Medium volume plan with Zwift races

Hello, I am new to the forums as well as new to trainer roads. I started structured training in August on Zwift with their “FTP builder” plan and their “Build me up” plan which took me from 145 FTP to 241 FTP. Decided to step it up and join TR on the medium volume plan. One question I have for you guys is I want to try and get a Zwift crit race in at least every other week. I feel like it helps me see my progress as I am going through the training and its motivating for me to analyze the data every other week. Do you guys recommend I throw in the Zwift races and scale back to the low volume plan or is there a better way to do it?

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Either Low Volume or Mid Volume, just be sure to SWAP OUT one of the three key workouts for your Zwift race. Four days of intensity in a week is not sustainable in my experience. See you out there!

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Struggling with this myself a bit. I didn’t think I’d get to race tomorrow (still may not after much needed beers), so have done the three workouts this week. Previously I had tried to do one of the 3 the day after the race, and it was just too much.

I think I’m just about getting away with it in SSB2, with remote working/ lower NEAT, but I know it isn’t sustainable.

Anyway, the races I’ve done are pretty much threshold/ over-unders, so that’s the work out I’m planning on swapping from my mid volume “General Build” coming up. I’ll cross the speciality bridge when I get to it in 10 or so weeks.

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I do mid volume. I have included either a short (20 minute) Zwift race one day of the week or swapped out the Saturday workout for a longer race.

The things I’ve learnt so far are:

  • Remember that the race is just some fun and it should be the first thing to drop if your feeling tired
  • This is a C/D priority race, so don’t stress the result
  • With no CX racing and being winter the race is a good way to blow off some steam

I’m just coming to the end of SSB2 and the races are getting to be a bit too much stress so I’ll probably stop them before starting build.

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Hello,

What about high volume plans? I guess zwift racing can be really useful for challanging yourself and get some pr. But while doing high volume, can they be done instead of Sunday workouts?

Because of covid, we do not race much (or none) and thanks to these races we can get used to pain and try to produce high watts (learn to suffer and tolerate it easy on visual races i guess)

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TR training plans are constructed in a way where less volume means more intensity. Therefore LV has less time, but more intensity than HV. Also even the more intense sessions include breaks in order to balance training effect and fatigue.

Zwift Racing is different —> high intensity and no breaks. There are two factors to consider:

  1. Intervall training will always give you better bang for buck (better development of power in relation to fatigue incurred). Zwift racing does however offer a mental relieve / more motivation.
  2. With Zwift Racing you have a higher risk of over training / getting sick. Therefore you also have to keep an eye on the TSS when swapping out workouts. Due to the missing breaks I would make sure that the workout replaced by the race is high intensity and carries 20-40% more TSS than the race. Also: listen to your body!
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