Hi, I’m fairly new to indoor cycling and just signed up to trainer road.
I’m slightly confused by the terminology as most of my training would have been running, swimming and weight lifting up until now.
I’m looking for a programme where I’ll do 3 zone 2 (heart rate) sessions per week. Around 45 minutes for 2 of these and 1.5 hours on a Sunday. I want a 4th session training V02 Max preferably 4 minutes on 4 minutes off x 4 rounds.
Using the plan builder (base, build and specialty) are there any plans here that meet what I’m looking for?
I don’t think you will get something that precise using plan builder (but who knows). That said, I would just manually plug in the workouts you want into the calendar.
Is your goal general cardio fitness (as the title suggests) or something else? Do you intend to progress to longer time periods in zone 2 or introduce other levels of intensity? If not and this is a maintenance plan, you may not need TrainerRoad. Do your zone 2 sessions by heart rate and for VO2 max ride as hard as you can sustain for all four minute intervals, aiming for fish-out-of-water breathing in each one.
It sounds like you already have the training plan you want?
If you need something so specific using something that adapts and changes your training is probably not the right idea, you already have the training plan laid out.
Just do the 2x45m z2, 1x90m z2 and 1x 4x4m vo2 sessions.
You are looking for polarized training plans, or 80/20 type training. In the plan builder section, there are low/medium/high volume polarized training plans. Those are all I’ve done so far (high volume early summer and near finished with a medium volume in a couple weeks).
I’m a big fan of Peter Attia and his book/podcasts. That being said, polarized training has been around quite sometime and while I believe he agrees with it, I wouldn’t refer to him as being a primary source on the topic, maybe some of his guests.
First, his “zone 2” is San Millan’s complicated 2mmol of lactate zone 2 which is tempo or zone 3 in most traditional cycling zones. 45 and 90 minutes straight of this type of zone 2 can be a bit mind numbing. Other workouts with varied intensity can accomplish the same thing and feel a lot more fun.
Also, I’m not convinced that a weekly VO2max 4x4 is the path to health. It’s a stressful workout that can leave one’s legs fried for days. Even in most cycling plans, VO2 workouts like that come after working on endurance and threshold abilities for months.
@Setanta69 I would pick the best TR plan for general fitness. If you don’t have events to peak for then you don’t really need base-build-peak. I’m sure someone here or support could recommend the right plan for general year long fitness.
As @Trix8806 said, it sounds like TR Polarized Plans would be the best fit for this style of training. The Polarized Build plan in particular will feature solid doses of Z2 and VO2 Max. You can learn more about our Polarized plans here:
The Polarized plans haven’t been incorporated into our recent Plan Builder updates yet, so you’ll have to add them as “standalone” plans to your TR Calendar for now. We will have the Polarized plans included as part of the new Plan Builder soon, though!
I think what you describe you want is incompatible with Plan Builder, although you could manually re-create it.
I would recommend that you start with a simple, bog-standard plan and forget about your pre-conceived notions.
Heart rate is less important than power in cycling. Heart rate is typically a secondary metric (in addition to RPE) while power is your primary metric.
Your plan has no progression at all and you did not indicate any rest weeks. That goes against training fundamentals.
If you only train for 45 minutes, I’d lean more heavily into intervals. Z2 work is important, but if you only do 2 x 45 minutes, you’ll plateau really quickly.
Only doing VO2max intervals and some endurance is not a good use of your time.
Here is what I would suggest you do:
I’d start with a plan where you do two 45- or 60-minute interval sessions and a 1.5-hour endurance ride. Just follow what Plan Builder suggests.
Start with the bog-standard TrainerRoad plans.
Next season with the experience you have now, start tweaking. You could try polarized blocks, which have different benefits that TR’s default options.
The “norwegian” 4x4 has been getting buzz from the influencers. It’s like they have ditched “zone 2” in favor of vo2 now.
I actually wonder if untrained types actually do it proper or if it’s more like 4x4 at FTP or sweetspot because an untrained person thinks that is as hard as they can do.
I do long form VO2 max intervals around this duration on a local hill. I enjoy it as part of a mix of intensities and durations. It’s is keeping it as simple as it gets.
Rhonda Patrick is one of the best of the best for nutrition, but I’m pretty sure she just got on the fitness bandwagon recently and has very little that isn’t just regurgitated from others. She uploaded an IG video doing…? Deadlift? A few months back and her form was horrid, and her coach, right there, wasn’t correcting it.
Definitely not someone that should be giving fitness advice.
I’m not trying to pick on her. She is definitely not a scammer like many. Still, she does jump on whatever bandwaggon. She used to talk tabbata, zone 2, and now it’s vo2.
And yeah, it’s easy to read a study and decide that tabbatas or 4x4s are awesome.
Appreciate all the responses on my first post and the guidance given.
People are always going to have different opinions on someone but after reading PA book and listening to his podcast for some time he is pretty solid and far from an influencer.
I’m not looking to become a great cyclist just as healthy as possible for as long as possible, my fitness is goal is to be able to play with my grandkids in my 80’s not finish an Ironman.
I like using heart rate as a method of measurement as it’s fairly accurate for what I’m looking for.
Some comments mentioned that you’re only maintaining if doing a few 45 minute zone 2 sessions. My experience of this from running is that your heart rate gets lower over time going at the same pace, you then up the intensity or time to create overload and progress.
After posting this I had plugged Pettit into my calendar for 2 days, Ainslie -4 for one day (vo2) and then I might add in a longer zone 2 hr session. I do strength training 3 times per week so there is a balance to be had.
I do like the idea of the Polarized training and having a plan already sorted for weeks into the future is appealing as it takes away having to think about my programming.
He’s an influencer by definition. I don’t really think that’s debatable. Having said that, whether you choose to be influenced by him or not is an individual choice. Good luck with your training!
Peter Attia is interesting to listen to and offers a lot of insight into physiology and training but he’s not a “real” cyclist. I wouldn’t conflate his advice with a real training plan focused on making you a stronger cyclist.
He was an amateur triathlete so he knows how to train. His current advice is for longevity and not really given to people that are TR subscribers. Plus Attia is a biohacker and likes to experiment on himself.
I don’t 100% agree with his current thinking on vo2max. And that is that VO2max is a marker of longevity, thus we should all train our vo2max. Vo2max may track with longevity or health simply because fitter people tend to be healthier but it doesn’t mean that doing a 4x4 vo2 workout once a week will add to one’s longevity. It also seems to neglect the fact that basic endurance training boosts vo2max.
Also, untrained male vo2max can vary from like 20 to 70 with most falling in the 30-40 range. I doubt there is any data that shows an off the couch 70 will live longer than an off the couch 20. Both would be equally out of shape.
Attia’s “zone 2” is also of the San Millan 2mmol variety which is really tempo/sweetspot. It’s probably fine for one zone fitness training but is it necessary to do that intensity over regular endurance pace zone 2?
