Mark (currently in week 7 and hoping to take part in first race at some point).

Thanks for the reply. Sorry didn’t mean anything negative with the exclamation!

Take your point on the hill allowing you to produce higher wattage although not on this statement:

“I would have to do an 8 minute effort at 380, take a rest between intervals and then do a second 8 minute effort at 380. Not sure I could pull that off.”

I’m pretty sire the field test just takes the highest of your two back to back tests. If one is lower than the other it doesn’t matter as far as the test is concerned. You just use the higher one. If you are holding back at all on the first of the two tests you won’t get a valid 8 min max.

I definitely won’t be stopping @ 6 weeks. Actually think I am making some good gains, but just hard to tell. I’m on strava as well btw if you wanted to follow my progress.

Looking forward to your blog update. Keep up the good work!!

However, I do plan to do a field test here soon. It actually isn’t recommended in the book, but I just have to do it! I want to know. I want to report it here on the blog as well. Before I do it though, I want to give my body some time to rest.

Finally, don’t stop 6 weeks in! I remember at that time I was wondering if it was making any difference. Basically, your body is building up to critical mass when you will finally see a break through. Just keep training as close to the book as possible. I think you are going to see progress in the end.

I agree. The plan even points out that this is the tradeoff.

However, for me it is simple… I don’t have 12 to 16 hours to spend a week on the bike. This plan gives me hope that I can at least participate in the fun with 7 to 8 hours a week. Though I would like to get stronger over the long haul, I realize that is not reasonable for my greater goals in life. It ends up being a compromise for me.

The tradeoff is a long term one. Without the additional training time below the first lactate turnpoint (the top of zone 2), your aerobic foundation won’t be improving much, which in turn will cap how high your peak values can be. In other words, the Time Crunched plan will get you fit quickly and help maintain that level for 8-10 weeks (after that point, your fitness will degrade, as it will on any training program without a change in stimulus for 8-10 weeks), but you won’t get stronger over several seasons of low volume, high intensity. Also, you probably won’t see a second peak during the year (unless you can do a stretch around the 20-week point of higher volume/lower intensity to rebuild Base and improve fitness below the first lactate turnpoint).

Now, if getting stronger over the long haul is not a goal, and you want to make the most out of very limited time on the bike, then trading intensity for volume is the way to go.