So I have time to fit in either one longish ride (~2 hours) or two shorter rides (~50-60 mins each) per weekday with longer rides on the weekend (~3 hours sat and sun).
My question is, will the two shorter rides have more benefit than 1 long ride per day? Intuitively, the two shorter rides amp the metabolism twice instead of once, one ride can be extra hard with the other being a recovery ride, easier to fit in 2 short rides (commuting to and from work) etc.
Am I off base as far as training effect? any tips for maximizing my short rides? does 2 rides a day equate to one ride that’s twice as long?
Hmm… I seem to remember a thread in the past few months outlining the benefits of multiple short “coffee shop” bike rides in comparison to a single long session. Anyone remember the details?
Are you running? Swimming? Bike + Run in a day is usually better than Bike + Bike.
It’st a matter of general training vs. specificity. Early in the season, overall training load trumps long rides. But later on, long rides when you race long course, become more important. For short course, it’s the opposite.
should have specified, I’m only cycling. racing some crits next summer and cross next fall.
Hmm… I seem to remember a thread in the past few months outlining the benefits of multiple short “coffee shop” bike rides in comparison to a single long session. Anyone remember the details?
Not specifically, but dd advocates every year in the 100/100 thread that multiple shorter runs in a day are preferable when building volume than 1 longer session.
John
Hmm… I seem to remember a thread in the past few months outlining the benefits of multiple short “coffee shop” bike rides in comparison to a single long session. Anyone remember the details?
Not specifically, but dd advocates every year in the 100/100 thread that multiple shorter runs in a day are preferable when building volume than 1 longer session.
John
Definitely has applications in running as being able to freshen up between sessions can allow you to get a higher total mileage without form breakdown when in the early stages of building volume. Some other reasons as well but that is a major one. With Cycling where for the most part you should be able to maintain form throughout this doesn’t come into play. Also if you were to have your form “break down” in cycling the negative impact would be very minimal given the lack of physical impact (pounding).
Hmm… I seem to remember a thread in the past few months outlining the benefits of multiple short “coffee shop” bike rides in comparison to a single long session. Anyone remember the details?
Not specifically, but dd advocates every year in the 100/100 thread that multiple shorter runs in a day are preferable when building volume than 1 longer session.
John
Definitely has applications in running as being able to freshen up between sessions can allow you to get a higher total mileage without form breakdown when in the early stages of building volume. Some other reasons as well but that is a major one. With Cycling where for the most part you should be able to maintain form throughout this doesn’t come into play. Also if you were to have your form “break down” in cycling the negative impact would be very minimal given the lack of physical impact (pounding).
Admittedly you don’t have form breakdown, but if you do a 3 hour ride where you taper off from say 200 watts to 150 by the end of the ride, but you do two 1.5 hour sessions where you can maintain 200w the entire time, isn’t there a greater benefit from the two sessions vs. the one?
John
Hmm… I seem to remember a thread in the past few months outlining the benefits of multiple short “coffee shop” bike rides in comparison to a single long session. Anyone remember the details?
Not specifically, but dd advocates every year in the 100/100 thread that multiple shorter runs in a day are preferable when building volume than 1 longer session.
John
Definitely has applications in running as being able to freshen up between sessions can allow you to get a higher total mileage without form breakdown when in the early stages of building volume. Some other reasons as well but that is a major one. With Cycling where for the most part you should be able to maintain form throughout this doesn’t come into play. Also if you were to have your form “break down” in cycling the negative impact would be very minimal given the lack of physical impact (pounding).
Admittedly you don’t have form breakdown, but if you do a 3 hour ride where you taper off from say 200 watts to 150 by the end of the ride, but you do two 1.5 hour sessions where you can maintain 200w the entire time, isn’t there a greater benefit from the two sessions vs. the one?
John
In that example certainly the two workouts have a greater benefit. I think the difference lies in the injury risk factor as it’s something which is a key reason for splitting running workouts and not so present when talking about cycling so it’s difficult to make a direct 1-to-1 comparison. That’s just my two cents.
A big portion of why doubling is beneficial for some sports is their load-bearing nature. You can only run so much before you’re completely knackered and breaking down (read: begging for injury). The only way to keep up the volume is to divide it down into bite-sized chunks. Otherwise, for sports with monstrous training loads, (swimming) there’s only so much you can do in a single workout before you’re toast. But at least with swimming, it looks like they’re in the 3-4 per day range. A bit different to a single 2-hour ride.
With riding, you’re largely decoupled from load-bearing issues, so it’s probably a mix–longer rides are going to be more time-efficient (don’t have to get ready/put things away twice, fewer showers…) and elicit adaptations that you might not see in a 1-hr ride, but 2 hours is quite a ride day-in-day-out. But your circumstances are similar to mine–I bike commute as well, and it’s frequently the highlight of my day (or the low point when cars try to run me over, but that’s a story for a different day).
The metabolism thing, if a real effect at all, is probably so minor as to be ignored. You can get quite the workout on an hour bike commute: gunning it off the line at stop lights and keeping the tempo will go a long ways, or do mini-intervals (minute on stuff).
I’d suggest shaking it up. Maybe MWF do 1+1 and and TuTh do 2 hours?
You can certainly ride more minutes at a higher intensity if you do two rides a day for the same number of minutes as one long ride.
Some of the best progress I made was after a week where I commuted home at lunch time as well as morning and evening.
Instead of doing a short ride to work then a long ride home! I rode the shortest route to work and home as possible but really have it some wells.
4 short hard rides seemed to work better for me than one short and one long.
I still think you need to do some longer rides though as I’m sure there are adaptations which require the longer durations. Particularly for a triathlete.