Can Cyclists Get Fast with Just 6 Hours of Training Per Week?

[@JJBpilot]

Easy means easy! So that you are well rested for your hard workouts! Alternate weeks with some zone 3 tempos.

[@andrewa4408]

As a semi time crunched athlete, i found the thoughtful content of this episode great. Thanks!

[@CTS_TrainRight]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@chrism5433]

Weather for me is limiting me . Unfortunately no indoor trainer $. 😢. At 54 newbie roadie .I love it . Mix it with running 🍺

Thanks for the information. Example workout from the video if you have about 6 hours a week: Intensive: Tue: 4x8min %95-105 FTP, 4-5min rest btw intervals: 75min total Thu: 4x6min %95-105 FTP, 4-5min rest btw intervals: 75min total Fri: Group ride, zwift race etc Sun: 1-2 hours zone 2 Extensive: Tue: 2x20min %91-95 FTP, 5-7min rest btw intervals: 75min total Thu: 2x20min %91-95 FTP, 5-7min rest btw intervals: 75min total

[@JK-wl5bx]

Ive done the time cruched plan a few times gives you a lovely burst of fitness

[@christopheralix8554]

Who is promoting Zone 2 ONLY? It’s majority Olof time in Zone 2. No one promotes Zone 2 only to be faster do they?

[@ted56637]

Right

[@richardmiddleton7770]

It depends if you've ever done any before or where you are in the season. It's also great if you're feeling a bit burned out. Doing a few weeks of z2 can really bring you round without losing fitness.

[@starlitshadows]

Nobody. I see a bunch of vids claiming and comments claiming this is what is going on but I've never seen anyone actually say do only Z2. Inigo himself focused heavily on the benefits of Z2 but also mentioned doing Z4 and Z5 which he calls the "turbo." 😂 I've watched tons of training vids and read tons of articles in the last year and haven't seen a single person say only Z2 yet.

[@sir_cornholio5]

Hear a lot of people saying zone three zone four is bad for you and doesn’t work zone two is the way to go for most of your workouts scientific triathlon has every single PhD person come on and say zone twos zone two zone two zone two zone two.

[@minhle8821]

😊!😊😊😊​@@starlitshadows

[@Drogos79]

From 40+ year old who has a real life but races MTB on weekends....I like where you are going with this but you need to take it further. Ain't nobody has time or patience to ride with a notebook and do those structured workouts. If I have 6 hours a week.....I just ride. You can't have structure on the MTB trail anyway. You will not hold any pace for too long and if you try, you will have other riders that will pull you out of that zone for various reasons. The more important question for MTBers is ....can you do good at your local MTB races by riding MTB only or do you have to incorporate big volumes at lower intensity on say....gravel bike (puke) . If you want to race 20 miles MTB race, you need to ride 20 miles or more at race pace....which is not actually a 100% full on non stop. Far from it. Sometimes you go hard and try to smash both short and long segment PRs, sometimes you just ride with your bodies in zone 2 with splurges of high intensity. I would love to hear your opinion on the matter but with more realistic real life approach and for MTBers specifically.

[@toddboucher3302]

I fully agree I believe to get the benefits of zone two or low heart rate whatever you wanna call it I believe you gotta be able to have the time to run or cycle or whatever an hour and a half a day times at least 4 to 5 days a week minimum Now what I found works good for me at 61 which is a lot different than your average person or I only have during the day an hour to work out in the weekends are more open so I found out what works good for me is a couple days during the week Zone two or just a little bit easier hard out like a 4 x 4 and then on the weekends I’m in the trails working hard up the hills and that’s actually helped lower my heart rate so I can run better but I on my schedule if I was trying to do nothing but low heart rate it would fall apart, I think It’s just more fun to run fast but not every day because that breaking like I said I work out during the week usually Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday sometimes Friday and two of those days are easy in about one to two workouts and then Saturday and Sunday I do my thinggood good points enjoyed it

[@stevejsmales]

The thing that so many people miss with Z2 training is that it means the athlete spends a lot of time not really pressing on the pedals…..hence muscular endurance, torque and ‘strength’ are neglected. If we ride 5 days a week soft pedalling and then just do short intervals, typically at high cadence on a trainer, then the ‘grunt’ needed to get over short climbs or accelerate out of slow corners soon becomes neglected.

[@electricant55]

Isn’t that true always unless you live in some totally flat area?

[@marcdaniels9079]

I like the contributor a lot. He is so right when he says you need more than the biological mechanisms to develop a good training plan. This is so true of many areas including nutrition. Biological mechanism studies mean nothing in comparison to outcome studies. Also the concept of an annual plan with say 4 blocks as well as recovery weeks and progressive overload is very often overlooked. As is resistance training with weights. Dylan Johnson covers all these areas in great detail with reference to research papers. The z3 comment is interesting- it also helps mentally to be used to the long tempo periods. In an event I absolutely see my average power is well over Z2 for the whole event.

[@reineherrera8897]

I agree, generally speaking if you have very little time, the time you do spend on the bike needs to be intense.

[@gerrysecure5874]

Depends on your definition of very little. 80/20 polarized works better than threshold at 6hrs/wk. Llanao showed in his study with elite juniors.

