We’re almost at the end of the season right now and I’m trying new things in terms of training structure.

As you guessed from the headline, my latest “Empiric Training Study” is:

What’s the minimum amount of training, I have to do, to get improvements?

Or at least hold my fitness level

For a good answer, I have to be honest so I need specific targets. I want to test this specifically for cycling. I usually do running and swimming as crosstraining, so this has to stop, otherwise I have to calculate the aerobic training effect of this sessions into my results. Targets in terms of numbers? I want to, at least, hold my FTP, plus I want to hold my weight. Meaning no extra pounds … loosing one or two is okay for me

As time commitment, I set myself a target of under three hours a week (175 minutes) – I know, this sounds crazy for an endurance athlete. But hey, maybe it works for me

The Training Sessions:

Endurance session:

90 minute ride: 10 min warm up / 8 x 5 min Zone 2 (70% FTP) followed by 5 min rest in Zone 1 (52% FTP)

Threshold session:

45 minute ride: 10 min warm up / 10 min Zone 4 (100% FTP) / 10 min rest in Zone 1 (52% FTP) / 10 min Zone 4 (100% FTP) / and then a 5 min cool down phase in Zone 1

45 minute ride: 10 min warm up/ 30 min Sweetspot (90% FTP) with 10 sec burst after every 5 min / 5 min cool down in Zone 1

FTP-Test:  45 minute ride

Anaerobic sessions:

30 minute ride: 9 min warm up / 4 x 45 sec Zone 6 (200% FTP) followed by 3.15 min rest in Zone 1 (52% FTP) / and then a 5 min cool down phase in Zone 1

30 minute ride: 10 min warm up / 15 x 30 sec Zone 6 (120% FTP) with 30 sec rest in Zone 1 (52% FTP) / 5 min cool down in Zone 1

The execution plan:

I know, that a good training plan desperately needs two extra things: variation and progression. So for the progression element I will improve the intensity times in my intervalls which will slowly cut out the resting phases. And for variation, I switch between the prescribed sessions.

What do you think? Could this work?