Novice TT rider - how best to adapt training around TT races and club rides

Training
1

Hi all,

I’ve been using TR for a number of years, generally completing just the base and build phases over winter before doing unstructured outdoor rides for the rest of the year. I haven’t raced previously. I stuck with structured training pretty much throughout all of 2021 and am about to start racing in my local weekly TT league for the first time this year. I’d like to keep up the structured training this year and was wondering how best to adapt my weekly training to accommodate the TT league and my weekend club rides without overdoing it and burning out.

Historically my 6 week TSS is around 450, riding 10 to 12 hours per week depending on the length of the weekend rides. I’m 52, 72kg, current FTP of 257 (it’s actually 250 but had a sneak peak using AIFTP ahead of Monday’s ramp test :laughing:) This is down a fair bit down from an all time best of 277 toward the end of last year, having lost a bit over winter and with an enforced break after testing positive for Covid in February. Hoping to get it all back this year, plus more, and achieve my overall goal of hitting 4 w/g before I get too old :laughing:

I’m currently just finishing LV Sweet Spot Base 2, starting LV Sustained Power Build next week, which is when the TT league starts.

Current schedule has been:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - indoor 60 minute VO2 max
Wednesday - indoor 90 minute threshold
Thursday - rest
Friday - indoor 60 minute sweet spot
Saturday & Sunday - 3/4 hour club ride, mostly Z2

The league only uses 3 courses, all pretty short at around 20 to 25 minutes at 1+ IF, around 35 to 40 TSS.

Not sure whether to keep the Friday sweet spot workout, replace it with the scheduled threshold workout from Wednesday, switch to an endurance ride or take it as a rest day. In terms of training benefit how does a 20 minute effort at probably 105% ftp compare to a 90 structured threshold workout? Is a VO2 max and 2 threshold workouts a week too much, albeit one of the threshold efforts being relatively short? Or would the TT race tick the box in terms of the weekly threshold workout?

Should I associate the TT race with a comparable TR threshold workout in order for AT to recognize the work?

Also wondering if switching my training days around would be better so as to be fresh for the TT, which will always on a Wednesday. Given also the workout times in the build plan increase slightly over what I’ve been doing in the sweet spot base plan. Something like this?

Monday - indoor 75 minute VO2 max
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - TT league
Thursday - threshold/sweetspot/endurance?
Friday - rest
Saturday & Sunday - 3/4 hour club ride, mostly Z2

Any suggestions or advise would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

2

My suggestion (basically because it worked for me) would be to build an LV plan and slot everything around it. Depending on how the season was going and how I was feeling I’d replace the AT workout for a 24min TT and dropped occasionally the wo the day before for an Endurance one, preferably out doors on my TT bike for handling practice.

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3

if it were me, i’d probably look at taking mondays off or easy after two back to back longish rides over the weekend and then try and get some intensity done on tuesdays session (probably V02), is riding to the TT on wednesday an option? easy on the way out, race the TT, then you could loop home and do some endurance miles. Thursday and Friday i’d just see how i felt, if your fresh on thursday then some more intensity or if not then just spin the legs out and depending on how your group rides are at the weekend friday could be threshold/easy/off

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4

Good luck with your TT league, we started our club Wednesday 10s two weeks ago, so am in similar position to you. I basically follow a similar schedule to the one @Gaggy15 described:

Mon: rest day
Tue: scheduled VO2 or threshold workout - or if feeling tired swap out for endurance
Wed: TT (ride out and back - roughly 12km each way)
Thurs: Zwift TTT
Fri: Rest day or active recovery spin
Sat: Long outside solo endurance ride, club ride or an Open TT race
Sun: Short endurance workout (slightly longer if only did a short TT on the Saturday)

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5

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, they are all very helpful.