Finding Your Training Rhythm: A Weekly Framework for Time-Crunched Cyclists (#296)

Struggling to fit training into your busy life? Coach Adam Pulford breaks down a simple weekly framework that helps time-crunched cyclists build real fitness — without burning out or blowing up their schedule.

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RESOURCES

• Time-Crunched? Here’s the Training Week Framework That Works
• How to Build a Strong Week of Your Cycling Training Plan - Chris Carmichael

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HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.

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Transcript

Why One-Size Plans Fail

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One-sized fits all static training programs don't historically work well for busy, time crunched athletes with demanding jobs and complicated lives. Why? There's just too many variables to adjust for. So learning how to adjust is just as important, if not more, than knowing what workout to do on any given day. But most importantly, when I'm working with my athletes one-on-one to figure out the best program for them, I help find a rhythm to their week, which allows them to nail their hard workouts again and again with little failure. Today, I want to help you do the same. I'm Coach Adam Pulford, and I'm the head coach at CTS. We coach thousands of athletes around the world from pros to amateurs. And with over 20 years experience myself, I'm here to help you become the best athlete you can be. So, what I mean by finding rhythm is establishing realistic consistency in your training program. To do this, ask yourself good questions such as, can you actually ride six days per week just because your friends do? Or five days because that's the program that you bought calls for? Or why not seven days a week because that's what Banderpol does. The point here is you just need to be real with yourself and not try to do something because it worked for your friend or some pro. Along with that, let's talk about how many days per week you should train. I suggest at least one day off the bike per week for most people listening. Rest is where you make the gains, and without it, you don't adapt. For most amateurs, one day off per week brings good contrast to your training and a day in your life where your mind doesn't have to worry about performing in sport. This helps in overall restoration of your mind and body. So now you're down to six days left. Should you ride on each one of them? Well, do you have the bandwidth for that? Does your job allow for that? Is your family on board with that? Can you get it all done and still be happy and have fun? Ask yourself these questions in order to find a rhythm of training for the week that sets you up for realistic success. Just because you may have the fanciest program ever built, if you can't do the training, it ain't gonna work for you. My best advice if you're just starting out or trying to figure this out, it's go through the list of questions that I just ask. And whatever number is in your head, start with the one lower, just to be safe. And if you're consistent with that for a month and good high-quality training, scale it up with another day if you think that you can handle it and dial it in with the best rhythm for you. Most people will use a four-day, five-day, or six-day per week training schedule. And I'll give some good examples of this in just a few minutes. But let's first decide how much time per session you have to train and what's effective. Here's some more questions to set you up for success. How much time do you really have in the morning to work out, shower, prep, and get the kids off to school or get to work or whatever other duties you have for the day? Do you have a flexible lunch hour? Can you extend that out a bit? After work, how's your energy? For real. What's your mood? What else do you need to get done? Ask yourself these questions and pick days where you can realistically train and set aside at least 60 to 90 minutes per session for training. Think too about the time needed for showering, eating food, and being just not super rushed before the next meeting or thing in your life. And again, if you're thinking I have two hours to train, I'd focus on a good quality 90 minutes first and then use the extra time for other things in your life. Now that you've realistically identified how many days per week you can train and how much per workout you have, let's set up a structure for the week. Use the hard days as your anchor points. My advice from most serious amateur masters and probably most people listening to this is to have two to three hard training days per week maximum. Hard days are the high intensity or big TSS days. That means hard intervals, races, training races, or long rides. Most people should start with two hard days per week, in my opinion. If you're more advanced, three hard days per week is good. If you've had years of training and you are in a big build phase right now, you can add more hard days per week, but you'll need to make sure life stress is lower so that you can handle all the training without cracking yourself. Then plan in some extra recovery on the back side of it, such as in a block style training format, or work with a CTS coach to find the proper recipe. Let's now look at some example weeks, setting up your anchor points to develop your weekly plan. Whether you're using four, five, or six-day training plan, I suggest putting your hard anchor days in on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. As you can see in the first six-day riding example, we're at intervals in on Tuesday and Thursday with a longer hard group ride on Saturday. This allows for enough time between training sessions for full recovery so you can hit the next day hard with fresh legs. If you need to go back to back in the second week that I provided here, this is just fine. Just know that your sleep, food, and fueling should be dialed if you're doing that. And if you can, have a predictable work and life day as well in those back-to-back days. Here's some examples now on a five-day and four-day riding schedule. You'll see I've got the hard anchor days on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for the same rationale. But again, you can always shift and go back to back with the two hard intensity days. That's not going to kill you. Then you can have an endurance day or a day off on the third day. People with a full-time job, family, and other things going on in life, I find that three hard days in a row can come at a cost that may not always be worth the benefit. So best to play conservative and for the longer run of gains. If your work week goes sideways and you're stressed out with more work, less energy, and you can't get the second interval day done, but you still have a good weekend shaping up, I suggest skipping the second interval day midweek and put the effort to the weekend, either moving the intervals to Saturday plus some extra volume or hitting the group ride extra hard with some proper hours in the saddle. You're better off under-training yourself slightly with the intensity, if anything, then keep the consistency of riding going when life gets busy. This is because the intensity is really what causes the stress here. And when life stress goes up, other stress should come down. And training stress is part of that other stress category. This can simply be done by having a good plan, sticking to it most of the time, and doing less when life gets in the way. So let's talk quickly about time of day for your best training. This matters most with hard anchor days. This is super different for everyone. So much to say, I don't think I have one athlete, including myself, where the workout time is at the same time each day of the week, full stop. Nobody's life is that predictable. However, put your hard days on the days where you do have the most predictability in your schedule. This is because you need to bring your A game for these training sessions. Start your workout at the time where you'll likely have the best energy, enough total time, and at least the fewest distractions. For your endurance days and recovery rides, I would say that doesn't really matter as much. Just get them in and observe what works best for you. And you can also let the timing of this just float a little bit more. These are easier training sessions, and you don't have to be as dialed mentally or physically for these. And in fact, when you're more flexible with sessions like this, it allows you more autonomy, feeling in control of your schedule, and brings better contrast to the training program. And that contrast helps in bringing the adaptations. Again, both mind and body. Finally, a word to our super time-crunched listeners. If you're laughing because you dream of having a two-hour block of time to ride, or wish you could predict when you'd have good energy for the intervals, don't stress. Consistency is your greatest strength, and you're building aerobic fitness by playing the long game with the week in and week out consistent training habits. Focus on getting as much uninterrupted sleep as you can. Focus on good, healthy habits like healthy food and hydration. And when life levels out and you have more time, you can revisit the best schedule for you. To recap today's message, nobody's schedule is 100% predictable or perfect. And you shouldn't strive for yours to be like that either. Use my advice from today to find a rhythm in your life that allows you to nail your hard anchor days, then get the endurance days in with good enough predictability. And if you miss one session every so often, it's better to put the energy into the next hard day or just crush it next week versus trying to make up for it in an already jam packed, high stress, time crunched week. That's it for today. Hope you liked it. If this helped you in your training journey, subscribe for more coaching advice like this. If you want more or to take it to the next level, you know where to find us. TrainRight.com.