What are you training for?

If its just to have an alrite level of cycling fitness, then just ride your bike as hard as you can when you can (obviously not ever day though)

3 times per week would do.

What are you training for?

effectively this...

Fitness-wise I am being left behind by my regular riding buddies who I was on a par with before I started this pattern.

3 times per week would do

Kind of my point-I work 7 days in a row, this set and the previous set were 3 lates into 4 nights (we get to sleep into our first rest day, very generous). I am stuggling to do anything on these shifts, so thats two "weeks" of not riding, with a 3 or 4 day "weekend" in between. The week before these I worked 'earlies' and managed to get out 5 times including the weekend.

The problem is excerbated by the pattern being a complicated one that varies over 7 weeks so establishing any kind of routine is a disaster, and at the minute its feast and famine which I [s]doubt[/s] can see is not producive.

Do you have a road bike? Its a bit easier to sneak a ride in with one.

Get a turbo trainer. Get some bike lights. I guess make sure you ride your bike when you have a spare moment, come day or night.

Even a hard hour would do it. Make the most of it.

You don't say what hours you do, I did shifts and found it okay but lonely. At least you know what hours you are doing? which is a bonus. And something I envy.
IIRC I commuted and trained properly on the commute. Lots of roller work, big Saturdays or Sundays. And went with the miles when the shifts went in my favour.
Nowadays I never know if I can make a certain day or not. And grab them when I can tired or not.

My problem is the opposite... I work 3 to 4 12.5 hour shifts a week, on a busy hospital ward. It can get pretty wearing, but the upside is having days off during the week - and riding empty trails! 😀

I don't know how I'd cope with a 9-5, mon-fri, work pattern.

Just built winter road bike, and did inaugural night road ride a couple of weeks ago. I work through a 24hr day, 0700-1500 (which is like half a day compared to my old pattern), 1400-2300 and 2200-0700. Sadly too far to commute by bike (20+ miles each way dual carriageway, longer on back roads).

depends on the shift pattern i guess.

Used to do 8 hours shifts on a rolling basis, 6-2, 2-10 and 10-6, night shift screwed me up. But the early/late part was nice, on an early finish get out on the bike, which at this time of year was still in daylight, with late's it meant a decent ride before work. Nights, i just couldn't do anything.

Worked shifts for years. It isn't easy, particularly when friends invite you along for an evening or weekend ride and you can't go. Maintaining bike fitness is possible with a bit of planning. I commute by bike whenever possible on earlies and nights and do spin classes on the morning of lateshifts. Rarely on a mountainbike now though, so trail skills and confidence are non-existent.

I used to work a much more regular shift - days only, 12.5hrs doing Thurs - Sat, Mon - Wed then a week off then repeat. Meant I did nothing but commuting for the week on but that was made up for by the week off.

Key with shifts is planning ahead - you know when you're going to be free so that makes it reasonably easy. The pattern gets easier after a while, you'll soon get into the routine of it then your riding will come back.

And get a road bike, makes it a lot simpler to just get out, even if it's just for an hours spin.

