I finish the All-Purpose Road in/out plan and did THE TEST. The progress is good in all the parameters. +19 W is the lowest gain.
I knew that the plan works but I feel that I must include strength training and occasional running. There is no in/out APR plan with strength. I planned to do APR indoor with strength and ride outside but I see that there is the Time Trial plan that looks suitable although I am more in climbing and 2-3 hours rides. It has outdoor rides and indicates when to do strength training.
Question number one, the TT plan has 2-4 hours rides on weekends, it fits me but what is the logic behind it for an athlete with a real time trial in mind?
The second question, there are boring workouts with reduced intensity, like 50% of FTP - if I’ll occasionally switch it to running, will it be a big crime? Also, can recovery ride to be switch to recovery run?
Third question, when can we expect the All-Purpose road in/out plan with strength? I remember notification that it is in work the last autumn.
The final question, is a duathlon plan that can be expected sometime soon?
I selected the intermediate plan simply because the advanced plan weekend rides were too long to ride indoors( OK I know they are listed as outdoor )
Hi @MikeSh,
First of all, it’s great to hear that you’ve seen improvements on your recent FF.
As for your questions, we’re doing our best to continue adding plans each quarter, and the strength integrated versions of the indoor/outdoor APR are on the list for the next quarter, as are the duathlon plans. Sometimes it seems that we just can’t keep up with the demand for all the plans that our users want!
The advanced time trial plans include long sessions on the weekends because they drive some important physiological adaptations such as: improved economy (efficiency of the body’s ability to take in, process and utilize oxygen), fatigue resistance of the muscles, increased mitochondrial density in the muscles (you actually develop more of them due to training), increased stroke volume and cardiac output, and increased hemoglobin production (improves ability to transport oxygen to the muscles).
If you do not have the time for these longer durations, you can reduce them to fit your schedule. These longer rides will not negatively affect your performance of high intensity sessions, provided you remain at the prescribed intensity level. If these longer sessions are done at too hard of an effort, you will develop too much fatigue to be able to perform the higher intensity sessions properly.
The reduced intensity sessions are included as an alternative to doing the NoVid Recovery Spin every time you should do a recovery ride. If you’d rather do the NoVid, that’s perfectly fine, we’re just trying to keep the program interesting. It’s also important to be sure you’re riding as easy as is physically possible on those recovery spins, and setting the intensity automatically is a way that we can do our best to ensure you stay at that low effort level, which can be very difficult for a lot of people.
In regard to running, it induces a higher stress level on the body than riding. The ground reaction forces, compression, vibration and eccentric muscle contractions, produce more stress and are harder to recover from than riding at 50% of FTP. I’d recommend sticking to the recovery spins on those days and adding running on your higher intensity days. Your legs may be fatigued from riding, but it’s better to put more of your higher stresses on the same day so that you can recover better on the low intensity days. If you were to do a recovery run instead of a ride, you’d have to run so slowly that you probably wouldn’t feel very good about having run at that pace, so you’re better off doing a higher quality run after a ride session on another day. Does that make sense?
Happy training and keep us posted on your continued success!