Switching from HV to LV/MV: Should I and how would I implement that into the middle of my plan/season in plan builder?

Hey all,
I’ve been doing a HV plan since the middle of November with my major A races coming up in April, June (State TT), and September (Lotoja). The HV plan has been great since I began since I’ve only ridden outside a few times (thanks to snow/freezing temps/salt on the roads). Consistent SS rides are my jam (almost literally, because I can eat jam on toast while riding inside) and I have seen tremendous progress doing consistent training.
But now that I can ride outside, I want to start doing longer easy rides more often (I can do consistent 2-3 hour trainer rides, but no way am I doing 5 hours on the trainer once a week). Because of this, I need to focus my training indoors on 3 or so quality hard sessions a week (threshold/V02 efforts). As I get closer to LOTOJA later this year the long rides become increasingly important.
I ask if it would be a good idea to shift my plan from high volume to low or mid because of two conflicting ideas:

  1. the podcast has mentioned numerous times people saying ‘the plan has worked well so I should probably change everything now’. Basically, don’t mess with something that works, so why change?
  2. Why change? Well, keeping the HV workouts and just adding lots of volume will equal burnout (hello 1000+ TSS week norms).
    Basically-I don’t want to mess with what works, but at the same time, I want and need to get outdoors for a couple of longer rides each week, and just doing that on top of a standard HV plan seems too much for anyone but robots.
    Any thoughts on this? And if it might be a good idea to bump my plan to only show me 3 or 4 super quality workouts to leave a couple of days free for long rides, how would I actually do that within the app? I started my current plan in November through planbuilder and have my races set in the calendar. Any advice is quite welcome. Cheers!

Stick with HV and switch Sundays ride to long z2, this is what I’ve done for HV build after SSBHV and is the TR recommendation. You can also add z2 after Saturday’s workouts.

Adjust Wednesdays and Fridays z2 to feel more like recovery if you’re fatigued. For me sometimes it just a small reduction (-5%) when the part of the workout reaches high z2

1 Like

I take Sundays off and start Monday, so I would assume that means bumping all your suggestions back a day. so saturday’s tide would be the long z2, and the Tuesday/Wednesday to be easier z2? I usually make my Thursdays a full-on easy ride instead of the endurance ride they prescribe (so soft pedaling @120 for an hour max).
That would mean mon/wed/Fri are the three must-hit rides and Saturday is either race or z2 long ride? (I’m not heavily loading my calendar so it’s not like very Saturday would be race pace).
does that sound more or less what you were talking about? Also, if you don’t mind my asking, what is your typical prescribed TSS and what do you usually wind up with over a given week. And yes I know that the three weeks should usually build so let’s just go with your middle week. Thanks!

Yes.

Last 2 weeks were a bit odd as I was traveling for work (brought my bike and trainer to the hotel), but here is my schedule prior. End of SSBHV and then beginning of Build:

1 Like