I’m just finishing up a 16 week block of x2 vo2 workouts per week and x3 zone 2 workouts per week.
I was wondering what the thoughts were of my cycling colleagues here, for my next plan, doing a 6 week block of ONLY zone 2 work increasing in duration weekly.
Would this likely result in me losing fitness and the ftp gains I’ve made over the last 16 weeks which have been substantial (a 10% increase in ftp, from 200w to 220w). Or do you think it would be of benefit?
Then swapping back to a Vo2 block again of say 12 weeks.
I’m a long time cyclist and a long time structured intervals cyclist so wasn’t expecting such big ftp gains after being stuck somewhat around the 200w for the last 3 years or so.
Thanks in advance!
p.s. I’m 60 if that makes any difference to the plans
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Nice work getting through that block of training!
I don’t think you’d necessarily lose fitness by doing Z2 only, but I wouldn’t be surprised if your FTP dropped a touch by only doing low-intensity work for 6 weeks.
That said, you’d still be riding, so once you started up some intensity again, I think your FTP would bounce back pretty quickly.
What are your goals for the Z2-only block? It’s typically beneficial to add in some intensity at least a couple of days each week to get the most out of your training time. Doing some Tempo or Sweet Spot in addition to Z2 riding would probably help grow your aerobic base while also maintaining your FTP since SST intervals are quite close to Threshold power. If you want a break from structure/intensity, though, then I’d get why you’d want to do only Z2 for a bit.
If you want to do this block to take a break from structure and if you’ve already gone through a full training cycle (Base → Build → Specialty/Peak) this year, I think it would be worth taking a week or two fully off the bike to rest and recover before getting back into your next cycle of training. It’d help you refresh mentally and physically, and many athletes find they come back stronger after some time off.
Hope these thoughts help – feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions!
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I’d be inclined to leave some intensity in the plan too - 1 or 2 sessions per week.
Maybe put some sprints in there for variety? Something like Fuji / Mount Tai?
As Zackery said already, there is nothing wrong with a Z2 only block, but some intensity in a plan is useful.
Is there a way you can fit some longer Z2 rides in? e.g. if you are doing 1 hour rides, can you find time to squeeze them up to 1h15, or 1h30? There are definitely benefits to be had from doing that.
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VO2s twice a week for 16 weeks? If I did that I’d be thinking of lying down and absolutely nothing else for a couple of weeks. 
Congrats on the gains. 
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I’d recommend doing mixed blocks, where you do a VO2/MAP workout every other week, and then focus on driving your time to exhaustion out at threshold.
But really it depends on your goals. The above has been effective for the 60+ athletes that I coach. Nothing wrong with doing endurance volume, especially this time of year if you’re a racer, but as you get older you need to do some intensity year round to maintain VO2max otherwise you can lose more fitness than you really want to.
THAT said, it’s OK to drop fitness periodically once your goal events are over. In fact, most people need to and should. There’s no case where I would recommend continuing to work VO2 after 16 weeks of it.
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@kurt.braeckel This sounds like a good idea. I think i’ll give this a go. I don’t race but do love to go ride long climbs in Tenerife, Mallorca and the Alps. What sort of TTE progression plan would you recommend?
Many thanks to yourself and everyone else for the great feedback - thanks!!!
It’s been my experience that high volume z2 helps maintain my ftp without the stress of constant high intensity. Indeed, I’d be so cooked after 16 weeks of 2x vo2 workouts (cross is coming!). I strongly doubt you’d loose fitness unless those vo2 workouts are the majority of your weekly cycling time. A couple weeks of low/mid z2 could be a great recovery (mental and physical from the v02 block), and then push up z2 time and zone for the last 4 weeks. Don’t be afraid of leaning towards the low end of z2 (60%) if that’s what it takes to keep fatigue down. I’d suggest the v02 workout time you were doing should be replaced with at least 2x as much z2 time, plus keep doing whatever z2 you were doing. Eg replace each 1hr v02 workout with a 2hr z2 workout.
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I’ve been doing 2 vo2 workouts that were around 70 minutes in duration with 20 of those minutes at zone 5. My zone 2 weekly volume is generally around another 6 hours or so. so around 8 hour weeks.
Depends on your goals, but post VO2 work I usually have people start at whatever their TTE is at threshold and ride at threshold, add no more than 10% total every week. So if you don’t know what your TTE is, maybe start at a 3x10 or 3x12 at FTP, and progress from there. The progressions can be both total time as well as individual interval time, so while you might go from 3x12 to 4x10, then next progression can be 2x20 rather than adding time, just as examples (those aren’t specific progressions that I use, but…). Don’t discount the value of longer individual intervals at/near threshold.
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Chapeu on 16 weeks of VO2. Having just come off a measly 3 week block myself, 16 weeks is definitely an achievement.
That said, I’m pretty much doing now what Kurt has suggested above to bed in that form gained from my VO2 block.
As others have suggested a couple of weeks of pull back via Z2 can only help IMO.
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