My plan for this Winter: I’m going to (try to) do 2 HIIT sessions, 2 LSD sessions, 1 very easy/short session, 2 recovery days, per week.
LSD sessions: “longer” rides indoors/on the trainer, around 2h. Yeah, that is not a lot, but riding on the HT is booooring, and much harder for me, than outdoors. I will probably climb long virtual routes on Rouvy at 3-3.2W/kg.
easy/short session: 45min-1h at 2W/kg, with a 7-8s all-out sprint every 10 minutes (on flattish roads, still on Rouvy )
HIIT sessions: following Guy Thibault’s model, intervals progressively going from “quantity” to “quality”, week after week. I will probably start with one day with 22 intervals at 110% MPA and another day with 30 intervals at 85% MPA. In the end, I should be doing 6-3 longer intervals at these intensities, or something in-between (95-100% MPA “long” intervals).
recovery days: push-ups/squats/abs.
PS: I will see if those 2 HIIT sessions will be too much, in this case I will only do one. That should fit a polarized plan.
If we’re sharing plans, then I’ll share the outlines of mine (as I try to convince myself that I can put one together on my own).
Starting in late December/January, I’ll start lifting at the gym twice a week. Those will be my “intensity” days and I will add in Z2 (Z1 in the Seiler model) rides the rest of the week (hoping for at least one longer one). I’ll try to increase volume by extending those Z2 (Z1 in the Seiler model) rides across the month, shooting for 8h total by the end.
After a month of that, I’ll replace one of the gym days with on bike intensity, starting initially with tempo intervals (any suggestions for these?) Across this month, I might again try to build volume after dropping back to the lower end of the previous month. But I’ll also focus on either extending time at tempo in those sessions (either by adding intervals or prolonging them) or slowly replacing those tempo intervals with intervals at FTP.
The next month, I’ll stop lifting and move two two on-bike intensity days for my build. At first, these will be threshold intervals at FTP, but I’ll replace one of those with VO2 intervals (30/15s or longer 4 or 8 min intervals) after a few weeks and end up at two of those VO2 sessions as I approach my target period.
For all months, all rides beyond the two intensity days will by Z2 rides, again shooting for at least one “longer” Z2 (Z1 in the Seiler model) ride. I’ll work two weeks and rest/recover one week throughout as I’ve found this works best for my body and schedule. At 8h max per week, that usually puts me at around 85-90% Z2 (Z1 in the Seiler model) and 10-15% in the other “intensity” zones.
This looks a good plan. I’m roughly in the same boat.
2/3 gym workouts for nov/dec/jan. 1 vo2 each /± 10 workouts. 1 seiler’s 4x8 for 8 weeks, and fill the rest with zwift, fatbike, some runs, etc. basically all low intensity
Oh yeah, I forgot about the pace “x weeks with progressing intensity / 1 week recovery”. Well, I always forget about it. As a consequence, I never do it. I should put it on the calendar. Intervals.icu will make it easier to remember
What’s the consensus on that topic ? Value of x: 2, 3 ? Half the intensity ? Half the duration ? Half the number of training sessions ?
as far as I know half of the intensity, although considering the phase, it might vary. It can be just “take off the HIIT sessions”, and keep riding easy.
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