Everything I have read indicates that, physiologically, it takes 20-30mins to get back into zone 2 after a higher than zone 2 intensity interval. With this in mind, aren’t workouts like Three Sisters a waste of time? (Three Sisters is a 1.5hr 3.4 level Threshold workout with a warmup followed by 18mins of zone 2, then 40mins of threshold over unders, followed by 18mins of zone 2). Are the 18mins of zone 2 after the over unders a waste? Wouldn’t it be better to do 36mins of zone 2 followed by the over unders at the end? Should I just replace Three Sisters (and workouts like it) with another threshold workout at similar intensity and duration without the zone 2 at the end of the workout? I also wonder if the warmup of Three Sisters interferes with the first zone 2 block. Also, I don’t feel that a warmup is necessary for zone 2 and TR doesn’t seem to think so either for strict zone 2/endurance workouts.
If you’re not in Z2 when riding at Z2 power, which zone are you then in?
I think you are mixing up concerns regarding fat oxidation rates with benefits of adding moderate training stimulus before/after harder work.
Do you think it’s not worth doing an hour’s endurance ride straight after a 90 minute threshold workout? Really? That’s a great workout!
If not, ask yourself why pro riders do four hour rides with 20 minutes of threshold in every hour.
Bottom line: doing the work is way more important than worrying about exactly where and when to do the work.
I guess the question is, are there training adaptations that occur after zone 2 exercise in a “fresh” state that are different than immediately after a hard interval? Is the former better than the latter or vice versa or are they equal?
Unfortunately, like most here, I am time crunched due to career and family obligations. Just trying to figure out the most efficient use of time. For a “hard” day, I am wondering if it is worth doing only 40mins of threshold OU intervals in a 90min workout vs doing a 90min alternative with more time in zone.
This has some info that might be interesting.
I’m sure there are some nuances between the benefits of doing Z2 fresh and doing it as a part of an interval workout, but how much difference I don’t know.
TR has given you a workout like that because according to their Ai that is an appropriate amount of time in zone for you at the moment. Doing something like 3x25 minutes at threshold would give you a lot more time in zone than 3x9, but you have to be able to finish it without derailing your training for it to be a good idea.
Stop reading bro science stuff.
You are either riding at your endurance pace or not.
You can’t “ruin” a workout. Volume is volume whether it’s before or after intervals. And, the more volume the better.
None of that is true. Some of the podcasts with Chad diving into the science were pretty clear on adaption masking because of increases in strain to the nervous system.
Please feel free to provide a reference or any kind of scientific information I can read on “adaptation masking”.
I just told you. Its on TRs podcasts with Chad. He discussed it multiple times related to timing z2 in the exact same theme as this thread.
I’m not going to go dig through hundreds of podcasts from ten years ago. Either you have some solid info or not. If Chad was referring to a study, I’d like to read it. It’s hard to imagine that you can remember such details from ancient podcasts.
It’s not my responsibility to teach you what you don’t want to learn on your own. It doesn’t really bother me if you don’t believe me. Google scholar is right there at your fingertips and you can find all of the research papers you could ever dream of.
As far as my memory goes. There is a reason why I have a doctorate in chemistry and have been a researcher for the last 15 years – I tend to remember details.
No thanks. I’m not doing your research for you. So far, the best you can do is cite from memory a ten year old podcast.
Clearly TR has moved on from Chad’s ideas if they are prescribing the workout in question.
“Have a snack and go ride your bike”