The Time-Crunched Cyclist: Race-Winning Fitness in 6 Hours a Week

by Chris Carmichael, Jim Rutberg

The Time-Crunched Cyclist reveals the fastest way to get fit for road racing, century rides, gravel grinders, cyclocross, Gran Fondos, and mountain bike events. With elite cycling coach Chris Carmichael's innovative, time-saving approach, busy cyclists will develop fitness, speed, and power in just 6 hours a week. Now powered by Strava, this updated third edition of The Time-Crunched Cyclist training program taps into the most popular cycling social network to help cyclists get fired up to crush their workouts, one segment at a time.

Through his popular endurance coaching service, Carmichael noticed that many busy cyclists are unable to make performance gains using conventional training methods; they simply don't have enough time to train. So CTS developed a new approach--the Time-Crunched Training Program--to help cyclists achieve competitive fitness and power without the impossible time demands of traditional training methods.

The Time-Crunched Cyclist shows cyclists how to build fitness on a realistic schedule by tapping the power of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts. Cyclists learn the science behind this alternative approach to training before performing the CTS field tests to get a baseline reading of their fitness. Nine comprehensive training plans include effective time-crunched workouts, nutrition guidelines, and strength training to develop the speed and endurance for a wide variety of cycling races and events. The new Time-Crunched Training Plans cover:

- New and Experienced plans for criteriums, road races, and cyclocross

- New, Experienced, and Competitive plans for century rides and Gran Fondos

- Gravel racing and ultraendurance mountain biking plans

- Intermediate and Advanced plans for commuters

This new, third edition integrates Strava, the popular ride tracking and analysis program. Powered by Strava, the Time-Crunched program becomes interactive, social, highly motivating--and focuses riders on the training data that matters most. It also adds the Time-Crunched Diet, a sports nutrition approach designed to help riders optimize their power-to-weight ratio with new guidelines on eating behaviors and delicious recipes from chefs Michael Chiarello and Matt Accarrino. A new chapter on hydration and managing heat stress will show athletes simple ways to avoid overheating that lead to better performance.

The Time-Crunched Cyclist can help you capture your best performance--all in the time you have right now.

Genres: Cycling, Nonfiction, Sports, Fitness, Health, Bicycles

440 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Chris Carmichael is a retired professional cyclist and cycling, triathlon and endurance sports coach. He was a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team, the 7-Eleven Professional Cycling Team (1985–1987), and the Schwinn-Wheaties professional cycling team (1988–1989). He started coaching with the United States Cycling Federation (now USA Cycling) in 1990, was the U.S. Men's Road Cycling team coach for the 1992 Olympic Games and the U.S. Olympic Cycling Team Head Coach for the 1996 Olympic Games.

Reviews

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a decent book but it could have been written in half the space. Some chapters (e.g. nutrition) drag for pages and pages repeating the same message. The workouts and plans seem decent though

[Christopher Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Workouts Are Strenuous And The Workload Is High

THE TIME-CRUNCHED CYCLIST: RACE-WINNING FITNESS IN 6 HOURS A WEEK

In this 3rd edition of their popular book, Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg provide the latest research supporting their training for time-crunched cyclists. About 15 years ago, the authors noticed that athletes were not getting expected results. They were making some progress, but "the gains were more difficult to come by." Why was this happening? "The problem was time. . . The common factor shared by athletes who were experiencing subpar results from their coaching programs was a lack of training time."

Traditional approaches call for long training sessions--but that leaves out athletes not having that time: "Superior performance in cycling and other endurance sports was out of reach for time crunched athletes." In the past, you needed 10 hours a week minimum, but "I don’t have that kind of time anymore, and neither do a lot of the athletes who come to CTS."

Here's the key to this type of regimen: High intensity, but shorter: "Over the past 10 years, studies have continued to show that short, high-intensity sprint efforts yield physiological adaptations similar to those expected from traditional endurance training."

Your training helps drive adaptations. "You won’t be completely recovered from one effort before it’s time to begin the next, and that’s the point. The efforts will generate a lot of lactate, and your body will be working to process it, but starting your next high-power effort while your lactate levels are still elevated helps drive the necessary adaptations."

These shorter workouts have a tradeoff. Since time is limited, "intensity is the key to performance." The workouts are short, but very hard. "You will be performing some efforts just below your lactate threshold power output and some right at it, but many efforts will be much more difficult, at maximum intensity."

The authors suggest, and give recommendations on buying, a "Power Meter." "Your power meter provides a detailed record of every ride, with heart rate, power output, speed, and cadence information." They also mention how to use heartrate, instead, as many cyclists will not want to spend hundreds of dollars for the meter.

