Tomorrow I have both Half the road and Afghan cycle on the plan. Normally I would’ve ridden outside an equivalent amount of time in zone 2 but we have some snow storm here and I don’t think I will be able to ride outside.
Does anybody know if in the head of the coaches (@Coach.Neal.H ?) they are meant to be done back to back or one could be in the morning ride and the other in the afternoon ?
I would say that for better adaptation the first is better…… but…
my intuition is the same as yours, that as they are Z2 rides it would be preferable to do them back-to-back. I don’t see why you would benefit from resting before the second workout in this instance.
@orange_badger thank you for your reply. It was more a question of convenience than for resting in between. My 9 year old son has a cyclo cross race tomorrow and if do it on the road (letting the rest of the family come back with car while I ride back) I can do 3 hours. But on the trainer, I need to organise my schedule a bit ….
A gap in between won’t let you hit the numbers any better, as would be the case if they were both high intensity rides. If anything you want to be staying in zone 2 for a consistent duration to build that adaptation so back to back would be preferable.
To say the obvious—training has to accommodate the demands of work, family and friends. You’ll get a solid training stimulus if you do both regardless of whether you schedule them back to back or split apart (even if back to back is a little better). So make trade offs that work for everyone involved.
In previous threads, I think I recall seeing that double rides were intended to be ridden back to back.
But I also recall reading that the difference in training stimulus is small if your schedule doesn’t accommodate back to back. Of course, if you are specifically training to do back to back sessions (ie for a KOS attempt) you really should practice back to back rides!
I do back to back rides at least 2-3 times a week. even if the second ride is on the easier side, it is still impactful. I have only once split up the rides, and my interpretation of that was the second ride was far easier. I guess it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
Hi @flongchamp - in a perfect world, those two sessions on the same day would best be done back-to-back…but if splitting them up works better for your personal schedule, then there’s very little difference in splitting them apart.
In the case of a high intensity session and an endurance session on the same day, we sometimes would recommend splitting the sessions to allow for a little more quality in the second session - unless your primary goal is a longer event where there’s value in performing the added lower intensity/volume of riding while more fatigued from the first effort.
So, in summary, the true difference in potential response to two back-to-back endurance sessions versus a single session is likely small enough to truly no matter much…in which case, do the method that best fits your personal life situation!
Hi @Coach.Neal.H , thank you for your time and the reply. It is always good to know what was in the mind of the author. I like to know the why.
Finally I did Half the Road in the morning and a slow 120 minutes endurance 2 ride in the afternoon instead of Afghan cycle as the weather was good enough
Hi @Coach.Neal.H , one thing is missing in the new training plans beside the fact that I find definitely better (for example All Purpose that I do in winter seems more endurance oriented, or well balanced) is the outdoor alternatives. For example I have « chasing legends » this Saturday and I would like to ride outside. It is not an endurance 2 ride ( more a mix with tempo and sub-threshold), so I do not know what to do outdoor. I could copy the session and do the same on the road but is it worth ? I would like to mix with the first session of the day « De Sting » and do everything outside.
Thanks
