2 hours total of indoor a week (in combination with outside) - Which workouts?

Hey,

So with the summer now here in Sweden, motivation to ride indoors has gone down (first warm week here now, so everyone is super excited to ride outside without spring kit).

But, I want to keep doing TrainerRoad during this whole year…

I ride 8-12 hours a week, and have been doing mix indoor and outside until the temperature outside has gotten nice and warm. Realised as well how damn well SSB works, since I have been putting out much higher average watts outside - great!

But to my question, if I want to spend 2 hours a week total indoors, what would benefit me the most if I mix it with outside rides. Usually ride between 2-3 hours per ride outside, IF 0.8-0.86 usually. Mostly alone or with someone, so there isn’t much coasting…

I was thinking of doing either a SSB 1 och 2 plan, but remove the 1.5h ride, and only do the 1h rides… Would this be a good idea?

With the SSB2 plan I would get in one SS/Threshold and one V02 Max a week within the 2 hours.

Here is screenshot of my 2020:

Last week was first week in a while that I didn’t do any TR workouts…

Thanks!

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Quite a lot of variables here, particularly the timing of the indoor and outdoor weeks. Can you give an idea of how the typical week would stack up, Monday - Sunday?

Ideally you would follow the same TR plan but do the workouts outside when you want to do some outdoor riding. Then just fill in all the extra hours with Z2 (~70%). I’ve been feeling really good recently by doing my workouts outside then just getting in an extra hour or so as I ride home in Z2. Then throwing in some long Z2 rides in between.

Hey!

So I usually ride 3-5 times a week, depending on intensity and length. Here are the past 2 weeks.

Last week left me quite tired due to intensity and length of the rides. Excited to be putting out more watts after the past 2 months of TR!

So usually 3 rides during the week, shorter 1-1.5 hours since it fits nicely with lunch and not getting home too late in the evening. And then the longer rides are on the weekend. Either 1 or 2 rides that are about 3 hours or 80-100km.

Been thinking of this as well, but TR for me is training - and riding outside is for enjoyment.

I feel that if I start doing my TR rides as outdoor rides, it’ll lose some of the “fun” in just riding outside - plus got a little bit to get to good roads for intervals… At least 20-30min to get to some place where I can do intervals without red lights etc. :expressionless:

Ok so I’d rest Monday, then just insert the Tuesday and Thursday workouts (or 1 hour versions of them) from whatever base or build plan you want, and between them, do an easy (IF 0.7 or below) solo outdoor ride on Wednesday. Rest Friday, then 2 outdoor rides at the weekend with a bit more intensity.

(But also maybe think how you could incorporate a little bit of the structure from the TR plans into your outdoor weekend riding.)

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Would it be too much intensity to do dual training on certain days? Lets say I do a 1.5h ride outside at night after I’ve done a trainer ride inside during lunch?

Just wondering due to the fact that one ride outside a during the week might be a little too little :wink:

Maybe it would be wise to keep it under IF 0.7 if I do more riding outside?

Yeah, but as you say, as long as the second ride is just steady.

In fact I did exactly that on Tuesday. 1 hour tempo first thing in the morning (0.81 IF), then 1hr43 outside after work (0.63 IF).

The other way to keep a lid on intensity on the outdoor rides is watch your heart rate. That can be easier, especially outside on varied gradients. My general rule is to try to keep it at or below 70% of my maximum, and maybe let it slip up to 75% of max if there’s a hill I really need to get up.

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Put together the following! :grin:

Any thoughts on the choice of workouts? (Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting next week)

Looks like a good progression. It all depends on how much you want to challenge yourself, and how much you want to leave in the tank for the weekend.

If you want the Tues and Thu workouts to be more challenging and more likely to result in fitness gains, I’d maybe try to peak at .92 IF for the vo2 sessions and .85 for the sweetspot sessions in week 4.

If you have small hills that match the interval duration I would do the intervals outside, I have found that I can put out approximately 10% more power on the intervals outside. And I then do my z2 rides inside so that there is no interruption…

My advice would be to pick a low volume plan that has 3 rides/week. Add 1 long outdoor ride and do one of the planned workouts like threshold or sweet spot outside. I’m doing something similar and really like it. Imo this gives you the benefit of a proven structured plan whilst still enjoying the outdoors.

so if your tight on time and can only do 2 work out in the SSLV what would you target ?

I have actually stopped with TrainerRoad and got a coach…

But since October with a coach, the trend is to do 1 muscle endurance workout a week (30s hard 2min rest), and then 1 workout is 3-4 tempo intervals @ 8min or so…

The rest is Zone 2 :slight_smile:

This has been the general way I have done work the last few months, he usually throws in 1 longer Zone 2 ride on the weekend (2,5 hours) and then the rest of the Zone 2 rides are about 1h 15min or 1h 30min during the weekday.

Usually end up with about 7-8 hours of riding a week.