Once the "outdoor" cycling season starts for me I try to do two hard days during the week. Generally Tuesday and Thursday. Early on the hard days will be more like Tempo or Threshold. Maybe Tempo to the top of Diablo (time permitting). That works out to about an hour at Tempo pace. Or some threshold intervals. As I get closer to my "A" races (District TT in June, and nationals in September) I will start sharpening the efforts. I will start doing 5' VO2 max intervals and some 1' @ 1.5 FTP intervals. Maybe 4x5' @ VO2 max and then building up to as many as 8 (again, time permitting) as I approach my big races.
The average week looks like this:
Mon - Easy
Tues - Intervals
Wed. - In between. Like ride up Diablo, but sub tempo pace
Thur - intervals
Friday - easy
Sat - race or long ride (long is 4+ hours)
Sun - race or long hilly ride (long is 4+ hours)
Another favorite workout is what I call "Diablopalooza". A full Diablopalooza is three times up Diablo which gives you about 10k' of climbing. I like this because it gives me depth at the end of a hard road race.
While this is going on two other things are happening. It's racing season, so my weekend days are harder than during the winter, and the famous Putah Creek Smack Down (PCSD) TT's start up and I try to do as many of those as possible. The Wednesday TT kind of messes with my T-Th hard schedule. Some times I just try and force it and go hard all three days or do my Tues workout and then PCSD and take it easier on Thurs., or take Tues easier and hard on Wed. and Thurs. For the most part what I do NOT do is try to be fresh for the TT. I try to think long term and if I go 20 seconds slower at the TT because I'm tired from Tuesday, so be it.
Since I'm old I have a lot of options for racing. I almost never do 45+ road races because, well, they race like a bunch of 45 year olds. My default is 35+ (I'm 51) and for certain races I'll do the P/1/2 race. I'd rather get 5th in a P/1/2 road race than win 10 45+ races. I see guys who win lots of 45+ races and think "why the hell aren't you racing down and challenging yourself?" It also gives me a mental advantage. When I show up at nationals I KNOW that there is nobody there who can make me hurt like say, Roman Kilun or Max Jenkins or Phil Mooney, etc.
For TT's I almost always do two. Usually it works out to P/1/2 and then 45+. I am happy when I can still win the 45+ TT after doing the P/1/2 race. I actually did three this year at the Calaveras TT (10 miles). P/1/2 (3rd), 45+ (1st) and Eddy Merckx (3rd).
For crit's I pretty much always do two categories and occasionally three. If you're going to drive all that way you might as well make it worth your while. I generally pick the two that make the most sense schedule wise. It usually works out that there are two close together and then a couple of hours for the third so I'll do the closer together set. Sometimes that's 45+ and 35+ and sometimes it's 35+ and P/1/2. I did all three at the Santa Cruz Crit this year. That is pretty much the best interval workout ever. There is a hairpin turn just after the start finish and a hill leading up to the finish. So you are almost assured to have two sprint like efforts every lap. 79 laps, two jumps per lap. Yep, that was pretty much my year's quotient all in one day. :-)
I race a fair amount and I am not big on resting for races unless they are important. That may even include the day of. Before the San Rafael crit this year I did a four hour ride in the morning. Came home, showered, ate and drove to San Rafael (masters). If I was going to do the P/1/2 my morning ride would have been much shorter. But it goes back to my "is this an important race?" question. If not, I think long term and less about that day's result.
I know a lot of guys who are coached by really good coaches. Their work outs are a heck of a lot more complicated than what I do. I am a very bad person when it comes to working on my sprint. Yeah, it gets worked in crits and even road races to some extent, but I almost never go out and do jumps or something on a training ride. And hey, guess what, my sprint isn't so hot... I'll never be a sprinter, but I could probably improve some if I worked on it.
And finally race a lot. As much as possible. I've been racing since 1985 and a lot of the time I just KNOW when it's going to happen and boom, I'm in the break. This year at the Davis Crit, I only did the P/1/2 race. I started at the back and nearing half way I figured I should move up towards the front. As I was getting close they called back to back primes. I knew there would be a counter move after the 2nd prime. We crossed the line on that second prime and I was still about 10 guys back, but it was time and I jumped across to the winning break. They beat the shit out of me, but it was better than being stuck in the field!
All of my data is public. You can see it on Strava and Training Peaks.
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/...ile.aspx?p=nslckevin http://www.strava.com/athletes/kmetcalfe
Kevin
http://kevinmetcalfe.dreamhosters.com My Strava