For whatever reason, I tend to feel best with two workouts with intensity a week plus a more endurance effort long ride rather than three workouts with intensity a week. I am looking at the low volume plans but notice they have three workouts a week with intensity. To get to best use out of TrainerRoad and Adaptive Training, is it better to use train now twice a week for the intensity workouts or should I do the lv plan and replace the weekend workout with a lower intensity endurance effort ride? For context, my training goal is to do some gravel races and a gran fondo this summer. I ride 5-6 days a week with the non-workout rides being zone-2 endurance effort rides.
I would lean toward doing the LV plan and substituting the weekend ride for a long ride. If you have the time in the middle of the week you could even swap the 1.5 hour weekend ride to during the week and instead replace one of the weekday rides with a long ride on the weekend (hopefully that made sense). I’d lean that way for a couple reasons.
- You’d have a long term plan on the calendar as motivation instead of just staring at an empty calendar and having to fill it in every day you want to ride.
- It would adapt with AT
- The rides would have some built in progression. Train Now is great if you have unpredictability and you don’t know ahead of time what your schedule might be but it won’t be moving you in any specific direction (i.e. you might do tempo bursts one week, then overunders the next, then SS the next) but a plan will have progressive overload to push your boundaries (i.e. 3x12 @ FTP, then 3x15, then 4x12, etc.)
So as long as you are careful and your extra endurance riding doesn’t hamper you ability to complete the intensity then I think the plan route is the way to go.
Check out mid volume polarized 6week then 8 week plan. After that they suggest do a specialty phase that’s a lot of intensity but a lower overall volume and “sharpens the blade” at your FTP. Hope that helps somehow!