Hi all,
I’ve just subscribed to trainerroad to see if I can jimmy it into adding some value for me despite my less than optimal ride schedule. I need some opinions to see if, and how, I can make this work.
Personal context first - I’ve been a road cyclist for 4-5 years now, and rode most of them with a power meter. I have to ride around 2x physio-prescribed cycling specific gym days each week that are maximal leg strength efforts and thus add plenty of fatigue. In addition, although I race rarely, it isn’t a focus for me. Rather, I enjoy some specific fairly ‘spicy’ group rides each week that are what make cycling worth doing for me. It’s fun to go fast in these rides - it is to that end that I am trying to increase the level of structure/intelligence in my training, without axing those rides from my schedule, which looks like the below:
Mon: Rest
Tues: ~1Hr intense training ride (race sim), near maximal NP for that hour, made up of a lot of V02 and anaerobic efforts between sitting in the draft at around 70% FTP. After it finishes, ~1 hr of rest at the coffee shop, then time for 1-1.5hrs of structured training on the road
Wed: Gym. Most weeks, fatigue from this will effect my Thursday ride, although I do try to get this gym visit in on Tuesday evening where possible.
Thurs: Opportunity for 1-2 hrs structured training. Currently I usually do a pretty easy Thursday rather than anything too extreme, e.g. riding outside to the tune of around 75-90% NP for ~1-1.5hrs)
Fri: Rest
Sat: Varies between 2 key options:
Option a: 1hr race sim similar to Tuesday, followed by 20-30 minutes easy riding/recovery then ~1-1.5hrs at more like Sweetspot NP (but this is still a group ride so it’s varying between VO2 efforts and 50-70% FTPin the draft. Just a little less spicy than the first ride. Usually pretty cooked after doing this double effort, so no structured training after this.
Option b: ~1.5-2 hrs groupride at around sweetspot NP, followed by opportunity for structured training on the road similar to Tuesday.
Sun: Repeat of hard Gym day from Wednesday. May occasionally be dropped for a ride/race, could possibly add 1-1.5 hrs structured training in here, but I usually intend to be pretty cooked after Saturday regardless.
So as you can see, the 2-4 opportunities per week for structured training are each in some way compromised by fatigue from previous rides. Despite this, I do already do intervals (the basic ones you find from google) in these identified gaps, so if I can set up a trainerroad plan that will help me choose the most effective ones, that could add some serious value to my training.
The best thought I have right now is to pick the low volume plans and try to bolt their intervals onto the ends of rides or into thursday where they will fit, but it would be great to hear some thoughts on how to do this, or if I Should do this, as it may be somewhat of a lost cause?
Thanks!