If you had to pick the absolute best workouts from TR library what would you choose? 3 or 4 different ones to do a week I’m thinking. Not following a plan, just fitting in some work when it suits.
I found Zwift has a workout in 30mins that looks good called Emily’s Short Mix:
What you think of it, good enough to keep fitness, or not enough time in each zone? Must be hard to design a 30min workout with little warmup and isn’t an absolute hellfest, but still actually gives you some adaptation…
I highly recommend checking out Time Crunch 30 and Time Crunch 45 plans listed here:
After smacking myself with a 10min hard as I could go today, I’d say that if you only had 45min
20 min warm up
20 min test
5 minute cool down
vo2: Spencer -3 or Huffaker -4
Suprathreshold: Elephants -3, Dicks -3
Over-under / threshold: Prater -4, Carter +3
All those look good. I’m not sure you can get too much value from threshold or tempo work in such a short space of time.
Agree with @KickrLin. I used the Time Crunch 45 last fall for a few months and it was an absolute ball-buster after being off the bike for 2+ months. Probably the best structured workout you’ll find for 45 minutes, 3x a week. Mostly Threshold, VO2max, and Sprint workouts, with minimal recovery between intervals. If I was pinched for time and looking for something in the offseason that didn’t follow a specific target (other than limit you to 45m), then I would go with this.
As someone who needs a bit longer to warmup I had taken to riding the first half of taku then starting something from time crunch 30. This gave me a decent 45 minutes. I know extend warmup is an option…but I like my way 
12 min warm up
4 x 4min on, 4 min off 110-120% of FTP
5 min cool down
or a 10-20 min warm up then 20 x :30-:30 and a 5 min cool down, or 10 x 1:00 on, 1:00 off
in between the hard days, take two days and just ride zone 2 for 45 minute
basically, jam in one good 20-minute set of high intensity between a warm up and cool down, or just use the time crunched plans, which will do the same thing with more variety.
Rather than changing workouts could just load the 30 min workout and add 15 mins to warm up at start. Less hassle that way
I know. As I said…I like my way 
Plus this way there is some variety over the 15 minutes and I know from experience that this approach actually works for me.
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking… might be fun but could ultimately just be a bit of a waste of time compared to loading something with more VO2 work…
Like all out 20 min effort?
I just couldn’t face that too often
Few could. At some point, the CNS takes over and “20 min hard as you can go” means “20 minutes as hard as you can go that day” – if you’re fresh, that means a good, evenly paced 20min test. If you’re not test-day fresh, it probably means 20min at 95-100% of FTP.
“Hard as you can go” is not a set number…it is a set perception of effort, however…