Anyone here riding weekdays only? Back to back difficult rides?

I wonder if there’s anyone on the same boat. I live in a VERY hilly area. While it’s really fun to free ride it on warmer days, it’s near impossible to stick to a structured training ride outside for me. The quiet roads are very close but require near threshold efforts to get out to. Then during the intervals I’m dealing with 3% descends when I’m supposed to push 350 watts or 8% uphill when I’m supposed to recover. All in all it’s a mess and frustrates someone OCD like me who wants to stick 100% to the plan.

So when I do my interval training, I’m on my trainer. Period. I don’t even mind “being stuck” inside.

Here’s the catch. I live in an apartment but work from home. I have 5 week days when I can ride any time I want before 6pm which is when my downstairs neighbor comes home. Weekends though are out of the question because of the noise I’d be making above her living room.

I have signed up and created my first training program on TR today. Mid Volume Base I then I’ll do the Base II once that’s over. However my rides are done in 5 weekdays with 2 weekend days off. Is this too much back to back hard rides? FWIW I have done 3 years of Sufferfest and I seem to take 2 hard days back to back pretty well as long as I can take a break or very easy recovery day the 3rd day. With this schedule I’d also have 2 days off the bike on the weekend which would mean I’m pretty fresh come monday. Though I’ve never done back to back hard days in a week for 6 weeks. It’s been here and there.

I’m sure it’ll be a try and see kind of deal but wanted to consult to see if anyone thinks this is a bad idea to begin with.

If you do what you’re suggesting, I’d at the very least change the order so the easy workout is the 3rd out of 5 each week. So in week 2 you’d go Ericsson, Carson, Carter, Tunemah, Leavitt +2.

However I don’t believe you can’t go outside and get a fruitful session. If going up hills takes you into threshold, then do them at 50-60rpm. Low cadence drills are a great base training addition.

I’m happy to ride outside! Just thought it would be too much on top of the mid volume,

As for replacing outside ride with inside, there’s not much I can do when I’m going downhill 5% and the interval calls for 300+ watts. Uphill as you mentioned is more manageable but not so much on downhills. Also with cars and lights and all that, it’s just messy. I tried this before to be clear couple years ago when I first got into structured training. Even in flatter less busy roads back then where I lived, it wasn’t very possible. Right now it’s even more of a struggle.

I guess then another solution is to do low volume + 2 outside rides one being recovery the other one being just a free long ride.

That said I meant to mention that but forgot. The way I have it exactly what you have laid out. Easy ride mid week.

I would do low volume and do 2 outdoor rides or even MV and cut a ride out of the plan and replace with an outdoor one. Whatever gets you to whatever outdoor rides keeps you happy.

Welcome and enjoy the TR journey as I know I have for sure. For what its worth I do LV and tack on some outdoor rides when I can between my other tri stuff.

Thank you! Honestly looking at it from a hours / TSS wise I think I can do mid volume 5 weekdays and add a outside ride on the weekend. I’m very used to 400-500 weeks with 7 hours of riding on weekdays. Warmer months I take it up to 600s and 9-10 hours.

Seems like 5 hours TR during the week and 2 hours on Saturday isn’t that outrageous. At least in the base phase.

Yeah and adjust as necessary as some of the ssb workouts can be pretty tough. Build phase depending on what you pick can really be a challenge.

Good thing is there are alternate versions of most workouts if needed and it is easy to move them around in the calendar via a computer.

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If it were me I would do the usual Sat/Sun workouts on Mon/Tue when you are fresh, then Weds do a short recovery workout below 55% ftp, then do the usual Tue/Thu workouts on Thu/Fri. You’d be skipping the Weds endurance ride. This is based on fatigue dependent training (Fatigue Dependent Training Plan Design – FasCat Coaching)

Makes sense! And yeah I’ve changed things around to reflect that.

Intense (hardest of the week) > Less Intense > Break > Intense > Less Intense > Free Outside Weekend ride (1.5-2 hours tops) depending on how it feels. Mostly easy though. > Break

Schedule starts tomorrow with ramp test! Guess best way is to try and listen to my body. Not ridden as long as a lot of people but it’s been 5 years with training focus so I’m hoping I can avoid some of the pitfalls this season!

In the winter, I train and ride inside only (because snow, ice, cold), and I do it almost during the week (because weekends = out to ski). I do low volume plans, first 2 workouts Monday-Tuesday, a Zwift group ride Thursday, and the long/hard workout Friday. All workouts early in the morning (5:30). It works for my needs, which may or may not be yours.

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