Let’s say you were going to only stick to 2 hard workouts a week on sustained build HV (I’m talking Tues, Thurs, Sat, sweet spot doesn’t count in this), what workout would you drop out in favor of an additional endurance workout?
I have an opinion of my own, just don’t want to divulge yet lol apologies for the caginess!
I’m actually debating this exact point myself, as I’m using sustain power build for triathlon and am considering dropping one of the workouts in favor of a hard running workout. (I also may fold one workout into a long ride and do a few intervals than ride easy for 3-4 hours total).
I actually have two different minds about which to drop. From a cycling-only perspective, I would dump the over-unders and just-under FTPs as I think the long intervals at 105-108% of FTP are far more valuable. But from combining with running, I am considering dropping the VO2s and using running to get my top end work in. I find that long running intervals at threshold are much harder than shorter VO2 (e.g. 800, 1k, 1 mile repeats, or 30-60" strides), and I get a much bigger benefit in my running form from running fast than at threshold. My weekly intensity would be cycling suprathresholds and over/unders, 1 running speedwork, and one tempo run with long (15 building to 30+mins) intervals just under threshold (similar intensity to sweet spot in cycling, somewhere around marathon pace running).
For background, my target events are all long sustained efforts below threshold (2 gran fondos, 1 70.3, 1 2 day trail-running race with a 25k and 15k and a lot of vertical). If i were targeting shorter time trials, road races, or 5ks, I would NOT cut out my VO2 work on the bike.
Thursdays probably. It’s between working VO2 (Tuesdays) and supra threshold on Thursdays. You get O/U on Saturdays so loosing Thursdays seems like a good compromise. I guess it may also depend on what your event demands might be. You could bump Thursdays to Saturday and loose O/U’s if you hate those.
I’d probably also switch the SS to Thursdays and do long endurance on Sundays.
I guess I would drop neither but shorten Thursday.
I personally would drop over/unders since you’re getting the “over” portion with the Supra-threshold workouts on Thursdays.
Just curious, why not go with a mid-volume plan and add endurance to that? I just finished SusPB-HV and struggled mightily. After base I plan to switch to a MV plan and add an endurance ride during the week and extend the weekend rides to 2 hours with extra endurance.
MV still has three hard workout days, I was just thinking a bit about advice that’s been popularized recently regarding 2 intense workouts a week. Not really thinking that I couldn’t handle it, it’s more about allowing some experimentation since this build isn’t really a critical one for me.
Got it. Also, is really dislike over/unders so my answer isn’t totally impartial. 
Alright, I guess I won’t keep everyone in suspense, especially with a smaller weekend crowd lol
My own thinking would be to drop the Tuesday short vo2 interval workouts and keep the Thurs and Sat, since the Thurs and Sat workouts seem to be more in the spirit of sustained power near FTP. Considering I have a whole lot of short power stuff in the future in the lead up to CX season (I hope), I figure it would be fine to not go into those workouts. I only have a few days to figure this out so I guess I need to make up my mind!
