If you decide you want to go this route, flip the VO2max block and do it now. Six weeks is about the time for adaptations to hit, and you want to be able to work after that.
So you could 3wk VO2 -7-10 days recovery - 4wk aerobic build - recover - 4wk aerobic build - taper.
You could also mess with your microcycles and make them 16on/5off, and do that five times. Easy way to do that is start a build block on Saturday then end on the third Sunday, five days recovery time, start again on Saturday. Iām actually doing this now when I have 9 weeks till big events, so Iāll get three distinct build cycles in. (Just went further and saw BBT made this same recommendation). And yes, you program as normal in a 16/5 rotationā¦ generally Iāll get 5-6 hard days and at least 3 long rides in that 16 day pack, add in 1-2 recovery rides, 1-2 days completely off, and 2-3 neuromuscular/endurance maintenance or tempo, and bang on.
When I do 16/5, I ride Saturday through Saturday, Sunday off (unless I have a race), then Monday through Saturday or Sunday. Usually one or two days off, and then a recovery ride or two. Keep a long ride in each week, interval sessions depends on race scheduleā¦ Really all of it just depends on the race schedule. I donāt run 16/5 in base/offseason, just when I know Iām going to be going hard a lot/racing and need more recovery time overall.
I can post my plan for my upcoming block here when Iām back at my comp.
I really like the idea of these, gives a good time horizon for concretely planning out blocks until the race, but also small enough cycles that I can sketch out workouts for those 16 days.
Iāve found that a few days with easy riding/off the bike are good enough to recover, so Iāve been riding hard or long most weekends anyway.
Good point - Iāll take a few days to get back into it after my 9 days completely off the bike, then do VO2 work first. The recovery of VO2 work can presumably still be riding in Z2, just stay away from intensity?
Then after, Iāll go back to aerobic builds through SS/Threshold progressions and potentially starting with more specifc race prep (over/unders, hard starts, burst in intervals, etc.)
Iād be very interested in that. Thanks a lot for your response! Excited for the coming months
I posted a calendar screen shot of this approach a year or so ago, think it was in the Sweet-spot progression thread (if I find it Iāll link it.) Edit: lol, I didnt even look which tread this was. I was almost exactly a year ago.
Screenshot
Anyway, I think @kurt.braeckel has explained it well. For me I generally can find 5 - 7 hours to train weekends and Iām approaching 50, so more frequent recovery and getting training load days in at the weekend 16/5 made sense and it worked well.
It is excellent for people that need more frequent recovery but not necessarily a full week and want to make more use of days they have more time to train.
Some people dont want to have recovery days just because a plan says it is a recovery week, if after 5 days recovery they are recovered and have 5 hours they could train the next few days.
Also can work well or a variation of, for people on some work shift patterns etc.
Would be good to see this. My schedule/life has fallen such that I am having a recovery week this week, before a race next Sunday. Interested to see how you prep the week before races, and would you do different in my position.
Iām trying to do extensive work to push out TTE, but races are sporadically appearing here and there. Am in 2 minds about moving threshold intervals into the long Sunday Z2 ride this week. I could then move the SST earlier and maybe some short VO2 efforts on Weds/Thurā¦
This has been my recent plan - went from a big z2/z3 base period for 3 months into the vo2 block, based on the adaption time people were talking about, and the opportunity to then build FTP under a higher ceiling. I had an A event late April so wanted to get the benefits of the VO2 block under my belt before then (sadly that has gone away for this year though )
Worth bearing in mind the experiences of many, myself included, that these VO2 blocks wipe you out! It was a full 2 weeks afterwards before I was ready to begin threshold work. Iām only a few weeks into that threshold build but feeling good and hoping a couple of blocks of o/uās and longer threshold work will drive up FTP a little. Worst case it will be good event specific work for some long GFs and a week in the mountains in the summer!
My sweet spot progression is not sexy at all. Basically, 80 - 90 minutes total time at power in erg mode, while keeping HR in the 140 - 145 bpm range (80 - 84% max HR with a 150 bpm ceiling). Add 3 watts per week on the Kickrā¦to Tempo and Vo2. As long as heart rate stays in the right range I keep adding 3W with each week. If it doesnāt, I go for another week at the same power. Iāve been up to 4.5 hrs of Z3+Z5 in a week at times.
I think Z2+Z3+Z5 is the best way to go for meā¦strictly a time trialist.
Hereās my three weeks. I am technically starting my 16 working days on Friday, so my recovery 5 day block goes Sunday to Thursday, same for the next block. Most of these workouts are notional, so they might change. Also of note, Iām working on raising volume, but being conservative with it, so first Iām lengthening the long rides and trying to hit two of them per week. Thatās why youāll see a couple of 1 hour neuromuscular days in there. Eventually those will stretch out to be longer when Iām able to handle more hours overall. Note that I have a race NEXT Sunday but I canāt make it, so thatās my one true day off in this block.
I also donāt schedule all of my pre-race weeks the way this week is scheduled. Iād probably have more intensity than I do this week, but this is a true recovery week coming off my last three week block (and allergy season!).
Finally, the last week (starting on the 11th) is my ānormalā schedule for a training week right now.
Interval - Long - shorter Z2/Z3/neuromuscular - recovery - Interval - Long - Off.
Happy to take feedback - every coach needs a coach!
Between yours and @Bbt67 schedule examples Iāve been inspired to use your shorter rest week idea.
The 16 days on etc doesnāt work for me as my training is scheduled 90% around my kids school/preschool bookings and 10% work.
But using the shorter rest week could/should work really well to allow me to align my rest for the school holidays and work. Plus, by the time I get to my rest week I usually really need a couple days completely off the saddle, but am ready to go before seven days.
Hopefully it works well. It was a nightmare setting it up as TR was having some wild hissy fits and injecting multiple extra plans. Iāve had to redo my whole year, but thatās another storyš
I really think itās a dangerous thing that Iāve seen a lot of, especially when I was a bit younger. You have to have exceptionally thick skin/high self confidence. Otherwise youāll inevitably be jealous of peopleās time to train, or natural gifts/genetics.
Up until a few weeks ago when I left my full-time job to focus on building my coaching business, I rode 5 days a week and between 8-10 hours, usually 450-500 TSS, so this volume is new for me, too! First week I did 13hrs and 630 TSS, then fell off and allergies hit me like a truck last week. So again, this isnāt my normalā¦ yet.
Without races, hereās how I would schedule 16/5 for myself. YMMV:
Interval - Long - Recovery Ride/Rest - Interval - Long - maintenance Z2/Z3/neuro - recovery ride - Interval - Long ride - rest day - Interval - Long ride - maintenance Z2/Z3/neuro - recovery ride - Interval - Long Ride
Start recovery week: rest day - recovery ride - recovery ride/rest day depending on feeling - low Z2 + openers - Z2 + short duration testingā¦
ā¦into work weeks. Long duration PDC testing would go in one of the work week interval sessions.
Build the long rides out to 4hrs each, interval sessions are 90 minutes+, intervals 20-45 min then Z2 before or after depending on goals, maintenance/neuro ride 1-3 hours, recovery no more than 1hr.
I could definitely see scenarios where riders who are not growing volume (as I am) would be able to add an additional interval session, but obviously THAT depends on what types of intervals weāre talking about, too.
Iāve always struggled with the TR rest week approach of a week of just short z2 work. Looking at some other plans they all had some form of reduced volume intensity
This last week I tried something a little different and had rest days Sun-Wed and had 2 days completely off the bike and just did a couple of short walks, day 3 was Goddard -4 openers and then a day with 1 hr easy endurance Colosseum -4. So only 4 days effectively.
It seemed to work well as I smashed my hardest o/u session yet on my first day back and feel good. This was after 3 weeks āonā based on 2 hard days a week and as much z2/low z3 volume as I can accumulate around it. For context Iām 51 but dont work much.
In general I think TRās recovery weeks (at least in their old canned plans) are/were too hard. But you could say that about every part of their old plansā¦ The design was simply increase TSS incrementally and then decrease it one week, rather than putting much thought into actually structuring proper recovery.
This weekend I did a 3x60min session with 15min in between. Goal was 3 times Alpe du Zwift @90%. Managed to do 1u00.50, 1u00.34 and again 1u00.50 (last 2k some upcoming cramp otherwise could have gone under 1hour). But felt good. Good aerobic climb training
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