Hi all,
I can’t decide yet how to plan my training to incorporate outdoor rides. My main training days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and currently I have most of my main TR sessions scheduled for those days. They are also the days (pre-lockdown) that I was doing my trail riding with mates.
Do you think it’s madness to try and ride after a main TR session? Is it better to hit a shorter session that targets the same zones and then head outside?
Nope, if you’re feeling okay after your main session then by all means go ahead and add some extra endurance! It’s often recommended to extend the cooldown for those looking to add some extra aerobic volume. (and the key there is to keep it easy- any extra hard riding will likely impact your recovery and the rest of your plan)
Whether this strategy works for you, however, is based on how you’re feeling with your current training load. if the outdoor riding starts impacting your key sessions, it’s probably better to transfer to a low-volume plan while you’re doing the extra rides. (I usually do HV, but have moved to MV now I’m getting outside more.)
If you have lower-intensity workouts scheduled, those are also good candidates to replace with outdoor rides of a similar difficulty and duration. recovery and endurance rides are way more engaging outdoors IMO.
Thanks Tori,
That’s good to hear. It will be interesting to see. I’m still very new to TR (and focusing solely on bike fitness) so I’m still trying to get a feel for what I can tolerate.
I think I’ll take your advice and just try and take it easy if I get outdoors post session. I should be able to ride easy enough, though there is a good size climb involved with getting to the bike park (and best trails).