my cycling legs suck. My question is along the lines of whether a cyclist that has limited time to train should do 2.5-3 hour rides for base training at zone 1-2? Am I wasting my time doing this? My max race would be 45 min to 90 min for some pro1/2/3 races(maybe 3-4 a year max). Should I be concentrating on base miles or shortening the time and increasing my intensity? I am not training to peak at any specific time or anything. What is your take?


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## tampafw (Jul 25, 2009)

In my experience the base is what makes a season for me. First off it gives me the time to build up enough aerobic capacity to take a ton of speed work. Secondly, it aids in injury prevention by keeping me from doing too much hard work. I have had a season or two with lame base periods and it ended up being lame all around. Couldn't take as much speed work as I wanted, hence my performances were lackluster and finally my peak period was way too short to make anything useful out of it. 

In my experience there are no short cuts....you get what you 'pay' for.


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## iliveonnitro (Feb 19, 2006)

The answer is: it depends.

But, I would never do a 2-3hr Z1 or Z2 ride. That's a waste of a good recovery ride.

2-3hrs in high Z3/Z4? Yes.


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## Raven1911 (Apr 28, 2002)

iliveonnitro said:


> The answer is: it depends.
> 
> But, I would never do a 2-3hr Z1 or Z2 ride. That's a waste of a good recovery ride.
> 
> 2-3hrs in high Z3/Z4? Yes.


I was crusing at 145bpm-155bpm which is zone 1-2 according to my MHR. Seemed like a waste to me....and riding 2-3 hours for a max race of 45min?? What do you think my max time should be then? I have heard to double your maximum racing time for your rides but don't know if that is accurate or not. Base miles just be tempo riding, aren't they?


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## iliveonnitro (Feb 19, 2006)

Raven1911 said:


> I was crusing at 145bpm-155bpm which is zone 1-2 according to my MHR. Seemed like a waste to me....and riding 2-3 hours for a max race of 45min?? What do you think my max time should be then? I have heard to double your maximum racing time for your rides but don't know if that is accurate or not. Shouldn't base miles just be tempo riding, aren't they?


It depends. These are questions for your coach.

I will say this. "Base" is anything aerobic, which can really constitute as damn-near anything. How much work and at what intensity you do, though, is highly variable on whichever part of the micro, meso, and macro cycles you are in.


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## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

iliveonnitro said:


> The answer is: it depends.


This is the bit I most agree with.


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## Raven1911 (Apr 28, 2002)

Unfortunately I am my own coach. I am pretty experienced when it comes to training but things are different from my other racing seasons, that mainly being time contraints.


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## stevesbike (Jun 3, 2002)

I'm not a huge Chris Carmichael fan, but I know some people in your situation that say his book (Time Crunched Cyclist) was helpful for working out a training plan with limited time. Emphasis is on intervals.


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## 86Sierra (Nov 17, 2005)

Say I have ~7 hours per week during my "base" period and am training for similar-length races as the OP. During the week, I'm doing 2 or 3 hour-long trainer rides with a couple of days 2x20 or similar threshold work. 

On the weekend, I can ride 2-3 hours Sat. and Sun. What should these rides look like?

I'm trying to raise threshold power over the next 5 weeks and then begin an 8-week plan with VO2 intervals/etc leading up to my first priority race.


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## Raven1911 (Apr 28, 2002)

86Sierra said:


> Say I have ~7 hours per week during my "base" period and am training for similar-length races as the OP. During the week, I'm doing 2 or 3 hour-long trainer rides with a couple of days 2x20 or similar threshold work.
> 
> On the weekend, I can ride 2-3 hours Sat. and Sun. What should these rides look like?
> 
> I'm trying to raise threshold power over the next 5 weeks and then begin an 8-week plan with VO2 intervals/etc leading up to my first priority race.


This is essentially the same question as I posed. I was wondering at what intensity should I be doing my longer rides(or are longer rides a waste of my time). Looks like possibly zone 3 or 4 would be good. Once you complete your base period you can start AT and speed training.


