Training plan suggests lots of intensity for 200km gravel ride

Training
1

So I’ve got a 200km gravel ride coming up near the end of April and have this down as my “A” event in the plan builder.

I was thinking the TR custom plan I set up might give me sessions equivalent to perhaps the sustained power build or the gran Fondo plans… But having done what looks like a sweet spot base build section, after a ramp test (or AI FTP) next week, the plan proposes VO2, anaerobic and threshold sessions all the way through until April.

So the question is why? My A event is probably 8-12 hours of fairly sustained effort, yet the plan looks like it is more focussed on short high intensity. I could possibly understand it if it was taking account of my sweet spot and threshold levels already being quite good, but I set this up a good few weeks ago… And in any event why shouldn’t I be training sustained efforts even if I add a bit of higher intensity nearer the event?

3

This is a common issue…most of us in a similar situation will delete the weekend workouts and substitute longer endurance rides.

1 Like
4

So on top of the 3 TR sessions, I usually add 1 long ride (currently ~4 hours but planning to up this a little each week) at the weekend, also a commute or another hour or two zone 2 type session. Plus a couple of weights sessions (doubling up at opposite end of the day to a turbo session).

I am thinking of deleting the overall plan and adding in the sustained build or gran Fondo plans to take me nearer to the event.

2 Likes
5

Which event type did you select? Unless your race has specific demands it’s usually advisable to set it to Gran Fondo which will still have VO2 and threshold but not the anaerobic stuff.

6

Solid plan, IMO

1 Like
7

So I’d set it as a gravel event. Now I’ve tried to modify it to gran Fondo and the app is crashing when I try to modify the plan to suit.

8

Your not alone…Mine was crashing last night when trying to modify a plan in plan builder.

9

I’ve seen that as well. Have to move to the web to get it working.

The “gravel” event type assumes that you are going to be really racing it so if it’s more a steady effort the “gran fondo” plan will have you do sustained power build and century specialities.

1 Like
10

your intuition is right on. VO2max can be beneficial for many riders as the endurance adaptations of just riding z2 are diminishing after a while even if your event is 8+H. Even some over/unders would fit in nicely there, but would stay away from the anaerobic work considering that is training the glycolytic pathway which you shouldn’t for such a long event.

Good luck!

2 Likes
11

Yeah, so the existing part of the plan has VO2 in it. I’ve just modified the plan with gran Fondo and it is giving me something going forward that is a bit more like VO2, threshold and sweet spot over the 3 sessions.

The VO2 feels like I can still progress - I feel there’s a big difference between the short 30/30 type vo2 and the longer intervals