When is the best time to train?

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zill
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When is the best time to train?

Postby zill » Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:59 am

Scientifically, when is the best time of the day to train in cycling assuming you had the whole day to yourself?

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matagi
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby matagi » Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:56 am

There is no reliable evidence to suggest there is an optimum time of day to exercise/train. Your circadian rhythm will determine when you feel best able to train, but that doesn't always coincide with the time of day available to you to train.

Best thing to do is pick a time of day you know you can consistently work out/train as that will help you stick to your program.

Assuming you have all day to train and there are no other commitments, then go with your circadian rhythm.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby bychosis » Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:59 am

I'm a morning person, I can get up have a quick breakfast and go. I can also go out in the evening without too much trouble, other than delaying getting to bed while I cool down. my wife is not a morning person and if she works out in the morning has difficulty recovering. Afternoons for her.
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby trailgumby » Thu Jan 01, 2015 10:36 am

Evenings are no good for me for high intensity. I end up being wound up, taking ages to get to sleep, and then waking up again around 2 am. Don't get back to sleep until just before the alarm goes off. A few nights of that and I'm useless.

So, mornings for the HIIT stuff, evenings I try t keep the HR as low as possible on the way home.

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foo on patrol
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby foo on patrol » Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:14 am

Anytime that you can get on a bike! :idea: :wink:

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zill
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby zill » Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:30 am

trailgumby wrote:Evenings are no good for me for high intensity. I end up being wound up, taking ages to get to sleep, and then waking up again around 2 am. Don't get back to sleep until just before the alarm goes off. A few nights of that and I'm useless.

So, mornings for the HIIT stuff, evenings I try t keep the HR as low as possible on the way home.

why do you think you wake up again at 2am?

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Cheesewheel
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Cheesewheel » Thu Jan 01, 2015 12:03 pm

I recall an article discussing how the middle of the day wss the best and the worst was the evening. I think they were mainly looking at data surrounding body clock functions .... but, realistically, given this modern world of absurd routines for delayed rewards (ie work), the best time to train is today.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby zill » Thu Jan 01, 2015 12:16 pm

Cheesewheel wrote:I recall an article discussing how the middle of the day wss the best and the worst was the evening. I think they were mainly looking at data surrounding body clock functions .... but, realistically, given this modern world of absurd routines for delayed rewards (ie work), the best time to train is today.

:)
Would a long ride from 2:30pm to 8pm (with a little break in the middle) considered bad?

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Cheesewheel
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Cheesewheel » Thu Jan 01, 2015 1:47 pm

zill wrote:
Cheesewheel wrote:I recall an article discussing how the middle of the day wss the best and the worst was the evening. I think they were mainly looking at data surrounding body clock functions .... but, realistically, given this modern world of absurd routines for delayed rewards (ie work), the best time to train is today.

:)
Would a long ride from 2:30pm to 8pm (with a little break in the middle) considered bad?
From what I recall, the focus of the article was about routines and how they fit into the biological reality of our body clocks (which in turn dictates performance, health etc).
So its not so much about training till 8pm being bad, but rather that it could warrant being less effective since it would likely affect the quality of one's sleep which in turn would make it more likely for one to suffer fatigue and lethargy (or to put it bluntly, wake up with the feeling that one really doesn't want to train today ... making it more of a challenge to commit to training till 8pm as a regular daily function).

But that said, the ability to engage 5 1/2 hour training sequence on a daily basis (IMHO) is perhaps more of a feat of mental rather than physical endurance. Most of us fit our exercise in around key elements of our day as opposed to making it a key element (unless we are a pro athlete who scored a contract with a quinoa energy ball company or whatever)

I got into cycling because I recognized I needed to engage in some sort of physical activity. Gymnasiums made me feel like a hamster. I tried weight lifting but it was boring. Cycling has an element of exhilaration that kept me in to it (not that I am some sort of athlete). IOW for me, "training" means its got to be fun enough otherwise it feels like I have been subcontracted to a furniture removalist company or something.

But even then, the only scenarios where I cycle for 5 1/2 or more hours a day as a regular function is when I go touring ... and when I do, the factors dictating the best time to do it are safety (never a good time to cycle on a saturday evening IMHO - too many cars carrying drunk people), where I am going to eat and stay for the night etc.

