2 times 1 hour or 3 times 45mn per week?

Training
1

Hi !

I’ve been using TR for a year now, and although I was a hopeless noob (trust me), I can say that hours of training and listening to the podcast has given me a clearer understanding of what I want from my training and my motivation to support it.

I don’t compete and mostly ride by myself, but I do enjoy numbers and I do like to at least maintain fitness. That’s why the time crunch programm (and train now) is perfect for me. 3 times 45 mn is doable and challenging enough. But I realize that in a typical week, I’ll scratch a 45mn workout for a 2hour week-end ride.

And I was wondering if there was a big difference in physiology adaptation between 3 45mn workouts every couple of days, and two 1 hour workouts twice a week ? Tss seems comparable, but I know you can’t judge intervals just by looking at TSS

Anyway, I feel better really nailing one hour workouts instead of skipping from time to time that third 45mn workout of the week. So that got me curious

What I can say is that my fitness has been quite stable for the past 4 months (ftp unchanged)

2

My WAG is that the frequency of 3x45 trumps 2x60.

3

Why not 3x1h workouts? I guess skipping occasionally the third workout of the week has nothing to do with those extra 15’, so do 1h and 3x when possible.
Options:

  • LV plan and find a 60’ alternate to the 1,5h weekend workout.
  • Time crunched 45 plan with +15’@Z2 or Z1 added at the end when possible. I’m currently doing this (with added Z2 workouts) to experiment a little and enjoying it.
4

Frequency trumps most things so I’d say 3x45 is better than 2x60…3x60 even better and could you not find those extra 15 mins each session…

5

consistency rules. 4 x 30! (if we’re really dealing with just 2h a week!)

but yeah, 3 x 45m is my vote