Hey people, just after some advice please. I’m training 5 days a week and getting 9-10hrs in. My schedule is this…
I’ve selected a Low volume plan
Monday - TR workout - what ever is scheduled, I do a variant but 90mins
Tuesday - Zone 2 out doors (weather permitting)
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - TR workout - what ever is scheduled, I do a variant but 90mins
Friday - Zone 2 out doors (weather permitting)
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Long ride, typically around 80 miles Zone 2 & 3
I’d like to get out doors 2x during the week whilst I can and I do enjoy my weekend ride. The TSS of the Sunday ride is high though, Sunday just gone was 85 miles and a TSS of 237 and for the that week was 510.
I think the general advice is to go LV and top up as you are doing. Its certainly what I do. Overall I think the MV plan has the same intensity as a LV plan, just over a longer period (more volume which in theory is a good thing) but you’re already adding more volume with your outside rides so I doubt there much if anything to be gained. Besides riding outdoors is sometimes better for your mental health which plays a bigger factor in making you a strong individual.
It sounds like you’ve got a good thing going here! Nice work!
We often recommend athletes do just as you’ve done here — start with a low-volume plan and add the other rides you like to do as you see fit.
One thing worth noting in your situation is that you’re planning on doing two TrainerRoad workouts each week. Since the low-volume plans have three workouts/week, you might want to be intentional about which of the two workouts you choose to complete each week.
As of now, with your current schedule, you’ll be doing a VO2 Max workout on Mondays and a Sweet Spot workout on Thursdays leaving out your scheduled Threshold workout. This sounds like a great place to start, but just know that once you enter the Build phase in a few weeks, you’ll have VO2 Max on Mondays and Threshold on Thursdays. In my opinion, this will be a great way to change things up and add some intensity while strengthening a different energy system.
With that being said, don’t be afraid to switch these workouts around if you feel the need. It’s easy to swap in a Threshold workout in place of your Sweet Spot workout say, next week, and vice versa down the road if you’re not feeling up to a VO2 or Threshold workout at that time. That’s part of the beauty of how you’re doing things here — you have options!
crap, I forgot to say that I’m doing the Vo2 max on Monday and the sweet spot on Thursday and replacing the Threshold workout on Sunday with a long ride.
So with me changing the workout length every session, so let’s use todays for an example. Its sweetspot, I’m going to select “variants” and select a 2hr one… then say next week I select the same workout, let’s use “Blacklorg” as an example. will that slightly increase in TSS as the week goes by? I feel like where I’m going off the subscribed training, I may not be increasing in intensity each week?
You know what too, I completely forgot that Sundays session is intensity, I’m going to have to include that during the week some where
The same principles apply. I’d recommend replacing the workout that most closely follows your Sunday ride. If it’s zones 2 and 3, as you originally said, I’d place your Sweet Spot workout on Sunday. If it’s more intensity as you’ve recently mentioned, maybe keep your Threshold workout on Sunday.
The main goal here is simply not to overdo it. Once you get things going, you’ll have a good feel for which TR workouts you want to complete each week and which you don’t.
Feel free to reach out if you need any more help with this! That’s why we’re here!
I’m going to replace the sweet spot with threshold as of next week. My build phase starts on 13th November and that’s also, Vo2, Threshold and then sweet spot. Should I be increasing the TSS each week or doesn’t it matter because the added TSS is my ‘free rides’ outside?
You should be doing your VO2Max workout when fresh, I’d recommend moving it to after a rest day rather than on the Monday after your Sunday ride which has the biggest TSS of the week.
Your TSS will increase bit by bit as you progress through your plan. You can see this by looking at your TSS chart at the top of your calendar. Here’s what the next 18 weeks look like.
You can see the dips every 4th week is a recovery week. Then the ramp picks back up.
I have never been good (as a runner or cyclist) doing my “long” endurance day and then coming back with a quality session the next day. Those long days zapped me as much, if not more than the high intensity days and would need a recovery day after. (We did do a quality day and then a long day which was much more manageable).
I know everyone is different, but if this is you, I would consider a 2 week cycle or moving things around to get recovery after the long endurance day.
@NotYourAvgJoe Since you plan on using Workout Alternates often, it’s hard to get a perfect idea of what your future TSS will look like.
What I’d recommend is, when selecting your alternates, try finding a workout with a level similar to the original prescribed workout. This is the best way to progress as Adaptive Training has planned and will likely keep a steady ramp of TSS similar to your original plan, as I showed before.
For example, If you are planning on replacing today’s workout with a 90-minute alternate, I’d recommend selecting Glassy -2 as the replacement as it’s rated 2.2 and close to the 2.0 (Slide Mountain) that you were originally prescribed.
As you continue to knock out these workouts, your Progression Levels will increase just as they would when following a plan, and Adaptive Training will adjust your future workouts accordingly. By finding workouts with levels close to what’s prescribed, you’re still following the template of your plan, albeit with longer workouts.
No such thing you are doing them wrong then with vo2 max you should be dying in the end of work part - rpe 10. Max is max.
Vo2 + threshold in the same week should be more than enough intensity and when filled with z2 it is very nice and sustainable plan in a long term. If you adding sst to this monitor your fatigue and nutrition.
Personally I would block things - so weeks with 2x threshold and weeks with 2x vo2 max (like 4 weeks of 2x vo2, rest and 6-8 of threshold - threshold mix of of steady state upto 80min of TiZ and sst with 30s bursts with the same TiZ). This way you have nice blocks of overload of particular things. If something else works for you and you see improvements - great.
Do you guys think I should swap my Friday and Sunday around? Since I’ve implemented the Threshold, I can definitely feel the tiredness now. Friday I didn’t really wanna ride but I just got it done. Today my legs are mullered ha
Eat well on Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday breakfast. Rest up as best as possible on Saturday. A 40 minute stroll is fine. A 5 hour hike, probably not so much. See how you feel on Sunday. Start your Z2 ride super-easy. After 15 minutes, assess and adjust the power as appropriate
But - as mentioned earlier - don’t go mad on Sunday if you have VO2s on Monday. Much better to be chill on Sunday and be able to do quality work on Monday (and progress those workouts aggressively if you insist on doing TR VO2 workouts)
Agreed. IMO and everything I’ve learned on the topic, if you’re doing your hardest workout of the week while not rested, you’re not doing it hard enough. You could go harder and get more gains by polarizing your training - hard days harder, easy days easier, long rides easy, and a rest day before the hardest workout.
Depends if you mean TR threshold or normal threshold. Threshold workouts often goes above threshold and that make them harder. If you mean normal threshold, something simple like 3x15, 3x20 etc then vo2 max (like true vo2 max workout not 1min repeats @120%) should be a way harder.
Of course it vary from person to person but for me vo2 max when I breath like a fish out of water trying to hold power that elevates my hr is indisputably harder - not necessarily only physically but mentally. Give me threshold and I would be happy as a clam chillin on a stready power for 60 min TiZ - pure pleasure. Of course if your FTP is set correctly
A lot of the Vo2 max I do are only like 30 second intervals… I wonder why this is? I am still in the base phase though so maybe that’s why? And yes, I’m referring to TR threshold
Yeah I think 30 second VO2 max intervals will almost always be too easy… unless perhaps you really decrease recovery time between intervals…or maybe if you’re outside on an ideal slope. For reference, I am currently pregnant and I do 30 second “VO2 max” (125% of FTP in ERG mode) as my EASY interval workout to get my heart rate up. These will be too easy for performance gains for most, especially in ERG mode.
But you probably don’t need to be doing any VO2 max in base.
Edit - 30 seconds may also be enough if you up the default %
you are doing them wrong then