I am in the early stages of training for an event in June 2021 (140 Mile sportive in Wales, UK), following a low volume plan using plan builder. Generally, although time is very limited for me, the overall volume throughout the week is manageable, but many days when I have my kids I find jumping into the shed for an hour to turbo less than ideal and at times impossible. As an alternative I’ve been toying with mixing the plan around a bit, shortening some of the rides to 30 minute alternatives which I can squeeze in during a lunch break, and then adding volume by repeating these where I am able to. This means a typical week may have 3-4 30 minute rides instead of the 2 60 minute rides. I’ll adopt a similar approach to the weekend rides on alternate weekends when I have my kids at home with me.
Any views on the benefits or pitfalls of this approach? Or any advice on an alternative way around this? 30 minutes blocks are my easiest option for accessing training consistently; I’m conscious the shorter blocks, although when multiplied add the same or more TSS overall, may limit the training adaptation for longer events, which is my ultimate goal here.
Shortening and spreading your workouts throughout the day is something @Jonathan was doing when he had his baby and the coaches talked about it in the #podcast. I don’t know exactly which episodes they were, but I suggest you search for them, as they talked about it in great detail. I think it might be one of these:
Ask a Cycling Coach - TrainerRoad Podcast - Ask a Cycling Coach: 018 – TrainerRoad Podcast on Stitcher
Ask a Cycling Coach - TrainerRoad Podcast - Ask a Cycling Coach: 85 – TrainerRoad Podcast on Stitcher
If I remember correctly, they soon figured that this approach was not sustainable in the long run, as it has too much impact on your energy levels, fatigue and life in general.
You must also be very wary of the total intensity you do, as doing too much intensity will quickly lead to overtraining. Most of the rides should therefore be low intensity, building the aerobic base. Hope this helps!
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I’ve not used them but there are the time crunched plans (specialty —> enthusiast).
If you have only 90-120 minutes weekly to train I’d spend spend two thirds at upper sweet spot and one third at vo2 max. I think it’s impossible to overreach on just 2 hours a week.
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Thanks for this. I listen to the podcasts but couldn’t recall this one ever being discussed - I’ll check the back catalogue. 
Yeah there are and I’ve used them before. They’re a really effective way of gaining/maintaining fitness when time is limited. My issue with these is they’re primarily VO2/HIIT focussed and I’m aiming for a plan more long ride specific. I am still able to do some of the 60-90 minute rides, and want a plan that focusses on these as the ideal, but I’m just trying to work out how best to adapt it on the weeks where I simply cannot achieve that much time away but can still manage the same time on the bike overall.
Thanks for replying 