I’ve been doing 1hr version of the same, on rollers. Definitely need the distraction of something to watch while getting through back to back sessions of z2. Practice different cadences with low wattages, I like pushing my cadence as high as comfortable, then switching to my preferred cadence and below. Practice standing, and even one legged drills and no handed riding - it doesn’t necessarily to outside skills but it helps occupy the mind.
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Thank you very much for this detailed analysis and your suggestions. i will think about it. So far I guess I will move on to the SSB LV2 after I completed LV1 and will add sessions to get to about 8h per week and appropriate TSS.
Thanks a lot!
For what it is worth, as another type 1 diabetic:
I went to TB MV2 (and subsequently 3) after completing SSB1 MV - mostly because the intensity was too much for me in week 4 and 5 of SSB MV, the constant SS and OUs really pressure my blood sugar low and I had to temporarily abort many sessions to eat sugar - this is not very motivating and I lost motivation completely since I knew before the hard workouts that it was a 70% risk to fail. I have tried SSB1 LV before, for me I lost fitness due to too little work (for me!) but still had the same problems with blood sugar during SS/OU days.
Now I’m done with week 1 of TB MV and I like it so far, yes it requires a lot of Netflix, but I do not have to fuel anymore than just making sure I had a decent breakfast (oats or similiar) and preferably a carb rich lunch before the saturday session. Then add about 40g of carbs/hour during the work out and my blood sugar is really stable. I’m still tired after one week, there is a lot of Tempo in there, but not the kind of tired that makes me nervous if I mess up my sleep even a little bit.
Also should add that I enjoy intensity, but mostly above threshold and Vo2 efforts: Those suit me as a person, but they are also easy to manipulate with sugar since they are not sustained over hours constantly pushing you lower.
My 2 Euro cents and some food for thought.
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Great, thank you for sharing your experiences. Did you not feel to loose some fitness with so much less high intensity workouts in TB? I feel like my muscles really are triggered to grow doing many SS and higher effort session and fear I will feel less of that doing lower effort workouts.
Too early to tell at this moment. However I’m not really worried about that, the intensity is lower but the TSS is about the same or higher and there is more time in the saddle. It is a different kind of tiredness. And it is easier now to add some gym work with heavy squats now that I do not have to be hypervigilant about recovery or feeling bogged down by SS.
To each their own though, if the SSB’s work for you and your T1 do not mind them (like mine does) then I see no reason to change.
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Actually SSB only works out as bearable and fun when I fuel properly. But eating loads of carbs is something which I do not feel very comfortable with. So I am looking for a way how to trigger muscle and fitness growth without being forced to eat loads of carbs.
Since I started SSB LV (with plenty of Z2 rides added) my daily insuline units almost doubled. That I do not like.
Can maybe try to add a day or 2 with gym work (deadlifts, Squats mainly) if you are not doing it already, and switch some of the SS rides for Z2 and Z3 now that the Gym added muscle work. I’m no coach at all, just an idea from how I work around my T1.
Gym has the bonus of not really needing and additional carbs if you just had some decent meals of food as usual. And for me, it keeps my blood sugar levels lower for hours afterwards, which bike WO’s do not.
There is however this pandemic raging at the moment, so gym availability is very … dependant on where you live I guess.
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I’m wrapping up TB3 MV (riding mount Alice as we speak). I found the time commitment mentally tough but achievable with the COVID work from home setup. Even though you don’t really get into any kind of sweet spot and threshold stuff until TB3, I find that I’m able to do the 85-95% efforts with no drama. The 100-105% efforts are tough, but that’s to be expected with ftp repeats. Short power build is coming so we will see how I do with vo2 stuff but for now I feel good, dare I say fresh
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Thank you all. I am a bit terrified of the idea to do 3h workouts indoors on rollers.
So would it be more or less the same if I would follow the TH plan with lets say 4 rides a week peeking in 3h rides… or splitting this super long ride into two days ending up doing 6days a week 90 minute rides?
You could but won’t get the same benefit from taking a 3 hour ride and turning it into two 1.5h rides on consecutive days. That said it’s better than skipping that 3h totally
The long rides get very manageable. 2 hour rides don’t feel “long” anymore whereas in SSB they’d be the longest of my calendar. That said they would be more intense during SSB than TB but don’t let the time put you off. My ride today is 3:30, I’m currently 1:45 in and I don’t feel like “omg it’s so long”. Find something to occupy your mind, I usually listen to random JRE Podcasts
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…or browse the forum 
Thx!
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Should I skip the I version of TB and go directly to II?
And: I am pushing all the workouts as “outside” version to my Bolt and do them inside on my rollers. Sometimes at TB a 2:30 ride becomes a 3:45h ride. That seems a lot and probably not necessary since actually I am inside but the software does not know that. Right?
You could skip TB1 but I just mixed it up instead of doing the same thing 4x a week I found rides with similar length/IF. I put in a lot of outdoor fun miles in the summer and fall so TB1 was a good transition for me.
Browse the forum sparingly, unless you want the constant bickering between mental elites to make you question “am I doing this right”
Why not stock to the indoor versions for indoor?
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Because I enjoy using TR on my Bolt. Gives me clean data, no Smartphone hassle. I like to put my phone aside once office and working tome is over. I also never read the in ride instructions, switched it always off.
Unfortunately so far TR does not offer a “do the workout indoors on your bikecomputer” option
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Yes, a 2.5 hour ride inside is a 2.5 hour ride on rollers. TR’s outside conversion assumes a LOT of stops and coasting. Their assumptions don’t apply to using a bike computer on an inside workout, and people like me that only have a couple minutes downtime on long outside rides.
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Once 2,5h Z2 was 4h outside version propsed to me (do no remember the workout but I do remember how surprised I was). I cannot imagine 1,5h of coasting when with my flat as a pancake terrain and sub-urban roads I ride usually it is about 5min of coasting.
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- 88 minutes up
- 16 minutes coasting on the downhill (average speed 35mph / 56km/h)
- 1 hour and 44 minutes total
15% coasting.
A better example…
- 2.5 hours pedaling mostly uphill on 4500ft / 1370m climb
- 1 hour stopped or coasting, was underdressed and a cold front moved in 12 hours early so I kept descent at 20mph / 32km/h to avoid freezing to death
- 3.5 hours total
About 28% coasting.
Mountains? And maybe if you lived in New York City and hit a lot of traffic lights? 
Here I definitely agree. That is why I am waiting for a workout creator with ability for outside workours. I was doing outside version with TP to fit the terrain and circumstances.
Or live in San Francisco, and have both: lots of hills / mountains, and lots of stop lights. So my outside rides all have tons of coasting / “active recovery”.
For example using one of my Festive 500 rides:
- Duration = 6:49:37
- Distance = 17.69 miles
- Coasting = 1:22:58
- Active Recovery = 1:12:36
So over a third was coasting / active recovery.
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Sure I dip a bit into active recovery but I also go over into tempo. Our bodies aren’t robots, it all comes out in the wash from my point-of-view. Taking a 2.5 hour endurance ride to 4 hours is a bit overboard to my zoneology think.