training week opinions

broshaughnessy
broshaughnessy Posts: 18
edited September 2017 in Training, fitness and health
All things being equal (ex. total time in saddle, time in each zone, interval workouts) would you see bigger gains riding 4 days per week or 5? For instance of 5 day week might be (2+2+2+4+1.5) vs. a 4 day week of (2.5+2.5+5+2.5). Each week would have 2 interval sessions of the same intensity and goal. Any and all input appreciated!

Comments

  • VamP
    VamP Posts: 674
    broshaughnessy wrote:
    All things being equal (ex. total time in saddle, time in each zone, interval workouts) would you see bigger gains riding 4 days per week or 5? For instance of 5 day week might be (2+2+2+4+1.5) vs. a 4 day week of (2.5+2.5+5+2.5). Each week would have 2 interval sessions of the same intensity and goal. Any and all input appreciated!

    A good training programme should respect principles of progressivity, consistency, recovery and specificity to your objectives. If you can meet those requirements, then it doesn't much matter how many days you shoehorn it into.

    Having said that, 5 day weeks seem more consistent to my simple brain, but then by the same token, six day weeks are better still... you can see how athletes get into a pickle, can't you?
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Your training week is going to depend on what your targets are, and what the intensity of your sessions are like. Unless you can provide some more (ie a lot more) context for your question, then don't expect too much in the way of useful guidance.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 26,247
    Your 5 day week has less riding.
  • burnthesheep
    burnthesheep Posts: 675
    Books spend dozens and dozens of pages explaining how this works and how it isn't as simple as what you posted.

    The short and sweet of it is that a good plan should take your 1 hour, 20 minute, or 8 minute test power and then generate training zones for you. Then the plan will put hours per week and minutes per interval type into action depending on how many hours per week you have to spend.

    I'm on a 4 day plan with 5 to 6 hours per week. If I have to skip a workout it's going to be cutting "endurance miles" short, not the high intensity intervals.

    It's not as simple any more as "just miles", "base miles", or "just time". It has to be quality time spent suffering and quality time spent recovering.

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