I’ve been working my way through the On Location workouts on over the last few weeks. There are some enjoyable sessions there, stunning scenery, a nice break from the nearly-OTT SUF workouts (which is what I’m here for really) and, of course, great company with Mike.
But, I’d like to hear more about the intended training impetus. Much has been made recently of the importance of z2 training. Add in some HIIT to take your to another level and you have the Wahoo way. Zone 3 stuff is often talked about as being junk miles. But, how do the On Location rides fit in? They often have an IF of around 0.8 (perhaps ignore whether IF is suitable for HIIT for now), but whereas typical SUF workouts are around 0.8ish because of high effort intervals and recoveries, the OL workouts tend to be longer efforts at a closer-to-z3 type level. How should we view these workouts? They seem to me to be a departure from what we’re used to in terms of workout style (I mean effort, not content).
I would like to see more commentary in the workout descriptions on what the workout is targeting and how. It would help understanding but also how one can fit these sessions into a longer plan.
@leebo Good questions - I did notice that the filters in the library can provide some answers. There are a few OL vids in the climb, endurance, mixed, speed and sustained categories.
When I am switching out I generally look at duration 1st and then try to match the category and confirm that the 4DP focus is similar.
Yeah agreed, and the 4dp scores for the rides have always been useful in that regard too.
I think what perhaps confused me the most (and harking back to the endurance/z2 training here) is that if you look at workouts tagged as Endurance you see the various Open series, all at 0.65, plenty of Inspiration sessions all again around 0.65-0.7, and then several OL workouts, but this last group are more like 0.75-0.8. This seems a little at odds to me.
Z2 training requires your power or heart rate to stay within Zone 2 throughout (except for warm up and cool down). The goal here is to train a particular biological system. Hence, some recommend doing this within HR Zone 2.
Endurance training is about TTE at a given power level or effort. I have ridden some courses that if I stayed in Zone 2, it would have taken forever to finish.
Agreed. It’s funny though there aren’t many other workouts in the Wahoo ecosystem that seem to match the workout makeup of some of these OL rides. A few, Getting Away With It, Crescendo, Elements of Style are similar in profile and average level (let’s not argue on averages, IF, etc).
And that’s totally fine of course - they may be targetting something different to the others, or maybe they are just bit looser in training targets and trying to give a slightly more real-world experience, which is also cool.
Don’t take my comments to be negatives, btw. I think the OLs are a great addition to the offering (I actually stick with them much longer than I ever thought I would).
Ah yes. TBH I ignored the ProRides as I haven’t done many of those and so they are bit out of my experience. By the looks of it though those rides have a fair number of AC/MAP spikes in them, so an arguably different type of profile to the OL rides tagged as endurance.
Don’t worry about not being experienced regarding pro rides. I had never done any interactive rides at all ever and have not been training too long either, compared to some on here that have been doing it for a lifetime!!. I did the Tour down under series (two of them the full length versions on RGT). The interactive ones on SYSTM are great and hard but good fun. Stick your trainer in level mode and try to keep up!! They are gauged to your fitness levels so are manageable but will give you a good workout.
Hi @leebo!
Glad that you’ve found the On Location rides and are enjoying them. Just like any kind of session, too much of the same thing is not an ideal training stimulus. So yes, many OL workouts do include modest to moderate amount of Tempo/Zone 3 targeted efforts…but that’s simply the nature of the the kind of rides, courses and locations where Mike is riding for these sessions. As such, a moderate amount of weekly training (say around 15-20%) of your total training being completed at Zone 3/Tempo is quite normal and reasonable. If you were only performing OL workouts, though, that percentage is likely getting closer to 30-40% of your weekly training…which is on the higher than recommended range. In most cases, two OL sessions per week would be okay to include…though you’d want to have some counter-balance of more consistently lower intensity endurance sessions like INSP videos or Open workouts or even just Zone 2 focused riding in RGT or outdoors for a good lower intensity focussed training schedule. If you’re looking to maximize your fitness gains/performance…then I’d stick with one OL session per week plus one truly high intensity session (SUF, ProRide, No-Vid, plus the appropriate weekly Zone 2 longer endurance sessions (INSP, RGT, Outdoors) to have a well balanced performance training schedule to follow. Let me know if that makes sense!
Makes sense, thank you @Coach.Neal.H. These sessions certainly still seem a bit of departure from the typical approach here. Not a bad thing as variety is the spice of life and all that.
I did “Shift” today as part of my recovery from IMAZ. I have to say it was a spot on workout as a recovery ride and as listed in the comments section. My coach was very surprised I did that easy of a ride.
The content of the video was quite educating, and now I want to go and mtn bike there.
OL rides should definitely be part of the training plan, just not all of your training plan!
I really enjoy all the added content. I think next on Wahoo we need a “build your own workout” so we can work or address specific individual targets relating to our specific needs for rallies, races, triathlons, etc.