Originally Posted by
Broctoon
For those who deliberately train (as opposed to just riding for fun), what sort of weekly schedule do you use? I want to balance various workout formats to achieve a combination of results. I've been doing the following:
- Intervals: Pushing to anaerobic intensity and often to max HR for ~30 seconds multiple times, separated by a few minutes at moderate intensity... I try to do this once a week
- Medium distance and pace: Typically 20 to 30 miles with most of the ride at tempo pace (approaching but not quite reaching anaerobic level, output near my FTP for ~1 hour)... I usually do this once a week
- Endurance distance: 50+ miles at easy pace, but sometimes including big hills that can drive my exertion higher for extended periods... I wish I could do more of these, but you know, I have a family and a job and stuff, so I usually only ride this far about once per month.
Most weeks I ride two or three times and run at least once. Running might entail a 5k race, an interval workout (jog 300m/sprint 100m, repeated six or eight times), or moderate pace for 5+ miles.
I want to develop my abilities for multiple disciplines. I'm entering my first crit race in a few weeks, but don't have aspirations for racing often in this format, it's just a fun one-time or maybe once-a-year event. The very next day, I'll enter a 27 mile road race. And I like long distance races and relays, like four-man teams taking turns to do ~500 miles (including mountain passes) in 30 hours or less, or even a lone rider doing 205 miles in one shot, i.e.
Lotoja, which I plan to enter next September. Therefore, I think I need to train for various athletic abilities; I can't just focus on climbing, sprinting, or endurance alone.
What advice can you give me for an effective weekly plan? If it helps, I am 52 years old and moderately fit. I've been a pretty avid cyclist all my life, but really don't know much about training.
A bit to unpack here.
1. Why do you choose to do those workouts? If you cannot explain why, you need to set some desired outcomes (goals) first. Your later statements are the broadest smattering of cycling events pretty much possible. From the shortest events with the most demand for anaerobic and sprint power to the longest audax events requiring at very efficient fat burning body. You need to be OK with sucking and suffering through either the crit/road race OR the audax and specializing in something. Jacks of all trades are masters of none. For bike racing lookup "specificity". You need it to do well.
2. This statement is contradictory: "Typically 20 to 30 miles with most of the ride at tempo pace (approaching but not quite reaching anaerobic level, output near my FTP for ~1 hour)". Most of the ride isn't at tempo if your output is near ftp for ~1 hour out of 20 to 30 miles. On the other hand, tempo isn't "output near my ftp" either. Tempo is something you could do for several hours. Is it tempo, or threshold? Lookup the % output ranges for those online then decide which way the ride actually takes place.
3. Nothing wrong with an effort or two on an "endurance ride" so long as the fun doesn't end up causing detriment to the goal of accumulating lots of time in Z2 for these rides. If it causes you to drop into really low Z2 or Z1 to makeup for the fun of going over then need to dial it back and dial up the discipline.
4. I played the "run sometimes" game for a while. Honestly, run volume doesn't work well like that. Running requires very regular, frequent, lower intensity focus to both make gains and to also not have the training stress from those irregular runs cannibalizing your bike fitness. Duathaletes and triathletes run very frequently. Most abide by the 80/20 rule of one-in-5 workouts has intensity and of the total time (time in intensity zone PLUS rest between sets time) you get 90/10 per week at intensity. You're not running enough if you care about running and you're running too much if you really care about cycling. A lot of the cyclists as pros you see ticking off 16min 5k's are former elite collegiate runners turned cyclists. Ignore that noise.
The best advice I can give you is that you need to choose what you really care about. Do you care about the crit/road race? Do you care about audax? Do you care about multisport? Fondos? Then from there, research the training plans that are specific to those events.
Choose crit/road racing: 80/20 plan with your intensity focus on the specificity of those needing a good repeatable VO2 engine and a sprint.
Choose audax: put in a LOT of zone 1 fat burning miles per week
Choose multisport: research a sprint or olympic distance duathlon training plan and pretty much just follow it. You'll run at least 4x a week and ride 3x or so a week. Meaning, you will run and ride the same day a few times either separate times of day or in the same workout.