I am sure somewhere in here this has come up and it may relate to “time crunched” training but really there are people who want to improve but can not expect to have more than x hours per week with the longest being x hours, for instance say 5 h/w with the max 2h on either Sat or Sun but not both. The max other times is 1h so 3x 1h during the week and one 2h weekend. Here is the question. Certain things need to happen to elicit improvement but there has to be some sort of relationship between time in and improvement out. I have not seem much on this. How would you advise to look at weeks in light of this sort of time commitment and what sort of improvement (if any) can be had with only this commitment? Thanks
Hi scooter,
This article (How ‘Trainable’ Is VO2 Max Really? – A Case Study - SimpliFaster) provides some insight into the relationship between volume (time) and VO2max.
When you start adding intensity to your 1 hours sessions, there is a lot gain. Just go by the rule: extend or intensify. As soon as you have maxed out your available hours and can do them all in HR zone 2 without degradation of power output, add intervals to intensify. You can either make them harder (go faster) or longer.
Have a look a this post for what I achieved using that principle: