Happy Hour (The Modern Training Approach of Vojtěch Hačecký)

f your situation is different—well, congratulations, and we’ll quietly envy you. But if, like many, you belong to the golden middle, then carving out a single hour a day for cycling is a precious luxury. Does this happy hour actually have any training effect?Is it possible to improve with such a minimal amount of time?And how can you make the most of those 60 minutes?

From those four or five weekly hours, you can make one session truly “special”—really intense. Whether that means classic intervals or a more palatable form like e-racing on online platforms is up to you.

Can even this minimal training load bring improvement? That depends entirely on where you're starting from. If you used to train eight hours a day and now drop to four per week, you're clearly going to detrain. But your fitness background carries momentum, and if you maintain some level of effort, you can stabilize your condition—for a while. We’re talking months, not years.

If you were physically active in your youth—even just hiking all day with your family—you still built muscle memory, trained aerobic capacity, and developed mitochondria. That foundation is long-lasting. Sure, you'll detrain, but as soon as you start moving again, your body quickly wakes up—even with just an hour a day, or four to five hours per week. But that assumes you're starting from zero. To be effective, it should be consistent—better to ride an hour every other day than to hammer five hours on Sunday. The volume might be the same, but the adaptation won’t be.

That’s the weekend warrior syndrome—buried in work all week, then trying to make up for it over the weekend. That canmaintain fitness, because as Seiler’s training pyramid tells us, the first and most important layer is simply doing something. Once that’s in place, you can worry about what’s more effective—weekend blocks or shorter sessions spread across the week. But again, it all starts with consistency.

If you have four to five hours a week, the goal should be to vary the training load to avoid falling into routine. If you always do intervals on Tuesday and an easy spin on Thursday, your body will adapt—and once it does, you’ll stop improving. That might take a few weeks or a month, but at that point, you’ll need to change something.

During that initial two-month adaptation period, playing with intensity is the most efficient approach. One hard week with two intense sessions and three easy rides can be very effective. If you can’t add time, add intensity—but don’t let intensity dominate your week. And don’t forget rest weeks, even if they’re unplanned—work, illness, or life stress will force rest anyway. There's a quote I like:“If you don’t make time for movement, you’ll have to make time for illness.”Exercise boosts immunity and builds resilience—even to things like COVID.

Improvement happens when you change something and then recover from it properly. If you’ve only been spinning easy rides, adding intervals or virtual races will increase your training load without increasing total time—and that can drive progress.

When you do your “happy hour” depends on your chronotype—early bird or night owl—and your goals. For instance, a weekly morning ride in a fasted state can support fat metabolism if the intensity stays low.

Fitting training into daily life is tough for hobbyists. You have a job, a family, a social life. The most time-efficient solution is often the lunch ride—because you already have to be at work. If your workplace offers a shower and you can fit in a meal, it’s ideal. Even 45 minutes counts. Activity needs to last at least 30 minutes to have measurable benefits. Five 30-minute rides add up to 2.5 extra hours a week—enough to boost metabolism and aerobic capacity.

If your job doesn’t allow that, it comes down to mornings or evenings. Or maybe your commute—riding to work adds 30 minutes of free movement. It might take 10 minutes longer than driving, but it’s far more efficient for your health.

Even walking helps. When you're out of time for cycling, you won’t build cycling-specific economy anymore—but you can still move. The secret is in muscle contractions—every contraction and relaxation has value.

And yes, even this “little” bit of training is absolutely worth it. The WHO says that just 1.5 hours of moderate-intensity activity per week is enough to maintain cardiovascular health. That’s roughly at 150–160 bpm for most people. That’s not training, but it is disease prevention.

So, what should your training week look like?

If you have four to five hours, include one high-intensity session. YouTube is full of videos with great tips, but I personally prefer longer intervals for hobbyists. They're more effective for building aerobic and ventilatory capacity. Think 4- to 8-minute intervals—that’s the sweet spot. For beginners, even 15–20 minutes of total high-intensity work is enough, and you can build up toward 30 minutes. There’s no need for more—even pros struggle to absorb more than 40 minutes of hard work per session.

Don’t stress about precision. If you ride up a beautiful climb and it takes 8 or 10 minutes—great. That’s the intensity you need. Turn around, descend, and go again. No need to be rigid—your body appreciates variety.

The rest of your rides? Just spin for joy. And spin faster.You don’t need to bounce on the saddle at 130 rpm, but mashing along at 60 isn’t great either. Most people land around 90 rpm, but everyone has a personal sweet spot. Don’t copy van der Poel just because he averages 98 rpm—it might not be right for you.

In Week 1, do one fast ride out of five. Week 2, maybe two. Week 3, none—just recover with four easy hours. Maybe you’re building toward an event and want that rest week to fall just before it. Trust your feelings, not just the numbers.

What if you have two hours?

Few people have two hours every day—but when you do, use it for longer low-intensity rides. Shorter days are ideal for high intensity. But never schedule hard sessions when you’re under mental stress—you want to hit those workouts fresh, focused, and motivated.

If your weekly rhythm is Tuesday–Friday–Saturday–Sunday, don’t do your intervals on Friday. It’s rarely a relaxed day at work. Tuesday is better—after a rest block, your body’s ready.

Most people get their two-hour rides in on weekends, when family time allows it. But group rides come with a catch—they often turn into unofficial races. And that’s fine! Most of us ride because of friends. But push each other for a bit, then relax and enjoy the ride.

Treat group rides as one of your intense sessions, ideally on Saturday, so you can spin easy on Sunday. Avoid doing your longest and hardest rides back-to-back. But if you rack up more weekday hours than weekend ones, it’s fine. If you ride 4 hours on the weekend, aim for 5 during the week.

And what about the legendary three-hour hobby rider? That’s likely a CEO or company director who has the time—or makes it. They’re edging toward pro-level volume. If they ride three hours per day and even more on weekends, they’re logging 20+ hours a week. Pros ride 30.

For the average rider, though, the typical pattern is 3–4 hours on the weekend—classic group rides—and 1–2 quick weekday spins. That’s enough to be ready for the next ride and have fun racing your friends.

Turning point quotes:

It’s still more effective to ride five one-hour sessions every other day than to hammer out five hours on Sunday.A complete beginner only needs 15 to 20 minutes of high intensity—eventually building to 30. Even pros can’t effectively absorb more than 40.Weekends offer those rare two-hour windows—but beware: group rides aren’t always “easy cycling.”