I follow the training plans and currently in SSB mid volume my question is will doing the five prescribed workouts Monday to Friday and so having weekends off give the same training effect as following the suggested days?
Is it better to take a rest day amongst the five prescribed workouts or is it just a case of completing them that week (on different days obviously!)
I’d say it’s good to take rest day before the two toughest sessions of the week (usually the two last sessions of the week), and after them. That way, you’ll be more rested for the toughest ones, to be able to achieve better quality in them.
I think you could probably get away with it, though there’s no guarantee that you’ll get the same response as the plan intended. But my hunch is that it’d probably be fine.
I would probably move the recovery ride to the 3rd ride of the week, so it’s immediately before the two hard rides at the end of the week. I took a look at what the high volume SSB plans were doing, and they’d run 2-3 days of sweet spot in a row, with a recovery day, and then one off day a week. I think that same approach would work for you, with two days off, a hard first ride of the week, SS, recovery, hard 4th ride, and more SS.
I’m not sure if you’re on SSB 1 or 2. They’re mostly similar, except on SSB2 the first ride of the week is harder. I think the same workout structure should work fine for both though.