I used to ride a lot but then got more focused on running. Unfortunately I ran so much I got a severe injury. Now I am back at the bike which feels great. I am currently doing zone 2 training only and do 5x 1.5 hours in a week. Besides that I hit the gym. Zone 2 gave me huge benefits in running and I want to incorporate that in my cycling to build a great base. I soon want to add one day of more hard work. I have tried to read up on the subject but it becomes quite overwhelming. Even for me who has done tons of threshhold, HIIT etc with running. I was mainly thinking that replacing one of the five days with hard work would be a great start. Would the Seiler 4x8 be a good starting point? If I understand him correctly a good split would be 4 days of zone 2 and 1 day of high intensity? I know I should have a specific goal but right now that is just about building a great base to be able to do group rides and just being in great shape. I won’t attend races in the near future, but I really enjoy training. My goal is just to become as good as I can at the moment.
Any tips would be very welcome.
Here is my fitness curve. I have been back in the saddle for roughly a week.The work besides that has been tons of high intensity elliptical work. According to the curve a little too much.
What are you using to calculate load? Is it HR?
I don’t think it is power, because 7.5 hours Z2 during 8 weeks should bring your Fitness around 45 - 50.
If you have no specific goal at this moment, I would not jump right away to 4*8 VO2max. Opinions will differ, but I would start with a couple of weeks Tempo (sweetspot), where you increase the duration of the SS total time. Then another couple of weeks threshold. Pay more attention to duration/repeatability then intensity. That will give your body a smoother transfer to those high intensities before you hit the hard VO2’s.
1 out of 5 sessions is a good idea. Also try to make one Z2 session gradually longer, if you have the time availability.
In your situation, there’s no direct need to peak. Do more build by increasing capacity at higher intensity zones.
Yes, I am using HR to register it, and also use RPE. I know the feeling from running. I will do a ramp test soon, but just wanted to get the legs and body used to the bike again first. Is starting with 2x15 min sweet spot and increase it to 2x20 ok? What kind of threshhold should I do? I have probably 2 months before the outdoor season start, where I will increase the zone 2 duration a lot more. I get a little numb from the saddle so that’s why I am at 1.5 hours each now. Are you saying my fitness is a little low? That can be because I inputted 250w ftp randomly. I am at the higher end of the zone 2 when riding. That’s like 155w average. What should be the target for the longer zone 2 ride? I will increase that gradually of course.
The number doesn’t reflect 7.5 hours Z2 a week. But that can only be correct if you use Power and your FTP is set correctly. Not hugely important in this case, but it caught my attention.
If intensity was 65%, after 6 weeks (the 42d moving avg), fitness would be
(0.65 * 0.65) * 100 * 7.5 / 7 = 45
That’s Intensity factor times duration divided by days per week.
Increase duration of both sweetspot and threshold as ‘progression’. Over-unders are also a good idea. Just don’t jump from purely Z2 directly to VO2max, that’s going to be a bit of a ‘shock’.
VO2 and anaerobic are peak work. And peak work is done at the last stage, while reducing total volume. That gives you better recovery chances.
The long Z2 ride should be slightly below the ‘normal’ ones in terms of intensity.
If you don’t have a specific goal event, just let the start of the outdoor season be your ‘Peak phase’. Continue building until the start.
Sounds great. So let’s say I split it into two months. Would it be a good idea to do sweet spot for 2 weeks, then 2 with threshold? Then the same for another month. In those two weeks I can go from 2 weeks of 2x15, then the next month 2x20. What threshold should I do though? If it were running I would do 10x1000m, 3x3000m, or even 5x2000m.
I am kind of interested in how I can improve that fitness score though. Does it mean I overestimated my FTP guesstimate? I do use a power meter. I do the REP test and conversation test which puts me at 155avg watt. I would estimate that is a little in the higher zone of zone2. What classifies as a long zone 2 ride though? The two hours today at 155avg felt good. Could it be because I have had some breaks and changed from elliptical to cycling in between? It is a 42d avg as you say.
At the least, accurate Heart Rate is important during exercise to apply these Fitness Charts. That reference Heart Rate will be different, lower, than the one you used running. Running results in higher heart rates than cycling.
Use of accurate Power is a big added bonus especially during the more intense sessions you are planning because heart rate is going to lag a lot getting into those sessions. There’s no average FTP.
Lots of resources to set both those correctly online. Setting those incorrectly will throw your training off. There’s significant difference in the physiological effects training has on the body in the different zones.
RPE has never worked well for me. Regardless, with the technology now I don’t see much reason to use it. If I’m in a Zone and it doesn’t feel like the Zone, then yes that can be an indication something’s up with my body. More often than not though I don’t realize I have drifted well into higher Power Zones until my heart rate catches up and slaps me.
Setting your zones and training parameters accurately will yield better results. Don’t get sucked into the idea that you need to go out and pound those petals hard to be better. As I think you noticed, that trashed your routine.
Yes, I will definetely do a ramp test. I just wanted the body adapt to the bike before doing one. What trashed my route(well, my body) was the lack of recovery. I did loads of easy runs to acheive high mileage, however my body never got the recovery it needed. I think zone 2 training, whether you monitor it it using watt, RPE or HR is really important. It definetely made me a much faster runner. I think the conversational test is probably what’s most accurate for zone 2 though. That matches very well with what intervals.icu defines as well as MAF.
I just wanted to clarify, are you recommending not going from all zone 2 to all VO2 max or are you promoting a pyramidal workout instead of polarized?
Does pyramidal have a role here since OP is just getting back into riding?
I’m trying to get polarized but so far have just managed a Base pattern with an increasing PI (polarization index) and am slowly increasing.
I do a 2.5 zone 2 and 2 one hour VO2 max workouts 8 X 2 (2 min intervals x8) or 32 min per week.
Plus 1 Zwift race.
What I’m trying to say is that, in the OP’s situation, there’s no need to do Peak phase now. Just because he has no primary goal event.
In that case, it’s better to do a longer Build phase and then start the season with spirited group rides or events without real competitive goals. That will automatically become a Peak period.
The more you ‘build’, the more you pull up the floor. Then ‘peak’ and push up the ceiling.
One Z2, 2 Vo2max and one race is far from Polarized. That’s too much intensity from my perspective. I don’t want anything to do with 90/10 TIZ and Polarisation index discussions. I’ve said multiple times before that this is not the intent of Polarized, but this thing is starting to live its own life.
Gotcha.
And thanks for your comment on the intensity of polarized training
I didn’t know what others thought.
Polarized is supposed to be the new (old) best thing but the intensity required to actually get there felt too hard so I was not really planning on pushing it too much.
A lot of my activites has the orange color when it comes to load even though the graph is green. I gather this is probably because my FTP is set wrong, but does the load indicate transition ant the graph green zone/optimal?
That´s compliance, and shows how well you did compared to the planned workout. @Jcmiii is right. It’s not compliance, it’s IF = Intensity factor and takes the color of the zone that complies with that intensity. I was also confused by the different screen layout.
HR and Power take the standard metric color.
That is an Intensity score. My screen doesn’t look like yours. You are using a phone? On my iPad if I click on that number, I get an explanation. I’ve clicked on about everything in the display. . Some in addition to an explanation give links for more information. Great app!
So I will start adding a hard day next week. The zone 2 training is already going really well. Would something like 4x10 min in sweet spot be a good starting place? What is sweet spot in terms of HR, if that is even possible to assign a %? Based on what I have read it would be just over 90% of your max HR. Close to threshold training for us runners. Is two minute recovery okay?
. Some in addition to an explanation give links for more information. Great app!
