I’m currently doing the low volume SST base plan. I usually commute to work (~20 km total) 4/5 days a week so wanted the low volume to fit around that.
However, I sometimes can’t ride into work as much. On those weeks, I’d like to add in some training rides. What would be the best way to do this? Should I switch that whole week to a mid or high volume plan, or just add in single rides? If so, which ones?
I’m in a similar position to you, I’ve been doing LV plans and supplementing with commute volume.
My thinking has been that the low volume plans have three days of intensity. Obviously this varies based on the plan, but for things like SSBII and general build, that’s 1 vo2 day, 1 sweetspot/threshold day, and a threshold/over-under day.
The mid volume plans have four days of intensity. The three above, plus a longer sweetspot ride. They also have a low intensity recovery/aerobic ride. So based on time and availability, I think adding sweetspot if you’re up for it or recovery if you’re tired would be a good place to start.
However, now that TR supports outside workouts (woop woop), I’m going to start toying with a mid volume plan, where I take some of the workouts outside and do them on my commute. This is easy for the low-intensity aerobic rides, might be challenging for more varied workouts. It’ll be an experiment.
Existing discussion:
I’m doing the LV Short Power Build and I commute to work 15 min each way 5 days a week. I will be adding low intensity long duration rides on the weekends to build up my training stress while still allowing me enough recovery to do the hard intervals mid-week.
I added Z2 endurance rides to LV once a week to prep the move to a mid volume plan this past winter. Helped a ton with the higher TSS in the MV plans. Started with 30min and increased it to 2 hours. A side benefit to this was a B race i did I was able to hang with with riders I usually get dropped by in marathon mtb races somewhere in the middle of the race.
Just my personal experience with it.