How much benefit do short training rides give?

[Typhon]

My only training goal is to get quicker and quicker. I've read articles and training guides catered to this and they recommend training rides of 60-90 minutes several times a week. That's fine at the weekend but I find it difficult to fit in that length of ride on a weekday. I work from home and have an hour for lunch so fitting in a 45 minute ride in the afternoon and a 45 minute ride in the evening is fine but fitting in an hour and a half ride in the evening can be difficult, even with the light nights. Plus I just enjoy going for 2 rides a lot more frankly. It's lovely in the afternoon in this weather.

So my question is how much benefit is doing that training wise compared to a full 90 minute ride? I am pretty much straight into Z1 as soon as I am down the road and am mostly in Z2-Z4 the whole ride with a bit of Z5 or Z6 thrown in, whether it's afternoon or evening. So it's just not an amble around and I hardly lose any time in terms of warming up/down compared to a longer ride.

 

[400bhp]

My only training goal is to get quicker and quicker.

over what distance?

 

[Typhon]

Just the distances I'm doing for training really, so 30-90 minute rides. I'm not planning on doing competitions or anything.

 

[400bhp]

Circular argument surely?

My only training goal is to get quicker and quicker. I've read articles and training guides catered to this and they recommend training rides of 60-90 minutes several times a week.

 

[Typhon]

I'm not sure what you mean by circular argument? I'm asking what the training benefit of two 45 minute rides per day is compared to one 90 minute ride.

 

[Rob3rt]

It depends what you do with the time you spend riding!

 

[400bhp]

very little difference then

 

[Typhon]

It depends what you do with the time you spend riding!

Well I already mentioned the training zones and that I put the same effort in for a longer ride as a shorter one. I'm not sure what else I do is relevant? It's basically the same ride, split in two.

 

[Typhon]

very little difference then

Ok thanks. I just wondered because all the guides say to do one continuous session so I thought perhaps that had a much greater benefit than two but that may be because most people find it easier to do one session instead.

 

[Rob3rt]

Well I already mentioned the training zones and that I put the same effort in for a longer ride as a shorter one. I'm not sure what else I do is relevant? It's basically the same ride, split in two.

You mentioned what sounds like an unstructured ride where you just looked at what happened later, rather than dictating the format to maximise the use of your time.

 

[Typhon]

You mentioned what sounds like an unstructured ride where you just looked at what happened later, rather than dictating the format to maximise the use of your time.

I guess a more efficient use of my time would be to train in the higher rate zones on the shorter rides and then training in the lower zones on the longer rides. I don't really want to go down that path though.

Really I just wanted to know whether splitting a 90 minute ride in two was much worse in terms of training (ceteris paribus).

 

[fossyant]

Many of us commute mid week with say 10 miles each way. That's often enough to bring a good level of fitness if you ride hard.

You don't need to do longer rides, but they are of benefit for endurance. A lot of us spend say 90 minutes a day on a bike, split over two rides, but when they have time, find a 3-4 hour ride perfectly achieveable.

It's not the length or time of the rides, it's what you put into it. Train harder, get fitter.

 

[ayceejay]

Surely it would depend on what the aim is. If the intention is to ride a specific distance in a shorter time than you do at the moment and this fits within your time allowance (45 minutes) then I see no problem in doing what you are doing. If the targeted distance is twice as long and you can only do this at the weekend then here will be the test of the efficacy if the shorter rides.

 

[VamP]

To train you have to stress the systems that you wish to improve. It is hard to stress them effectively in durations shorter than 30 minutes, and that leaves you very little warm up time. That's why most training rides are 60 - 90 minutes in duration.

Why not do two rides of 60 minutes each?

Just riding around in an unstructured way is alright for initial general conditioning, but after a few thousand miles you will just plateau. It is not what most would describe as training.

 

[Rob3rt]

IMO, 60 mins is the minimum time you should spend training, this gives you 15 mins to warm up, 15 mins to cool down and 30 mins for some work! Ideally though, I would say 30 mins work is a bit on the short side, taking into account recovery periods.

Pootling about for 45 mins will soon fail to bring about improvement.