Just about to embark on the general build low volume plan which calls for 3 workouts a week, those being a 60 minute VO2 max, a 60 minute anaerobic and a 90 minute threshold.
I don’t race and usually go on a spirited club ride on Saturday’s and at 51 years young I’m not going to try completing all 3 scheduled workouts, plus the club ride, so am planning to substitute one of them for the Saturday ride but not sure which 2 workouts would be the best to keep.
I was thinking I’d keep the VO2 max workout on Tuesday and do the 90 minute threshold workout on Thursday, substituting the anaerobic workout for the club ride. But not sure if it would be better to do the VO2 max and anaerobic workouts during the week and substitute the threshold or keep the anaerobic and threshold and substitute the VO2 max. Or maybe keep the threshold and alternate VO2 max and anaerobic. There are a number of possibilities!
The club ride is generally all over the place in terms of energy systems usage, as club rides generally are, so I wouldn’t want to lose a particular workout and bank on getting a good dose of that during the club ride.
Suggestions welcome on how to proceed!
Thanks,
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As you know, you will have a handful of different takes and opinions.
To keep it simple and due to not knowing anything about you except, you dont really race and you are 51 years old but not knowing how much riding you do in a week.
I’d recommend dropping the threshold effort. Reason being, and keeping this basic, out of the 3 energy systems ( Zone 2 endurance - sweet spot threshold - and High VO2 ) it is the threshold zone that really is the toughest to recover from.
So, to stay sort of fresh for your spirited club ride and enjoy it more and potentially have more energy to really push it at times, Id recommend getting away from the threshold during the week and putting in a really good VO2 effort during the week and really keeping it in Zone 2 for the other 1 or 2 rides you do during the week and then ( build ) up to more intensity during the week as the weeks go on.
Threshold is tough on the body, especially for middle age riders.
And again, threshold is great and should be trained, but if you’re adding in your club rides, something has to give at least the first few weeks or so.
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I’d drop the anaerobic unless you have a need for a killer sprint.
Thanks for the advice.
I’ll drop the anaerobic and threshold workouts, stick to the VO2 and add an endurance workout or 2 during the week. After a few weeks I can replace the endurance with a threshold and see how it goes from there.