I’m trying to get more of a base in this winter. My current outdoor ride is on Saturday which is a 1 hour fast group ride, around threshold with some V02 efforts too. Would adding an hour before and an hour after at around Z1 be a good idea or would all the endurance signalling be messed up or would endurance miles on already fatigued muscles be a help? Asking for a friend…
I would do upper Z2 endurance miles after the group ride. It won’t mess things up and help build your aerobic base, an important foundation for everything else you do. Do the miles in a steady fashion without breaks for max benefit.
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More is more. If you’ve got the time and mentally want to do it, knock yourself out. You’ll most definitely see benefit.
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If you have the time ride to and from the ride. Additional volume would be very helpful. That is a really short group ride especially for this time if year. Where do you live? Most rides around here are 3 hours or more.
Central London, it’s the (somewhat) famed Regents Park Saturday morning smashfest chain gang. I mean, it’s 1 hour 15 mins chain gang somewhat hard. Of course when I was racing, I used to do a 1.5 hour chain gang and then do 4 hours into the Peak District on my own then 5 hours on the Sunday but now as a proper adult with family plus job and such, the volume has decreased! I’m pretty anaerobic which makes up for a lot of my aerobic limitations but I think it’s time to start getting more miles in and get that aerobic engine back…
I go out with my club on the fast club ride on a saturday morning… then I get dropped. Sometimes before the cafe stop. Sometimes after it (depending on what is driving the group).
However, what I do is settle into my tempo/endurance pace that I will use for longish time trials and just sit there, (with occasional pushes up hills). My thinking is that I have a stressed system by then (the others are mainly faster and more powerful and younger than me), so I am simulating a ride where I have done perhaps twice the amount of riding beforehand. Also I am building endurance. it worked for me really well last year. Likewise I am doing the same this year.
Occasionally with the various loops, they will again pass me. I avoid the temptation to try and jump on their much quicker wheels. I just do my thing at this point. This way I am building up my endurance, week by week, AT MY PACE, and getting in a hardish session as well.
I also ride to where the group meet and make a point of not waiting but riding towards them, that way I again get a little Z1/Z2 in as well.
Doing this allowed me to PB in 50m and 100m Timetrials and complete my first 12hr at way above my expectations.
So simple, answer to your question - YES. (Tell your friend to do it)
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Cool, sounds like a plan, thanks!
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Ahh. Yeah I would get in as much volume at zone 1-2 before or after as you have time for. Either one really and I see pros around here do it all the time. Ride to the cx, crit, or road race and then ride home. I used to ride an hour of zone 1-2 after CX races in the early season when it was nice to get additional volume.
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It is simple really, yes I enjoy the fast blast, and group ride, but training to someone else’s plan is not my training. So I enjoy it while I can and accept that my training is different to others.
This. Add on as much Z2 work as you please, without compromising future workouts.