Suggestions for an hour long bike session

Is it worth getting all suited and booted for an hour's pre breakfast ride or am i better off doing a turbo session or a run or a swim? An hour lends itself (for me, at any rate) to a decent run or swim, but somehow doesnt seem long enough for a ride.

Til now I've done the odd turbo session pre work but it seems a shame not to make use of the weather and get out on the road. 

Should i just go out, do a 15 min warm up then hammer (all things relative!!) it for 45mins or so? Or stick on a Spinerval DVD and feel the pain on the Turbo and practice my aero position?

Hopefully I should be able to commute to and from on some days, but often I need the car to go to meetings etc so it's not always possible.

I'd be interested in what people do, esp re biking. In the evenings I tend to get home, help put the kids to bed and by then its 8.30pm and too late for anything really so mornings pre work are the only decent window I have outside of the weekends. 

thanks

If I am in a rush and need to get home/work then I will either do intervals on the mountain bike on the way, 30 secs as hard as possible 30 seconds recovery or 20/40 as a starter......You can make it hard either by spinning at at ridiculius cadence or mashing a high gear.
But then I am lucky that I can do most of my trip away from the main roads on towpaths etc

or
The other option is trying to maintain a silly high cadence,,,,,, 100 plus for the whole hour or push the highest gear possible up hill and down dale staying in the saddle for the hour again

But then what do I know   :-0

Get up half an hour earlier? What do you mean you need sleep?

Do you have a HR monitor?  What about 15 warm up then an hour at x bpm?

Artful Hen wrote (see)

What about 15 warm up then an hour at x bpm?

 What was it that you were saying on another post about riding at a particular HR on the bike for an IM?

What HR or % Max was being suggested?

it is so hard to maintain a steady HR out on the open road though, or at least I find it hard.

But then I am daft as a chocolate fireguard anyhow

Plum wrote (see)

But then I am daft as a chocolate fireguard anyhow

No argument from me....

 If you are going to only be able to do an hour, then definitely intervals is the way to go....much more bang for your buck....both in terms of speed, recovery and to an extent, endurance....

Plum wrote (see)

it is so hard to maintain a steady HR out on the open road though, or at least I find it hard.

But then I am daft as a chocolate fireguard anyhow

Aliaird wrote (see)

Is it worth getting all suited and booted for an hour's pre breakfast ride or am i better off doing a turbo session or a run or a swim? An hour lends itself (for me, at any rate) to a decent run or swim, but somehow doesnt seem long enough for a ride.

From your place, over the Downs, through Langley Vale, left to Headley, right down through the village, left to Mickleham, up the zigzag, over Box Hill, back through Walton, Tadworth & Tattenham Corner.  That's an hour ride, or near enough.  You'll be warmed up by the time you get to the first hill up from Langley Vale, and there's enough hills to get a decent workout.

Or, you could stare at a wall for an hour...

Why not try a 45 min run to get warmed up then a bike session.  You don't need to get changed for an hours bike ride or need to put on cycle shoes (unless you don't have flat pedals).

Next month it will be lighter earlier (5.15am) so you can spend a little longer out there.

Ali - Sorry - meant HR range rather than particular single HR. 

I'm vaguely following some of Don Fink and his Zones 1 and 2 are both aerobic with 2 being a higher HR.  The other day I noticed that all my bike rides now are meant to be in zone 2. So I went out on Tuesday and had to work quite hard to stay in zone 2 - that's kind of what I was meaning for a meaningful hour-long ride.  It's easier to stay above it on the hills obviously, and I didn't manage it on long down hills, but even then it made me keep pedalling instead of coasting down giving my legs a rest. Spose it was similar to doing a tempo run - not at threshold, but still a decent tempo.

The End.

How about a few hill reps?

Ali,  You may be guilty of sandbagging  here I reckon.......

Case for the prosecution: Seen out on the bike this evening presumed having cycled to and back from work with a route suggesting that you were about to do some training up Pebblecombe........how do you plead?

What to do with your hour all depends on what your goals are and what other training you are doing.  Yoiu can certainly do a useful sessionon the bike  in an hour though - most chaingangs are no more than an hour.     

Assuming you are aiming at triathlon then a hard session would be something like fairly long intervals - 2*20 minutes, 3*10 minutes or something like that - but there is value in just riding hard for an hour too and it's often more fun to do that than structured intervals - and the more fun it is the more likely you are to train consistently.   If you can do it on the road rather than the turbo so much the better - after all you have to produce it on the road on the day.  

I dont bother riding outside unless I've got more than 90 mins available.  it takes me a few miles to get clear of junctions etc so  I can get a better workout on the Turbo, I also agree with Gazman, its already light by 6 and will be light by 5 soon, so there's more than an hour available. I've been doing a midweek ~2hr run since Christmas early on a school day (cos of VLM).

Jaffa_ wrote (see)

Ali,  You may be guilty of sandbagging  here I reckon.......

Case for the prosecution: Seen out on the bike this evening presumed having cycled to and back from work with a route suggesting that you were about to do some training up Pebblecombe........how do you plead?

Errr, guily m'lud

But in mitigation due to the nature of my work it's not often I can bike in and out of work so it's rare. First time this year, and no plans for the next one.

But yes, I did Pebblecombe! That's twice now, no more fear!

Where did you see me? Was that you who yelled at me in Betchworth? Whoever tha twas gave me a hell of a shock!

Was driving past in Betchworth by The Dolphin,  didn't have time to shout but did wave from the car.   You didn't cause that road accident up the road did you?

I'm finding Pebblecombe easier now as well,  have done it twice in the last couple of weeks.  Still have to get out of the saddle for the final kick though

Someone (prob yoof)  yelled at me just before I turned right at the Dolphin (had to divert due to the RTA - motor biker knocked off apparently)

Can't imagine doing Pebblecombe sitting down!

Couple of good 1hr turbo sessions:

Tempo - 3 x 10:00 @ LT-10bpm (5:00R inc 2 x 0:30-0:45 out of saddle)

LT - 3-4 x 5:00 @ LT- 0-5bpm (5:00R inc OOS)

With a WU and WD on both.

Diffy if commuting paryic with t-light stops etc. But you could sprint these sections and use the stops to rec.