IOW when asking the "best" time to train, I think we have to be realistic about what our values and lifestyles actually dictate ... otherwise we are constantly harangued by waking up with the feeling that we really don't want to do it today.
Last edited by Cheesewheel on Thu Jan 01, 2015 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby trailgumby » Thu Jan 01, 2015 2:19 pm

zill wrote:
trailgumby wrote:Evenings are no good for me for high intensity. I end up being wound up, taking ages to get to sleep, and then waking up again around 2 am. Don't get back to sleep until just before the alarm goes off. A few nights of that and I'm useless.

So, mornings for the HIIT stuff, evenings I try t keep the HR as low as possible on the way home.

why do you think you wake up again at 2am?
The high intensity stuff revs my metabolism and hormones right up. Same thing happens in the morning, except then it's a help, not a hindrance.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby zill » Thu Jan 01, 2015 3:39 pm

trailgumby wrote:
zill wrote:
trailgumby wrote:Evenings are no good for me for high intensity. I end up being wound up, taking ages to get to sleep, and then waking up again around 2 am. Don't get back to sleep until just before the alarm goes off. A few nights of that and I'm useless.

So, mornings for the HIIT stuff, evenings I try t keep the HR as low as possible on the way home.

why do you think you wake up again at 2am?
The high intensity stuff revs my metabolism and hormones right up. Same thing happens in the morning, except then it's a help, not a hindrance.
You'd think you would be really tired a few hours after a big ride. For example, if I have to do a big ride early in the morning that finished at lunch time, I would have lunch then feel really tired and take a nap.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby nickobec » Thu Jan 01, 2015 11:46 pm

It does depend on what training you are doing and it is not time of the day, but more when did you eat and what did you eat.

If you are just doing endurance work, which burns mainly fat, it does not really matter.

If you are doing intervals (threshold, VO2max or sprints) you need carbs to fuel that level of activity.

Overnight, most of your body's store of carbs disappears down the drain.

So if you leap out of bed in the morning to do interval training, without a carb heavy breakfast and enough time for your body to process it, your performance will suffer

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby zill » Fri Jan 02, 2015 12:38 pm

Here is an interesting article

http://www.builtlean.com/2012/05/29/car ... y-stomach/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

similar to what nick is saying

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby singlespeedscott » Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:53 am

I use to be mornings for me in an attempt to have as little effect on the rest of the family. However I always found that I was tired and couldn't give my best. I have also read somewhere FWIW that people are more likely to suffer heart problems from training too hard in the morning.

I have never been a keen evening trainer as I always find it hard to be motivated at the end of the day, especially after a hard/long one. I also find that, like trailgumby, that I usually have a terrible sleep after a hard effort in the evening. This is also the case on the days when I commute to and from work, I finish work at 6pm on day shift.

Since my shifts have moved to a 2x12 day, 24hr off, 2 x 12 night roster, and my wife has gone back to working full time, I have moved to mid-day training. This has been the best thing ever. I am getting way more sleep and I find it a lot easier to put in harder efforts during my rides. As I dont race I can only compare my strava segements and they have improved since this move. Another side benifit is I seemed to have developed a bit more tolereance to SEQ muggy heat. There is some evidence to suggest training in heat and humidity seems to provide as much benfit as training at altitude, for elite level cyclist anyway :lol:
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby g-boaf » Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:46 pm

I've done 6am interval training, that's brutal - especially when it is about 1 hour away from where I live. Doing that I'd have to get to sleep really early the night before or I'd just be too exhausted to do any good with it. Afternoons tend to be better for me after work, but again, getting plenty of sleep the night before still applies. Or I'd just be dead tired and want to avoid the training.

Now that I'm on holidays and I'm just riding when I want, I tend to be on the bike early in the morning (5am or earlier) to avoid the worst of the heat. Heat I can stand, but I'd prefer to be home before 10am before it gets too hot.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby zill » Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:08 pm

singlespeedscott wrote:I use to be mornings for me in an attempt to have as little effect on the rest of the family. However I always found that I was tired and couldn't give my best. I have also read somewhere FWIW that people are more likely to suffer heart problems from training too hard in the morning.

