Outside workout intervals

Training
1

Hi,

I have been trying to scroll through the outside workout threads, but have not found an answer or detailed discussion about this. I usually do TrainerRoad workouts only indoors restricted by the weather, but for this winter I have had the possibility to move to the South of France, where weather permits outdoor riding almost every day. I have some long climbs around where I live, but even the tallest classics that are rideable in winter (Madone, Braus, etc.) take an hour tops. As this is my first winter here, I am more into exploring new routes and for the life of me just can’t make myself to go up and down a single climb. If that would be the only option I could just do the workouts in erg mode on the balcony :sweat_smile:

As the nicest routes I have found around me are fairly long (80+km, 1000m+ vertical) I have adjusted my TrainerRoad schedule to include one more rest day than usual and the workouts to be a bit longer. With an 1h30min threshold workout for example I cannot find a hill long enough to perform the entire workout in one go. Even for the 60min long workouts there aren’t that many options and I really wouldn’t want to hit the same routes multiple times a week.

I have now started doing the workouts so that whenever I start a longer climb, I do as many intervals as possible from the workout, with the assigned rest periods. When I reach the top, I pause the workout and ride to the next hill, trying to keep pedaling and in zone2. The hills are steep so more often than not my heartrate falls lower during the descent. When the next long enough hill starts I restart the workout and do the work assigned. In the end I always get the workouts done and the assigned time in zones in, but some of the rest periods are naturally nothing like the ones prescribed by TrainerRoad. After the workout is finished I usually continue for an hour or two trying to stay in zone 2.

Does this style of training make any sense or should I just pause my subscription until I go back to the slush in Northern Europe and get back on my indoor bike?

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If you go look at how pros train outside this is basically it.

You are going to lose out a bit depending on the workout (like if it’s 4x20 with very short breaks and you end up doing 3x20, long break then the final 20) but if that’s the case I would just do 1x60 and then the final 20 for however long that final climb was, of course keeping RPE in check with the workout.

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3

Welcome to the TR community! Enjoy the riding down there – those routes are some of my absolute favorites!

I think the approach you’re taking here can sort of work – but I’d say it depends on how long your recovery intervals are in your workouts and whether or not you plan on doing much (if any) indoor work alongside your outside riding.

With long recovery intervals (think 5-10+ minutes between efforts), the space between your “on” efforts becomes less important. Getting the work done over the course of the ride is more “workable” in these instances. As @Twowkg said, pros often do a lot of training like this.

With shorter recovery intervals, the space between efforts is indeed more important. With shorter recovery intervals, there is often a goal to essentially prevent you from recovering fully between harder efforts. If your recovery period gets too long, you can lose that aim of the workout. It may be better to avoid/reschedule those kinds of workouts.

Do keep in mind that because you won’t be following the workouts as they are originally prescribed, they won’t match up quite right for any potential indoor sessions. I mention this because if you do a trainer ride, the trainer session may feel a bit harder if you end up being “stricter” with your recovery periods (e.g., not having a long descent between hard efforts).

For those reasons, it may be best to try to stick with workouts with longer intervals and longer rest periods. Workout Alternates can be a great tool to help with this.

Hope that info is useful – feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions!

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