[@reineherrera8897]

@@gerrysecure5874 Yes, to be clear my definition of “little time” is 2-4 hours Monday-Friday for training. For those who participate in other activities needing high aerobic output but do not have the time for more riding due to work, gym-time etc. Honestly, a lot can be done with 6 hours when done consistently week-to-week come to think of it. Do you have a link to the study?

[@drkraut]

Great show. Thank you for keeping it simple and clear that we are(if constant in these 6 hours) not in a massive disadvantage. Keep up the great work

[@chrism5433]

Always a fine balance . Especially over 55 fit ,but still working a mechanic tech .ohh plus kids and dog. Lol .good fun. Cheers to enjoying cyvling 🚴🍺🚴

[@Ehsender]

Needed to hear this right now. Thank you!

[@erlendsteren9466]

Back in the sixties there was a superstrong skier that didnt train at all. He only ran races, and he won. Where was the zone two? Those days he did no training at all he actually worked as a lumberjack, and he had to go skiing a long distance in deep snow to get to work. His days were packed with non-training in zone 1 and 2. Zone 1 and two is not nessecary if you have long duration physical work. Myself I have light work, and I am training 7 hours a week. I am all over the zones and quite often has a light zone 1 and two day, often spiked with some hard efforts. I often plan easy going or rest the day after a hard day. I am not a 80-20 guy, I probably do more hard work, so 70-30 is closer to my trainingweek. I guess 80-20 is fantastic if you train many hours a week, and if you train less, maybe 70-30 gives better effect.

[@MichaelFargher]

Great podcast! Love Time Crunch approach. Curious - in the 2017 version of the book, 8/10/12 min SS intervals are done up to 86-90% of highest ftp. Is this because they are extensive or?

[@nicholashatcher2844]

I believe the 86-90% is off your 2x8 min ftp test intervals which would be 110% of your ftp. So steady state intervals would be 96-100% of FTP.

[@unknownKnownunknowns]

Thanks gents. Do you mind please defining what these zones are in terms of % of FTP?

[@gerrysecure5874]

Ever heared about google ?

[@unknownKnownunknowns]

@@gerrysecure5874 cute. every "expert" has a different viewpoint on this, which I learned from google. Hope you feel good about not being helpful. Have a great day

[@unknownKnownunknowns]

@@gerrysecure5874 cute. 7 zone model? 5 Zone model? There is a difference in %. Keep feeling good about yourself being not helpful. Have a great day!

[@erlendsteren9466]

There are more than two systems and the main systems is the one about heartrate (1-5), and the one about power (zone 1-7). I use heartrate. I had my heartratezones set by a lactate-testing physioterapeut. You dont eed to lactatetest, you can define the zones by how you feel. 1 is easy, zone 2 is work, but not harder than you can while still talking easy without heavy breath. Sone 3 is as hard as you can go for a full hour while still feeling somewhat fresh. Zone 4 is harder, and zone 5 is close to maximum pulse. The placement of the zones compared to ftp is different from person to person, it depends of how well you prosess lactate.

[@1RWF1]

Are many people actually saying only do zone 2? I have never heard anyone suggest that

[@wheelnut64]

I have certainly off season or pre season then add intervals as season start emerges. Check Dylan Johnson on this.

[@marcdaniels9079]

Dylan rocks ! 👍

[@davidkay7201]

Dylan Johnson is a fan of the polarised model. Not zone 2 only.

[@ds6914]

Questions to which the answer is yes

[@Asdos.]

Watching this and struggling to even ride for 2 hours a week lol

[@gerrysecure5874]

Then you better run.

[@dickieblench5001]

No one said just do zone 2 FFS

[@kevinstry]

Is the recovery between intense intervals at Z1 or Z2?

[@reineherrera8897]

The pattern I have seen while on a Trainer Road program is that yes, that seems like a fair observation. As an example, my last workout was a series of 1 minute pulls at threshold level wattage followed immediately by a sustained FTP wattage and then in between the sets, the wattage was down in Active Recovery and Endurance zones, respectively Zone 1 and 2. Real light pedaling that you would find in the equivalent HR Zone.

[@wheelnut64]

Can be either Z1 or Z2 depends on the intervals

[@gerrysecure5874]

I do it mid Z2. The reason is that in Z2 the lactate removal is higher in Z2 than Z1. The HR remains activated after the interval and reach vo2max for longer in next interval while the muscles still get rid of lactate as quickly as possible.

[@jacklauren9359]

It depends really. If you’re trying to hit high output then recovery is recovery. Which means 100w and below.

[@pitekxpan5845]

What about 3 ride on week? 3 h fast group ride , 3 hours z2 and , 1 h indoors vo2 or Trashold??

[@wheelnut64]

That should work right?

[@OGillo2001]

Yes that will be fine

[@87togabito]

Drop the 3hr fast group ride. Or just drop all group rides; those are a waste of time that could be turned to effective z2 or a proper focused structured threshold.

[@kpsig]

No, but you can become slower.

[@87togabito]

My ftp would beg to differ lol. 5-6hrs of indoors average weekly, and my ftp has been steadily increasing about 1-3% every cycle or so.