Riding your bike and training are two different things

I have to agree that doing steady stuff on the turbo can be mind-numbing. Perhaps use rollers for this kind of effort? Much more engaging and time passes more quickly - I can also recommend the Sufferfest videos for entertainment! Then use the turbo for intervals - time passes a lot more quickly if you have reasonably frequent changes of pace.

Ride with a group if you can. Our club does steadier rides in the winter but still go up hills quickly, we tend to leave the through & off for the summer. I would question the wisdom of going too hard in the winter; make sure you enjoy it.

I don't race per se but do weekly personal TT efforts to mark improvment during the season. They are 20 mile efforts on a loop with no major climbs. I only ride up to 3 hours, I hate it past that. I do a bit of what Grahm Obree did in training for the hour record, big gear intervals. Turning a huge gear for a minute or 2 at a time can really bulid power. I never got the increase in speed out of normal intervals I get out of the power intervals. I do not believe in "base" miles if I am riding year round. I also like to do one day a week of 2.5-3 hours with 2-5 climbs of 10-20 minutes each, these climbs have to force me into my little ring and at least the 20/19 cog in the rear and if there are some steeep sections all the better.
If you don't like the turbo, might try the emotion rollers. The allow you stand and sprint with adjustable resistance. One of the best bike purchases I ever made. In the winter I do 2 kinds of rides on the rollers, recovery and hour TT efforts.

It's easy - just move to Mallorca - the no excuses training venue !

I live in the equally inhospitable cycling nation of Ireland and back up the comments on trainerroad ! It's a fantastic aid for training ... It gives structure to the otherwise dull turbo sessions and they also provide online programs depending on rider capability and number of hours that on can commit.... I use a lemond revolution turbo which gets round the alien feel issue of the bike ... There is nothing to match the real life feel it provides when compared to other turbos I've used..... Get on trainerroad and watch the numbers improve

Well I don't mean to sound like a revolutionary but just imagine if cyclists did base miles AND intervals during winter!!! Jeez they could even throw some intervals into their long rides.

Hi Sam,I wouldn't worry about getting dropped on a hill this early in the year. Keep going steady - some of those lads who went past you will be peaking too soon.

There's a young whippet started riding with us who is leaving me for dead on the hills at the moment, doing intervals on his turbo 3 time a week. I'm might be wrong, but I'm guessing that if I keep working on my base miles for a couple more months and then get the turbo out in the summer for some hard intervals, I'll be able to catch him when it matters, when the hill climbs start.

Interestingly, on our last ride he went for a Strava segment full gas up a local hill. I finished almost a full minute behind him but when I uploaded the ride and checked the leader board, he was 10 seconds slower than when I did it in October last year.

need some ideas ?, found this a while back, not got to using it yet as I'm a lazy fecker... but it may have some worthwhile ideas to alleviate the turbonumbness. Personally I view the turbo like a dentist - most of the time just uncomfortable, sometimes fecking painfully!

http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/indoorCyclingWorkout.php?nav=search

Tongue in cheek, I hope. Overtraining is not to be taken lightly.

no. there;s no reason why 19 hours a week should be 'overtraining', unless a lot of it is done at high intensity.

I would certainly build in more than 1 rest day a week,

likewise, you can't apply that without knowing more. His TSS may be nothing like that of someone doing half the hours...

I'd like to second a number of the comments about turbo use, as part of overall preparation. I've been using TrainerRoad (http://www.trainerroad.com) for a number of weeks now as part of a training regime, and injury recovery, and it has already helped immensely physically and mentally.. I couldn't just sit on a turbo and spin, but having structured workouts, and a number of training plans at various levels, based on power output works for me. Add in a few Sufferfest videos for 'light entertainment' (and the recent Tour of Sufferlandria) and it prevents nearly all of the boredom i'd expect otherwise.

Is is the same as riding outside, and on real hills ?.. Well no, of course not - but it has already measurably improved my 'real' riding capabilities and given me focus and goals to achieve in doing so.

Spending a bit more on a decent trainer helped greatly too - I returned an Elite Fluid and switched to a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. The power profile is good for me (based on same weight more or less, on a 1% incline, no wind) and the 'feel' of spin-up and spin-down seems pretty close to being on the road. The power curve is also temperature neutral and seems to track PowerTap output pretty closely too (aside from zero offset).

I now quite look forward to some of it, and what it brings, rather than dreading it - which is somewhat odd

YMMV.

Oh yes, recovery time. My most favourite part of properly training.

'Given that you have this 60-90 minute commute (both ways?) which you potentially do 5 days a week and presumably something at the weekend I'm not sure that you're giving yourself enough recovery.'

90 mins each way five days per week plus, say, one 4 hour ride at the weekend, gives 19 hours training per week.
Which means 149 hours per week *not training*. Plenty of recovery time.

I think getting a coach is a good idea. But what interests me is your workload. Given that you have this 60-90 minute commute (both ways?) which you potentially do 5 days a week and presumably something at the weekend I'm not sure that you're giving yourself enough recovery. Pros get to take naps and downtime whenever they like, but as a working man you're subject to the 9-5 and all the rest of the hassles of day-to-day living.

Rest is as important as the exercise itself. It's when adaptation happens that enables you to improve. If you're not giving yourself a break from the bike (or reducing intensity) then you're not going to improve. Increased stress and workload gives rise to improvements (periodisation) but you need to give yourself the break for this to happen. Olympic athletes will work intensely coming up to the Olympics, but the week or so before the event they do nothing.

