Shift work planning

Training
1

Hi all, I’m quite new here, Leigh 51 from UK. I started Zwift around the end of August 23 to try and keep my fitness up over the winter months as I’d been doing regular 100km rides and a few multi day trips (700km over 5 days bikepacking).
As most do I wanted to get a bit more structured with my training to aid my progress, however it has been a lot of miss and hit, mainly because I struggle to stick to a schedule around my shifts. I’m currently going back to base building as I think I’ve been overreaching with my hard efforts.
I’ll lay out my shift pattern and the sessions that I’ve been trying to fit in? I work a 3 week shift pattern, with 12 hour shifts.

Week 1 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 07:00-19:00

Week 2 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 19:00-07:00

Week 3 Monday, Tuesday 07:00-19:00 and Thursday, Friday 19:00-07:00

On my full days off (wk1 Monday, wk2 Friday, wk3 Wednesday) I’m able to do longer rides, I do sometimes have time on the weekends, but not on a regular basis as I may have family stuff, overtime or going to football to commit to.
At the start of my night shifts (Monday, Thursday) I’m also quite free to get longer efforts in on the bike, the rest of the time I’m able to get 1-1.5 hours training in depending how well I’ve slept after shifts, or sometimes early morning before a day shift.

Should I continue to build base and make my longer rides longer, as my main goal is to ride audax events, but also to get a little quicker when out with my riding buddy’s. Currently sitting at 220w FTP but planning a test on 27 Feb after a 3 day easy hiking trip with no riding beforehand.

2

Of course part of the beauty of this system is the ability to manage a healthy plan of training loads and regimes over a long period. I’m not a trainer but I don’t know how that could be done without knowing more. How many hours a week have you been exercising? How many hours going forward? What types? Is there load and fitness data? That kind of thing.

I looked up audax. lol. Still no idea what that is.

3

Hi, thanks for the reply, sorry I’m not sure how to upload my data here. I’m doing roughly 5-8 hours a week, a mixture of Z2 with a weekly session of over/unders or a workout from Zwift called The Gorby. Audax is basically long distance rides within a certain time limit, so not like a race but you have to complete in a certain time to be classed as a finisher. My first event is 202km to be completed in 13h28m, my target event is 600km in 40h52m.
Would a coach be able to set out a plan over a 3 week period, I’m currently doing 3 weeks on with a lighter 4th week but it doesn’t quite fit my shift cycle to be consistent.