Percentage of Training Time

Gav888

Hi guys,

I've been trying to find some guidance of time spent in zones throughout the year to help with contructing a plan for the remained of this year and the following years to come...

I was ideally looking for percentage of time in zone per typical week by training period based on a 10 hour week, for example:

Base Period

Z2 - 60%
Z3 - 20%
Z4 - 15%
Z5 - 5%

Build Period

Z2 - 30%
Z3 - 30%
Z4 - 40%
Z5 - 0%

Peak Period

Z2 - 0%
Z3 - 50%
Z4 - 20%
Z5 - 30%

Transition Period

Z2 - 80%
Z3 - 10%
Z4 - 10%
Z5 - 0%

Just to give you an idea of what im looking for, I can work out specifics of what to do during those times but I need some assistance with percentages as I cannot seem to find anything about it anywhere.

Goal for the rider would be 5hr century in the next couple of years, with various 50-100 miles sportives and group rides along the way to help work towards that goal.

Cheers

SwainDogg

I don't really understand. What are you peaking for in the mean time? How are you supposed to spend 0% in zone 2? How long have you been cycling for? What level are you currently?

jibberjim

With 10 hours a week, you will not be doing enough volume to periodise in that way, ride more volume throughout the year, occasionally ride less.

Tom Dean

There are a couple of sample 'time in zone' charts in Training and Racing With a Power Meter but I don't think they go into much depth with recommendations. I think it is something that is worth keeping in mind when doing 10 hrs a week, and can be a helpful way to think about periodisation.

One point about your examples:

Gav888 wrote:

Peak Period

Z2 - 0%
Z3 - 50%
Z4 - 20%
Z5 - 30%

At the stage when you are doing more top end work, you will need to be doing more (as a proportion) at the low end to compensate. You can't load it all higher and higher. This distribution would be hard within a single session!

bahzob

The answer to this depends very much on how many hours a week you have available to train. As a general rule the less time you have the greater the percent of time that should be spent at higher intensity.

10 is towards the low end. Your best option would be to buy the book "Time Crunched Cyclist". This caters for folks like you with limited time. It includes a number of complete 12 week plans, all you need to do is conduct a test to establish levels and then just go train.

If you do this the quality of your training and end result will be much better then the answers you will get from forums like this.

dazzTurning

Way too ambitious if you ask me. Peak period would almost certainly be too hard IMO

whoof

Also don't understand. Are the examples you give a week block, if so a week of base training? Mid November to end of February would be more sensible. If they are blocks i.e. for a 12 week total then 3 weeks in zones 3,4 &5 I'd sign up for a COOP funeral plan rather than a Sportive. Do you have a back ground of riding in place to be able to get the most of higher end stuff?