In the past, I’ve gotten by for months on only doing sets of one-minute intervals at 160% (of TP) and one hour rides near LTP. I’ve seen good improvement doing this as long as I slowly raise my XSS/week .
I’ve also read about people doing essentially only 2x20 minute threshold workouts and recovery rides for long blocks.
Surely verity is good, but for some reason I’m intrigued by minimalist training. What’s the least variety you’ve gotten by with?
Hmm, I thought you want to avoid least variety and aim to have as much variety as possible?
How often did you do the HIT session
When I have blue stars and feel motivated.
What have you built your XSS up to with this type of training?
How often & how do u get breakthroughs?
Up to about 100/day at peak. Built my 2 minute wkg to personal-best levels this way. Not sure how often I was getting breakthroughs.
This is my type of thread. How to do the least amount of training necessary.
Following with interest
I have a 2 year old child and one more on the way. I think next year for me will be about maximizing the little time I will have available to train. I was thinking to follow a strategy similar to what you mention. Hit hard one session and then do LTP rides until I am ready to hit it again.
In terms of building a base, I had a good combination last winter of LTP rides when yellow/red (which meant intervals were at approx ~70-75XSSR), and LTP under fatigue (see ‘Hammer to Fall’ or ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’) on days when I was blue.
After building a good base, I switched to 3 months of front loaded periodization (1 week of 3x 4x8 workouts, 2x ronnestads, 3 weeks of recovery with 1x 4x8 per week). Hit my best ever numbers this spring after that last week of front loaded periodization. I’ll likely do the same thing again this winter.
How does LTP under fatigue help your fat burning ability. Doesn’t the time you spend getting fatigued push you well into predominantly carb burning, which then continues well into the LTP portion of the ride?
Purpose of those rides is to 1) maintain some level of intensity (and variety) in my training and 2) accelerates the rate at which you can accumulate LXSS, which helps later in the build/peak phase.
The LTP rides (which I do at 90-95% LTP) are my fat-burning rides.