Make your wknd rides your priority and build your weekly training plan around them. Allow time for rest. Add weekday TR workouts that complement the wknd work with the missing pieces (VO2 Max, etc).
The power of following a plan is that it takes you through a progression AND helps you understand what type of training works for your body. If you start doing too much of your own thing then its easy to end up nowhere.
If adding rides my approach is:
-Keep weekly TSS within 75 of plan
-Add more of what current training focus is (IE sweet spot)
-Z2 or lower (so as not to keep me from accomplishing plan workouts)
Right now I’m working through SSBHV1 and I’ve done 3 outdoor rides so far on the weekends, attempting to match the protocol and TSS as best I can and the have added some other rides at a chill pace with kids.
For outdoors I have different segments of roads identified for the common interval lengths. Sprints, 1 min, 3-5min, up to 20 min. I also have a few routes identified which give me 45, 60, 75 min sweet spot via climbs, so you will still accumulate the time in zone, however, will miss the strict rest intervals.
Another thing you can do is get your friends to follow the same plan. Then, you do the same workouts, indoor or outdoor and can keep each other honest. Group rides during base training can quickly become counter productive unless your friends have the same goals and plans in place.
All that said, structured training is much easier to accomplish indoor. Outdoor presents too many variables to feel like I’m getting an efficient workout.
Finally, for those struggling with the volume - it can take time for your body to adjust to training loads, so be patient and consistent. Also, when riding outdoor then avoid the temptation to hit a climb or sprint or anything over threshold as these repeated efforts “off plan” can add up!
We might be developing a whole generation of riders without enough real experience, i.e. bike handling skills, muscular strength for 5-6h rides, reading of terrain, bad weather skills, high speed descending skills. There’s a lot more to riding a bike than pushing watts like a rodent in a lab.
agree with you @hdas and I seem to have few problems doing structured training outside. 3 hour zone2 yesterday with less than 2% coasting. Pretty time efficient.
And for those that write off doing structured training outside, go look at sryke’s post of pro riders doing structure outside over on this thread Pro/Elite training - #778 by sryke
I agree that there are other benefits to outdoor riding.
I do find I need to get into a few larger group rides prior the start of the road racing season (assuming I plan to race) because the feeling and the flow of the group is so important to become accustomed to before racing.
I think that watts are like what gets you to the table though so that you can play the game. For me and my workweek, father duties and other things around the house, its what works best. Especially as we head into winter, where low light, slippery roads and wet conditions can make training outdoors more risky, and more time consuming (kitting up in the winter takes so long!!!)
I love this post.
The arrogance shown here, that you know what ‘real’ cycling entails just makes me laugh.
@cowboyjon FWIW last year I did a few cat5 crits. At a couple there were a handful of 20 somethings with Zwift “racing experience” that couldn’t ride a straight line. It was scary riding next to them. So at least from where I sit, there is some truth to what hdas said. I’d say it was overstated for dramatic effect, but I’ve seen it myself at real races.
@anon20047708 individuality and what you do outside can certainly influence things. I know a local triathlete that used TrainerRoad, he was dedicated to TR indoor structured training and a couple Wed night worlds a month. He got to 290+ FTP on TR. Sometime in late 2018 he started doing Zwift, starting seeing racing success, FTP popped above 300, and he quickly dropped structured training. Earlier this year he hit 335W FTP and still winning on Zwift B races and even a few A races. Last time I rode with him he pulled for ~40 minutes into a headwind at something like 320W. Dude got really strong Zwift racing. Its not for me but worked for him 
I think he burned out on “only Zwift” because he is back doing TR SS base and a few Zwift races.