My goal this season is to raise volume. Last year was my firat year with structured training. I actually put in slightly LESS hours on the bike in total than I normally had, as the demands of trainer workouts caught me slightly off guard. I’d like to get my volume up.
Last year I went through the low volume version of SSB, and short power build twice each, and got through a few weeks of CX specialty before I decides it was just to much to do in conjuction with racing every week.
I did about 6-7 hr a week last year, comprised of low volume plans plus group rides/commuting. Is moving straight into mid volume while keeping everything else the same reasonable?
Is there a general rule of thumb for increasing volume? I’m 40 now…and am kinda prone to annoying overuse injuries so i’m trying not to do anything silly.
As discussed/recommended in the pod cast as good way to add volume is to use the extend feature on the workouts and add 10, 15 min each time. That will add up 1 to 2 hours by the end of the week. This would be a good way to warm into extra volume.
Alternatively go to Mid volume and if it’s too much drop the easy ride (Friday) to a recovery, or nothing at all. You should still get more intensity (TSS), compared to now.
Do you think that putting in less hours adversely effected your riding/racing last year? Was the TR training more focused and effective, meaning less time was required?
If you’re prone to overuse injuries I’d suggest allocating a bit of time for strength, core and stretching activities.
The higher volume plans have more time for rides in easier zones, so it’s not the intensity that increases so much. If you’re racing, doing group rides and commuting as well as doing the plan I’d suggest replacing planned TR rides with the races or group rides rather than supplementing them on top of the plan. Perhaps you’re doing too much high intensity and not enough low intensity to balance. It will be a better balanced training week if your commutes and group rides are just easy rides and your races replace a planned workout or two. That’s what I do and I still get to improve my FTP - though not as quickly as just sticking to the plan.
That’s difficult to say. I mean I did raise my FTP from 240 to 275 over the last year. One of the reasons I want to raise volume is I juat enjoy being on the bike. I dialed volume back last year to be fresh for workouts. I did short power build twice…which in retrospect I am thinkijg was gross intensity overkill.
My initial plan, after a few week break, is to do an extended base phase. Traditional base where the focus will be to drop a few pounds, then ssb, then general power build.