Home General Training Discussions

Adding addtional bike work - Yes or No?

Does anyone have any thoughts about adding a few additional bike workouts in during a training week? Would an additional 3 x 30 minute sessions be worth it (1xFTP and 2xz2 work)? Will be finishing a 150 day running streak next week and looking for a new challenge to push myself on. "A" race is in October.

Comments

  • geezuz 150 days??!!!! :o

    my opinion is that "junk miles" are good. EG, I'll do my big ride, or FTP sessions early AM, sometimes even a 6 hr ride, then go out later afternoon for an ez spin with my daughter or GF on the bike path using my MTB, or even going for an MTB session in the local park with some guys for an hour... It all adds, too much FTP work in a week can be detrimental, remember there is a recovery and WKO absorption process the body goes through.

    Think of it it this way, when you ran 150 straight days, were many runs just "recovery runs" or "ez runs" or did you have intervals in all of them..? 

    could be a good micro thread Q for Coach P
  • I tell my athletes that extra bike time is not a bad thing, with these caveats:
    -don't add more than 25% volume at any one time/session or over the duration of a cycle (ex, a week).
    -no higher than zone 2 (with short efforts at zone 3, nothing sustained for long) for that extra volume. Purely aerobic saddle time. It's about building efficiency for this extra volume.
    AND MOST IMPORTANTLY:
    -it doesn't impact downstream workouts. Like @Scott Dinhofer said above, all that work adds up!
  • @Scott Alexander and @Scott Dinhofer. Thanks for input, I'm generally a hard head that can withstand a lot of punishment so I needed some confirmation on this. The run analogy was like a punch to the face. Thanks, I needed that!
Sign In or Register to comment.