I’ve been on the custom plan builder for the past 6 months, and it has me doing ~7 hours per week, broken down like so:
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Intervals
Wednesday: Recovery/Endurance
Thursday: Intervals
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Intervals
Sunday: Endurance
The system consistently gives me a yellow day on the day after an interval day. And because I automatically accept adaptations, these yellow days end up cutting my recovery/endurance rides short (30min), and so my week ends up looking like 3 interval days and 2 very short endurance rides that add up to ~1 hour. I’m worried that this lack of Z2 time is “bad” for my progress. Oh, and also because those easier rides are cut short, I’m actually averaging a little over 6 hours per week.
I’m 38, work fulltime, have 1 kid (plus one on the way), etc. I figured a masters plan is more appropriate for me for two reasons. First, I sleep terribly so going down to 2 intervals per week is probably best for long term sustainability. Second, one extra endurance day for bolster time in Z2 seems like a good idea for aerobic base.
I’m committed to maintaining two rest days, but continuing to build fitness is equally important. How should I plan this change? Is it as simple as making sure the weekly TSS is roughly the same as before? Since I’m going to switch one Z3+ ride into a Z2 ride, this will mean I have to ride longer to accure the same TSS. For example would 8 hours per week spread over 5 days be too much? TR always recommends 6 days for me when I attempt to configure something close to 8 hours/week.
Feel free to leave your thoughts and experiences. I’m particularly interested to hear from people who switched from 3 to 2 interval days and see how that’s been working out for them. Thanks!
I found switching to masters it always wanted to give me 6 days with two day intervals at balanced. I’ve gone 5 days with 2 rest and AI sets training approach as demanding ( this is probably to help with TSS load and adaptations.
Mon: 5x5 strength and yoga
Tues: 90 min interval
Weds: 90 min endurance (top end z2)
Thursday: 5x5 strength and yoga
Friday: 90min interval
Sat: 5x3 strength and 60-90 min easy endurance lower end zone 2
Sunday: 4 hour(ish) group/solo ride - weather dependent, if shocking I join a 2-3 hour Zwift ride.
regarding load and adaptations I find TR is fairly good at upping workout level to keep progressive overload happening whilst still adhering to my availability. Hardest thing I’ve found is actually staying off the bike rest/strength days. I’m 51 and this currently works well for me.
How many hours do you WANT to ride? I’d base my decision on that. If you want more hours in the saddle, I’d go Masters and do 2 hard rides and then do whatever endurance I feel like doing.
If you’re time crunched, I think TR’s philosophy is that more intensity makes up for less riding, which is why you keep ending up with 6 hour weeks, but if you have the hours and enjoy the Z2 time, I actually think you’re better off doing EASIER but LONGER Z2 rides. It’s easy to swap those in and just focus on the 2 interval days as the core of the plan. Just keep an eye on fatigue as you ramp up the hours and don’t feel the need to make those longer easy rides hard.
I have gone to an 8 day cycle which looks like this:
Day 1 - SS intervals
Day 2 - 30 minute recovery ride
Day 3 - Endurance ride
Day 4 - off
Day 5 - VO2 intervals
Day 6 - 30 minute recovery ride
Day 7 - Endurance ride
Day 8 - off
This allows me to add in upper body strength training on days 2, 4 and 6, as well as leg strength training on days 1 and 5. I am retired so it is easy to schedule everything, but it would be a bit harder when you are still working. I am older, age 67, so intervals every 4 days is about the max. I can do without digging a hole.
TR’s philosophy is that more intensity makes up for less riding
That’s interesting because I also read something along those lines in the Timed Crunched Cyclist book, though they caveat that this approach will limit your potential and that there’s really no replacement for high volume Z2 base training.
I want to reap the benefits of this “ride slow and get fast” philosophy…but not sure if 8 hours/week is enough.
It’s not. If you have only 8 hours a week and want to get the most out of those 8 hours you’re going to need to do higher intensity workouts. If you take multiple days off, even endurance is going to need to be a bit stiff. I think the kids are calling it “endurance plus” these days.
I’m on the same plan and at the beginning TR was doing the same thing to me.
What I did was start upping the time on Sunday’s ride but trying to keep it to zone 2.
I felt that was the only way that I’ll get more volume.
Monday is your rest day anyway so if done right you should be ready for Tuesday’s workout.
This and better sleep and the system will learn and give you less Yellow days.
Keep the schedule as is. Start building up that Sunday endurance day. Instead of 30 mins, do 45. The next week add in another 15 minutes. When you get that up to the “planned time” you can do the same for the Wednesday endurance. Short progressive increases. You just need to build up to it. Sometimes you gotta override the adaptations.
I want to caveat that this is if you “want to maximize your potential”. For normal folks whose whole life isn’t focused on cycling, you can continue to see gains on 8 hours for a long time with your easy rides easy as long as you also make your hard days really hard. Listen to your body. If you feel like you can go a little harder on your easy days, go for it. But, if you feel spent from yesterday’s workout, slept poorly, have a lot of life stress going on, etc., listen to your body and save the hard work for the hard days.
I am manually adjusting a TR plan. I set a custom plan, then I move workouts around in the calendar. I am on a Masters plan so that gives me 2 hard intervals per week and then I add in easy days or off days to build out an 8 day cycle.
unless your terrible sleep is caused by your training?
mostly kids/work/etc, but i usually have a hard time going to sleep after my saturday intervals. I’m not sure if it’s because they are typically longer (2 hours), or because I usually do those around 2/3pm.
I was responding that 8 hours is not enough for the high volume “ride slow to get fast” plan the poster asked about. But as @Pbase said, you can get dang fit off 8 hours a week and I’ll add in… probably going to be more enjoyable and well rounded life!
Cool. TR plans are locked into the trad 7 day workweek and it would be better if they allowed more scheduling flexibility. There are those that have different schedules and periodicities, like 3 on and two off, etc.
I agree that dialing in sleep and nutrition is really important here.
If you’re struggling during your hard workouts, even when you’re only riding 30 minutes on your easy days, then it’s probably best to switch to two hard workouts a week.
Your most recent workouts look really hard, but you were wrapping up a specialty phase, so that’s intentional.
I’d follow your recovery week now, and/or take some time off to recover and think about how you want to move forward. Once you start another plan, you likely won’t be doing such high-level workouts back-to-back again.
Kick back, though, and soak in all the stress you’ve recently accumulated. You’ve earned a break!
