Hi Everyone,
I am in the middle of sweet spot base high volume TR plan and… I feel so exhausted. I can finish every workout but after the workout I feel so badly. I have quite long training history so I know what the training stress is but I think that high volume plan is too much for me in terms of intensity.
In my opinion the volume is not a problem but the problem is that each workout is very hard (long intervals), so intense.
So I thought, maybe I can skip to mid volume and add to the plan just endurance workouts to reach 8 hour per week but with reduced fatigue. What do you think about it?
I’m not sure how closely HV and MV mirror each other but it should be easy enough to delete workouts and you can see your reduced weekly tss for the remainder of your plan in the calendar. You could even swap or substitute workouts if you want
I personally run MV and add rides manually if I need to or substitute a weekend workout for an outdoor ride
I’ve had to do this myself - what looks like a small jump in numbers equals a BIG leap in TSS and a big shock to the system (fatigue, general mood, soreness) after a season of relatively short efforts (under an hour - week after week).
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Thanks.
I think the problem is not a number of TSS but the “quality” of it. I typically do about 500-600 TSS weekly and I am totally fine but not with HV plan.
I finished all low volume phases (with additional workouts) 2 years ago and mid volume last year.
I want prevent overtraining and this is why I am wondering to switch the plan to mid volume. Unfortunatelly I know it is not enough looking on races ahead so I want to keep the volume in terms of hours per week and TSS around 500-550. I intend to split the quality of TSS between high intensity workouts and endurance workouts but I don’t know if it makes any sense.
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@bolton I have an ATL and CTL around 90 (i.e. steady state equivalent of 600-650 TSS per week) and chose MV over HV. As serious cyclists know, the #1 mistake is going too hard on easy days and too easy on hard days. And IMO, you can’t abide by the proper hard/easy philosophy with the # of sessions/week prescribed by the HV plan, while the MV plan does support it.
So here is what I have done to solve the TSS gap between my needs and the volume prescribed by the MV plan:
During warm weather, I regularly do our spirited group rides (TSS of 225 to 350). They have all the elements of aerobic, sweet spot, threshold, VO2Max and even, on occasion, neuromuscular efforts. During the winter months (i.e. now), when I am doing fewer or shorter group rides, I select +1s, +2s, etc in place of the base ride prescribed or I import the base ride into Workout Creator and either add more intervals (use the repeat function) or make the intervals longer (e.g. change a 12min over/under to a 16min one) . . . or both. In this manner I am able to leverage the quality of the MV program and meet the TSS volume I need.
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Most importantly@Bolton…listen to your body.
Too much sweet spot work wears me out…and sets me up for burnout and injury.
Do what works well for you…but make sure you have some easy days and recovery days.
I hear you! It’s my first season with TR and I went from SSB LoVol + extra rides to Build HiVol…shock to the system!
Done my first week and it’s not too bad, the longer workouts are double what I was doing in SSBLV and at higher intensity, but they feel like hard workouts should feel.
The good thing is that it’s forcing me to really get my non-bike stuff organised & on point — sleep, nutrition, time management, etc. I think it’ll work out, esp since I have two weeks off work during the phase so that will help recovery immensely.
Good luck! 
@bolton - here’s what I’m currently doing, maybe this (or a similar hybrid variation) would work for you.
I loaded SSB mid-vol into the calendar, I replace the Tues/Thursday workouts (typically 1hr) with 1.5hr versions - either a +1/+2, or I pull from the HV plan for the same day, etc.
Wednesday is my easy day just as the mid-vol plan prescribes, but rather than doing Petit I am borrowing from Nate and doing 1hr at 45% for recovery. Friday is off, and Sat/Sun are as prescribed by the mid-vol plan.
I don’t yet know how I will structure the 2nd half of base, since mid-vol introduces some VO2 max efforts while high-vol continues on the sustained sweet spot path.
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Thanks a lot. I was looking for that kind of confirmation.
I think I need at least one extra day of easy spinning. It will be good for my body and my mind. @Wayne, I like the idea of mixing high and mid volume plans. I know I need some long sweet spot intervals but I need more rest too and I think your idea meets my needs. Thanks a lot.
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I’m in a similar situation & was wondering how I can change from HV to MV?
Just change it. I finally ended with a coach. The first thing was cut the volume and intensity to 30% of HV plan for a couple of weeks. And then rebuild with 2 intensity session in a week and a lot of zone 2. But mid volume worked just fine for me. To inclease volume I just added 15-30 min of zone 2 to each session.
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