Scheduling on long rides

For those of you who work a rotating, or like in my case, totally random schedule, how do you do it? I'm a per-diem hospital employee, and my schedule is nuts. I may work at 3 one day, 10a the next, and 6a after that, with my days off varying quite a bit. It took me 3 months just to figure out a basic workout schedule that I can stick to (It's a 4x program- ride, run, weights, then a day off if I need it). I also have been up to a 20 mile ride on my day off. My problem is, after an accident last year, I am a little hesitant to go much farther solo, when there's no one home. I catch up with an occasional group ride when I can, but I'm just frustrated. Maybe this whole thread is just a vent. I'm trying to get ready for an April metric, and I'm scared to death I won't get the mileage in I need. I CAN request days off, but I'm fighting for a f/t position, so I'm saving that for just a couple weeks before the ride. How long can I go on my rollers, even though it's not the same?

Anyway, more than anything, thanks for listening (er...reading).

I tend to try to get out (skiing this time of year, cross country) when I have time for as long as I'm warm enough and not too tired. So I don't really have a good workout schedule to suggest.

But, one of the things I do to make a longer ride is scope out differerent rides. I have a really nice loop south of town that's 21-25 miles, and can be longer, and then a couple good rides west of town (trail or road, depending if I want to try to do hills), and a really great ride east of town, that can easily go to 30 miles (or 60), either looping or out and back, and then there's an okay ride north. So if I combine them, I can make rides of whatever length and difficulty I'm after.

For example, I may start out and do 15 miles on the hills west of town, then come mostly back in, and then go out the trail for some non-hill relaxation. I can easily do whatever out and back distance on the trail (up to about 50 miles, if I'm willing to ride crushed gravel for part).

So I can touch back with my car for food or whatever pretty easily without being too far out at any one time.

Would something like that maybe work for you?

Well, what we did at my already unionized workforce is we went through the labor-management process to get an agreement to get a new schedule. Then we researched and surveyed and voted and had informational meetings and more votes and finally came up with a schedule that was still shiftwork, but much more rational. A big part of this was creating default work schedules for the relief people.

If you are working truly random, that is you never know two days in advance when you will be working, you are SOL. But if you are always providing relief for the same people, you could have a more regular shift work schedule.

The last thing I will say is, if you go to a new schedule, don't believe people will work a certain shift until they have actually agreed to it and show up for work. I ended up with every weekend off for 3 consecutive years, and I was a very low seniority person, but none of the people with whiskers wanted to work swing shift.

Schedules are what I do now, if you want more info contact me and I can provide it. The research has already been done, a lot of it on people in the medical profession.

Thanks guys! A, you might be on to something; I'll have to see if I can't pick a route that would work. I never thought of that, but there is a nice trail a few minutes out, and I bet it might work, and it's not too far out in the middle of nowhere.

tci, thanks so much! Being per diem, I know my schedule ahead of time, I just get the crummy leftovers the full time people don't take. I'm not guaranteed any hours at all, but have been lucky enough to fork 40+ hours a week since I started. They're just terrible hours!

Have you taken the Traffic Cycling 101 bike class from www.bikeleague.org? Nothing can guarantee that you won't wreck, but it will make you feel so much more confident and in control.