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)
Is this page unfinished? Looks half written. What does this magic research out of Norway say?
Ah ok. I’ll give that a go next ride. So I’m looking for more like an hour or more once I remove the warmup and cooldown - makes sense. Thanks!
This may be covered elsewhere so apologies if old ground. Lots of the articles available are more about how to identify aerobic decoupling, rather than what to do with it
What do I do in my next ride if aerobic decoupling occurs? Lower intensity? Repeat until it doesn’t?
70% of max HR is around 125. Yesterday I did close to 2 hours. 1st hour around 115 bpm, 2nd hour 125 bpm. For my next 2 hour Z2 session, should I lower the intensity?
What if no decoupling occurrs? Do I increase intensity, duration, or what? Or just consider base to be ‘complete’?
Just my 2 cents…I would lower power first and then watch the decoupling over a few rides to see improvement. Then I would progress in time, so do it 2h30-3h. Depends on your goals and time available off course…
When all seem ok for the longer durations. I will increase power…
Thanks for your thoughts. That seems sensible. I’m thinking 2 hours is about my limit on the rollers, but 2h30 to 3h might feel more achievable if the intensity is lower.
Either way, today’s ride will be at lower watts, and I’ll see how my HR goes. Although I shall be watching England play in the World Cup, so might get some spikes!
I can read it all, its a terrible article.
Two a days worked for me in 2016-2017.