If You Only Had 30-40 Minutes...

[AlanD]

....twice a week to practice, what would you do?

 

1) Skills. If so, which skills would you practice more of, example, bunny hop, manual, track stand, wheelie...etc

2) Fitness. What sort, interval, finding a climb to do....etc

3) Combo of 1 and 2 on altenating days.

 

Thanks

[BottelaryHillBuddy]

....twice a week to practice, what would you do?

 

1) Skills. If so, which skills would you practice more of, example, bunny hop, manual, track stand, wheelie...etc

2) Fitness. What sort, interval, finding a climb to do....etc

3) Combo of 1 and 2 on altenating days.

 

Thanks

Well if it was me I would do strength training focussing on my core and glutes.

[Hairy]

Option 3

 

Can you find a short sharp steep and tech climb you can do .... then you can do intervals, practice slower bike handling skills on the tech climbs and most likely also improve on your strength as you have to muscle the bike around a bit and are relying on brief explosive bursts of power ........................................ and then you get to ride down the trail again to have fun

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

0.5: Body positioning and cornering. Always useful, everywhere. BP gets carried through to all the rest. 

1 - manual. That carries across to jumping, bunny hopping, drops, negotiating water bars etc etc

B - Bunny hop. Again, carries across to jumping and clearing trail obstacles

iii - drops & jumps

 

wheelies are cool, but kinda useless in the grand scheme of things apart from getting you used to being in the "balance zone" on your bike. 

 

That's skills. Opinions vary, but that's what I've gathered is the heirarchy (skills clinics almost always start with proper positioning and cornering. It's the staple...)

 

Fitness... if I only had 30 min twice a week, intervals for sure. This can be hill repeats (find a vicious hill and repeat) or other intervals, but I think they have the best bang for buck in terms of restricted time exercises. 

 

Weights would also be good, but fitting in a good session to 30 min is a bit difficult. Have a look at Nino Schurter's training plan for a bit of an idea on alternative workouts. And yyes, gym DEFINITELY carries over to fitness on the bike.

 

 

Oh and yes, agree with Hairy. A combination of both would be best. 

[Vetplant]

....twice a week to practice, what would you do?

 

1) Skills. If so, which skills would you practice more of, example, bunny hop, manual, track stand, wheelie...etc

2) Fitness. What sort, interval, finding a climb to do....etc

3) Combo of 1 and 2 on altenating days.

 

Thanks

 

 

Well if it was me I would do strength training focussing on my core and glutes.

30mins-40 mins, twice a week....

 

Seems very little time to make progress really.

 

First task would be to negotiate with the Minister of Home Affairs for more sessions, maybe wake up 40mins early... who needs sleep...? Try to get to 4 sessions a week.

 

HIIT is the bomb if you are pressed for time:

-Intervals

-Faartlek

-Crossfit

 

Pick your poison, each sport has it's variation on the HIIT approach.

 

(If you are already doing a bunch of other stuff, please elaborate, otherwise we are going to give you wrong advise)

[Duane_Bosch]

You aren't going to want to hear this but. IMO if you are working on fitness less than 3 times a week you aren't working on fitness. You might be holding station but you aren't getting better.

 

You can EASILY **** yourself up in 30 minutes. Get a Heart Rate monitor and work intervals. There's loads of info and workouts on the internets if you want them. A wahoo Tickr syncs with a phone so no need for an expensive head unit.

 

My HRM has opened my eyes. I've been doing NOTHING for 20 years thinking I'm working hard coz I'm sweating. This morning I was in a spinning class and the instructor didn't show. So I did my own intervals using my HRM. Standing hard efforts and 110+ cadence efforts for an hour. If you know your HR zones you will know exactly how long and how hard you can go.

 

*Disclaimer. I make no fitness claims. I attend a spinning class a few times a week with middle aged women and do a leisurely road and mtb ride once a week so what do I know?

[Blackheart]

When Im short on training time I go to a steep, technical single track climb and just headbang up and down intervals. You get the skills work out up and down, and as you get faster the cardio/strength too. And its fun when the vomiting stops.

[AlanD]

Perhaps I should have disclosed the morning routine already includes core exercises and pushups, on an exercise ball but trying to get in some extra fitness (cardio) and skills later in the afternoon after work.

 

As we have young girls to take care of, we (wife and I) have decided to alternate when we get home from work..she goes for her walk/run while I bath and get the kids fed, then it's my turn to go out the next day...etc..hence the limited time. Both of us trying to fit in some exercise during the week.

