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Building a Training Week
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So I have tried searching for this kind of thing here and in the books I have on training but couldn't find a concrete answer

So in a given week (right now where I am only running and cycling) I will try and get in at least 2 Zwift workouts (usually try and make them 75-90 minutes) plus a longer ride (3-4 hours) and then try and hit ~35 mpw on 5 runs with a long run of 90 minutes (roughly 12-13 miles for me). All the runs are easy paced, zone 1 or zone 2 and try and have 1-2 runs with strides at the end. Some weeks I may be able to squeeze in an extra bike ride or extra run but this is my normal right now. Don't have any races so just doing some low structured stuff, trying to keep run endurance up and slowly raise my FTP on the bike and in general just getting adjusted to keeping 10-12 hour training weeks

Now my question pertains to fitting in a run workout. Workout in this case meaning something harder effort wise than the Z1/Z2 efforts. I come from a running background and in the current time I feel like I am struggling to make improvements in my run fitness on this current schedule. Now to improve I feel like I need to start adding in tempos/fartleks/hill reps. At least 1 per week and ideally 2 but I don't know how I am supposed to find time to do those as well as the zwift workouts and the long efforts and recover between. So is it advisable to double up on workouts one day (such as sweet spot intervals on zwift in the morning and then a tempo on my run in afternoon) or is it better to alternate such as doing a zwift workout on a Tuesday with easy run in afternoon and then Wednesday being a tempo run?

Sorry if this was confusing, just trying to figure out how to best set up my training week going forward
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Re: Building a Training Week [SnowChicken] [ In reply to ]
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might be more clear to put it like this; which training week would be better of the 2 in your opinion? Option 1 would also sometimes be flipped so I would run in AM and do the zwift workout in the PM on Tuesday and Thursday

M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout, PM Tempo/Fartlek Run
W: Medium Long Run, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout, PM Run w/ Hill Sprints
F: Easy Run
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

or

M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout, PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout, PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

This schedule is also made so that I have times to add swims into it when I am comfortable going to the pool again
Last edited by: SnowChicken: Jul 7, 20 6:06
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Re: Building a Training Week [SnowChicken] [ In reply to ]
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What type of workouts are the zwift workouts?
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Re: Building a Training Week [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]
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Zwift workouts would be most commonly sweet spot or threshold stuff. Maybe some over/unders. Not sure if one is better to put on a certain day when balancing with the running workload
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Re: Building a Training Week [SnowChicken] [ In reply to ]
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Let me talk about Thursdays, if I may

SOme time ago, I was talking to someone at work about Thursdays

See, we're off every other Friday, so we call the Thursdays on those weeks "Fake Friday" "Faux Friday" or, sometimes, "Thriday" [although, that's a little awkward on the tongue]

I said that in my experience, Thursday has always been the best night of the week for me. When I was in the band [OK, more than one band, actually, but that's a minor detail] I loved playing Thursday night shows. The people who came out were either a) ready to party and wanted to start the weekend as soon as possible, especially when we played shows at Penn or Drexel, and they were off from classes the next day, or b) just so fucking tired of that week's bullshit, they just wanted to get loose, forget about everything, and if they were still fucked up or hungover on Friday? Well, fuck it

Moving forward, post-music career, Thursday became the night I usually put maximum efforts into workouts; often doubling or tripling up. When I was a actively doing triathlon, Thursdays would be brick night with bike/run or bike/swim workouts. I would do speedwork on Thursdays if I was in that mode, so I could really thrash and have a couple days recovery before Sunday's long run

When I could I go to the gym, I would set the TM a couple clicks higher than I would go on the road, spin that for half an hour or so to get the engine revved nice & hot, then hit the weights for 45 to an hour

Nowadays, Thursday is just like Tuesday with Wednesday being a semi-hilly day ["Hump Day = Bump Day"]

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin
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Re: Building a Training Week [SnowChicken] [ In reply to ]
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SnowChicken wrote:


M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout, PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout, PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

This schedule is also made so that I have times to add swims into it when I am comfortable going to the pool again


Option 2 is a better starting point. I like to put two weeks back to back so you can see what they look like strung together...going from Sunday into Monday.

M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run
M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

To me that shows that you have 6 hard days in a row, with a hill run as your "easy" day, and you don't have an OFF day, at all. Unless you're under 35...I always recommend 1 day completely off. You didn't mention what type of strength session you do...I wouldn't do ANY leg work during that session. I'd kill the hills on Friday, and move the easy to a brick with the long bike.

