I’m following the Masters Low Volume Base I, II, and III with 3 rides total per week and 2 intensity days per week. It is basically 1 hour sweet spot on tuesday, 1 hour endurance on thursday, and 1.5 hour threshold over unders on saturday. I started strength training consistently 4 months ago and underestimated the added stress the squats and lunges would add. But I’m now getting to the point where I feel pretty comfortable with the 200tss + leg strength session per week. I like the rhythm of the plan I’m on but I’m pretty time crunched (full time job, young kids, etc….) so all of my riding is done between 5:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. and I’m not a morning person. The 1.5 hour threshold workout on saturday just means I get less sleep and my question is about shortening the saturday threshold workout and adding an endurance ride on Sunday.
Question: What is better….A 1.5 hour Saturday threshold over under workout like Nellis Wash (which bookend the threshold work with 2 x 18 minute of z2). Or a 1 hour Saturday threshold over under workout like Coe (which is the same as Nellis Wash but without the book ended z2) AND a 1 hour endurance ride on sunday? I can see benifits to both training wise, but curious what more knowledgable people think.
The first photo below is my prescribed training, and the second photo, would be the proposed alternative. This would allow me more riding time per week, and slightly more tss and the same threshold work, but lacks the endurance work during threshold sessions. I plan on repeating this plan throughout the winter for base training so I would repeat whatever option is optimal week over week. Thoughts?
Do the second one. But see how it goes across weeks, recovery wise with everything else. If you can handle the extra “"load” of the Sunday session you’ll be good. And you can always change it back. Training is never a one way certain march to victory or death.
another vote for plan B, but I’d be cautious if that sunday ride takes away a good sleep night with another earlier morning. Inadequate sleep can be a huge limiter to adaptation. Think of sleep as nightly training that need to be scheduled/prioritized/respected as much as the actual training sessions.
I’d do the Sunday ride, but drop or reduce the Thursday easy ride and keep the harder Saturday ride as is. Back in the day, before Adaptive Training AI, they (Coach Chad, John, & Nate) generally recommended keeping your key (hard) workouts as planned, and dropping/altering an easy day if you wanted to add an unstructured outside ride.
Another vote for plan B if you think you can consistently hit 4 workouts per week
However, as @gwhilts mentioned, you want to prioritize your interval days, which are your key sessions. So this means if you are feeling fatigued, then maybe drop the endurance ride on Sunday.
Another option would be to move your Sat ride to Friday (if you can), and that should spread your recovery better with a day off after every interval day.
