limited time for cycling

How early can you get up? When I go for a long ride I have to leave about 6am. As I have a wife and a 2 year old to like taking up my training time!

mornings are for my wife's yoga.... and taking kids to school.....

I'm really looking for ways to optimize cycling training within the 1 hour I have available...

C

While not as fun as riding outdoors, one hour sessions on a turbo trainer are amazing for your bike fitness, especially for distances like sprint & olympic

Better with tech and a decent trainer, but sessions like 10 minutes warmup, 20 minutes hard (as hard as you can sustain and do it again after 5-10 minutes recovery), 5-10 minutes recovery, 20 minutes hard, 5-10 minutes cool down. Jorge's Winter Cycling Program (in Training Programs on this site) has a lot of rides that are under, at, or close to one hour. That should get you in good shape for sprint to Olympic distance; the latter if you can work in a two-hour or longer ride with some intensity once a week. If you have any interest at all in competing in the sport, I'd invest in a bike trainer. (Or even do it on a spin bike at your gym.) Unless you have a pretty ideal training situation, it can be hard to safely get in that kind of intensity on the roads, especially if work/family demands have you out at peak traffic times.

Plenty of fitness to be had with one hour (or less) sessions on the trainer as suggested. With limited time, the key is to go hard during these sessions; since the relative risk of injury on the bike (especially on the trainer) is low (assuming a decent fit), you can go much harder than with running.

Training stress is the product of intensity and duration and increasing either will increase the training stress.

Shane

amazing responses, thanks to all guys!

looking at turbo trainers now...
the cost is not prohibitive, so it might be worth the investment!

C

Said contraption is the best way to improve with limited time. Just saying...

That said interval training is the way to go. Check these gcn indoor training videos on youtube...



https://youtu.be/WRylMkvahjM

https://youtu.be/-iWTRHuTuU0

https://youtu.be/9kXd4ElpypE

These types of sessions can be done on the road as well.

I use a direct drive trainer and love it. Direct drive trainers are sometimes assumed to be the more expensive smart trainers but not always. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/ca/en/elite-turbo-muin-fl...

You do need to have a cassette on it but its quick to pop rear wheel on and off.