I’ve always train d to be a diesel engine. Ie. Ride all day, 12-18 hours of hard work for my big events. Sometimes multi days.
I need to switch to short hard rides, less than an hour for the next 6 months.
Any suggestions on which plans are better for that?
MTB? Criterium?
Martin
What are your short hard rides going to be? Steady hard effort or mixed effort? Cyclocross plan is also an option.
Probably you want to do lots of VO2 and sprint work. The Crit plan gets one oretty punchy on short rides, you’ll already have an epic base to build off by the sounds of it.
This will sound odd, but historically my cycle rides are gran Fondo for fun and multi day bike packing. But I mainly cycle to build up fitness for hiking and mountain climbing where summit days are 12 hours if it goes well, and 24 hours if it doesn’t. 
Unfortunately, COVID hit me really hard over a year ago and I need to hit my lungs hard to try and stimulate some recovery. I’ve been on specific lung/heart steroids and inhalers for a year now. Doctors have decided I’m not going to drop dead with no warning any more, but slow and gradual exercise hasn’t done anything. My lung capacity is less than 1/3 of what it was. Doing multi hour zone 1 and 2 rides on the bike hasn’t helped progress things, so they suggested shorter more intense intervals might help.
M.
That makes sense and is similar to what I dealt with post Covid, tho not as extreme. I ended up doing a TON of slow gentle walking and then lots of cycling in zone 1 and then eventually zone 2.
You might find the base plan is best for you to start with. If theyre sating short intense, maybe try the Crit or Cyclocross plans. Or even the general road plan can get quite sharp. Play around with the 3:1 and 2:1 options and also the med and high options to see which one has more short sharp and less long sustained.
I’ve played around a lot given your advice. It looks like if I select Event preparation, but chose a shorter event, I can vary the time commitment and that seems to give me closer to what I need.
So a short gravel ride (60miles) instead of the 200 mile event plan is more HIIT focused. If I then vary how much time commitment I make, it reduces the zone 2 efforts so there aren’t 5 hours of zone 2 on the weekend.
I think I’ve found the sweet spot. Looking forward to getting through this so I can get back into the long rides.
Thank you DameLisa.
Martin
No problem Martin, happy to help! All the best with the new training regime, I truly hope it sets you back on track, particularly with being able to do your bikepacking, I know how much I’d miss that if I couldn’t do it anymore!
The Cycling Essentials within the General Fitness category could be a great option.
Another great method would be to target your 4DP weakness with a Building Blocks plan, also under the General Fitness category.
There is always the tried and true All Purpose plan, also within the General Fitness category.
Under Event Prep > Road, I would recommend looking at Criterium or Time Trial.
Under Event Prep > Dirt / Gravel, I would recommend looking at Cyclocross.
Under Mountain Biking > Race, I would look at XC.
Lastly you could look at Event Prep > Online > Virtual Racing.
Lots of great options. Happy training mate!