Best way to add time/miles to low volume plan for maximum fitness?

Training
1

I can only train three days a week on the bike (Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays) but I can add time/miles onto the typical 90-minute Saturday sessions and every other week I can add time/miles onto the typical 60-minute weekday sessions too.

Which option below would you go with to build maximum fitness and why?

OPTION 1 — Maximize Hours
(28 hrs per 4 week load + rest cycle)
Week 1: 3 hrs Mon, 3 hrs Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 2: 1 hrs Mon, 1 hrs Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 3: 3 hrs Mon, 3 hrs Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 4: 1 hrs Mon, 1 hrs Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Repeat

OPTION 2 — Maximize Consistency
(20 hrs per 4 week load + rest cycle)
Week 1: 1 hr Mon, 1 hr Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 2: 1 hr Mon, 1 hr Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 3: 1 hr Mon, 1 hr Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 4: 1 hr Mon, 1 hr Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Repeat

OPTION 3 — Consistent Hours Weekly Via Daily Variability
(24 hrs per 4 week load + rest cycle)
Week 1: 2 hrs Mon, 2 hrs Thurs, 2 hrs Sat
Week 2: 1 hrs Mon, 1 hrs Thurs, 4 hrs Sat
Week 3: 2 hrs Mon, 2 hrs Thurs, 2 hrs Sat
Week 4: 1 hrs Mon, 1 hrs Thurs, 4 hrs Sat
Repeat

TrainerRoad’s low volume BBS plan progression will be my foundation for intensity. Bonus miles/time will be mostly Z2 but definitely at or below sweet spot.

Posted a similar question before but it was a bit convoluted and hyper-specific. Cleaned it up and hopefully made it more applicable to everyone else with time-crunched schedules looking to maximize fitness. Thanks so much for any help or input. It is greatly appreciated.

2

Are your Mondays and Thursdays sessions indoors and Saturday outdoors?

I can’t imagine doing 3 hours indoors on a regular basis is much fun, so I would avoid option 1. I do like the idea of a 4-hour outdoor ride twice a month for aerobic adaption (and because its nice to actually ride your bike now and then), so option 3 for me. I don’t think the variable time over a 14 day period is something to worry about.

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3

I recall Coach Chad in a recent podcast saying one of the best ways to add volume would be to do 10-15 minutes extra zone 2 work at the end of each workout. You’re already warmed up and wearing cycling kit, so the extra time is ALL spent training (versus adding another training session each week). And your muscles are already fatigued after say, 1 hr of intense training, and you would be getting the same aerobic adaptations that it might have taken 3-4 hours of endurance riding to get, for not a whole lot more training stress.

5 Likes
4

Exactly what I was going to say :+1:

Personally I would do everything in my power to avoid 3 hours on the trainer so option one isn’t something I’d recommend.

I’m doing something similar to your second option but I have more time flexibility and do three one hour intense sessions per week, each followed by an hour+ of endurance the following day. Sunday is always my biggest/longest ride.

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5

Any session over 1.5-2 hrs would be done outdoors. 90 minutes on the trainer is cake but much past 2 hours and I’m pretty well done. Good question and great input guys!

6

Do you have to do all your day’s training in one go, or could you split it into 2 sessions (morning and evening)?

That way you could do 90 minutes of sweetspot work on Saturday morning, and then another 90 minutes of Z1/2 endurance work in the evening. Might make it a bit more manageable, and has been suggested it can have big training benefits.

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7

Would definitely be all in one shot. I’d rather do 3 hrs at once even on the trainer rather than split it up. Just a personal preference thing.

8

In that case my suggestion would be…

OPTION 4 — Consistent Hours Weekly Via Daily Variability (tweaked)
(24 hrs per 4 week load + rest cycle)
Week 1: 1.5 hrs Mon, 1.5 hrs Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 2: 1 hrs Mon, 1 hrs Thurs, 4 hrs Sat
Week 3: 1.5 hrs Mon, 1.5 hrs Thurs, 3 hrs Sat
Week 4: 1 hrs Mon, 1 hrs Thurs, 4 hrs Sat

It sounds like your weekdays are fairly busy, so even if you DO have time, I worry that an extra hour on the bike after your hour of intervals is going to be mentally very tough to keep doing week in week out. So I changed the 2-hour weekday sessions to 90 minutes and added an hour onto Saturday, which you can do outdoors and enjoy more.

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9

Can I piggyback on this topic?
I am looking at getting some more training done this upcoming winter. I have followed LV plans for the last 2-3 winters with good results. I commute all year around so I get about 90 minutes (40+50) of “endurance” riding each day. I don’t have time to train more than 3 days so “upping” to MV is not an option. I DO however have the option of extending each workout.

So I was think that I could do the 90 minute version of the workout in place of the 60 min where this is scheduled. SO each week I would to 3x90 min workouts.

Anybody else done this with success?

10

Great idea! I know most of the outdoor routes I have around here need a 2 hr ride to get out and back into town but I could abbreviate them and/or find some new routes fairly easily. That opens up some of the weekdays I have off to get other things done instead of just cramming in as much time on the bike as possible. I like it!

11

Just realized I could make this all fit my schedule even better if I shift the layout from Mon/Thurs/Sat to Thurs/Sat/Mon.

Week 1: Thurs 1 hrs, Sat 3 hrs, Mon 2 hrs
Week 2: Thurs 2 hrs, Sat 3 hrs, Mon 1 hrs
Week 3: Thurs 1 hrs, Sat 3 hrs, Mon 2 hrs
Week 4: Thurs 2 hrs, Sat 3 hrs, Mon 1 hrs
Repeat

Subtle change but one that matters as I’d be looking at my weeks as Thursday-Wednesday rather than Monday-Sunday per the typical TrainerRoad plan layout.

I’d still be at 24 hrs training per four week cycle. All 1 hr rides indoors, 2 hr rides could go either way, 3 hr Saturday rides would be outside (weather permitting). Rigid TrainerRoad structure on the weekdays, sticking as closely as possible to the plan on the outdoor weekend rides with added sub-threshold riding added on.

Anyone see any glaring issues with this approach?

I take it I’m best served doing the harder low volume 1hr Thursday-prescribed workouts on Thursdays, doing the hardest Saturday workouts on Saturdays, and shuffling the slightly easier Tuesday-prescribed 1hr workouts to Mondays and hanging on for dear life before a couple of days of recovery. Or are there benefits to capping off a chunk of training prior to two days off with as hard a workout as possible? Thoughts?