Making the most out of little free time

So...I'm entering a stretch of time where I know for the next few weeks I won't be able to fit in a 3-4 hour ride at one point during the week. The past two months I've been upping my mileage pretty consistently each week with a long ride on Friday or Saturday and would hate to lose what I've built. I've already done that before, last year after riding my first century.:( I let the fitness slide and am really trying to reach that distance again. I'm still pissed I let all that work I put in last year go. I'm at about 50 miles now (with moderate climbing) relatively comfortably.

I generally ride another 2-3 times outside of that for 1-1.5 hours, but that might suffer in the next month too.

So what is the best way to maintain as much of the fitness as I can? I realize there is no substitute for time in the saddle but what's the next best thing? If I have an hour or two on the bike, what should I be doing?

I think some of the more experienced folk here will probably have better advice than me, so hopefully one of them will step in if I'm steering you wrong. But, since you know you won't be able to ride as long, maybe try upping the difficulty level of the shorter rides that you'll be able to put in, and include some interval training?

You say you are doing moderate climbing now in your longer rides, so maybe find some steeper climbs to work on, or do hill repeats where you ride up something, then down, then back up it again. Another alternative would be to put in intervals during one of your shorter rides where you're just really pushing it speed-wise, then drop back down (not to a rest, just back to normal).

The bursts of high intensity effort should help train your muscles to recover quickly from exertion, which will help your endurance even though you haven't been able to put in as much time on the bike.

When I don't have enough time for an outdoor ride, I will ride indoors for at least an hour either on my trainer or on my stationary bike. I can get a great workout and work on my form and increasing my cadence. When I am working out inside, I work at a lot harder exertion level than when I am riding outside to get the most bang for my buck in the shortest amount of time. I think my cadence & endurance has improved drastically over the last year just doing indoor training and spinning classes a couple of times a week. I really notice a difference in my speed outside.

Can you get up in the early hours and go out for a ride soon after sunup, maybe for 30 minutes to an hour? Now I know that's not for everyone :D but I thought I'd toss that out.

Hey, nice jersey lady! Which TNT team are/were you on? :)

Thank you kindly :D. I rode with the Silicon Valley team at the 2008 AMBBR, which was a little bit of a misnomer for me b/c I don't actually live in the Silicon Valley! Bit of a commute but worth every mile and gallon of gas.

It was a fantastic experience and I dream of doing it again, but unfortunately I have a little (:p) test called the California Bar exam in a few months and figured time would be in short supply.

ninerfan -- is that the ride around Tahoe? My friends are mentors this year for the Santa Cruz/Monterey team.

It certainly is. The best way to see the lake. :D

It sounds like you have to be very disciplined about your time while preparing for the Bar . . . if you really feel that you won't have the time and energy to progress or even maintain what you've built, then I would say that you may just have to adapt your fitness goals for this period . . . commit to scheduling x number of workouts per week that last x minutes, or y hours, and STICK TO IT. Whatever your goals, I think it will be about situating yourself to rebuild your fitness after you take your exam.