@juandenver as you go through your season and are reducing the number of zone 2 rides (i.e. from 4x to 2x to 1x), I understand you would be replacing the Z2 with a non Z2 workout (e.g. Threshold, VO2, …). However, all rides won’t be more “intense” rides will they?
For example, if you are doing 4 Z2 rides per week I get that. If you go down to 2 Z2 rides and then add 2 intense rides, I get that too. When you go down to only 1 Z2 ride and still riding 4x per week, are the other 3 rides all “intensity”?
I ask as that may be hard for me to recover from anyway (average Joe plus masters athlete age 
).
I am curious of the weekly ride make up if you are riding 5 days per week for example, across all 3 phases of the season (i.e. base build specialty)?
I think in specialty/race season I would need to keep 2-3 rides “easy” in order to recover and do 5 rides per week.
Is doing “too” much Z2 take away from the adaptations of the other workouts (e.g. Threshold, VO2)?
One long ride each week until race season.
One additional long ride each week in base, along side probably 2x intensity days depending on what your intensity looks like (SST? Threshold? something else?) Your fifth workout can be a recovery ride, neuromuscular training (cadence manipulation, etc.). Volume is king.
In a build phase, you can still do two longer rides, but you may drop down to one and just maintain if you’re doing longer threshold or even VO2max work 2-3 times per week. Otherwise, 1-2 recovery rides and 0-1 neuromuscular rides in there too.
Once you’re racing, it really varies. Most people will want to keep a long ride in every two weeks, at minimum, and keep that easy - well below LT1. Many people will also want a longer tempo or SST interval session in there to maintain their ability to push long times at threshold (if they’re not specifically working threshold at this time) every two weeks or so as well. And then the rest becomes about recovering from your races and/or race-specific intensity workouts, which you’re probably doing 2x per week, at most.
Not at all. Volume is main driver of adaptations and there is always recovery limit from hard workouts so it’s always better to push volume by more z2 not intensity. For example, for me “sweet spot” is 2x intensity (sst and above) and rest is z2. I ride typical 8-12h per week. I can handle 3x intensity per week but with 2x and z2 my harder workouts can be harder (or longer with sst and threshold) and I can recover. If I could only ride my bike - 3x intensity is easily doable, but with life stuff it’s hard. Of course intensity can be also periodised - so during base 1-2x, in build 3x.
Not to mention I feel way better on the bike and improved in many other departments than only FTP with this.
My volume is definitely too low to ditch intensity completely. If I had a time for couple 15h weeks, doing only z2 would be beneficial due the overload.
So amount of intensity is your personal choice, and mainly depends on your recovery. It is more beneficial in a long term to do higer volume with less intensity than opposite.
thank you @kurt.braeckel and @jarsson .
I feel a bit better about what I am trying now for the start of my off season if you will.
My volume for the past few years has been low for the most part (i.e. TR Low volume). In the spring and summer I get more mid volume ish with doing at least one long ride outdoors.
What I am trying now is to get more volume and make it easy, the easy TR trainnow workouts.
I am trying polarized part 1, mid volume, and making some adjustments. This is 4 rides per week, 2 easy, 2 intensity. What I will be trying to do and tweaking to this plan are:
- ride 5 -6 days / week and on some days ride 2 times per day (if I am limited to 60-75 minutes at a time, on some days I may be able to ride in the morning and evening to get more easy ride time)
- keep the 2 intensity workouts prescribed
- keep the 2 endurance rides prescribed, however, I may not be able to do the 90-120 minute rides in one sitting so I will try to get the same amount of ride time in between a morning and evening ride as mentioned above)
- For more easy Z2 rides I am trying to think of it as cycling for a commute to and from work (although I work from home but mentally this seems to work for me for now from a mental and motivation standpoint)
- then add additional rides just trainnow and choosing the easy endurance Z2 option
I was planning to try this approach for polarized part 1 and 2 mid volume which would take me to January 2023.
I am not sure what I will do then, maybe use plan builder, however, I am concerned if I take mid volume it will be too much intensity (I am also wondering if this would go against what ISM is suggesting).
