I am debating which option to do this year. In the past I’ve done the nuclear option, but I’ve made some significant fitness gains and want to keep building this year. Looking at the descriptions, the nuclear option doesn’t appear to give much benefit due to the obscene training load. I put the focused and the get me through it and really can’t tell the difference.
Any of the SUF Sports Science staff, or anyone else for that matter, have any ideas? Thanks!
“Get Me Through It” is the lightest load of the three but, as you say, there’s not much in it. “Focused” says “For those who want to complete the Tour, but don’t want it to compromise your season goals” which sounds like what you’re looking for. You can always adjust the adjustments as you go along if you want to, that’s entirely between you and your up/down buttons.
I am in the middle of a training plan.
Quite a few of the workouts on the ToS I have done or am going to do in the plan. Those I will do at a reduced effort. For the remainder, those that correspond to the goals of the plan that I am on, I will do at full effort. The remainder I will do at reduced effort.
I know from past history about how much training load I can take, and the reduced efforts will be adjusted appropriately. Fortunately, the ToS does not occur on what would be a recovery week for me.
What do you mean by: “I put the focused and the get me through it…” Did you activate both in the Training Plan section of the app, opened each session and compared the intensity% ?
The Difference should be in the intensity% of each 4DP-metric. … hmmm … I did never compare them side by side.
The Tour is always my “winter training camp” I always go by the Focused Option. It has a good training impact. But not so much, that i couldn’t do some aditional runnning/swimming/strength training and not beeing completly out of training the week after.
But i don’t see such a big problem doing the nuclear option if you have a good feel for your body and don’t do any additional training (since it’s only 100% as long as you can - you can always dial down by feel). The problem is more in needing to much time to recover after and beeing out of training for a longer time (maybe even due to overtraining/injury).
And after all consistency is key for keeping and building fitness!
btw (especialy if you have to go to work): The impact on the immune-system is something to consider, too. An infection could also have an influence on training-consistency!
Finishing ToS in nuclear mode gives an enormous boost to your Ego. Joining GSL with fresh numbers even more. Whenever I feel weak in the season, I focus on these moments. To me, the mental gains are more important than the training overload.