What are your thoughts on riding for one hour plus a few minutes? Mind you, this is not a recovery ride, just an average ride w/o intervals etc. I have little time to train, but every so often I find myself with an hour to kill. Here are the parameters:
Yes I have one hour, but nothing more so please do not respond that I should ride for 2+ hrs
I want to get out on the road, not on my CT
This is NOT a recovery ride, but it is also not a “let’s hammer it” ride
This ride is the day before a long, tough ride
The ride MAY substitute for a missed bike workout
Is there any benefit to doing this, or should I just stay home
Final caveat: You can not reply run or swim for that one hour ( :
Finally, please give your reasons as to why this is " worth doing" or a “waste of time” Your open and candid feedback is appreciated, I have thick skin and am not easily offended.
miles are miles…totally worth it. i have an “optional” ride in my program just like this - for when i have an hour to kill on an otherwise easy day. make it a mental workout and really concentrate on your pedalling form, throw in a few drills, etc (but don’t fry yourself). no brainer if you ask me
If it’s a make-up ride for another missed throughout the week, throw in a bit of the intensity from the ride that was missed, but keep the volume down to leave the long ride as unaffected as possible. You don’t want to go into your long ride (which I’m assuming is your key workout) with blown legs.
If it’s just extra time on the bike, take it at recovery pace to not let it interfere with the ride the next day. You want to induce the greatest training effect possible from the key workout. The best way to do that is to come in as fresh as possible.
There’s really no reason to hang out at a pace that’s not pushing a desired training effect for a short period of time. Go swim.
I understand asking if a 10 minute run is worth it. I don’t so much understand asking if a 1 hour ride is worth it. Of course it is, why wouldn’t it be?
I’m pretty sure my lazy butt is hanging out in the wrong virtual world when folks start to wonder whether an hour workout is even worth it. I’ve had weeks in which it’s not only worth it, but it’s my long workout. Sigh.