Update: allowing myself longer (century) rides on Sundays to prepare for multi-day endurance rides.
Recently a new friend in Twitch mentioned that they have a hard time doing more than two hours at a time in Zwift while I was doing a five-hour grind but now that I’ve dropped 10 kilos I’m not feeling the need to drop the next 10 kilos as quickly. There are a number of other reasons that a normal person like me should probably stick with 1-2 hours per workout:
Now that I have no specific goal to conquer the Assault on Mt. Mitchell I’m back to riding for fun and fitness. Sure I want to improve but I’m not as obsessed and crazy as I was about speed (really, what was I thinking). Therefore, building sustainable, enjoyable fitness habits is far more important. 1-2 hours per day is perfect for this. It is light enough that it can be done every single day (yes, including “recovery” days).
This puts me at about 16 hours of training a week (6x2h + 2x2h with 40 minute break between on Sunday). This also assumes cycling which requires far less recovery than running or other forms of training, even yoga.
Improvements will come over time in the form of going harder rather than longer. This is more in line with my health goals and promotes more fast-twitch muscle fiber development over slow-twitch. I do so love powering up over small, intense hills. This will likely mean that I have to up my weight goal to 70 kilos to account for the extra muscle but that’s fine. It also means that my Zwift focus will end up being rolling hills and sprints more than raw climbing ability but I should still be able to maintain a solid B rank. We’ll see.