Tuesday night I was pretty cooked after a heavy ride over the weekend and my plan had an 1hr30min Vo2 max ride, I looked at it and thought that is gonna be a real struggle. So had an idea to do 30min easy warm up and see if that eases the legs a bit and then try 1hr workout with same progression level. Seamed to work and got through the workout. That go me wondering is there any detriment to doing this with regards to training benefit? Sometimes I feel like a longer warmer up or maybe when mentally tired I can battle through an hour but an 1hr30min when hanging feels like a challenge too much.
I know the tss maybe a bit lower and probably the training effect would be totally subjective anyhow, but is there any major drawback to this?
Cheers Matt
It’s less stimulus.
Less stimulus may or may not but with great probability means less adaptation.
What did you expect the result to be?
More stimulus = more adaption is only valid if you haven’t accumulated more fatigue than you can recover from. In this case “less is more”. Piling on more work in a fatigued state is not a way to success but rather the opposite.
@Matt_W1 Being consistent with your plan is far more important than following each workout to it’s letter. I think you made the right choice and went for a workout that you could manage rather than one you possibly would have failed.
Edit: grammar
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Sounds like you made the right call here.
There shouldn’t be much of a detriment to your training by doing a shorter workout in this instance. It might be a bit less stimulus, as @Neuromancer mentioned above, but, as @TomasIvarsson said, it’s better to be consistent and complete a workout you’re capable of doing on a given day rather than overdoing it and burning yourself out.
Kudos on listening to how your body was feeling and adjusting your plan!
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In my head I was hoping that with the PL being the same, the effort is harder over a shorter time, soon maybe the stimulus was the same?
The difference this one ride will make to your overall training plan is miniscule.
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When comparing two similar workouts with the same PL but different durations, you’ll often notice that the shorter workout has a higher IF. This is because in order to be ranked at the same workout level as the longer workout, it needs to be a bit more intense.
This can create a similar overall stimulus as the longer workout but doesn’t necessarily mean it will have the same amount of TSS.
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I know one session in the grand scheme of things would be next to nothing but over time?
I expect it is probably best not to get into the habit of scheduling workouts that you are unlikely to complete isn’t it?
Dial the plan back and give the AI system the chance to work with reality?
I would be hard pressed to put a figure on how many workouts one would need to chop before it became significant, but I would say it is probably better to be in a position where you can add a ride in to a plan that you are knocking out of the park, than it is to chop workouts from a plan that is too much.
Others that know more will have a more informed opinion.
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