When doing a high volume plan you have 4-5 days of high TSS days, in base there is 1 and build and speciality there is 2 60-90min endurance rides.
Are these 60-90min only TSS “fillers” to maximize the weekly stress?.
Would it be better if you could reduce the amount of 60-90min easy rides if you add the lost TSS/Time on the other rides in the plan?, assuming you then would get same total weekly TSS.
*Last 2 years i have been training EVERY day with an avg of about 60TSS on the “rest” days, but this year instead of pushing hours,TSS,watt,kcal to max I will try to train smarter, I’ve already read and figured that 1 100% rest day a week is smart, was very hard to break the addiction to train every day, but im already there. Now im wondering if it would be better to put the 40-60TSS recovery day 2 on the other rides (SSBHV1) and take a rest day nr 2.
I think they’re more than just fillers. Active recovery is often better than total rest, particularly for high volume athletes in a non-impact sport like cycling. Even moderate exercise triggers spikes in things like human growth hormone and other reactions which can help both recovery and fitness adaptations. 90 minutes of endurance is actually a pretty decent workout. And those workouts can help with maintaining or losing weight or improving body composition - a 90 minute endurance workout can burn ~1200 cals depending on your FTP, do them fasted and that’s a great fat burner.
I would also be wary of just increasing the TSS of workouts that are already pretty hard. They’re designed to be hard enough to give you a training stimulus but not so hard that you can’t recover for the next workout, particular during Base or at weekends when the next day’s workout is also pretty tough. I guess if you get the extra TSS by just extending cooldowns then it’s not going to impact recovery much if at all (especially if you’re refuelling during your cooldown), I’d be careful about adding in extra intervals.
Personally I’ve found the opposite to the direction you’re planning on taking - I’ve made improvements from increasing total volume which has come from riding pretty much every day. The difference maybe being that the easy days really are easy - something like Pettit, or just a coffee ride with friends. Certainly 1-2 days per week with less than 60TSS.
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Im actually not planning to removing the 6th ride, it was more to trying to get peoples thoughts on what these “short” endurance rides gives in a week where you have either 5 sweetspot or 3 VO2max/threshold + 1 sweetspot week gives.
I have become addicted to both TSS and kcal and have been doing minimum 1000kcal/50TSS every day the last 2 years, now after reading allot i see 1 day completely off is good and have started with that in this SSBHV1. I’m not too afraid of TSS, i did +250 TSS on the work weeks last winter on base on the trainers (ended close to 130 CTL). Some bonus sweetspot and allot extra low Z2 compared to the original. It was a bit much so this year i do a bit easier weekends and im dropping the monday workout completely.
What i actually was thinking about was if i were “done” with my thursday workout and felt really strong i could do the “tss friday filler” that day and take friday off.
But from your response i take it that the 60-90min will be good for me on friday instead.
I try to limit my self to the weekly TSS plan i have to not do too much and spiral into same TSS as last year.
What I would say about the TR endurance workouts is that most (haven’t done them all) have a series of really good drills within them. Personally I find those drills beneficial to my general riding skills, rather than the quest for say, a higher FTP.
I wouldn’t look at the endurance rides as filler, if fact I’d say just the opposite. They’re a chance to sharpen up and focus on your form, all at a much lower intensity.
Hi Storesund,
Was just wondering how you felt (on reflection) after training every day for 2 years? The reason I ask is that I really enjoy doing the same and so far (5 weeks in) have only seen benefits (increased FTP, lower resting HR, stronger in the gym, etc).
I will do 2 hard, productive rides per week (VO2 and anaerobic), 1 moderate (sweet spot) and 4 easier rides (endurance).
I roughly accumulate 10 hours per week but I can see it becoming quite “addictive” as well haha.