How do you plan your training on a day to day basis if you aren’t following a TR plan?
Do you stick to 7 day rotation with 3 weeks on and 1 for recovery?
Or do you do something else? 10 days/5 days/shorter recovery periods that 7 days
Do you rely on TSS/CTL or ignore these?
Really interested in the options out there and how other people manage their training load.
7 days yes but sometimes longer hard weeks and sometimes shorter. Base season tends to be longer cycles then something like a vo2 block might be only 1-2 weeks before I rest, don’t think I have ever made it three weeks before pulling the plug on something with this much intensity.
I mostly ignore tss and ctl, it’s useful to glance at but I am in tune enough with my legs to know when the load is a bit much and to back off or when I can add a bit more stress. I look at it when laying out the basics of the week but those sessions change when I do them so it’s not something I follow closely.
I find more use in the aerobic/anaerobic impulse charts in wko5 personally but again don’t pay too much attention to them.
I’ve been finding that a key workout every 4-5 days is really working well for me. Two hard workouts per week wasn’t working for me at 59yo.
Lately, I’ve been alternating between a Vo2max workout and then a threshold workout. In between those workouts, I do easy endurance or some endurance+ (high z2 or tempo intervals) and there is usually one day completely off between the key workouts.
ISTR hearing many times that the average pro schedule is three days on, one day off. So one could call that a 4 day or 8 day cycle depending on how you look at it.
This is my one 
Sorry 
I loosely follow a TR plan at the moment but whilst I take cognisance of the recovery week every 3 weeks, if there’s a hard fast group ride I’ll go with that. Maybe over winter I’ll adhere to things better again. As to TSS and CTL I largely ignore them.
I follow a 7 day week mostly because with work I can only do the longer rides on the weekends so that acts as an anchor for the week.
During a ‘normal’ block, it’s a lift on Monday, Interval workout Wednesday, and a long ride with intervals Saturday. With endurance and recovery in between.
VO2 blocks are usually like 2 days on 1 or 2 off but still a bit longer rides on the weekend so idk I guess you could call that different than a 7 day week
Then assuming nothing pops up that interrupted the plan I usually go 3 weeks on 1 off (again, VO2 blocks are different). Though my rest ‘weeks’ are almost never a full 7 days. I usually do the weekdays easy and then get back to work on the weekend. So again, that sort of breaks the clean 7 days in a week division but it’s been working for me.
I have a coach but I don’t think she’s using TSS/CTL. I think it’s a bit more subjective with hours, intensity, etc taken into account. I’ll recover a lot differently from a 150TSS VO2 workout than I will a 150TSS threshold or SS workout so TSS/CTL doesn’t really work well.
Also my volume is pretty consistently capped by my life. I do 13-15hrs most weeks but if I have more time then I’m free to extend out to 18 or so with maybe 20 or more requiring a bit of planning but as long as the extra time is Z2 and I eat enough then it doesn’t really change the plan at all.
I bought a load of CTS plans under a trial then apply them over the year as I see fit in Training Peaks. Costs me nothing. The basic premise of the plans is 3 weeks on 1 week recovery. I chose their medium plans which are 8 hours a week then stretch a few days out. The intervals are dead easy to follow on the road too which is key for me with alot of undulating roads nearby.
Usual diary is
Mon - recovery ride zwift
Tues & wed - interval days
Thurs - day off or easy ride
Fri - zone 2/3
Sat or sun - zone 2/3
Intervals progress as I do foundation 1,2 ,then 3 (4 weeks each) then whatever build and speciality I choose that year.
I don’t bother with TP premium I glance at training loads in Strava though to compare against previous years as I look back and enjoy seeing i’m doing more training than a few years ago (or not when injured!)
Works for me, easy to just apply a years planning in a few minutes, change it, etc.
My basic week when not on a plan (and even sometimes on a plan):
Mon: Rest
Tue: ~1h recovery
Wed: Vo2 or other high-watt intervals, then weights
Thurs: ~1h Z2
Fri: Rest
Sat: ~2h endurance
Sun: ~2h Z2 with an intensity block. If outdoors, this can just be hitting some hills in threshold zone. Then weights.
I generally try to do 3 on/1 rest week. I am somewhat bad at the rest part of periodization, I’ll admit.
Two days of tr picked intensity and a long one. Maybe another one or two “under 1 hour under 100 (well…150) watt rides”
But a plan is probably best.
Joe
Thank you for posting everyone, this is exactly the kind of responses I was interested in hearing.
@AJS914 is is super interesting thank you for posting.
Out of interest, if you are doing an intensity workout every 4 or 5 days max, do you take specific back off weeks/extended times with no intensity, or do you just consistently do this knowing that something (injury/illness/work) will come along and force some downtime anyway?
I find when following a TR plan, the recovery weeks are needed and a necessity, but if I was only doing intensity twice in either 8 or 10 days I am not sure I would need that back off time? This sounds like a good way to maintain and keep consistency during particularly busy periods in life. 
I just took an intentional “easy” week after 2 months and it won’t even be a full week. I did a hard vo2 workout, took a full day off, and then did recovery rides for four days in a row and now I feel pretty fresh again.
I’ve been doing this since mid July now and have never really felt super tired. A few times during the last month I took an extra day off because real life got in the way. If my legs feel tired, I just do an easy day or take a day off and push the next workout down the road.
I progressed the vo2 workouts from short intervals (30/30, etc) to longer intervals (3x6min) and now I’m progressing time in zone. Maybe I’ll do 4x5 next. With VO2 I don’t think I need more than 20 minutes at a time. If i do like 30 minutes of vo2 my legs will be trashed for too many days.
With threshold I’ve been doing a standard progression 3x10, 3x12, 4x10, 3x15, 1x45 (ftp test).
This may seem kind of a slow ramp up to people but I also go to the gym once or twice a week to lift weights (maintenance) and swim some laps plus I’m playing golf twice a week so it all adds up to a lot of hours.
I’m retired so I don’t need to stick to a weekly schedule and this works well for me. I detrained in June because of family vacations but my fitness is back and my CTL has been gently ramping up since I started this. Here’s my performance manager chart. I’m back to my May CTL and see no stopping until Oct/Nov where I may shift to focusing on heavy strength in the winter.
I’m seeing this as a good ‘stay fit all year’ method/plan.
I follow a general 3 weeks on, 1 week off, but with some tweaks. Generally, my weeks looks like:
M-Off or easy recovery spin
T - Intervals
W-Endurance
Th - Intervals
F-Easy endurance
S-Intervals with extra endurance
Su-Long endurance
Sometimes, in week 2 of the 3 week cycle, I will reduce to only 2 interval days. I find this helps keep me a bit fresher thru the 3rd week. My rest week is generally only M-F and then do a standard weekend. At 51, I have to in decent shape to keep this schedule. When I have had to take extended time off for injuries, I have to work back up to it.
