Thanks. I did have an actual coach last year but had to give it up because of finances, unfortunately. I would have been able to chat through this with them but instead I came here to ask for advice.
I’m using TR primarily now as a good calendar and workout resource as its becoming apparent that I’m far too badly behaved and maveric to do what a computer program tells me 
I’ll just wing it and see. What’s the worst that can happen. It won’t be the first time I’ve blown myself up. 
Yeah it’s tough to give advice here because TR structures things a certain way and uses certain workouts at certain times, etc. I don’t agree with all of what their plans do, but that’s fine, “all roads lead to Rome” and all that… but in my former life as a TR user back in the day, they dosed out zone 5 work on a consistent basis rather than in any one block.
Essentially a mixed block periodization all year is what they kind of use, so inserting specific blocks can be tricky here.
Thanks, I think that’s what I feel like I have been getting, lots of different workouts. Maybe because it’s right and I should be doing this mix of sweetspot, threshold, VO2 intervals. I’m not going to argue with the merits of the plan, it will probably make me faster if I follow it.
I don’t really want to though . What I really feel like my ageing body wants is some VO2 stuff and lots more easy stuff. I guess true polarisation for a bit. That’s what brought me to this thread in the first place. If I am following a TR structured plan I get lots of dosing of sweetspot and threshold. If I ride at home unstructured, then I get lots of sweetspot and threshold. That’s what I get, over and over and over.
3 weeks of work with a different focus will shake things up if nothing else and if I get no fitness gains from it, then meh, it doesn’t really matter. The VO2 stuff is the only thing I really enjoy doing indoors too. Threshold/sweetspot indoors is duller than dishwater. With VO2 stuff I don’t have time to think about anything other than not dying/throwing up. I like that.
It’s been so long since I’ve done any proper z5 stuff that my body will be in for a surprise but I have nothing to loose.
Hit a PR for 5 minute power this morning! Pretty stoked on that, especially since it was the 3rd session of the week and I did 3 hrs at .55 IF yesterday.
@JoPage If you’re interested in using TR workouts for a VO2 block, below are the workouts I’m using for the progression.
week 1 – denali -2, snowshoe fire, snowshoe fire
week 2 – border, border, morgan -4
week 3 – morgan -4, mount deborah, mount deborah
Thank you @gally24, I am interested in this. I had kind of planned to do a more 30 30s to start, just to remind me of how to work hard.
Ill put a plan together and go from there next week. Excited to get started now!
Hi knowledgeable people
I have started this VO2 block thingy and have done some lower PL VO2 workouts to just remind me how to work hard above threshold. But I have a few questions
These lower PL workouts tend toward shorter efforts. I did the first one inside on the trainer in erg mode and also soon realised that the ‘feel’ of the workout was very much spin fast - it felt like an effort up a slight incline/false flat.
However, for most of my day to day riding/big rides, the only time I am really likely to do VO2 efforts is up steeper hills - eg part of an XC race or when a threshold climb suddenly ramps up to 25%.
So I’ve done the last two workouts outside instead on climbs with varying gradients and varying terrain. Is this a good idea or should I just stick to the trainer?
It’s a lot easier for me to put the power through on a climb, and on these 1 to 2 minute efforts the Garmin tells me that I am just working anearobic/neuromuscular stuff. Is this a problem? Should I just sack off the shorter efforts with the longer recoveries (I don’t mean 30/30s I believe those work by shorter recovery so you don’t shift the lactate in time for the next effort?) and focus on longer intervals that are more like supra-threshold stuff?
Am I just pointlessly working at levels above VO2 max or will these efforts still have a benefit on VO2 max?
Also, I’m sure I read somewhere that, with VO2, you just have to go as hard as you can for the duration of the interval. I am still finding the RPE feel of these harder efforts, and often go out hard initially and then drop off and settle for the remainder of the interval, but not dropping off as far down as the power level that TR suggests. What I mean is, I am still easily hitting the power target prescribed, but it isn’t in a nice flat line like it is on the trainer - it has a spike at the front. Is this initial spike a bad thing? I am hoping it will go away when I am better able to get my RPE right at the higher power stuff. But in the meantime, is it just causing me pointless stress rather than aiding anything?
If I am outside and have to ride a bit between blocks of intervals, is this a problem? Like today I stupidly forgot to put the bottle on the bike so I had to ride and find a water spring to drink from halfway through the workout. This gave me some unstructured riding between blocks 1 and 2 on the intervals. Will this affect the workout significantly, or does it not matter as long as I hit the power targets on the intervals?
Finally, intensity factor - today I got a 0.96 intensity factor but I literally have no idea how that is calculated because it definitely did not feel that intense. Obviously the short efforts did, but the rest of it was faffing/recovery. The only thing I can think is maybe because of the unstructured riding in the middle that bumped this up a bit?