I would like to know the effects of splitting up a workout, say something like McAdie into 2 x 45 sessions on the same scheduled day. In other words, if McAdie is scheduled on a particular day, what is the effect of doing half of it in the morning and the rest of it in the evening.
I find sometimes I have time available to do this instead of the entire workout in one go.
I understand that this isnt the same as doing it all at once as the residual fatigue from the first intervalsl does not carry into the next and so on, but is it still beneficial enough to produce the desired training effect? Would I be better off choosing the -2 version and doing that morning an evening?
With longer, low intesity rides, the outcome of your training can shift quite a bit by splitting the workout in two. With those sessions, it’s all about that residual fatigue and building your endurance through that fatigue. However, with interval sessions, the training effect could actually improve since you are able to get more muscle recruitment during the intense intervals.
At the end of the day, you gotta do what you gotta do to make your training work, and it’s far better to split the workout in two than to simply do half
Hey mates, I’m currently doing SSB Mid II and I found that the long sweet spot workout of the week on Sunday (2 hours long) it’s physically but especially psychologically demanding so I’ve decided to split that workout into two workouts of one hour each or a little more, the same workout as the long one with the warm up phase and half of the useful work (3x20 min → 1x20 + 1x10, warmup apart). I do one one workout in the morning and the other in the afternoon (6-7 hours later)
I usually finish making a bit more TSS this way but I’m not sure how this affects my fitness in terms of endurance (volume).
I’m not a coach but it’s my understanding that there are physiological changes that only occur in the 2nd or 3rd hour that these workouts are designed to address. So you may not be getting the same benefit splitting it. I find sticking on a movie for the long efforts helps take my mind off it and makes the session much more bearable. Or if weather permits, replace that session with a slightly longer outdoor ride (50-60 miles) to get a similar workout.
So now that I’m getting closer to a proper season kick off I start planning my weeks and days. With work and family I sometimes find it hard to get all my prescribed workouts in. My best bet is usually the early morning. I don’t mind getting up at 4.45 or 5 and get some work done, but I rarely can suffer through the tougher workouts like Mills. I was thinking whether it might make sense to split these workouts into an easier part of 30 to 45 min in the morning, something like Birch, and then do another 30 or 45 minutes workout in the evening with higher intensity. That way I’d hit my TSS goals and am mitigating the risk of a long day in the office ruining my training day. Would the training effect be roughly the same? Anyone done this before and can share their experience? And if I decide to go down that route, how should I design the workout pairs for a day?
No unfortunately it doesn’t work that way, the workouts are generally designed to be done as a whole. Certain adaptations happen over specific durations and that’s why the workouts are designed in such a way. You can split intensity workouts aside from aerobic workouts in the same day, but we’re getting into a different kind of conversation with that.
This is a long discussion, but in short I’d look at using -1, -2, etc. versions of the workout if you’re “time crunched”. Or further look into time crunched plans/workouts because this is a whole discussion in itself.
When it comes down to it, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. By splitting your work like you suggested, you would be replacing intensity TSS with non-intensity TSS, which will have a different training effect than if you completed the full workout. But if this is the only way that it fits into your schedule, then it is a perfectly viable option for you. Much better than only doing half of the workout.
As for how to design the workout, if you can simply split it in half (do the first half of in the morning and the second half at night), that would be the best option since you would get the full benefit of the workout. If you can’t handle the high intensity in the early morning, then doing something like Taku in the morning and a -1, -2, -3 version of the prescribed workout in the evening would be a good option.
Does anyone know of any added benefits to doing two a day rides? Basically splitting 2 or 3 hours of trainer rides into two separate sessions. Are there cons to this approach? I have heard both answers so I was hoping someone in the community could help?
