Currently I’ve been on the mid volume plan and have been doing ok with it but I almost never do the weekend workouts and opt to do a ride outside, some times in line with the plan but often, let’s be real, it’s whatever I feel like doing that day.
Would it be worth it to switch to the low volume plan and have them on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday so that at least I’m getting in 3 solid workouts a week and then on the weekend I could have the option to do whatever I want. Or should I forge ahead with my current way of doing things?
Concerns would be overloading myself with intensity throughout the week without any planned recovery rides, and I could add them in but where? Or maybe I could lower the intensity of the last workout in the week to compensate for weekend activities.
Yep - changing may be an idea. The Saturday workout - over under/ threshold or super threshold in the build is THE key workout of the week. If you are not doing it then you are missing out on a lot of the benefit. I like riding outside and swap out the Sunday 2 hour SS for a 3-4 hour Z2 ride with my mates but I never skip the Saturday workout no matter how nice it looks outside. It depends whether riding outside with friends is more important than structured training - we aren’t pros after all - but if you are looking for maximum FTP improvement then 90 mins o/u on the turbo is far more beneficial than pottering around outside - unless you can do 4-5 hours Z2. Maybe compromise like I do and ride outside just once over the weekend?
Another idea is to ignore the calendar and just do the workouts in order on Tuesdays/Thursdays only.
It’ll take you 50% longer to complete each training block but you won’t have skipped any workouts. You can also do the 90 minute versions of all the 60 and 75 minute workouts, so you’re consistently doing two 90-minute workouts every week, and do whatever you want on the weekends.