What are you guys doing in 2026? Any big objectives/events, goals for training, etc…
Dave
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Mine is the same as last year. Now it is being consistent and as soon as the roads are not sheet ice i.e. spring… I am excited to start preparing for the same 150k gravel race that I had to skip due to wife planning a vacation at the same time last year. My main goal is getting faster and more consistent at the 50k distance or so with sprinkled in 100k rides feeling not too uncomfortable.
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Wow, that is a great goal. You prepare for this with the 50K/100K rides gradually pushing the speed? Do you primarily watch speed and HR for this?
Dave
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My goal is to stay on the same path to maximize fun riding outdoors. I think we’ll probably end up doing about the same thing as last year, with a heavy focus on weekend road rides, our go to is 65-70 km rides.
From a training perspective I have never been a person that respected or followed a recovery week and I think has led to a monotonous training load. My main goal is to have planned recovery weeks this year. I’ve also noticed that when I seem to get worn out is when I’m adding indoor intensity sessions to outdoors riding so I’m going to plan to stop doing that. Also until the winter is over I’m going to focus on keeping TSS manageable (< 250 per week) to stay fresh.
I made a Coach Jack plan that I’ll follow until the weather gets better. It is like the standard Polarized plan, but I substituted VO2 Max Favorites for the regular VO2 Max. I am actually going to start at 1 this time for intensity. The goal again is to get to the outdoor season fresh.
Dave
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My method of training I would say is old school, i.e. as Hal Higgdon would recommend… He says 2 years of base training. This is what I believe (well maybe not 2 years…). I feel there is no reason to do structured training or harder intervals without a solid base. That does not need to be 2 years on a bike for most but should be easier and longer than most people would like.
I believe for me frequency is the best thing I can do. It seems to build a base faster with less total time. Gets me motivated and excited faster. As I progress and get more and more motivated.
I am a person that falls apart very quickly with intensity. Likely do to inconsistency… meaning if I was consistent for years in a row I could likely handle more, but some how every year I end up with a few months off, or a month here or there.
So just doing zone two 7-days a week, I am on the edge for a while, especially as I continue to longer rides and even those 100km at low intensity require extra recovery. So let’s say I believe for myself the best I can do is sprinkle in intensity when my body and recovery schedule can handle it.
How strict I need to be on zone 2 depends on how fast I am ramping up volume and intensity in general. Right now at 15-30 minute a day of mostly under 125bpm I don’t seem to have to be too strict, I can do it by feel and let it drift to 130-135 and it still feels very easy and no problems, but if I happen to notice that I reduce.
I have a very small amount of room in my house right now… long story, so I squeezed in the keiser m3i which my kids also use (wide adjustability). So this is manual control and it does not connect to TD other than via QZ app even though the power meter is faked it is still accurate. So I am just recording HR only with my watch.
So I only add structure and intensity when I have fully stabilized at my desired volume. Another old school idea is don’t increase volume and intensity at the same time. So I am trying to get up to about 6 hours a week before spring, if I stabilize their and still recovering very well from ever days ride then I will start to bring in structure, or if outside I find some fun challenge hills or maybe fun kom target segements.
So I believe in follow what you consider the right process and let the results be what they are. Meaning, I have little control over how fast I am or my ftp, but I have a lot of control over the process.
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That looks like a a good plan to me. Andrea and I discussed this before but for people that are highly consistent, recovery should be built into ever micro cycle… daily=sleep, weekly=rest days, monthly=recovery week, and seasonally with a base period. Without these the chances of flatlining your progress are great.
I am doing deep analysis of people doing td. It’s very revealing. I have like 10 million workouts… But the revealing part isn’t doing x training results in y ftp improvements. The revealing part is how almost everyone does a similar form of pyramidal training. True polarized rarely exists.
So the percent differences between volume in 3 zone model are a lot smaller than you would think but small differences can make a big difference and are also likely individual. It almost feels like what happens off the bike might matter more than what happens on the bike. Meaning optimizing on the bike at higher levels of training is likely small adjustments.