M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
F: -----------------
S: Long Bike / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: Long Run
M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
F: -----------------
S: Long Bike / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: Long Run

Other alternatives...Combine some of your SST or threshold work with your long bike. Replace the midweek SST/Threshold with an medium Z2 ride. But, then I'd space the long-run away from the long-ride. Ex:

M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (endurance), PM Easy Run
F: Long Run
S: Long Bike (with SST) / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: -----------------
M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (endurance), PM Easy Run
F: Long Run
S: Long Bike (with SST) / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: -----------------

Additional thoughts....you can't train everything all the time. So, you might give some consideration to doing some focus blocks where you de-emphasize one sport in order to focus intensely on the alternate. Eg, kill all the hard running, and just run easy....and bike HARD to improve your bike threshold. Do that for 6-8 weeks, and then flip the script and repeat.
Last edited by: Tom_hampton: Jul 7, 20 8:55
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Re: Building a Training Week [SnowChicken] [ In reply to ]
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I’d put the long run on saturdays and long ride on sundays, mainly because my long runs would suffer from the ride and not so much the other way around
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Re: Building a Training Week [RandMart] [ In reply to ]
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RandMart wrote:
Let me talk about Thursdays, if I may
See, we're off every other Friday, so we call the Thursdays on those weeks "Fake Friday" "Faux Friday" or, sometimes, "Thriday" [although, that's a little awkward on the tongue]

I've had a whole theory regarding naming the days of the week for 2 decades. In order or precedence:

1. The last day of the week you work is called Friday.
2. The first day of the week you work is called Monday.
3. The day before Friday is Thursday.
4. The day after Monday is Tuesday.
5. All days between Tuesday and Thursday are called Wednesday.
6. The last day before you go back to work is Sunday.
7. All days between Friday and Sunday are called Saturday.

My goal is to live in perpetual Saturdays.
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Re: Building a Training Week [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]
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Tom_hampton wrote:
SnowChicken wrote:


M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout, PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout, PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

This schedule is also made so that I have times to add swims into it when I am comfortable going to the pool again


Option 2 is a better starting point. I like to put two weeks back to back so you can see what they look like strung together...going from Sunday into Monday.

M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run
M: AM Strength Circuit, PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
F: Easy Run w/ Hill Sprints
S: Long Bike
S: Long Run

To me that shows that you have 6 hard days in a row, with a hill run as your "easy" day, and you don't have an OFF day, at all. Unless you're under 35...I always recommend 1 day completely off. You didn't mention what type of strength session you do...I wouldn't do ANY leg work during that session. I'd kill the hills on Friday, and move the easy to a brick with the long bike.

M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
F: -----------------
S: Long Bike / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: Long Run
M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (SST), PM Easy Run
F: -----------------
S: Long Bike / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: Long Run

Other alternatives...Combine some of your SST or threshold work with your long bike. Replace the midweek SST/Threshold with an medium Z2 ride. But, then I'd space the long-run away from the long-ride. Ex:

M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (endurance), PM Easy Run
F: Long Run
S: Long Bike (with SST) / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: -----------------
M: AM Strength Circuit (no legs), PM Easy Bike
T: AM Zwift Workout (Threshold), PM Easy Run
W: Medium Long Run w/ Tempo or Fartlek, No Double
T: Am Zwift Workout (endurance), PM Easy Run
F: Long Run
S: Long Bike (with SST) / Easy Brick Run (short)
S: -----------------

Additional thoughts....you can't train everything all the time. So, you might give some consideration to doing some focus blocks where you de-emphasize one sport in order to focus intensely on the alternate. Eg, kill all the hard running, and just run easy....and bike HARD to improve your bike threshold. Do that for 6-8 weeks, and then flip the script and repeat.

This is the exact feedback I was looking for, wasn't sure if people would double up on the hard day or if it is better to space it as you laid out. The strength training thing was not going to be legs. Really just some body weight stuff (push ups, pull ups, core routine w/ planks). Only really meant to be 20 minutes total so Monday was meant as a really easy day for me. In future this is when I would like to get in one of my swims in the week. I also am 23 where I have been a serious runner for last decade or so. Only reason I bring that up is to speak to my experience with endurance sports and ability to handle running mileage. Last few years I have been doing tri training with more and more biking.

I really like the idea of doing some dedicated blocks of 6-8 weeks focusing on one discipline more and then just doing some maintenance work for other one. Becomes even more relevant now because my speed/cadence sensor that i used for zwift broke today and was going to upgrade to Power Meter soon so may just do a dedicated run block now and combine with easy bike rides when I can while I wait to order my power meter. thanks again for your advice here
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Re: Building a Training Week [brasch] [ In reply to ]
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brasch wrote:
I’d put the long run on saturdays and long ride on sundays, mainly because my long runs would suffer from the ride and not so much the other way around


My plan for this was alternating them from week to week. I think I will find it hard to get a really good long run and long bike in the same weekend with the rest of the training so goal would be whichever one I want as priority to be on the Saturday. For me coming from a running background my bike needs more work so most weeks I will probably be doing the bike on saturday and the run on sunday. Though I will have every other friday off from work so on those weekends I may edit it so I do one on the friday and one on the sunday and get a day between to recover more
Last edited by: SnowChicken: Jul 7, 20 10:06
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Re: Building a Training Week [SnowChicken] [ In reply to ]
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SnowChicken wrote:
I also am 23 where I have been a serious runner for last decade or so. Only reason I bring that up is to speak to my experience with endurance sports and ability to handle running mileage. Last few years I have been doing tri training with more and more biking.

Oh. Then ignore everything I said....full-tilt, all the time. Plenty of time for careful planning when you're old like me.




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