Hello CTM. I work shifts, 6 on/4 off, lates/earlies/nights, 2 of each, and I love it.
Gives me so much more usable 'me' time than I seemed to have doing 9-5, I ride far more (in the summer especially) than I used to.
The trick for me is to cultivate more than one set of riding buddies, one week I can get out with Group A on a Wednesday night, the next week it's Group B on a Thursday and so on. Joined a couple of MTB clubs, so sometimes I can make Club A's events and sometimes Club B's.
I'm trying to cross-pollenate them a bit so that some of each group get to know some of the others etc.
Sometimes I'll organise a ride on a day/evening that suits me and invite all of them.
I find that on days in the winter where the weather is pants I'll do someting else, I belong to a gym so stuff like swimming, pushing weights around, turbo-trainer (in my garage), Spinning, circuit training.
I seem to be quite lucky in that I can survive on relatively little sleep and have no problem sleeping at home during the day. I'm motivated enough (like this morning) to set my alarm to get in the pool by 8am, then weights, then lunch, then work by 2pm. Rather than lying around in bed. Tomorrow is an early so I'll be circuit training in the evening after work and then I'll ride Friday morning before bed for a few hours and then a night shift.
Between the two nights I struggle to do anything on the way home in the morning, too tired, I'd rather sleep til 3ish and then go for a ride, or the gym, or ride back to work for the next night shift at 9:30.
Having said that, I do love going for a swim on my way home after a night (35 mins or so) so pretty quick and then it's really nice to snuggle up in bed afterwards especially when it's peeing down and blowing a gale outside and every other bugger is on their way to work.
I commute regularly-ish, but invariably end up on the road going at least one way in the dark so really I prefer to ride earlier/later in the day in my own time off road on trails I choose rather than 'have' to ride to work.
Although I did have some magical evening commutes in the summer on the mountain bike on the canal towpath, so much nicer than the road, riding into the dusk, watching the lights come on, boats on the canal, pub gardens etc.
Sorry that was all a bit long-winded, but in summary :
1. Find different groups of people to ride with.
2. Try other stuff than just riding. Variety is the spice etc. I think actually that ddoing a variety of stuff is really beneficial.
3. Be flexible, even if you only have an hour, go for a run, turbo, a good stretch, anything is better than nothing.
Give us a shout if I can be or any more help.
Cheers
🙂

2. Try other stuff than just riding.

The problem with this is you're just wasting time you could actually be spending on your bike!

The Wrong Trousers, that shift pattern is brilliant it was what I used to do, could easily exercise on earlies then lates and have nights as RD's. Problem is CTW will do 3 lates and 4 nights, it's the nights taht screw him, he can't sleep so when he is up just spends the early evening (before work) feeling like he has a hangover so hard to drag yourself out to do anything. I suggested that he needs to smash himself on the lates even if he's tired and do enough to use nights RD's then he may also find he sleeps better. It really is hard trying to do any "normal" exercise on a shift pattern, I know people say plan but sometimes that isn't alwasy easy either. Problem is when you have 3 days off mid week and work nights on the weekend Wrong Trosuers there is noone to go out with!!!

Yeah I agree M-C, I'm lucky in that respect. Each to their own I guess. Dunno what time his lates start but there's three mornings right there when he could do something. For me, the more I lie around the house/bed the worse I feel, so perhaps dragging himself out for ride (or something else) before a nightshift would improve how he feels over time and he'd begin feel better.
I would struggle to sleep during the day before my first nightshift if I didn't do something energetic, have to ride or something in the morning then hit the sack for a few hours and get up about 6. So maybe CTW should try doing something after a nightshift and before bed to make himself properly tired.
It's surpsrising how often I can find somebody else to ride with mid-week too with the above multiple group sceanrio. And if not, well, I have no problem riding alone, just me and the trails and the music. Just plan in a coffee or a lunch stop for some human interaction.

Have worked shifts for 32yrs and would seem to be one of those people who can manage on just a few hrs sleep, something my son would appear to have inherited 😆
During this time I have biked, played squash and badminton, became a swimming teacher, MBL, Bikeability instructor, brought up 2 kids, been on car club, squash club committees and kids school board.
I know some of my colleagues need more rest than I do and rarely do much in the way exercise. 🙄

but there's three mornings right there when he could do something. For me, the more I lie around the house/bed the worse I feel, so perhaps dragging himself out for ride (or something else) before a nightshift would improve how he feels over time and he'd begin feel better.

I think this is it. Because I do a week of lates/nights followed by another week of the same my sleep pattern tends to stay messed up around nights (ie. I am wide awake at 3am), so on the mornings of the second week of lates (come on keep up 😉 ) I am sleeping in. Reckon I need to force myself to get up and do something those mornings which might tire me out and give me control over my sleep pattern.

Cheers all.