It’s very early in this, I though I would find obvious quick suggestions, it’s going to take much more analysis, and longer windows of understanding. I might need sleep, diet, drinking… who knows what, but I get the feeling recovery might play the biggest role in performance increases… Obviously doing good training for you and your goals plays a role.
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Thanks for your review. I respect our opinion a lot. I’m basically putting my confidence in Coach Jack and following his principles.
Big picture I’m thinking that zone 2 in the zone 3 model just seems to lead to feeling tired. That is the last thing I need in the spring.
This almost 80/20 version of VO2 Max Favorites 01 to 12 results in TiZ as follows:
Easiest week (01)
Hardest week (12)
This is quite conservative, it is basically ride lots at 65% of FTP and include a build with a moderate amount of 108%-116% of FTP.
I’m hoping it helps idiots like me avoid cooking themselves 
Once it is nice enough to ride outside I’ll probably stop following the plan and just focus on riding outdoors. If I ride indoors to conserve time, etc… it will be riding easy only, no more peak season indoor interval workouts.
Dave
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I think outdoor peak fun rides, attacking hills is a great plan. If I recover well, I will do some structure outdoors, meaning try to do some sustained vo2max efforts, but consistency and volume with quality recovery, and fun intensity and if I have room beyond that for more recovery I will add in some fun structure.
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I’m using TD to peak for some crits and fast group rides in late May to early July. I’m sticking with two interval sessions per week and mixing in endurance as I can. I move the interval sessions around as needed if I head out for an MTB ride or group ride. I hope to have an FTP bump by then but more importantly, at least in my mind, is an increase in durability (TTE) and being able to handle repeated surges. I have enough short-term power but tend to get dropped with repeated surges and on climbs on fast group rides.
I used claude.ai to generate my plan using my inputs and told it to focus on sweet-spot progression ideas from certain coaches on TR. So it’s a mixed-block of SS and threshold/VO2max intervals with endurance as filler. Rest weeks drop volume but not intensity. Being able to use Claude was a huge help as it was much easier to tweak the plan to my liking than using a traditional plan or plan builder.
This style plan worked well for me in the past whereas polarized did not although I realize I might not have had enough volume for polarized to work effectively. My indoor endurance rides are now done in HR+ mode, which was a great added feature. I’ll try to take it easier on outdoor rides but sometimes you just want to have fun so I won’t always stick to riding around a specific HR.
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Nice, best of luck w/your plan.
Dave
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I think that’s a really good plan for your goals.
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Funny. This is exactly what I want as well.
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Hi Dave,
Great question, thank you. Last year I wanted to re-write my Ideal Weight program from my own experience, so I gained 15 kilo’s. This year I want to get back to 12% fat. I’m already hitting the gym twice a week, next to my workout’s on the bike. Last week I celebrated my 51st birthday with 5100 am on rouvy. Devided over three rides on three consecutive days.
Next is a ultra endurance ride. I want to see how it goes, but the goal is at least 400km in a day, if I’m fit enough 500km. In preparation for that I want to ride a 200km mtb race in June.
During my May and summer holiday I’m going to ride some mountains. May will probably be in Spain, don’t know about the summer yet.
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Thank god you gained 15kg… 12% can’t be healthy Sorry for joking about the loss of your friend, or new enemy depending on perspective…
Okay, I’m super excited. I just found out my gravel race that was 150 kilometers last year is 125 this year, and that is so perfect for me. Just need to keep my wife from scheduling something at that time. I live in a forest and the route goes right by me, but also, luckily this year, my house is near the start of the route, not the end. So I’m less likely to stop by home and fall asleep on the couch.
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Sounds great. Maybe checking out next year some gravel events, hopefully not to far away. Last year there were no races nearby.
This year I will do the Ötztaler Cycling Marathon. I had no luck for three rounds (years) and wasn’t selected, which means I’m guaranteed a place this year The best thing, I won’t do it as a race. Target pace will be Z2 to enjoy the scenery in the alps. Though still training “hard” to get my Z2 bounds a little bit higher until then.
Oh my 227km 5500m… you are serious 
Exactly need that 250w Z2…
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