Transitioning into summer

Training and Performance Fundamentals
#1

Hey there,

I have been successfully training by a Coach Jack plan since Nov 2023 until recently. Last week I’ve been to Mallorca for one week of riding and had a blast, as I was as fit, as never before.

My question now is, how I best keep the good form throughout the summer.
I’d like to ride longer tours mostly on the saturdays or sundays, do some shorter rides during the week.

As far as i understand, TrainerDay can’t help me with the outdoor rides, right?
But how would I utilize TD during the workdays on lets says rainy days, when I want to ride indoors.

Just picking a random workout surely isn’t the best option.

Thanks für your opinions on that and happy riding!

Michael

#2

Hi Michael,

Good for you and well done. You have trained consistently and now you reap the benefits. My advice is to set a goal every 8 to 12 weeks. It doesn’t have be big. Maybe just one of your regular longer tours in the weekend. Try to make it more challenging by riding faster, further or by eliminating your stop at you favorite cafe (if you make one of course).

You can use Trainer Day for outside too. I know Alex is working on a special feature for this, but the way I do this now is I look at the “work” I need to do and ride the rest zone 2.

So, for instance, let’s take a VO2max work-out. I need to ride 5x 2 minutes in powerzone 5. That’s what I call the “work”. The rest is all bonus. If I want to ride this outside, I do my warm-up, next the intervals and finish it off with some zone 2 riding.

For the work outs without intense intervals you can just ride zone 2 or zone 3. Just make sure that you dedicate at least one training to your aerobic threshold and avoid doing too much intensity beyond the “work”.

Have lots of fun cycling, Coach Robert

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#4

What Coach Robert’s advice is, is exactly what I did last summer to maintain form after a winter inside using TD. It worked great and I maintained great fitness all summer. Basically created another Coach Jack plan to match my goals and then still followed it (sorta) outside.

I would sometimes do my intensity days inside still (like when the day lined up with bad weather outside), but otherwise exactly like Coach Robert says. Do the main intervals prescribed and then ride the rest Z2. From my understanding, Alex has even designed the Z2 TD workouts indoors to try and replicate outdoor riding from the respect that you will never see a Coach Jack Z2 workout where it is just 65% of FTP for 2 hours straight. Instead the workout will have sets all around in your Z2, which is more like how it would be outside.

I will say this takes some discipline, because when riding outside on my non-intensity days where I’m supposed to just be in Z2 or Z3, my lizard brain takes over when I see a Strava segment or if I’m feeling really good and I push it to see the instant gratification of big numbers, then end up overcooking myself. Don’t be like me…

I’ve gained more fitness this winter again, and have my first race coming up 5/3-5/4 and still plan on following the same pattern for this summer. Good luck this season!

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#5

Hey @Robert_UCL and @Tayno_25 thank you so much for your thoughts, that was exactly what I needed! I am eager to start the season now and will proceed as you you both proposed…!
Happy riding for both of you!

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