So I posted a few weeks ago about getting a trainer soon. I now have one! Got signed up for TR and am ready to start training soon.
Chad suggested sweet spot base 1. I have been going over the plans and think I will settle on the low volume. I choose that because, well, I love to mountain bike and fat bike in the snow and plan to do this three times a week over the winter months. That leaves three days a week for trainer road.
Any issues with Sweet Spot LV and riding trails 3 times per week? Will the trail rides affect my SS workouts in an adverse way?
If I don’t get out to ride the mtb and want to supplement with additional workouts how do I know what workouts to supplement with?
Low volume is definitely the place to start. and as a beginner to TR (and probably structured training) its hard to say how those other rides will affect the indoor rides. Its something that you’ll probably have to play by ear as you go through it. If it is too much then you can either drop one of the TR rides, make it a lower intensity ride, or drop an outdoor ride. That choice is mostly up to you and what you can handle (physically and mentally).
Unrealted but curious - why LV? I started TR about 6 weeks ago and am about to finish MV SSBI. It’s tough for sure and not very comfortable but I am getting through it and don’t feel overly fatigued. This might all change when I get to SSBII or Build but why does everyone recommend beginners automatically choose LV?
I didn’t choose LV because I can’t hande MV. I’m typically putting in 10 to 15 hours plus a week on the bike now. I am thinking LV because I want to put in several outside rides in on the mountain bike per week. MV SSB1 is 5 days a week so the added MTB rides might be too much volume.
Its obviously different for everyone but the common idea is that its better to fully complete a lower volume plan, maybe even adding to it, than to become fatigued and fail to complete a higher volume plan. You can always bump it up if the lower plan is just not enough but the cons of going a little too low are not as bad as going too high. Also, if you are still mixing in your usual outdoor rides then an indoor low volume plan will supplement it better than a higher volume (usually). I’m not a coach or expert but that seems to be my impression
I totally understand, MV with trail rides would basically be a high volume plan. I was actually replying to @mwglow15 and just out of curiosity because everyone always recommends the LV plan for newbies to TR.
Gotcha. I think that LV vs MV would likely be related to the cyclists exerience. If I wasn’t doing mountain bike rides I would definitely choose MV. I have a lot of years and miles under my belt just no structured training. For a relatively new cyclist without a huge base I suppose it would make perfect sense to start LV and progress from there.
As others mentioned, part of it is supplementing with outdoor rides. The other part is time commitment and general fitness for those new to the plans. Unless you have been training without structured training for a while, you may not have a good understanding of what to expect in structured indoor training. Not all TSS is the same, and just because you can hang with a fast group outside doesn’t necessarily mean you can hang with some of the tougher indoor sessions.
But mostly I think it is the time commitment. Staying conservative and nailing every workout is said to be better than skipping ones you can’t do in the mid volume plans. In other words, new users are less likely to be discouraged when starting with low volume and then moving to mid volume as time is available.
Depending on how hard your MTB rides are, those might be all the additional riding you need. But if you are looking to add more indoor rides, then you can go a couple of ways. If you just want a little additional time on your bike but not a ton of stress then you could add a 45 min to 1.5 hour endurance ride. If you want something more strenuous then I would go look at the corresponding MV plans and grab one from there.