The annual training plan

Joe Friel's blog has a great series of articles to help one prepare an annual training plan. Part of the plan involves setting goals and training objectives as previously discussed. The part of the annual training plan that frightens me is the Annual Hours.

Annual hours can be calculated by adding 10 to 15% to the previous year's hours. Another calculation can be to multiply normal weekly hours of training by 40. Lastly a chart is supplied to help plan the hours needed based on the longest race planned to participate in. Given that I have set a goal to participate in LOTOJA again my longest race is expected to be over nine hours, which means the minimum I should train to "finish the race", not to compete, is 500 hours.

The way I see it others are likely using this method to train therefore this may be the reason I am not able to compete at high levels. That's why the guy's book is called "The Cyclist's Training Bible" not "Another training book".

Now for some perspective. I bike a lot. People around me, whether they are fitness nuts or not say that I bike a lot. I ride more than some and less than some on my race team. In 2009 I logged 239 hours on the bike. I need to double that number.

I need to become much more vigilant at logging my training off the bike, whether it's hiking, cross-country skiing, strength training, or whatever. Hell I need to log walks with the dog if I want to have a chance at this number.

500 hours annually is 12 hours a week. I spent one hour every day this week on the bike or strength training, and walked the dog once for 30 minutes. That leaves me with 6:30 of exercise to do over the weekend. I wish the weather allowed for a nice easy 100 miler in a nice quiet area.