A few cautions: The authors point out that you must let your body recover after the several month training program: "You will gain fitness and power rapidly , and you will be able to have a lot of fun with it while it lasts, but 10 to 12 weeks after you start the program, you’ll have to back off and recover."

I thought the scientific details were pretty complicated, but the workouts in the book are simple. That is exactly what they intended: "Training isn’t that complicated, and it shouldn’t take an advanced degree or a spreadsheet to understand what you need to do on the bike. Furthermore, simplicity is exactly what time-crunched athletes need."

I found the discussions of weight loss and nutrition particularly interesting. If you simply don't have more time to train, what else can you do? "The answer is staring you in the full-length mirror every day: You have to optimize weight." However, for a seasoned athlete, weight loss will probably be limited by "diminishing returns." In other words, you're already pretty lean, and there isn’t much room for much improvement.

Besides the cycling exercises, there is also a chapter on strength training. "If you want to keep your metabolism elevated, you need to focus on building—or at least maintaining— lean muscle mass. Cycling may help you maintain or build leg muscle, but it doesn’t do much for the rest of your body."

All in all, I found THE TIME-CRUNCHED CYCLIST to be a credible, proven approach. I was a little bewildered by the long sections on anatomy, but probably other readers will appreciate this level of detail. The book is filled with numerous case studies, describing athletes using different types of programs. Some of the case studies describe serious problems, such as what happened to one racer without proper hydration or heat protection. The end of the book contains extensive references and recommended reading

For another perspective on high intensity interval training, I found this took to be excellent: The One Minute Workout by Martin Gibala and Christopher Shulgan.

Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.

[Cleokatra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for someone who is looking to maintain a high level of fitness without spending more than 6 to 8 hours per week on the bike. Unfortunately, I am not that person (yet). I am still recovering basic fitness after being laid up with an injury for about a year. Some day, when I have more energy and less time, I will definitely return to this book. In the meantime, I think the weight training tips are really good and I do plan to start implementing those right away.

[Douglas Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carmichael The Time-Crunched Triathlete: Race-Winning Fitness in 8 Hours a Week, a former Olympian and pro cyclist turned coach, begins with a fairly technical discussion of the science underlying his method. Even though it’s clear and neatly summed up, do you really need to know about ATP, glucose, lactic acid overload, and how they all interrelate? Nope. As long as you do the work, it doesn’t matter if you understand lines like “you’ll be working at intensities between lactate threshold and VO2 max.” Nitty-gritty science aside, Carmichael’s training plans detail exactly what to do to ramp up your short-term (i.e., around 11 weeks) strength and performance. The programmed combinations of endurance, steady state, and tempo rides with power intervals and climbing repeats are rooted in the principles that Carmichael develops for professionals. This is not a method for all riders. In fact, the author points out that riders who can commit more than ten hours a week to training will be better served by a more traditional endurance-training program. VERDICT Almost every dude I know is crunched for time, and you have nothing to lose by trying one of these plans. Self-coached athletes familiar with adapting cookie-cutter workouts to their own needs will be on familiar turf. It’s not a long-term solution, but it will get you a hell of a lot stronger than what you’re doing now: flipping through Mark Johnson’s Argyle Armada: Behind the Scenes of the Pro Cycling Life over beers and planning to ramp up your training...someday.

[Marcelo Rodrigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insteresting and smooth approach when it comes to train a dad of two, who does some freelancer jobs at home and barely have spare time.

I feel like Chris Charmichael wrote this book thinking to fathers like me as possible readers, and his method is really effective, thats all I have to share with you :)

[Andrea Matsumura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a good general overview of how to use power to ones advantage. It's a descent training reference.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never having been a competitive athlete, I'm definitely not trying to start now. However, training hard is good for me in body, mind, and spirit, and I love challenging multi-day bike tours. This year I've learned that my current training approach isn't sufficient for my planned rides, and I believe that is an age-related change that will only intensify. So I wanted a new approach to training and turned to Chris Carmichael's Time-Crunched Cyclist. I marked many pages with book darts and placed the book within easy reach so it can be a handy ongoing reference for my training. In particular, the 'new century' workout plan looks right for my needs. If you're interested in stepping up your training game, check out this book.

[Pablo Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read in general for someone who wants to know how to train with a busy life, and a good first contact with the crunch time fitness.

[Mahmoud Shalaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book for serious cyclists specially those who are on the verge of quitting due to the constraints of life, yet there is substantial redundancy and repetition

[Stephen Redwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focuses primarily on how to avoid being a complete loser when trying to ride with or compete against a bunch of cyclists who are able to get in sufficient volume of training to be top of the pile through conventional means.



Its basically an argument that says if you replace volume with intensity, you can go some way to tricking your body into performing well. Every shortcut comes at a price, however, and in this case it means your season will be a short one as the performance loss is in the reduced ability to sustain a peak over an extended period. That's it in a nutshell.