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## MontyCrisco (Sep 21, 2008)

I'm in this boat - at 5 or 6 hours a week, I just feel like I'm wasting my precious few 2+ hour rides on z1-z2 work. My key races are in the 1:15 range. I'm going to try the Carmichael book this spring when I would usually do my "build" phase.

The Carmichael book has pretty much zero to say about what to do in the off season though. It's a bit annoying like that. 

So here's my amateurish opinion: for my 'base' period I'm doing a combination of longer rides in the 1.5-2 hour range that include long stretches of z3 (say 45 minutes or so), and shorter rides in the 1 hour range where I do leg speed drills (isolated leg, spin-ups, sprint drills where I focus on form instead of intensity) and some sub-threshold intervals (low z4). 

I don't doubt that I'd suck at longer races in the 2 hour range, and/or stage races where I have to do several hard efforts on consecutive days. But for my goals, which involve shorter racing once a week at the most, I think this is a good optimization.


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## parfike (Feb 24, 2009)

I could be wrong but im pretty sure when you build a base you have to do long 4-6 hour easy rides??? In my opinion an easy ride of between 1.5- 2.5 hours is a recovery ride.


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## Raven1911 (Apr 28, 2002)

parfike said:


> I could be wrong but im pretty sure when you build a base you have to do long 4-6 hour easy rides??? In my opinion an easy ride of between 1.5- 2.5 hours is a recovery ride.



Is it? When you only race for 45min -1 hour you should do a 2.5 hour recovery ride?


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## stevesbike (Jun 3, 2002)

Raven1911 said:


> This is essentially the same question as I posed. I was wondering at what intensity should I be doing my longer rides(or are longer rides a waste of my time). Looks like possibly zone 3 or 4 would be good. Once you complete your base period you can start AT and speed training.


personally, I'd find a bunch of local group rides and do them hard - it's easier to do high intensity work in a group. On the weekend I'd also do a group ride and do it hard. Everything as close to race pace as possible - ride aggressively, attack, and not be afraid to blow up. In my local area, that would be a Tues and Thursday evening crit training race and a Sat 3-4 hour group ride.


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## dot (Mar 4, 2004)

I'm on a strict time budget too since our girl has grown a little and I work long hours, like 50-70/week. Moreover this winter was very cold, most days were below -15 C. 
During the whole winter I did nothing but intervals and basic exercises for upper body. Weekly volume for the whole period from november to the end of March was 3-4 hours/week. My hour on a trainer often included the following intervals: 30 sec of very hard spinning every 4 min, 5-12 intervals per session, or the interval program that I picked up reading Carl Cantrell: 30 sec very hard, 30 sec rest, 30 sec very hard, 30 sec rest, 30 sec very hard - 5 min rest. Repeat three times. Remaining time was filled with varying load like 3 min in higher gear/3 min in lower gear. 

After such a winter, I had my first road ride 5 weeks ago. The longest ride I did was 2:45 long, other weekend rides were usually 2:15-2:30 and two weekday rides 1:10-1:30 or an hour on a trainer. Last sunday we had a season opener, a club 130 km race including 15 km of ruined roads instead of cobbles (it's Roubaix time!), I was on an MTB and 1.5" slicks and was able to hang with the main group consisting only of roadies for almost 70 km and finished first between MTB-ers in 4:08, 15 min behind the winner, in 14th place out of 59. At the moment I doesn't feel any slower that a year before (I'm not that old yet) when my weekly volume was 1.5 times higher.


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## davidka (Dec 12, 2001)

1. for Z1-2 to be 145-155bpm you'd have to have an very high MHR, how did you calculate that? Those numbers are mid to high aerobic for most folks. 
2. If time is limited, that's ^^ what you should do. Long, low intensity base miles really only work if you have the time to do lots of them.
3. If you have to trade in time, trade it for intensity. I had a baby this year and have prescribed to this and I'm riding as well as ever for this time of year. I may not carry peak fitness as long when I get there but that's ok with me.


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