Plenty of info on TR indicating that the Sunday ride is the workout to swap for and outside ride. I’m curious if are any parts of the plans where the Sunday trainer ride is more important and should be given a bit more consideration?
The Sunday rides are important, they are just however a good fit if you choose to do them outside. The structure of the workouts are usually not as specific and generally you have already done all your intervals on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. So Sunday lends itself to be able to be done inside or outside. That doesn’t diminish its importance at all. In fact Sunday is typically the longest ride of the week and shouldn’t be skipped/missed.
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That’s only true for Mid and High Volume plans.
The Low Volume plans only have Tue, Thur, Sat rides.
I’m really trying to find out if any of those Sunday workouts have more weight than others. Its easy to make up the TSS on a 3 hr club ride, and even overshoot if not careful. Its harder to replicate the consistency of the intervals.
Weeks 5-7 of Short and General Build have workouts that change gear and move away from the typical sweet spot (Antelope/Jenue/Tallac*) that is on nearly every Sunday though SSB and continues into mid Build - to a more club ride mix of sprints/endurance and sweetspot (North Pack / Baird Peak).
So (for optimal gains) should we try to
NOT to swap out those* very disciplined SS sessions
Swap out the occasional random Sunday ride (but still do more indoor than outdoor)
Just get outside on every Sunday and enjoy the cycling.
Correct. If you want to nail power targets with percision then TR indoors will be the best way to do that. Continuous pedaling at exact work/power and rest ratios is very hard to duplicate outdoors. The closer you are to your event the more that matters.
As far as “optimal gains”, there are other things to consider. If riding outside improves bike handling, group riding, confidence, motivation, dedication, avoids burnout, absorbs vitamin D, allows social interaction, etc., that leads you ready to kill it indoors the following week; then you could argue that your optimal gains are achieved by the occasional club ride. And if you can get any aspect of the indoor workout while riding outdoors by pulling from the front, sprinting from the rear, etc., well then that’s even better.