Zwift training plan

I know a good number of people who have done the Build Me Up plan and have definitely seen good results.

I think the comment above about the first workouts seeming too easy is a common theme, but don't be fooled!

I'm by no means an expert but during the outdoor season, a regular session of "VO2 Max" type intervals (e.g. 5 * 5 minutes at 110% of FTP) keeps things topped up nicely for me.

You may be made of sterner stuff than me (or be much younger) but a full on race effort each week for a few months may be as much "quality" as you can stand already, with additional high intensity sessions in between potentially counter-productive.

Maximising the 60%-80% heart rate stuff between races may be the best use of your time.

But if you are made of sterner stuff, then a "between race" interval session to give at least two days recovery between each intense session/race would be my suggestion. The danger is though that you feel OK on such a regime but aren't recovered for your races and are "out of ammo" earlier than would have been the case if you'd spent more time on dynamic recovery.

You probably are tougher than me. I'm 4 weeks into a cycle of doing a 25-30 min Zwift race or TT every week, with the rest of the week basically just being Zone 2 / 3 rides because I'm too tired to do much more. Even with this seemingly modest work volume, I'm starting to flag and will be dropping the races in a couple of weeks.

I'm rather scarred by an experience circa 25 years ago in my rowing days. I hit a rich vein of form and did repeated PB attempts, logging some times which at the time surprised me and now read like works of fiction. Problem was, I did one too many attempts and rowed myself into an evil virus that took 3 months to get over. Wasn't back to PB form for another 4 months after that.😯

But good luck, whatever you do. With the benefit of hindsight, I don't regret "filling my boots" at the time, even despite the period of illness.

Zone 2 is very beneficial but you have to do lots of it. I have made the most significant fitness gains over the last 5 years and the majority of my riding is outdoors and zone 2, but I ride 13-15hrs a week. There is a reason pro's ride mostly in Zone 2 as it is their endurance base.

I would agree though, for most people it is probably best doing a mix of hard efforts and recovery, as the majority of amateurs will be doing less than 8hrs a week. Unless you are riding hours of zone 2 each week, it is probably not the best bang for your buck.

It's difficult to get across the nuances of particular approaches to training, but my philosophy has always been to do as much as I can each week, but never so much that it compromises the next week, other than in a really important race, where you have to do what's necessary and accept that afterwards you need to back off for a couple of weeks and then start building up again.

So when I was focusing on the Marmotte and training 12-15 hours a week, I spent most of my time riding very steadily. Probably zone 2 (didn't have a HRM so don't know for sure) with the odd foray to higher zones out of necessity on particularly steep hills. (I can't climb a 10% gradient for more than a couple of hundred metres in zone 2 these days!) In "old school" terminology, this is simply "all day pace".

Likewise when training for a Half Ironman, with time above zone 2 only really in the final three weeks when sharpening up with track intervals and also when swimming where a tactical burst was needed to optimise position (or when having a bad day running when I'd need to go to higher heart rates to finish my run in time to pick up the kids from swimming!)

Conversely, when training for a sprint triathlon, best results came from fewer hours but much more time in higher zones e.g. regular 60-90 minute turbo sessions building to spend the majority of time riding "at threshold" in old school terminology, zone 4 (I think) this equates to in modern lingo.

At the moment, I go flat out on Weds in a race/TT and do an hour of active recovery (zone 1) on Thursday as that's as much as I can manage. Friday is swim day at whatever zone that is (30 mins so probably zone 3 for the second half). Saturday is 2 hours on the turbo averaging on the border between zones 2 and 3 (so zone 2 for the first hour; zone 3 for the second hour due to "heart rate drift") and then Sunday is a steady run, again a mix of zones 2 and 3. Monday is my day off, and Tuesday is another steady run.

If I wasn't racing on Wednesdays, I'd likely be doing the same number of hours at the moment, but more zone 3/4, and very little zone 2 (other than the part of a session here the heart rate is building and you just happen to be in a lower zone than you're targeting).

So zone 2 can be either essential or a waste of time!

Would certainly agree with a lot of the above from both of you.

You are right Ugo, most people's outdoors Zone 2 is an average, mine is done at a set power and kept within +-5% so that it is proper zone 2. I would class my mixed rides that end up averaging zone 2 as unstructured rides.

Yes, W&G, there is definitely a tendency within cycling to encourage Zone 2 but fail to acknowledge the volume required.

I have mentioned this before, but for those who are really keen to maximise their fitness, the only real way to do so is via proper lab testing to see your physiological profile.

As a personal example, short high intensity stuff does little for me. I am much stronger anaerobically than aerobically. My vo2 max and MAP are good on low volume and intensity but my aerobic endurance is poor unless I do lots of volume at zone 2 mixed in with tempo. Most will be the other way around i.e. better aerobically than anaerobic without training it. Unless you have the data it is always guesswork.