Last year was a big year form me, with almost 6000 miles and my longest ride ever. This year, my focus is on running, as I’m doing a 100miler in August. I’ll be booking 30-60 mile weeks running and a couple strength sessions.
I don’t have any extra time for riding nor do I want to over train, but I miss riding and I’d like to do something. If I want to do the bare minimum riding to minimize FTP loss, and to maintain some MTB skills, what kind of plan should I pick? A single 2ish hour zone 2 ride? A couple 45 min rides with one hard interval set? My run is at altitude, so replacing a run with a VO2Max session might make sense too.
Let’s say you were riding 8 hours a week and want to shift to 3 hours. I think the only way to maintain your same level is to increase intensity. This will come with a cost of needing more recovery. It could interfere with your running program.
Zone 2 needs a lot less recovery but needs more hours to achieve the same.
I would suggest just forgetting about any FTP goals and just ride your bike as you want when you can.
Use it to supplement your base endurance and for a mental break / enjoyment. Don’t attach any goals to it as you are focusing on running. Just accept that your FTP is going to go down (quite possibly a lot), but it will come back relatively quickly when you switch your focus back to the bike.
Last year I was injured twice (12 weeks of zero exercise), was laid off my job and lost all motivation to do anything but ride for fun and lift.
I got my mojo back by the end of the year and I’m actually surprised how quickly the watts are coming back. In 3 months I gained almost 50 watts back from losing 80.
In the end do what makes you happy and gives you the drive to live a happy healthy life.
Forget about your ftp and do some fun rides but at least I could recommend doing a long ride 3+ hours at least once a month.
I am in somewhat similar situation but different goal, to restore upper body muscular endurance (i.e. low strength long efforts)
My approach:
winter/spring: low intensity SkiErg double poling for upper body initial endurance + 2-3x week anaerobic/vo2max workouts to maintain cycling fitness as much as possible
summer/autumn: switch again to very high volume Z2-Z4 cycling + twice a week high intensity intervals on SkiErg
In other words, reverse periodization for cycling and slowly building up upper body endurance and maintaining during summer.
If your focus is on running a 100 miler, I’d second @Power13’s suggestion to forget about FTP on the bike.
You’ll be building fitness while running, and since your target goal will focus more on your running FTP (Functional Threshold Pace ? ) your fitness on the bike really isn’t relevant.
Cycling can be an excellent form of cross-training though! If you’re a cyclist getting into running, it can be an especially great thing to incorporate into your routine. In fact, many 100-mile plans give the option to cross-train up to two days a week…
Instead of separating running and cycling though, combine and focus them both towards the same goal. They can both improve your running and cycling abilities in their own ways.
In other words, build one training plan that includes running and cycling. Alternating between running and cycling is a good idea, and each day should contribute to your plan.
Trying to use bike workouts to focus on bike fitness and running workouts to focus on running fitness really isn’t necessary and will likely start to create a less-than-ideal plan.
) your fitness on the bike really isn’t relevant.