Outside workouts and drills advice

TR doesn’t give instructed drills with outside workouts as it does with indoor workouts.
You get a description and several general advices on how to do the workout but that’s about it.
After progressing and advancing through the PLs and FTP levels by just doing the outside workouts, I tried, after a long time, to try and add the drills exactly as directed on the inside workouts screen.
lOt was a Threshold workout at different cadence speeds with standing for 20 strokes at minute alternating with sitting the rest for an exact power goal.

I figured the additional drills might be challenging…but nothing more and whatever makes you better…makes you better.
What actually happened was, to my surprise, almost like hitting a brick wall.
I was all over the place with the power goals, with cadence, with form and could barely finish the session with cutting of half the drills in the second half of the session.
It was way more difficult than anticipated, way more difficult the any week by week progression and I new I burnt way more matched than intended and at a price I do not know regarding the next sessions.
I do know that doing the session butt down would had been more than manageable.
It felt like I did complete the assigned workout…but with a lousy way and questionable benefits all together.
It’s like the drills found too many soft spots I had no idea I’m having and I shouldn’t have if I follow outside instructions to the letter.

My question is simple:
Do you advise to keep the drills at the current PLs and let the body catch up or do some if you like or drop them all together?

Drills should be considered a secondary goal. Nail the workout and add drills until they compromise the quality of the workout.

That’s covered in many of the workout text instructions. Do the drills as long as you maintain good form and aren’t struggling to hit the power target. Take baby steps and add some drills in smaller amounts and duration so you can complete them well, but not degrade the quality of the workout.

Also consider the basic difference in doing drills inside vs outside. Unless you are on rollers or a very active rocker plate, the fixed nature of a trainer or smart bike makes it easier to do drills vs a bike with more freedom. So the drills could be impacted by that difference as well and you may need to consider alterations as a result.

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@mcneese.chad ,
Thanks !

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