I have never been a keen evening trainer as I always find it hard to be motivated at the end of the day, especially after a hard/long one. I also find that, like trailgumby, that I usually have a terrible sleep after a hard effort in the evening. This is also the case on the days when I commute to and from work, I finish work at 6pm on day shift.

Since my shifts have moved to a 2x12 day, 24hr off, 2 x 12 night roster, and my wife has gone back to working full time, I have moved to mid-day training. This has been the best thing ever. I am getting way more sleep and I find it a lot easier to put in harder efforts during my rides. As I dont race I can only compare my strava segements and they have improved since this move. Another side benifit is I seemed to have developed a bit more tolereance to SEQ muggy heat. There is some evidence to suggest training in heat and humidity seems to provide as much benfit as training at altitude, for elite level cyclist anyway :lol:

If you train at mid-day, would you have lunch before, during or after training?

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby CKinnard » Sun Jan 04, 2015 10:22 pm

From memory of studies I've read, weightlifting improves mid afternoon, and endurance running from 8-9am.

A lot of it has to do with 'warming and wetting' up, joint hydration/lubrication, daily circadian rhythm (hormone cycles), energy reserves, cognitive and neuromotor arousal, and what you've conditioned yourself to do. I'd posit that people who wake up refreshed, alert, and ready to rock n roll could perform stronger in the morning than others.

Personally, my best TT's are always between 4 and 6pm, and I find it very difficult to match them in the morning. Some of it might be that morning performance suffers from me subconsciously hold energy back for the rest of the day, and afternoons benefit from having put work behind me and the opportunity to blow off accumulated stress.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby singlespeedscott » Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:35 am

zill wrote:
singlespeedscott wrote:I use to be mornings for me in an attempt to have as little effect on the rest of the family. However I always found that I was tired and couldn't give my best. I have also read somewhere FWIW that people are more likely to suffer heart problems from training too hard in the morning.

I have never been a keen evening trainer as I always find it hard to be motivated at the end of the day, especially after a hard/long one. I also find that, like trailgumby, that I usually have a terrible sleep after a hard effort in the evening. This is also the case on the days when I commute to and from work, I finish work at 6pm on day shift.

Since my shifts have moved to a 2x12 day, 24hr off, 2 x 12 night roster, and my wife has gone back to working full time, I have moved to mid-day training. This has been the best thing ever. I am getting way more sleep and I find it a lot easier to put in harder efforts during my rides. As I dont race I can only compare my strava segements and they have improved since this move. Another side benifit is I seemed to have developed a bit more tolereance to SEQ muggy heat. There is some evidence to suggest training in heat and humidity seems to provide as much benfit as training at altitude, for elite level cyclist anyway :lol:

If you train at mid-day, would you have lunch before, during or after training?
I have lunch after I get home. The rides are usually done after I have dropped the kids at school and I have done any chores. I usually leave home between 9-11am. If the rides more then 2 1/2 hrs I'll take a few pitted dates to keep me going.
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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby jules21 » Mon Jan 12, 2015 9:36 pm

now.

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Dave-in-LK » Thu Jan 15, 2015 1:07 am

I prefer an afternoon ride but morning rides suit better because of kids and lie

I ride three mornings a week then do long ride on weekends also.

Physically the body reacts to exercise no matter what time you train ....no so niece to back this claim just years of experience and speaking with others who train also

That said it does affect sleep patterns ......AFL players say they can't spee till 3 am after night games which finish at ten pm or thereabouts

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Krank » Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:26 am

nickobec wrote:...So if you leap out of bed in the morning to do interval training, without a carb heavy breakfast and enough time for your body to process it, your performance will suffer...
What is this length of time your body needs to adequately process carbs to prevent performance degradation of interval training (threshold, VO2max or sprints) ?


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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Derny Driver » Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:56 am

trailgumby wrote: The high intensity stuff revs my metabolism and hormones right up....
I had a high intensity date last night :D

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Krank » Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:53 pm

I guess you bonked then?

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Derny Driver » Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:51 pm

hahahaha too funny Krank!!
I experienced the high heart rates and hormones that tg mentioned ...but then again, its not on Strava so it probably didnt happen

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Re: When is the best time to train?

Postby Derny Driver » Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:52 pm

Dave-in-LK wrote: That said it does affect sleep patterns ......
Yep

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