LV or MV? My doubts due to group rides on weekends

[SSaldanha]

I have 5 days for training. 3 from tuesday to thursday indoors and both weekend days (saturday and sunday) for outdoor rides in a group. Rest days are always on mondays and fridays. Group rides have 3 to 4H with no concerns on power-zones, once I´ve no powermeter on my road and moutainbikes and I think even having a PM it wouldn’t be good for the group pace for me to follow a TR outdoor version exercise always looking at power ans pushing or slowing down the group. Some of this group rides are quite intense has a C or B race.

I’ve been doubting since I got in TR last Juin, between choosing LV or MV plans. Started by choosing LV doing the 3 trainings of LV in a row (tuesday to thursday) and group rides on weekends:

Choosing LV has a problem I’ve identified. The 3 trainings are all hard level and I train indoors from Tuesday to Thursday giving no easy day between hard days.

After last race in september I’ve made a two weeks brake and then started 9 weeks ago SSB I with MV but both my rides on Saturday and Sunday I’ve sheduled as outdoor rides once they are almost always group rides. Keep in mind they are group rides not really doing the outdor TR workouts has prescribed:

During SSBI MVI ´ve done on weekends, both days outdoors or in some weekends due to the weather one day on the trainer and the other outside, has showed in the next image:

The main advantage I saw during SSBI MV comparing with LV, was having the training on schedule on weekends in case of bad whether and doing it on the trainer, has it happened a couple of times. But this irregular outside/inside relation on weekends made my TSS quite irregular and in some weeks the TSS was lower than the week before.

Choosing MV doing only the first 3 trainings that have an easier day between has also a catch. I´m missing some important specific trainings that are schedule for the weekend (trainings 4 and 5). Normally on SSBMV saturday has an Over/under training that is always missed and in SSBLV the O/U is included on the 3 mid week trainings.

So basically in:

• LV:
  I’ve got to do 3 high intensity trainings in consecutive days (Tuesday to Thursday) and on weekends 2 extra group ride, missing an easier day between hard days, but getting O/U indoor trainings;
• MV:
  I’ve got 2 high intensity trainings with a less intense training between them (Tuesday to Thursday) and the same group rides on weekend lacking the 3rd high intense (O/U) training of the program.
  Now I´m on the 3rd week of SSBMVII and once it has rained every saturday since week one of SSBMVII I´ve been doing the 4th training of the week on the trainer that is the 3rd hard training (O/U) and missing only the moderate training on sundays, doing a group ride outdoors instead. I´ll keep this to the end of SSBMVII but in 3 weeks I´ve got to decide the next step… Built phase!

What should I do then, LV with 3 consecutive hard days from tuesday to thursday and group rides always on saturday and sunday or MV and in this case missing boths weekend TR trainings or only missing the sunday Training indoors doing instead a group ride?

While it´s raining I´m not sad by staying inside on saturdays but when the rain stops I´ll surely prefer to be outside. Winter is not very hard in Portugal, some good sunny days with 10º to 15º degrees celsius, seldom going near or under 0º. Only the rain keeps me from going outside.

[Pullthru]

I believe they’ve covered this on the podcast at some point, but I recall Pete saying that a low-volume plan (which will by default favor much tougher workouts) followed consistently will yield much better results than a mid or high-volume plan not followed consistently. The low volume plan will allow for some flexibility in your riding as well since you can pick a group ride on the weekends or a TR workout of your choice if the weather is nasty. I basically did this last season and had some good results; a few wins and couple podiums. BUT, now that TR has given me the option to perform workouts outside on my Wahoo ELMNT Bolt, I will certainly be doing more of these when weather gets better, as group rides are almost always counter productive for me. I Hope this helps!

[admigo]

I’ve a similar issue but kept to mid volume, use the outdoor feature and just prioritise doing the workouts before even a group ride. Some days, even though probably a bit dumb, I do both, but like what users said this is quality training which is needed imo but group rides with the social aspect is also v important. (Some of us ride bikes to enjoy the outdoors too, right? ). If I have a hard group ride coming up I’ll trim the indoor workout by 20% sometimes as well.

[splash]

You could also schedule the 3 LV workouts for Tue, Thu, Sat and then add a lower-intensity workout from the MV plan on Wed. That way, you’re not doing 3 hard ones in a row, you have one ready for the weekend in case the weather is bad, and you’re still sticking to the plan somewhat. I’d probably try to find a Wed workout that is a bit similar to the Sat workout (eg, both of them sweetspot).
If the weather is good and you do two group rides on the weekend, at least you’ve done 3 mid-week workouts already, even if you didn’t do the Sat one.

[SSaldanha]

Thanks to the answers above. I’ll keep them in mind.

About this last answer and the part I’m quoting next, it looks like what I’m doing right now on SSBII MV where I’ve been doing the 4 first trainings ditching only the Sunday training for the group ride. Being this the case I think it’s best to keep MV instead of always adding an easy training mid week.

@splash

You could also schedule the 3 LV workouts for Tue, Thu, Sat and then add a lower-intensity workout from the MV plan on Wed.