Training Question: 4 days on / 3 days off

Training
1

I have a peculiar cadence to my training, and I thought I’d crowdsource some feedback on how best to go about it.

Due to the nature of my job, I travel almost every week – generally Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. As such, I find myself cramming my TR work into the weekends, Fridays and Monday (also, sometimes Thursdays when I arrive back home…but that’s a 50/50 proposition).

This has worked fairly well for me so far, as my FTP has gone from 264 → 271 → 280 → 285 → 289 in the last 6 months. I have completed SSBLV1 & SSBLV2 and am right in the middle of General Build LV1.

However, given the fact that I train for 4 consecutive days – but also the nature of how I always have 3-4 days of recovery built in after each training block, I’m wondering if I’m training as effectively as I could be.

I’m thinking of changing my training cadence to the following pattern, and would welcome any thoughts:

Day 1: Vo2 workout - 60-75 mins
Day 2: Threshold or SweetSpot – 90 mins
Day 3: SweetSpot – 60-75 mins
Day 4: Endurance or Recovery – 60-75 mins
Day 5: rest
Day 6: rest
Day 7: rest or jog for 30 mins
Repeat.

If I have a consistent pattern of 4 days on, 3 days off – would this be the most effective way to go about it? Also, I would continue to mix in a recovery week every 4th week like the training plans prescribe.

I’ll also note that I’m 44 years old, and have a 3.6 w/kg. My current FTP of 289 is an all time high.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

2

I don’t travel, but sometimes work schedule means I’m in a similar boat. Sun-Wed are free, Th-Sat gets tricky. I always find if I try three intense days in a row makes my last intensity day suffer. I might consider putting your endurance workout on day 3 and then day 4 do SS work. It might up the quality of that last day? That’s been my experience at least.

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3

I’d move the endurance workout from day 4 to day 2. It would be hard doing VO2 day 1 followed by Threshold day 2.

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4

I would run on day 6.

possible solution:
I traveled 4 days a week last year and did iron man training. If you always go to the same city, see if they will put you at a long term spot instead of a hotel. Then you can leave a cheap bike and dumb trainer there. You drive instead of fly once to bring everything. Requires a few other variables to work out of course.

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5

My advise is more on a meso scale. I have a similar but, more irregular schedule. Big blocks on and off the bike. Hate to bring it up cause it seems so confusing, but you will need to think about the overall (TSS) as the weeks progress. Otherwise you will plateau no matter what you do.

6

Good point, but the TSS issue is really a temporary one…once the weather is warmer (I live in Chicago) I get in at least one 2-3 hour ride in on the weekend. Sometimes I get two of them. And my TSS hovers around 500 - which is about all I can really handle.

Then my training schedule becomes a different conundrum. At that point I am down to 1-2 days of structure and I need to decide what to use then — so the 4-on/3-off is mostly a construct of winter.

But I get your point.

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