Weekly Planning Theory: Lemond vs. Others

[Spunout]

I would like to discuss two different concepts in weekly planning, and am interested to see what others think of them.

One plan is based in the Lemond style, with three day blocks where harder is done before easier, and shorter is done before longer. For example starting a week with Monday off then Tuesday short HIT or sprinting, Wednesday medium L4/5, and Thursday longest L2 day. Fri/Sat/Sun off depending on racing.

I find this model builds training stress very strongly, but planning takes care to make sure that the athlete has recovered for Wednesday.

Second would be a more common Friel approach. Monday off, Tuesday intensity, Wednesday long L2, Thursday intensity, etc. Basically it may allow you to split intensity days apart, but the Thursday intensity comes after two days of training. The Wednesday workout must be easy, but do athletes hold back on duration facing Thursday's intensity?

My observations: Healthy athletes love Lemond, as they do the intensity and by Thursday they look forward to that L2 ride of 3-4 hours. They can actually walk off the bike fully recovered and ready to go again Friday. If you're battling injuries it may be a bit more difficult because of the missing recovery between Tues. and Wed.

The Friel method need discipline, if the athlete ends up doing junk miles Wednesday then Thursday's intensity is not met and you've now got two days of failed workouts.

Thoughts and comments from coaches here?

 

[frenchyge]

Thoughts and comments from coaches here?

Self-coached. Does that count?

One plan is based in the Lemond style, with three day blocks where harder is done before easier, and shorter is done before longer. For example starting a week with Monday off then Tuesday short HIT or sprinting, Wednesday medium L4/5, and Thursday longest L2 day. Fri/Sat/Sun off depending on racing.

I find this model builds training stress very strongly, but planning takes care to make sure that the athlete has recovered for Wednesday.

This is how my weekly training has evolved, although I didn't know it was Lemond's style at the time. I take both Monday and Friday off. What I find is, while I'm usually more anxious to ride on Tu after the day off, Wed is when I'm really hitting my stride, and I do have to be slightly mindful of the duration to avoid compromising Thurs. The gloves come off on Thurs since Fri is a rest day, but since I'm a little weary from Tu/Wed I typically drop the intensity a bit and extend the duration.

I've found Andy Coggan's TSS system to be a great tool for managing my training stress through all of this. I can do up to ~125 TSS points a day without worrying about compromising the next day, and I'll typically shoot for ~140 or more on Thurs, knowing that Fri is rest. At the same time, if I go over or under on a specific workout (or miss a day ), I can look at my weekly TSS target and make adjustments in my planning for the rest of the week to get back on track. Yes, it takes some discipline, but also some flexibility.

There are my thoughts based on my stable of 1 low-level athlete. I've used the alternating hard/easy or hard/rest approach in year's past, and feel like that resulted in too much rest as I look back.

 

[Spunout]

... I've used the alternating hard/easy or hard/rest approach in year's past, and feel like that resulted in too much rest as I look back.

Many comments on Friel are exactly this.

 

[frenchyge]

Many comments on Friel are exactly this.

Certainly, it depends on how much time you have available to spend making the 'hard' days hard. For me, I didn't have time to pack 2 days of training into one.

 

[BlueJersey]

The most I can keep my weekly training schedule consistent is TSS and numbers of hard days I need. Because of my work schedule, it is impossible to follow any strict routine. Instead, I always do my Hard Hard days on my day offs which are Thrusday and Sunday. They are used to be Sunday and Monday. I don't take 2 consecutive rest days. I always take a mild active recovery day after my hard day or race day. I only take a complete rest day right at the start of the training week and the day before race.

I would like to discuss two different concepts in weekly planning, and am interested to see what others think of them.

One plan is based in the Lemond style, with three day blocks where harder is done before easier, and shorter is done before longer. For example starting a week with Monday off then Tuesday short HIT or sprinting, Wednesday medium L4/5, and Thursday longest L2 day. Fri/Sat/Sun off depending on racing.

I find this model builds training stress very strongly, but planning takes care to make sure that the athlete has recovered for Wednesday.

Second would be a more common Friel approach. Monday off, Tuesday intensity, Wednesday long L2, Thursday intensity, etc. Basically it may allow you to split intensity days apart, but the Thursday intensity comes after two days of training. The Wednesday workout must be easy, but do athletes hold back on duration facing Thursday's intensity?

My observations: Healthy athletes love Lemond, as they do the intensity and by Thursday they look forward to that L2 ride of 3-4 hours. They can actually walk off the bike fully recovered and ready to go again Friday. If you're battling injuries it may be a bit more difficult because of the missing recovery between Tues. and Wed.

The Friel method need discipline, if the athlete ends up doing junk miles Wednesday then Thursday's intensity is not met and you've now got two days of failed workouts.

Thoughts and comments from coaches here?

 

[Sillyoldtwit]

Frenchgye wrote:

This is how my weekly training has evolved, although I didn't know it was Lemond's style at the time. I take both Monday and Friday off. What I find is, while I'm usually more anxious to ride on Tu after the day off, Wed is when I'm really hitting my stride, and I do have to be slightly mindful of the duration to avoid compromising Thurs. The gloves come off on Thurs since Fri is a rest day, but since I'm a little weary from Tu/Wed I typically drop the intensity a bit and extend the duration.

Although I'm a newbie to serious training, it was great to read your post, because that's exactly how I'm training, with the same thoughts about Tues and Friday. Can't wait to do my intervals on Tuesday, and on Thursday think god this hard after Tues and Wed, but what the hell I've got Friday and Saturday to recover for the long hilly ride Sunday.

PS I will say one thing though, there's no way I could complete the 3 days of intervals on the indoor trainer without my iPod Shuffle. I've recorded 180 fast songs and play them in random fashion. Instead of watching the clock (which I cover with my right hand) I count songs, and because they're random I don't know exactly how long I've been going. So if I count 6 songs, then I know I'm well into the 20 minutes - take a peek then count another 4. Also a particularly fast song which you really like seems to supply some adrenalin to the aching legs and the cadence is lifted at the same time. Last Wednesday I was starting to flag a bit in the middle of the second 20 when up came the Rolling Stones with 19th Nervous Breakdown and off went the little legs at breakneck speed!

Sorry to deviate from the OP question, but as you can see I'm a sillyoldtwit