bluto wrote:
with the limited cycling, I can't see it doing any harm to get more time on the bike and maybe use it to work on position and cadence/speed work. Whether you are getting any significant fitness from sub 1-hour easy rides is probably debatable. There is lots of data that says long and slow works, but I'm not aware of much data saying the same thing about multiple short easy rides across many days. It might be out there, just haven't seen it. Based on what I understand, you probably aren't building significant aerobic fitness 45 minutes at a time, but any time on the bike would probably benefit you in other ways. Just because a ride isn't building fitness doesn't mean it's "junk miles".
I hear this sentiment around here a lot, but I'm never quite sure what is meant by it. How are we defining aerobic fitness? It's likely either your top-end capacity to liberate ATP from oxygen substrates or it's the rate of ATP liberation you can sustain (via oxygen substrate) for a defined duration. Whichever you choose, there's plenty of empirical data to demonstrate that the underlying mechanisms that determine these end points can be substantially bolstered with less than 45 minutes of training. Is more better? Maybe. But you can certainly induce powerful training acclimations in less than 45 minutes.
Edit: My apologies. I definitely didn't mean to seem like I was singling you out or anything. I just wanted to reply generally to that sentiment which seems to be pervasive.
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