Hi,
I wonder when is the right moment to do a 150-180 kms ride (+/-2.500 m. altitude) when I follow a plan.
My friends want to make a long ride and I would like to do it with them. I have followed many TR plans, and now I’m on General Build Mid, 2nd week.
Would be good to do it this weekend or following next weekend? Or could I be tired because week workouts? Should I wait to the easy week and do it that weekend (and what about ramp test, as could be fatigue of ride interfere on ramp test??)
When the sun is out and you have friends available to enjoy the ride with!
If you had a race coming up then you’d maybe need to be more careful about scheduling it at least a week out from that. But otherwise I’d just drop it in instead of whatever long weekend ride TR has planned for you. Probably won’t get a very accurate ramp test result if you did it within 48 hours of riding longer than you normally do, but you can always delay the test by a day or 2 if the best day for riding with friends happens to be the day before the test is scheduled.
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Ironman race day or five weeks before 
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Every weekend? If it’s not a race why worry so much?
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Was going to say, when the weather is good!
I mean, do you follow a training plan to be able to do long rides with friends, or do you follow a training plan to tick off your to-do list for the week?
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That sounds like the perfect long ride to complement your training assuming it’s not a smash fest.
Go and enjoy yourself, there’s more to training than watching a blue bar on your laptop.
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Every weekend. Makes you strong like ox.
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RIGHT NOW!
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An ox is strong but not all that fast
Do the ride and adapt the plan accordingly if you want. Don’t forget why you train in the first place, it’s to actually ride your bike (for most people at least).
That said, you’re in the BUILD block so performance will be affected if you’re not used to 150-180km with some nice amount of climbing. Worst case, skip some workouts this week to go riding outside and just repeat the week as planned next week. I personally (N=1) got into trouble for skipping the intended workout progressions during BUILD.
Ok, for more detailed advice - if you only want one long ride a month, do it on the weekend before the recovery week. Obviously replace the Sunday workout, but I’d also cut back on the Saturday and do a shorter version (1 h) of it. It also depends on how you think the ride will be - if it’s fastish or there are a lot of hills, maybe drop the Saturday too. If you plan to do a long ride every week, I’d look at the different progression types in your build program (usually there’s a vo2max day, an over-under day, etc), and drop the one that is most like your long ride or that you feel you need least, and shift the days around.
I’d say “it depends”. I normally swap out my “Sunday” moderate workout for the group spin, but it wouldn’t normally be that long. A lot depends on how fast you go. Alternatively, I did a solo Permanent Audax, and I knew first workout back that I needed to take a recovery week. I perhaps under fuelled the ride and recovery though.
180km with that much climbing isn’t to be sniffed at, so I’d go with the weather and then suck it and see the next workout.
Faster at a plow pull then a gazelle