Opinion about my routine wo

Hi, I’m an average amateur, 43 years old, 72kg. I can’t figure out if I train little or if I’m average. I usually do two workouts on the rollers on Tuesday 1h30’ of VO2max (110tss) and on Thursday 1h30’ of Z4 (110tss), on Sunday I go out with a group for 3h (220 tss). On Monday and Friday I do core exercises and legs exercises without weights.

In your opinion, is this not enough to continue improvement? My ftp now Is increasing slowly…
The only change I could make is to replace a workout of Tuesday or Thursday with a 2h30’ outside ride and insert an easy ride on Saturday. Would it help?
My ftp was 260w 5 months ago, now Is 280w but on 2022 was 300w. (During 2023 and 2024 i had bad training due to family reason, now i’ve got 3 child)

If you want to get better at cycling, I would say cycle more.

Replacing the core exercises and legs exercises without weights with more time on the bike to do some lower intensity cycling is something I would consider. Z2 / long tempo intervals would be my choice.

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I think a lot of us have the Tues/Thur hard, weekend group ride scenario

I also try to do some longish steady zone 2 rides, especially if the group ride in surgy and not really benefiting me from a training perspective.

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You are doing plenty of intensity (which I agree is the correct approach for 6h a week). If you add in some Zone 2 anywhere in your program (Saturday, instead of a strength session or tagged onto the intervals), it will probably help. But you’ve got to have time in your life for it otherwise something somewhere will give.

To get an idea, you might build a plan in TR and see what that looks like. These plans are more oriented toward riders with limited time (aka time-crunched), but you can see what it suggests for training stress, intensity, recovery, volume, …

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Since time is limited:

  • Instead of 90 min on the rollers can you take the Z4 workout outside and use the extra hour for extended warm-up or cool down?
  • Adding in a Saturday easy ride would add volume. May be worth trying to see how it goes.

In the end we can only do what we can do. Most are professionals at something… just not cycling. If it is working and fun, that is the most important thing.

Adding 2-ish hours a week may not seem like a lot. It may help, it may not. If you are up for it and doesn’t add stress to other parts of your life I think it is worth giving it a try. :+1:

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Welcome to the TR community!

As @Saddlesaur said, it might be worth checking out our recently updated Plan Builder. It’ll take away the guesswork you may have when creating a training plan. :slight_smile:

Adding a ride/more volume to your plan may help you see further improvements, as long as you think you can handle the extra time on the bike. It sounds like it could be worth a shot! Just make sure to add that extra volume in slowly over time – a sudden increase in volume could lead to excess fatigue that could derail the rest of your training. Try adding 15-30 minutes of extra volume each week over time until you reach your target. Don’t be afraid of backing off for the sake of recovery if you need to either!

And, of course, stay on top of good sleep, nutrition, and hydration to keep your training on track. :flexed_biceps: