I have been training with low volume plans for the past couple of years and I now want to experiment with mid-volume plans. For context, my trajectory is: Sweetspot base 2 → General Build → Rolling Road Race Specialty.
I am currently done with week 1 of SSB LV and want to switch to mid-volume as I believe that I can be consistent with a mid-volume plan. However, during my build and specialty phase, I am aware of some disruptions to my training schedule due to travel so I have doubts if I can stick to a mid-volume plan.
Has anyone switched to mid-volume or changed volume in the midst of a plan? If so, would you like to share your experience?
The general build is 8 weeks long. I would like to follow the mid-volume version of this plan for the first 4 weeks and then switch to low volume for the remainder of the plan as I will be regularly traveling. Is this possible?
Your experience with switching will vary greatly depending on your training history. Since you’re going to switch back and forth, I suggest you just add a couple of endurance rides to the LV plans, typically Wednesday and Sunday. That’s a good step towards MV but allows more flexibility.
I started with TR in Nov. I found the SSB low volume not enough and upped it to mid volume. I feel like I am with the right volume. I used to average 125 - 150 miles a week outside. With TR im at about 100 miles a week.
If you’re doing the workouts indoors your actually going nowhere. Comparing milage from structured workouts to milage if unstructured rides seems like a invalid comparison to compare load on your body
It might not seem like the best comparison. However the perceived stress ( to me) is more on TR than on the road. I think that not having a break on downhills, stop signs, traffic makes TR a bit more challenging on my body.
If I don’t feel like it’s enough I will go out and ride to up my TSS.
If you used Plan Builder, you can change volume for each block. However, finishing one week is not enough to judge whether you can sustain higher volume. I’d encourage you to take it easy and finish one block as-is. You can select MV for the next block and see how that goes.
However, I’d recommend that you start padding your LV plan in the next block first. Add endurance workouts. But do so in a measured way, don’t overdo it and think that just because you can manage one week easily that you’ll therefore also manage this for more than 6 months. Play the long game. Consistency >> more volume, but less consistent.
Thanks! I do believe that consistency is important as you said. However, I totally forgot to mention that I have been riding around 8-10 hours per week on low-volume plans for the past two years and this is also before AT and AI FTP detection. My FTP is currently at 267W and I am looking to grow, and the growth does need to be in a sustainable manner.
If you have been consistently adhering to a training plan and you are spending 8–10 hours per week on the bike, then you could dial it up intensity or volume. Your schedule seems pretty crammed, so I don’t know whether you can increase volume without losing consistency. But you could add a third day of intensity and see how you react. Do it for one block and see how your body reacts. Just make sure you can recover. Also, you don’t need to do this for the entire training plan, you can do this selectively for a block or two as needed.
One way to do this is to switch to mid-volume, but replace the Sunday sweet spot workout with an endurance workout. That’s what I have been doing for 3+ seasons. I could handle it, but I think my time is better spent doing endurance work.