Maybe I should do plan builder low volume, and use trainnow to add in as much Z2 rides as I can like now but just not with the polarized plans? This would still be 3 hard rides per week though.
Hopefully I will have some learnings through my current approach with the polarized and if 2 intensity sessions is enough or is working for me and if so maybe just keep repeating?
I guess that is not a novel stimulus anymore though …
Perhaps I will come back to the great knowledge base in this forum for help and suggestions in January.
Thank you TR community!
I’ve been doing 4-6 hours of zone 2 (using a heart rate monitor to stay in zone) and then one VO2 Max workout a week. I’ve been modifying the low volume polarized plan to do this. I am coming into my first rest week, and I really don’t feel like I need it. Does anyone have an opinion one way or the other? To just keep gunning, or take a rest week, that is the question. Under the “normal” training plans, by the time I hit a rest week, I can tell that my body needs it, but I just am not feeling that way on this method.
On a side note, after 6 good weeks, the average power I’m maintaining has gone from 215 watts to 250 watts while maintaining the same heartrate!
Has your power during your VO2max workouts increased as well?
Woah. That’s some insane progress! How trained were you before jumping into this, if I may ask? I would really like progress like that, but my Z2 power has barely moved over the past year or so (except for the first few months after I resume training after a break).
FWIW my general aerobic base period is scheduled for 6 weeks - 6 days of z2 with a ZRL Zwift race on top for a little intensity - and I don’t plan to take a rest week.
I would just continue with your plan and keep an eye on fatigue. If and when you feel you need the rest take one. The more traditional 3 weeks on, 1 week off doesn’t apply to everyone and/ or have to apply all periods of your training plan.
I subscribe to “you train too hard if you need a rest week”
ride on!
Nice jump in power!
Can I ask how those 4-6 hours are broken down? As I understand it, Zone 2 endurance rides need to be 2-5 hours to get the full benefit or they are more of a “maintenance ride.” Are you doing Zone 2 endurance work or are you doing shorter recovery maintenance rides?
This is relative to how long one’s current longest ride is. 2hrs could be maintenance for some but a push for others.
Is it just me, or is that a teaser article without details and/or a call to action?
haha, me too! I thought maybe my work browser was blocking me lol.
I vote for doing the rest/easy week.
I was doing a tempo based plan last winter. I felt great so I kept it rolling and then fell apart all of a sudden in week 8. In retrospect, inserting the easy week every 3-4 weeks would have been a better plan. You could just cut out the VO2 next week and keep the reigns tight on your Z2 effort.
I’ve not been doing rides that long. Most weeks have been 3 75 minute rides and one 2 hour ride in zone 2. Everyone of these I try to stay just under my peak heart rate for zone 2.
I am pretty well trained. I’ve been very consistent for the past 5 years, and I’m starting my 4th year as a TR athlete. That being said, the zone 2 work did start after taking a 2 week period of just riding for pure fun, and after about 45 days of watching my fitness fall off. To give you an idea, my peak FTP has been 330, but AI ftp says i’m 297 right now.
Alright, so I’ve been off the bike for about 1.5 weeks - doing lots of hiking and a bit of running. I’ve been reading quite a bit about zone 2 training and the benefits. I’ve never really done any concentrated work in this zone, so I figure I’d give it a try over the winter.
I did my first trainer ride of the year today, and performed a 30min interval at what I thought would be my zone 2 HR.
I took a split at 15min to see if the 1st half was similar to the second half.
1st half: 225w 138hr
2nd half: 225w 139hr
Edit: oh, I did do a 15m warmup and 15 cooldown, so only the middle 30m is included.
Can I assume I’m pretty close because my hr was stable? Or was that not long enough to get an accurate zone.
I do similar training with my coach, lots of Z2, one very hard session and one medium hard session, per week. Total of 10 hours.
I don’t do rest weeks, and I have the same feeling as you. If I train too hard, I need the rest week.
But if I train like I am doing now, let’s call it sustainable training, I almost never need a rest week. I’ll take an extra 1-2 days off every 3 months or so, just to reset the mind a bit mostly.
Do a 1h30m ride and remove first 15min and also cooldown so you jave more than hour and than compare HR (it should be in 5% diff)