I notice often on the podcast that people have questions about whether they can “skip” a TR workout to have an outdoor relaxed/fun ride with friends, even if it may impact their training schedule. Or they carry some sort of guilt that they went outside for a “zone 2-ish” ride as opposed to some indoor intervals. Or those who are afraid that riding outdoors on an unscheduled day will affect their performance the next day.
Is this a normal mindset to have as a cyclist? I personally feel that if its nice day and I had a TR workout scheduled, I’m going to pick the outdoor ride every time. Sure I could get the same TSS in 60min on the trainer as a 90min outside ride, but being outdoors is WAY more exhilarating and refreshing. Especially where I live (along the IM bike course near Madison, WI) with an abundance of hilly country roads. In the summer, most of my rides are relatively unstructured and outdoors and I still see gains (physically and mentally). All miles and seat time are beneficial, and if you have to take the workout intensity down 5% the next day, so what?
Maybe that’s just my mindset as an endurance cyclist as opposed to racing crits or something. Thoughts?
The average person who will spend 5, 10 or 15 hours per week in their basement on a stationary bike looking at blue blocks on a black screen while sweating profusely, agonizing about the next FTP test and listening to a podcast talking about spending 15 hours in the basement etc, has a high probability of suffering from OCD.
And I don’t consider it to be OCD. I just like things done properly. Every time. Once, I had my Lasko fan out of alignment by 3 degrees. The entire workout was rubbish.
Yes. If you’re training to have fun riding, you’ll have a different process and mindset than people training to hit Cat 2 this season. (And that’s okay. Live your bliss.)
For me, this “training” is my only competitive outlet. I’ve always had some sport to focus on and try to be competitive in. Given that is now cycling, I find the process and resulting progression the most rewarding which is why I’d choose an indoor ride TR over outdoor free-ride 95% of the time.
After reading that definition, I am definitely a box ticker. Especially on a topic, such as cycling, where I feel uninformed. I’ll blindly follow the “expert” until I feel confident that my modifications are correct. The podcast actually helps a lot with that.
I am curious how long people who have that focused / obsessed / short-term view have been into cycling or triathlon. Are they new? Have they been riding for decades? in-between?
I think some of it comes down to not having a big picture view and ‘missing the forest for the trees.’ Consistency, love of the sport and doing something you love every week as part of your ‘plan’ are, in my view, essential to long term development.
I left a comment on one of their recent youtube videos. When did long endurance / z2 rides become junk miles? Especially as in some TR plans they recommend specific Z2 / endurance workouts to replace weekend sweet spot rides. How they addressed that question / segment seemed very strange to me.
I don’t think that mindset is normal, or healthy. I’d rather train in the winter and enjoy myself in the warm months outside with friends going places and making memories, other guys would rather sweat 45 weeks a year in their basements to train for a dozen events (that may all be cancelled). To each their own I guess
Had to double-check that I didn’t write this. Followed up my vo2max interval workout yesterday morning with a hulk smash ride with a buddy an hour later. Dreading tomorrow’s threshold workout.
If I have a goal event and I’ve used TR Plan Builder to help me prepare for that event, I’ll do my level best to follow that plan. I’m not slavish to it and if I do miss a workout, I don’t beat myself up or even try ensure the outdoor ride replicates what I might have done on the trainer.
End of the day, I own my bikes for the adventures I can have on them. I like TR but I don’t own my bikes to ride them on a trainer. My garage isn’t that exciting anyway.
I think there are plenty of athletes who want to get as strong as possible and realize their potential that don’t have this mindset. I think it is possible to adhere to a training plan and execute workouts well without obsessing over individual workouts and still do the things that we, as individuals, enjoy about cycling every week.
The main concern I have with this kind of mindset is that I think it focuses on the short term adherence at the expense of long term consistency and longevity.
There seems to be a fair bit of “I know better than you” going on in this thread. To say this to folks that choose to do workouts rather than ride outside, is saying you know what they like better than they do. Different strokes for different folks. It is neither short-sighted, nor un-“healthy” to train all year round. And what you enjoy or choose to do is totally cool.
The thing to do is swap the intervals for the social ride and smash him .
In all seriousness though, I expect all social rides to be intense workouts of some sort so just schedule in quality z2 disciple on the days around them.
Swapping zone 2 rides for group rides are a lot more risky. Can end up overreaching quickly.
Agreed. People have different goals. If it were another athletic endeavor other than “riding bicycles” it would just seem obvious. Want to compete at the Olympic level as a swimmer? You do structured training every day consisting of miles and miles of boring lap work. Is that “any way to spend your life?” Only the individual can say.
Absolutely there are tons of athletes who want to maximize their potential without living like some kind of monk. It’s a huge sacrifice.
While I can see how my phrasing seems judgemental, it was not intended to be. I am curious to see if if people with the mindset mentioned by the OP are new to the sport or not and if they have found that mindset to be sustainable.
To me, focusing on individual workouts is missing the forest for the trees. Long term growth and improvement are about months and years of consistency and workout execution, not about whether I swapped a Sunday sweet spot session for a 3-4 hour endurance ride. Especially when TR plan notes give options for multi-hour endurance workouts that people can feel free to swap in instead of a weekend SS sessions. That is what I don’t get, why feel guilty about doing a long endurance ride on Sunday instead of the SS session if the plan notes explicitly discuss that option? I’m not saying one has to go outside or judging them for choosing an option specifically mentioned in the TR training plan notes.
I wasn’t trying to say I was better than other people. I want to see how strong I can get and at this point that requires structure, and I’m happy to do it. I train year round. I train indoors year round. I train outdoors mostly year round. I will frequently train indoors when I could be outdoors. But my ‘training plan’ includes the things I love about cycling and I get to do those things every week.
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