I am doing the “Low Volume” training programs (started yesterday the Build phase), which involve 3 workouts per week.
I usually do the first two training sessions of the week on the rollers, while I replace the third with an outdoor ride, in which I do not follow the workout, but I just ride.
Since usually the third workout of the week is the longest/hardest one, I want to know if I should move that workout during the week on the rollers and skip one of the other 2 that are lighter (and which one should I skip?).
At the moment I just train in order to enjoy more outdoor activities, but I don’t have any goals.
I definitely recommend if you have the time doing the 90 minute workouts, so I would say yes. I notice a big difference in progression when I don’t do them.
Actually, I don’t have a power meter, so it’s impossible to follow the outside workout version.
Also, when I’m outside (once a week) I like to enjoy the ride and not follow a workout.
You can still do them based on RPE. By now you’ve ridden enough indoors you should know what sweet spot feels like, what threshold feels like, what tempo feels like…etc. TR offers the breakdown in their outside workouts to make it RPE based, but I completely understand the desire to make one ride a week just a ride without structure.
I think the longer ones are important as well. Then probably personal preference as to which of the others to drop. Time on bike and consistency are the most important, so whichever you want to do more and keeps you coming back for more should be kept.
You don’t need a power meter it was covered in a podcast recently. But I know what you mean about not always wanting to follow a workout. I am on a mid volume plan and I’ll sometimes do the outdoors version of a workout but at this time of year in the UK a sub threshold one and only if it’s a solo ride (unfortunately most are just now). Or I’ll just forget about it if it’s a group ride. I have a rest day before my outdoors rides and I would suggest that you move your harder ride to a few days before your outdoors ride so whilst getting the benefits of a harder workout you can recover and enjoy the outdoors ride
If you’re not struggling to complete workouts then I would switch out whichever of the two is the lowest TSS for the longer workout.
Edit - just realised you’re on build not base. Given the structure of build and how some of the workouts are more VO2 based vs sweetspot/threshold. You might want to consider keeping whichever workout is most different to the 90 min session.
Thanks a lot to everyone for your help.
Actually, I didn’t know that I can do an outdoor workout based on RPE!
BTW as mentioned, I usually prefer to ride outdoor just for fun and not following a specific workout, so I think I’ll try to switch the longer workout with the one with the lowest TSS
