Hey Hey! Seeking guidance on how to balance training and avoid burnout. Thought it would be fun to gauge group sentiment, and fair warning I may take none of your advice.
I am currently trying to balance two things - (1) run a fast 10k, and (2) get faster as an endurance MTB/Gravel athlete.
My Training plan has been as follows:
Run: 2 quality sessions (1 short hills/sprints, 1 longer more Vo2/strength endurance), 1 easy fun-run (truly easy, no junk miles)
Bike: Been on Polarized build MV, but the threshold workouts are a particular struggle. I tried doing SS but found there was just too much intensity when I added running.
The schedule I have is:
Mon - Quality run
Tues - Easy run
Wed - Vo2 Bike
Thurs - Rest
Friday - shorter Endurance Bike
Saturday - Threshold Bike, Quality Run
Sunday - Long Endurance bike
Am I trying to have my cake and eat it too? Should I do only low intensity on bike? Give me your advice and hot takes, I am all ears.
In case anyone cares: 27yo, 4.6w/kg (at mile high elevation), 18:30ish 5k shape
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Hey there!
My first thought seeing that schedule is that there may be a bit too much intensity. Which of your two goals takes priority? Do you have any running/cycling events coming up that you would like to focus on?
Depending on that, I’d then limit the intensity of the sport that takes the back seat.
If you don’t have a primary focus and you’re just trying to balance things out long-term, maybe it would be worth striking out any “redundant” workouts. For example, you mentioned that you do shorter, VO2-type efforts while running, but then you also do them on the bike. It might be worth cutting one of those two harder sessions out and replacing it with something easier (like a Z1/2 run or spin – or even a second rest day).
It may also be worth moving around your rest day if that’s possible. As it’s set up now, you have 3 pretty demanding sessions in a row with the Threshold bike/quality run, the long Endurance ride, and then another quality run on Monday.
Perhaps something like this might be a little more balanced:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Quality run
Wednesday: Short Endurance ride or run (you could alternate weeks)
Thursday: Hard bike
Friday: Off
Saturday: Threshold Bike + Quality Run
Sunday: Long bike ride
All that said… How do you feel currently? Does your plan feel sustainable, or do you feel like you’re accumulating too much training stress/fatigue?
Hopefully that helps give you some ideas… Feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions!
This is super interesting take, I kind of think the same that it is too much intensity. I recently asked my run coach to reduce to only one longer interval workout on the run vs two per week as the shorter hills/<200m sprint workouts don’t beat me up as much but to your point I am consistently getting a yellow day every Sunday/Monday…luckily very few reds.
I just wrapped my first two races - Feb 2 had a run and bike event, and then Mar 1 I had a 70mi gravel race. Up next will be gravel racing in June and a 10k race on memorial day that I want to go 39’ on (hilly altitude course). I hate to say it but they are equal priorities right now. To be honest I feel ok and the body is getting more used to the training load every week. Last week was the following:
Mon Easy trail run, Tues 16x400 @5k pace, Wed easy bike, thurs vo2 bike, friday endurance bike, saturday 4x9 threshold bike and 12x150/50 running sprints, then a 3hr ride on sunday. I was able to do a pretty solid run sesh monday but the body was real tired today for the easy run, and nervous for 4x4 vo2 bike tomorrow.
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Also I hesitate to go to two off days a week albeit a good idea. In full transparency even one off day is hard for me since training helps my mental state so much
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Definitely understand that! Maybe you could test it for a brief period just to see if it leads to any improvements… You can always switch back if you find you don’t like it. 
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This is something to watch out for. Overtraining can happen.
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@ZackeryWeimer I just looked into trying a custom training plan for this and it seems the running fatigue doesn’t get lumped into the recommendation 
It recommended a third intensity day on the bike. I’m 27, but in this unique case - should I do a masters plan (running definitely ages ya!)?
Also to note - I did just get a 3w boost in FTP in my last block and feeling quite swift on bike and run. Might just keep as is and move to a polarized base to reprioritize endurance on the bike. Also moved the Quality run + Hard bike double day to fridays and put an EASY spin for saturday to avoid the 3 days of hard work in a row