[Vetplant]

Perhaps I should have disclosed the morning routine already includes core exercises and pushups, on an exercise ball but trying to get in some extra fitness and skills later in the afternoon after work.

 

As we have young girls to take care of, we (wife and I) have decided to alternate when we get home from work..she goes for her walk/run while I bath and get the kids fed, then it's my turn to go out...etc..hence the limited time

My setup:

2 daughters, 4years old and 8 months old. 

 

I got an indoor trainer.

 

I play with the kids as soon as I get home and we eat and do bath time up until about 19h30. This means I can be on the trainer by 20h00 and get a proper session of work in 60min before I hit the shower and go to bed. Alternatively, my normal wake-time is 6h00, so I would get up at 5h00 and get the work in while the little-ones are fast asleep. 

 

I easily get 4 or more sessions a week in this way. Weekends I usually negotiate that I go out for one extended session on the bike, which might mean taking the oldest one along in the trailer.

 

Like Daune said, less than 3 sessions a week might only be good enough to maintain the fitness levels, which might be fine for now until the little one's are bigger and you can spend a little bit more time on the bike.

 

Doing nothing will surely mean allot of lost fitness. So try various forms of Interval exercises as most people have suggested.

[Fat Boab]

Were you towing said chariot 2 weekends ago in the Cradle?

 

My setup:

2 daughters, 4years old and 8 months old.

 

I got an indoor trainer.

 

I play with the kids as soon as I get home and we eat and do bath time up until about 19h30. This means I can be on the trainer by 20h00 and get a proper session of work in 60min before I hit the shower and go to bed. Alternatively, my normal wake-time is 6h00, so I would get up at 5h00 and get the work in while the little-ones are fast asleep.

 

I easily get 4 or more sessions a week in this way. Weekends I usually negotiate that I go out for one extended session on the bike, which might mean taking the oldest one along in the trailer.

 

Like Daune said, less than 3 sessions a week might only be good enough to maintain the fitness levels, which might be fine for now until the little one's are bigger and you can spend a little bit more time on the bike.

 

Doing nothing will surely mean allot of lost fitness. So try various forms of Interval exercises as most people have suggested.

[AlanD]

My setup:

2 daughters, 4years old and 8 months old.

 

I got an indoor trainer.

 

I play with the kids as soon as I get home and we eat and do bath time up until about 19h30. This means I can be on the trainer by 20h00 and get a proper session of work in 60min before I hit the shower and go to bed. Alternatively, my normal wake-time is 6h00, so I would get up at 5h00 and get the work in while the little-ones are fast asleep.

 

I easily get 4 or more sessions a week in this way. Weekends I usually negotiate that I go out for one extended session on the bike, which might mean taking the oldest one along in the trailer.

 

Like Daune said, less than 3 sessions a week might only be good enough to maintain the fitness levels, which might be fine for now until the little one's are bigger and you can spend a little bit more time on the bike.

 

Doing nothing will surely mean allot of lost fitness. So try various forms of Interval exercises as most people have suggested.

It does become a little complicated when the wife also had to get out to get in some fitness so we alternate as we can leave the kids alone obviously. Well i guess, I'll get 3 afternoon sessions one week and then only two then other week.

 

An indoor trainer is an option but we wanted to each get out of the house away from the war zone...hahahah

[Capricorn]

I'd go with option 3)

In terms of fitness, I'd recommend functional mobility training: take the time to ensure you have whole body,balanced flexibility and mobility. The benefits extend beyond the narrow focus of cycling, and it will definitely help with those skills. Bike balance relies a lot more on the muscles that underpin good mobility than we often realize.

[OneLove]

10min warm up

20min @ FTP

10min cool down

[lechatnoir]

10min warm up

20min @ FTP

10min cool down

 

yeah, nothing beats and FTP test 3x a week...

[DJR]

Best fitness boost I ever did were those 30 minute workouts: On the IDT 10 min warm up. then 5 maximum efforts of 1 minute each with 1 minute easy pedalling / rest in between, then 10 minutes easy to cool down = 30 minutes boom and done. Thank me later when your fitness goes ballistic rocket!

[Iron]

....twice a week to practice, what would you do?

 

1) Skills. If so, which skills would you practice more of, example, bunny hop, manual, track stand, wheelie...etc

2) Fitness. What sort, interval, finding a climb to do....etc

3) Combo of 1 and 2 on altenating days.

 

Thanks

is this during the week and then you can still ride on the weekends ?

 

if so i would run in the week and ride my bike on the weekend