Im running into a catch-22, where TR workouts are so productive that id almost rather just stick to the program and do them inside, even as the weather turns nice. I live in the city and it takes at least a 45min ride to find anywhere to do 10+min efforts without stoplights breaking up intervals, so doing 60min of sweetspot outside turns into a 3hr+ ride. Thats fine when i have the time, but when i know 1:30 indoors would be a better workout, sometimes its tempting, even when its nice out.
Between a threshold and sweet spot workout, which is more beneficial to hit perfectly (inside) vs doing it just ok, where you might miss a few intervals, might not complete each on target, etc (outside)? How is everyone handling moving their workouts outdoors?
I don’t worry too much about it - a 9min threshold is still going to be effective, just not as much as a 10min one. Plus there’s all the natural variation of riding outside that provides a benefit even if it’s not “structured”. Last summer I did the Polarised Plans - the threshold workouts called for a 16min effort but the only road I could do that on was 14mins so I just pushed a little harder.
I live in a hilly area - 20m ascent per Km is a baseline around here - so the hardest workouts to do outdoors for me are those long steady state Sweet Spot or Tempo efforts: when your route has a 16% climb and a 16% descent or is rolling they are nigh on impossible.
You just have to be flexible about things: use lights at intersections for hard start intervals; etc.
Last year I did mainly endurance workouts outdoors and kept the HIIT stuff for indoors mainly (I broke the rule during exceptionally good weather). This year will probably be the same. This week is finally starting to be good weather and its started exceptionally so, so I’ll probably take my workouts outdoors. I’ll likely fail to reach the power targets (particularly on descents) until I get used to the TT bike again and I’ll mark them as a fail but in the longer term I think its better for my bike handling and mental strength so I won’t be stressing about it.
1.5 years ago I crashed trying to do an 2x8 min ftp test, I think I was just to focused on the test and not enough on the road.
I don’t think I’ll do hard intervals outside but i do some of the endurance rides outside. I don’t really stick to a particular power but try to keep my heart rate below tempo
Next year I’ll start TR earlier though as I don’t race and will have finished a complete cycle before the weather turns nice
I ended up doing 2x20 @ 88% inside and instead of doing the last 20min interval, i just went outside for 1.5hr. I probably got in a total of another 20min @ 88%, but definitely not a consistent effort. Some is always better than none, but im guessing thats not going to drive adaptation like doing the entire workout as prescribed.