This is my first off-season with TR but have been doing structured training since 2020. My usual routine has been a training plan during off-season, then Zwift races/group rides (indoor and outdoor) from April to Oct. The Spring/summer season is “fun time” on the bike, a nice break from ERG mode and a chance to revel in fitness gains while they last. But by the end of the season, my levels have dipped. Then its back to structured training.
If I want to maintain off-season gains longer into my season, how should I build an in-season plan? I’m willing to spend 1-2 days/week max in TR. But my Zwift races are usually less than an hour and they’re just for fun, so I don’t have an A event and it feels like a hassle to enter a bunch of weekly Zwift races as C events, plus I pick these races only a day or two ahead of time.
In short, I’d like to add a little more structure to my season but need that break from the off-season regimen to be motivated to hit it again in the winter. Any thoughts?
I’ve just tried to construct something similar for the Zwift Games, I was coming to the end of specialty and was going to go back to base (don’t really have IRL events I train for), but as the timing fitted I pushed my new plan out a month and created a 5 week mini plan with a bunch of C events and picked 1 stage as an A event just to see what happens.
I got 2 weeks of build, 2 weeks of specialty. Deliberately planned my races on one of my intense days so I have 2 intense rides and a race per week. It feels sensible enough to me. FTP is predicted to drop a few points but given there’s an overall reduction in volume I’m not that surprised or bothered by it (and I expect I might overperform on a few workouts to drag that up if I’m feeling fresher - one can hope anyway!)
Idea #1: if you’re in your bibs to do a warm-up and race, why not take 5 minutes after the race to refill your bottles) and then do an easy endurance ride? A great way to keep your volume up.
Idea #2: do a basic gap analysis and work out what your limiters are. Need more 5 minute power? One weekly VO2 Max workout for a couple of blocks. Short on anaerobic capacity? Replace the VO2 Max with hard 30/30s.
This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing it. Coming out of a race season with FTP minus 2-3 watts sounds like a win to me. I guess there’s no way around setting a specific race schedule.