Otherwise the 40/20 seems to be the work out which Tyler Hamilton used to improve his top-end and I find this really gets my heart rate pushing at its limit. You need to do this to extend your heart rate ranges i.e. you're giving your heart a different top gear to go to. But I wonder also about your hill climbing technique. I see many people attack hills. This can work on a hill which takes less than 30 seconds to ride up, but after that you'll get into oxygen debt and then you have to repay immediately (literally - the energy output from anaerobic work is not enough for the work you are doing and so at some point you have to slow down to resume aerobic exercise ). Sitting into the climb, and dropping down the gears is much better. You'll find a natural rhythm and will get to the top without breathing out your arse. Hills in the UK are annoying because rarely do you have sustained gradients and consistent gradients. You'll arrive near the top in much better shape if you're near capacity than if you're having to recuperate up the hill - it sounds like you attacked at the bottom and suffered, which is why I say this.

Turbo training for me is excellent. It's hard work, but I can put in consistent wattage and heart rate without worrying about weather conditions, traffic and what lies around the bend. You can then use that information to plot progress with your training. Toodling around on the bike just isn't the same in that you have so many variables. Though equally, turbo training can't replace time on the bike. I went out yesterday and did 50 miles in the 60mph headwinds yesterday. That was a sufferfest like few I've ever had. I worked hard, but I wasn't really able to dictate terms on the bike. In the end it was all about my ability to endure. I had better days on a bike, but you just need to get out there sometimes.

I don't hate the turbo as I get a lot out of the sessions on it, although they are totally different from being out on the road. The one thing I do find is that my mind tries to come up with a million excuses not to do the session just before going out into the garage (I find it's the same if I'm just about to go out for a run or a long ride too). The thing that works for me is just to get my kit on and get started as quickly as possible without thinking about it.

Have to agree that the turbo is your friend. You can do some really targetted training on a turbo AND you don't have to spend 8 days getting all your kit on. Great if you have limited time.

I used to hate turbo. Sitting on a turbo and just turning the pedals is horrendous. After some coached group turbo sessions though I learnt to love it. But it's only bearable if you have a structure to follow. And I also try and visualise what I'm actually doing - so if it is a sprint intervals session, I'll try and imagine I'm racing. Or if it is hills, I'll imagine one of the horrendous hills round where we train. Sufferfest videos are ace as they do all this for you! Or, research some turbo sessions online. Pick ones where the actually explain why you would be doing the session they suggest. If i know the benefit I'm much less likely to lose the will to live.

Anyhoo. That is my tuppence worth. Like you I used to avoid 'training' and just rode. I changed that this year, bought a HRM, started listening to the advice of a coach friend and got the turbo out. Definitely stronger than I have ever been at this time of year!

Great blog. I haven't raced for (cough) many years but if there is something to be said for 'hard winter miles' it seems to be mainly about building character - don't underestimate that!

Turbo - even more character building. Think of Hoy on his Watt bike and shame yourself on it...

Specificity is good. I wonder too if your relatively long commute gives you time to recover to get the benefits from other training, or do you have that sorted? I know I struggle to SLOW DOWN on commutes due to (cough cough) old competitive urges.

Intervals. There is nothing like them for getting to where you want to be though, you just have to get used to 'spewing' as we used to put it. Above advice seems sound to me (must take it myself). Even though my riding is Audax and MTB purely for fun I still find interval sessions good - motivating and there is that 'lift' factor, all aspects seem to get better with a weekly session or two.

Maybe also (gulp) get a coach?!

Remember everyone suffers, the best cyclists just suffer faster!

Timing is very important, I agree. But if your effort/power is dropping off rapidly in a 40 second interval, because you can't sustain that level of effort, then it might be better to do shorter intervals to start out with. Then over a course of weeks, as the body adapts, you can increase the duration.

20 second is very short, and seems to easy to begin with. But by the eight set bugger me it's hard to keep the power up all the way to the end.

On the base miles thing, I've taken different approaches over the last few winters, and I don't think the traditional model works. I lose too much of my top-end and it takes ages to train it in the spring. Key is to train for whatever distance events/races you're doing. If you're just doing a summer of crit races, then logging 5-hour rides might be a waste of time

There's some interesting stuff on how Wiggins also ditched the traditional base miles approach last winter and included more high intensity

Nice blog Sam, a good read.

Specificity is the key to training. You need to train your weaknesses. It’s it’s hill, then you just need to ride more hills. Perhaps plan a route that lets you take in the same, or series, of reasonably steep hill, and go up and down them for a couple of hours.

Intervals on the turbo are good too, but I wouldn’t worry too much about the actual specifics/timing of the intervals, and you can actually tailor them to focus on any weaknesses you’re trying to turn into strengths. One of the hardest I do is 20 sec flat out, followed by 10 sec recovery, and I do eight. This makes for a 4 min block. It’s hard, really hard, but is very effective. Equally, I can easily adjust the session, longer recovery periods, longer interval sections, etc

If the turbo can’t be faced, then just factor in a couple of short hard blasts in every week. My favourite is a 2 hour loop which I aim to ride as fast as possible. I attack the hills, I throw in sprints, a couple of sustained 20 minute over and under threshold blocks.

Just me two cents

I'm afraid Scotland just isn't the best place for structured training outside. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's hard, for all the reasons you've already noted, the main one being the f***ing wind! Although that never stopped Merckx

You need that turbo. Sorry. You do. It will work, even though the pain it imposes is different to the road. Sufferfest's help - honest. I reckon "Angels" and "Downward Spiral" fit your "hills issues".