Mostly i see 300+ on corners going up. It’s only for a couple seconds.
Mostly I can avoid those routes on my z2 rides but 200w will be common. If I was on the road bike I’d have lower gearing but I want to keep one dry/clean for the turbo. When the cassette wears out (or before my ultra) I’ll be putting on a Sunrace 50-11 which longer term will help keep me in z2.
It’s no big deal to fluctuate power during z2 training. It’s a zone, not a specific number. I ride in a range of say 215-245w for my average power. If I am going up hills, I might see 300w for a bit, but nothing long enough to take my avg or NP outside of the range.
I have a similar issue with about 10-15 of traffic and lights until I get to the good roads and then some steep hills and descents when I do. I just got a big chain ring to keep e power up on the downhills and a big rear cog for easy spinning on uphills (52/36 and 11-32). Your body is not a computer so it won’t know the difference. Especially for a longer ride of 1:30+
Focus a bit more on heart rate when doing zone 2, you won’t need to worry about the short power spikes on hills etc
Here is a little part of an interesting podcast with Inigo San Millan, the scientist behind the training program of Pogacar.
Around minute 7 they go into Z2 training and mixing with higher zones.
Like anything I think it’s important to clarify here… Are you training like a pro? If not… does it matter as much? At what point does it?
If you are riding 2-3 times a week jumping up into a higher zone is probably good for you. If your cranking out 20 hour weeks & riding every day probably not.
Training in Z2 is not just about building up less fatigue. Done right, you are training to use the fat energy system up to higher intensities, with all sorts of performance benefits.
This applies to any cyclist. Mixing in higher intensities is exactly what is being suggested for people training less hours. But it is also explained how you can do that while maintaining the benefits of Z2 training.
hey! How steep are the hills? Even if 10-13%, with a 28 or 30t in the rear, you should be able to get over the hill and keep power at low z3…maybe use some low cadence during this portion.
Just shoot for no more than 20-25% z1, and reduce the threshold surges as much as possible.
Doing half on trainer and half outside just because of hills is overthinking it IMO. Even though training precision is a great thing, we have to have fun also! Go enjoy the outside! Plenty of other time for the trainer.
Good luck!
Brendan
I saw major benefits after 3 months with 6x Z2/weekly (~60-63% of FTP) + 1x Z4/weekly since 2nd month. Now have started TR POL8HV and everything feels easy, substituted Z4 4x16 → 1x60 and Z5 Nx2 → 5x5 progression. Both are in PL 7-8 range and workouts still feel somewhat moderate side. I think all it points to lactate shuffling (i.e. mitochondrial density) and TTE improvements 
EDIT: yeah, tiredness from Z2 felt good, as opposed to SS that left wired feeling and affected sleep.
I’ll definitely give it a listen. The thing is that I already have prescribed intensity the rest of the week from the TR plan, so perhaps those Z2 rides should be maxed out on the endurance side and not keep mixing zones if possible.
Will do! I actually end up using low cadence for those climbs that are too much, but it just feels so…unnatural.
Thanks!
This has been my experience as well with SS, even on the LV plan. Granted that I also have a lot of college stress and lack of discipline on my sleeping schedule, but I could surely do with less tiredness.
EDIT: Now that you mention the polarized plan…
The thing is, I know I need more volume. When I started cycling I did Friel’s MTB bible for 3 years before the pandemic and TR and back then I felt so much stronger and durable as a rider, and a little faster. Then I got thyroid cancer (all good there now), college stress ramped up, and the pandemic hit like a train, so I switched to TR, and while I have seen improvements, I’ve been feeling more as a…peaky rider? Like I don’t quite last as long or feel as stable on any kind of efforts but I can still get PR’s and do some short races around the end of the specialty phases. But It always crashes down in a couple of weeks. Also, in general, I rarely go for outside rides other than races, and I feel this has made me weaker on the strength side (I haven’t done strength training sadly). I’ve felt this specially on MTB rides; they absolutely wreck me. Road rides also leave me feeling sore around the neck and shoulders and this didn’t happen before even though I didn’t have a strength routine back then.
I know outside rides at least help to maintain some strength aspects If I don’t have a strength routine I can adhere to and it’s also a reason that interests me.
So I know I want more Z2 volume, and less SS and intensity. I’m interested in the Polarized approach but I understand it’s still on beta phase. I guess I could artificially do it by switching around the LV SSB plan? Or should I try a simpler approach and just add Z2 instead of SS and see how that feels first.
ooooh but it’s so good!
it works for some of us! Love me some low cadence climbing 
There are two approaches you can try:
This way you keep your nervous system more balanced, and yourself sustainably motivated in long term. At least this have been my experience.
Regarding neck/shoulders soreness: might be different reasons. I had similar problem initially but only between specific intensities (Tempo – Sweetspot). Looking back, probably wasn’t sufficiently relaxed. At some point it went away itself, did not do anything to fix it.
If weekends are when you have the most time, the simplest is to start doing some longer Z2 rides on Saturday and/or Sunday. If stuck indoors, these are great rides to watch a ball game or some Netflix, which helps time go by.
On days you are tired and not feeling up to do intervals, instead of doing nothing, switch it to a 1 hour Z2 ride. Tons of benefit hitting these consistently over the long haul and less fatiguing than doing SS, so that when your hard days with threshold or VO2 max come around you will be ready for it.
With regular Z2 work you really build a wide foundation of your fitness pyramid. It helps prevent that exact “crashes down in a couple of weeks” fragile fitness you describe. Remember Endurance is King and there are no shortcuts in Endurance sports.
I could try that, yes, I definitely have more time on the weekends.
So that covers base, but what about build? I like to do General Build because it seems like a well rounded plan, but it’s like 3 hard sessions a week. Is that still a good progression? I assume I still need to decrease volume in general as I approach the specialty phase and add more race specific workouts, as far as periodization goes.
Same goes for polarized right? Which I have been learning about lately, but that one always has some intensity and it seems more confusing as to how to change the workouts as the season progresses.
For some reason that idea never entered my mind. I’m going to watch some F1 
Those are good guidelines, thanks a lot. I do feel like that quite often. Sometimes I don’t even feel like commuting and that is just a 30 min easy ride, but ofc it’s part of a larger problem with fatigue I guess.
And yeah, I guess sometimes it’s too easy to forget the basic concepts!. Thanks a lot.
Above I had posted a link to a part of the podcast with San Millan related to combining higher zones with Z2 workouts.
Here is the entire podcast discussing Z2 in general: 201 - Deep dive back into Zone 2 Training | Iñigo San-Millán, Ph.D. & Peter Attia, M.D. - YouTube
One of the things discussed is that this is not just for pro riders doing 20h per week. It can also be an effective training method for people doing much less hours per week.
It was Dylan Johnson’s Base Training, 15 hours (12 week) plan except I did on TR platform using workouts from TR library. Also, it contained week during vacation when did 27h/week, purely in Z2.
Summary for that period:
Note: big part of power based Z1 is because I capped low intensity rides by HR which makes it ~60% of FTP for me and frequently dipped below 55%
Yeah, it was before recovery week + “real life” responsibilities, so took chance to push it as much as possible. Because at that point base was already quite good, it actually did not dig too deep hole, still slept well and motivation was high. Only victim was backside 
