Hi. Looking for some advice from anyone who may have been in the situation I now find myself in.
Previously I’ve followed the standard advice and have done my gym training on the same days as my intensity session - Tuesday Thursday, with my bike session in the morning and gym in the evening. So currently my week looks like what I believe to be a standard TR masters schedule of:
However a new work schedule means it’s going to be impossible for me to ever do two sessions in the same day midweek.
I’m a masters athlete aged 48 and really want to keep my 2 gym sessions - you know, because sarcopenia and all that - so I figure I need to adjust my TR calendar as I can’t find a suitable template anywhere else. I think the best I can come up with is to shorten my Sat endurance ride so I can fit in a gym session:
M - Rest
T - Intervals
W - Gym
T - Intervals
F - Rest
S - 1.5hr z2 + Gym
S - 3-4hrs z2
Looks better than most people would do. Thursdays will be tough, so my suggestion would be if you’re gonna do legs, do those on Saturday and keep Wednesday legs pretty light.
Looks solid. Thursday could be tricky. If you’re splitting the gym with upper and lower body then you could do upper on Wednesday and lower body on Saturday.
Personally I’d maybe look to remove a rest day to help spread the intensity and gym days.
Or don’t be so rigid with the midweek interval days, and go by feel.
Or Saturday could be 1.5hrs with intervals and then gym?
No one option will be perfect… I guess once you get into the routine you can play around with it and see what works
M - gym
T - rest (optional z1/2 or mobility)
W - intervals
T - rest (optional z1/2 or mobility)
F - intervals
S - 1.5hr z2 + Gym
S - 3-4hrs z2
I like doing my lifting the day before a rest day, so I’d be more likely to do the double day on sunday. I’d also play with trying not to have a gym session between the two interval days.. that looks rough and I’d almost rather do intervals-intervals-gym-rest. Do you have the same time of day available each day, or does it vary? Could one of the interval days go on the weekend (with extra endurance if time allows)?
Depending on how many different lifts you’re doing, and what your goals are, you could consider a single gym session per week. In the most recent podcast episode about strength training, Nate talked about research finding that a single session per week is enough to maintain muscle mass. I (10 years younger than you) recently did this for about 3 months, and didn’t see any degradation of strength. I don’t know (and I doubt the research exists yet) if more frequency is needed as we age, but it’s something to consider.
I also have an ongoing struggle trying to fit in cycling, running and strength training. I find there is no ideal training structure and you have to take it week by week based on fatigue, other commitments etc. Even if I have the perfect plan on paper, it’ll have to be adjusted as fatigue builds from week to week. Also, I focus on a few areas to progress in 2-3 month blocks and don’t rush progress across all three sports. Certain physiological qualities will have to go in to maintenance mode.
Do you need two rest days every week? I take rest days when needed. Reducing the amount of rest days would increase flexibility in your schedule.
Has to stop with my gym session because of bruised ribs will try to pick up again next week. Will probably start light and try to them again on interval days. I know if I go back and start heavy I smoke my legs for a week… The temptation is there to just wait until fall to go back after the season…
I agree with the others that stacking three days of intensity mid-week might be tough. I try to hit the gym at least twice a week, and it does affect me at least as much as a hard interval session, and usually more, which means that the Thursday session could be really difficult and maybe even counterproductive.
I moved it over to Saturday and pulled the Z2 to Thursday. This leaves at least two days between gym sessions and doesn’t have more than one back-to-back set of hard days (Tuesday/Wednesday).
M - Rest
T - Intervals
W - Gym
TH - Z2
F - Rest
SA - Intervals + Gym
SUN - Z2
I go the gym once a week now that it’s spring. The leg work fatigues me too much and impacts bike workouts.
What I do have at home are some dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands / wall anchor. With those few things I can do all sorts of other upper body stuff during the week when I’m not at the gym.