But, the book has plenty of valuable insights into exercise physiology that explain how the intensity training works - its substantially about producing more mitochondria, which allows you to process energy efficiently.



I thought it was great, but you're not going to read this unless you are into this kind of thing.

[Doug Canfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though it's called The Time-Crunched Cyclist, the target reader includes pretty much everyone who doesn't want to train like a pro, wnether you have the time or not. You certainly will be able to achieve advanced results and accomplish most (e.g., NOT the Tour De France) of your goals using this program.

This is my fourth year cycling and the fourth book I've read on cyclist training, as my enthusiasm for the sport has a lot to do with improving at it. And it could simply be that this is the last one, but after reading this book I found these training concepts and techniques -- which aren't too dissimilar to that in the others -- are finally coming together for me. I liked this book and am going to use it's program -- if customized -- to prepare for my big event goal this year.

This information is clear, the voice enjoyable, and the chapter-flow well organized.

[Donald Plugge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just picked up this book while browsing the fitness section of Barnes and Noble. Looking into the most efficient way to exercise and improve cardio performance.

I'm finding the coaching science interesting in this book. It is geared toward professional bikers, which I am not, however you can certainly use the concepts as a recreational cyclist or even as a jogger.

The book also briefly covers nutrition, commuting to work on bike and workout time management. The various workout regimes are thoroughly planned out and presented in chart form as well. I'd suggest this book as a reference for any somewhat serious cycling enthusiast, rather than just for professionals.

dgp

[Matthew Robus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Carmichael (yes, he was/is Lance's coach) puts forth an argument that if a person doesn't have a lot of time to train, it's more worthwhile to do interval training than to grind out "base" miles. He says that by doing short hard intervals, not only is VO2 max improved, but the intense effort also benefits the sub-maximal systems that are used when riding. He says it can only be done in 11-wk cycles because the body needs some recovery time, but if you work hard it will give improvement faster than other methods. All you gotta do is deal with the pain . . .

[Marius Noreika · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is well written in understandable manner and suitable for people who don't have uncountable hours in a week devoted for cycling. You will find many training programs for different purposes, and clearly explained workouts. The are also many advices about racing strategies, nutrition (a little bit overextended chapter with some recipes LOL) and strength training in order to be healthy and universal athlete. Highly recommend for cyclist who don't have too many hours for training but still want to be quite competitive.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presents a very effective training program for cyclists who want to be fast but don't have time for traditional training plans. The book is a bit repetitive but does present a lot of background information explaining how and why the training program works. Of course, if you are really time-crunched, skip all the explanations and just follow the plans.

[Jon Riekenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly interesting, but nothing really ground-breaking. Would work well for someone with limited time but a very predictable schedule. Not so good for a less predictable weekly schedule. Most of the basic principles related to managing perceived effort and using hard interval workouts to temporarily replace base-building can be generalized, however.

[Reuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is intended for cyclists seriously beyond my skill level--or any skill level I'll ever attain, but the notion that short, hard workouts can substitute for time-consuming longer rides is worthwhile.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for someone like me, who loves to cycle and wants to push it, while keeping one's family and job. I only wish there were a way to use the program all year long; it doesn't offer much in between 12 week blocks, and one can't maintain that intensity level all year.

[Robert Steele]

Really pleased with the commuter-trainer segment, as well as the inclusion of strength training into the overall scheme of the training plan. I will revisit this after I move back to the US, and decide what type of racing I want to get involved with.

[Nate Dern · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like Carmichael's writing style. Informative, well researched, well structured. Straightforward advice with the evidence behind it clearly presented. Good read for someone looking to improve their cycling shape.

[Robb Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent teaching material that covers a wide range of topics with just enough depth to keep it moving forward. This will definitely help you achieve better performance as you apply it to your deliberate practice routine.

[Douglas Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

My five-star review is based on the clarity and the comprehensive nature of the material. However, if, after following one of the suggested training programs (as I plan to do later this season), I still suck, I reserve the right to adjust my rating.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great read, and not a terrible read. Will likely put it to the test next year. Will adjust my review when I see the results.

[Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Smotrouble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, not ready to implement QUITE yet, but great info on exercise science, training, and nutrition for optimum endurance performance.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably aimed more at the serious cyclist than people like me. Certainly aimed at men rather than women - not a single woman was mentioned, other than as partner to the cyclist.

[Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book can really shape and change your training schedule.

[Michael Jervis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intervals. 4+ days a week. Hardly ground breaking or time crunched.

[Drake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, and the training regimen is accessible even to beginners, but the electronic edition was nearly unusable.

[Belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

have yet to test the training plans but explanations are clear and concise