My training schedule, am I doing this right?

Congratulations and fair play for continuing to train :clap:

Im just following the Low volume plan and it’s in there. I’m pretty sure I haven’t changed anything other than workout length. Got me doubting myself now ha

If your 30s is to easy then you should think about changing it. I listened to Mattias Reck (Trainer in Lidl-Trek) on a podcast and he recommend people to do 30s vo2max (3 set of 10 min) intervalls based on or around your 2min power peak. FTP is great to get your zones but when it comes to specific intervalls you need to adjust and use other metrics according to your abilities. For me, my FTP is superlow, but Im strong so 30s under 1.4 ftp dont get me where i should be. But going up a bit to 2min power peak works great. So maybe thats something to try?

If you combine way TR test FTP (ramp or AI) with those workouts, no wonder so many people are complaining about threshold workouts.

For comparision - try something like Kaweah or Fish. And see how threshold feels. They should be more than doable if cooling is proper and you are not completely carb depleted - threshold should be hard but like casual hard not something you dread to do.

30s vo2 max - for me they does not work at all :slight_smile: I have no anaerobic power put proper power and doing them at 120-130% does completely nothing for my vo2 max breathing. Only result is elevated HR to just over threshold level. So I use them as a happy hard from time to time and treat them rather as specificity workouts than vo2 max work that has to improve central adaptations and SV. But everybody is different over threshold so maybe they will work for you.

I generally just meant that the default trainer road 30 second “vo2 max” workouts are too easy for most people (with an established training history) in general. I was saying that I’m doing them because I’m pregnant and looking for easy intervals that still get my heart rate up a bit. (When pregnant, it’s difficult/impossible to push yourself in vo2 max the way you should for actual training). If I was not pregnant and trying to get faster, I would not waste my time with them.

I also wouldn’t do real vo2 workouts in base… except maybe occasionally just for the challenge/fun/hard workout.

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Of course!! My bad. I read what you wrote but it didn’t go all the way in. :laughing:

Seems to be a few people saying that they wouldn’t do Vo2 in base BUT this is what TR has prescribed. Also, I’ve looked at changing my Vo2 sessions because the 30seconds do really seem to be hard for me and there’s nothing in the catalogue with anything longer than 30 seconds that 90mins

I’ve got Vo2 today and I’ve got to be honest, since adding another hard session into the week, I’ve been kinda dreading getting on the bike. I just feel a bit tired and I want to eat and eat. I’ve just realised (Iknow I’m a bit late) that there is now polarised training. I’m going to complete this weeks training, do the recovery week and then bin off plan builder and start a polarised plan

I’m thinking of starting from where I’ve finished off and that’s the “build phase”

The thing is that you don’t want to burn yourself out, mentally or physically, with intensity during base. You can train up the top end power in a few weeks before an event so there’s no point in doing it in the base unless you just want general health/fitness. Threshold will definitely add to this burnout, moreso than an easy “vo2”. Typically later in the season though when you do want to be doing the high intensity sessions, you want to make sure you’re rested for them so that you can really bury yourself and you want to make sure you give yourself time to recover afterwards. For me, if I’m doing intensity during base, I’m going to do easier intervals that don’t cost mental energy. But these don’t need to be rested because they’re easy and my focus is completing the base endurance miles. So later in the season I will make sure I’m rested for Vo2 or threshold but in base I’ll make sure I’m completing my endurance first.

When I feel as you described, I know I need a break. You also said you struggle with threshold. I find that endurance rides in TR are usually a little higher intensity than I like - I often drop them by about 5-10%. Perhaps you’d be better off for now making sure you complete the endurance sessions, decreasing the intensity a bit if needed, and trying to nail just the one threshold per week since that is your current weakness. It’s ok to take the intensity down for endurance. Rest up for the threshold and try to nail it just to get yourself used to riding at that intensity and length.

But these are just my random musings ha.

Also I put Vo2 in quotes above because IMO if Vo2 feels easy, it’s not actually Vo2. It’s something, but it’s not Vo2.

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You have two levers to move - volume and intensity. Traditional base is great if you can provide enough stimulus by volume. For example if your cap is 8h / wk, doing 8h z2 is basically maintenance. You have to overload the system by increasing the volume.

But if you are limited to 8h only and no hour more, incorporating some intensity is beneficial, because you provide additional stimulus. SST and threshold are still aerobic riding, so by adding them you are stimulating aerobic system.

There is also a mental side of things, and doing 3x intensity +Z2 can take a mental toll. So maybe 1-2 intensity days (sst, threshold) will be good enough? It depends on the training history and how you respond and what is your goal.

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Thanks for the info @breeanna33 and @jarsson

I think I’m going to finish this week and then next week do my recovery week a week earlier than planned. I think for me, 8hrs is probably the amount of time I can dedicate to training. I really want to incorporate some strength training but motivation is low at the minute. 1-2 intensity days and the rest Z2 is pretty much polarised training right?

Yes I personally find that a max of 2 intensity days is all I ever want, all year round. If I need more intensity than that, ideally I make those sessions harder (either longer or higher intensity or less recovery between intervals) rather than adding more sessions per week. The exception to this for me is like if I’m out mountain biking with a group of friends for a long weekend in the summer or if there’s a stretch of amazing weather and I just want to go hard outside - I know I might do a lot more intensity than normal.

The other thing to keep in mind is your rate of perceived exertion (RPE). Easy days should feel easy. If they don’t, decrease the intensity. Hard days should feel hard, if they don’t, increase the intensity. I did one of the TR 30sec “VO2 max” workouts this morning and my heart rate during the intervals was only at about 80% of HR max. In order for a workout to qualify as VO2 max IMO my heart rate should be like 90%-95% HR max. And like I said I find the default TR endurance rides to be slightly harder than I want sometimes and I just decrease intensity so that I still get the time on the bike but don’t wear myself down physically or mentally. And a long ride should feel easy at first and gradually wear you down. So what I’m saying is, be careful to make sure that the workouts you think you’re doing are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. It can be easy to do endurance too hard and intervals too easy, making everything middle-of-the-road which actually REALLY wears you down as opposed to polarizing.

Understood, thank you for taking the time to reply etc. I think I need to adjust my workouts on the fly more, often I just do what it says and not adjust. I’m probably gonna head out on the bike now nd just take a nice z2 ride and then see how I feel for Thursdays intervals. If I feel fatigued or unmotivated then I’ll start the recovery week early and then continue it into next week too