Fwiw….
55 years, a good amount of training experience, also too many zoom meetings in my life.
TR base-build-speciality has too much intensity for my taste. I like ssb1 and 2 and some build blocks and use them in my larger cycles. But overall find the blocks don’t link well over long periods. Sorry TR guys, love ya, but you’ve heard this before from many others.
I have the FasCat 30 week plan along with the climbing interval plan. They are decent, SST based plans as we are aware. The intermediate plan is still pretty stout programming. I do like the back to back days. I’m usually good for two in a row but need an easier third. At age 45, the classic tues-wed-thurs was fine, but not now. Now it’s more two on, rest, two on, rest approach.
My solution to the canned plans was to change them by incorporating more of a TTE approach using more time at LT1 instead of less time, but more intense time, at SST or Threshold. It’s boring on a trainer but works well to build long term durable fitness.
If interested in seeing other plans besides TR, FasCat almost always runs a 50% off sale in late fall early winter.
Knees…. It sounds like overuse. I have that issue with running. Am good for a certain volume and pace but if I exceed for very long the knee pain returns. Solution was cross training and to stay under the volume trigger point. You might need a similar approach by mixing up the stressors.
Overall…. It’s very hard to do a whole year of focused structured training without some burnout. Rather than long 44-52 week blocks, consider the basics and maybe do cycles of 3-4 months with breaks built in. Something like 14 weeks on then 2 off then repeat. Unless you are trying to peak for a big A event, many repeated cycles over years could well serve you better than base-build-burnout and repeat cycles.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up. Rowing + strength work for example is a nice complement to cycling. Go for a long walk on an easy day instead of a spin. That sort of thing.
$0.02