Cycling Base Training: 20 Hour Week, Is It Worth Doing Just One?

Can you do too much base training with 20h weeks? What about a lot of only zone 2 endurance riding? great question from the discord! Let's see what's best for Stijn, and hopefully you can apply this to your upcoming training!
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Hi Brendan, I got some info from you in the past and that was super, But now I am in my 2 last weeks before my last peak and I want to start 16 weeks of base training from December. In the discord channel I also asked you about some 4 weeks of Z2 training. I have alot of time in December and I want to try this:

week1 15h
week2 15h
week3 8h
week4 20h
rest week

Is this a good idea this month? Because it is not a progressive based base building period...and Z2 only (longer rides 65%), shorter rides below LT1).
Do you have short advice? I don't want to screw up my base period. 

greetings
stijn

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Brendan:

remind me, what's your current weekly volume like again?

this month is good because if you do a bit too much, there's plenty of time to recover from it. 

tons of z2 would be great!!

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Stijn:

I have now a CTL around 85-90. Weekly between 11-15hrs. 

My goal in 2023 is a very hard century (220k, 5500m+).
I want to increase my aerobic endurance.
Increase power at Z2 first with same HR (LT1).
Maybe train more in blocks of 2-3 weeks. Z2, fatmax, SS progression, Treshold, vo2 block.
But starting first with Z2 endurance high volume december...maybe one shorter vo2 2 times.

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Brendan:
yeah if you're honestly doing 15h, hit the 20h week, it'll be good! just make sure you foam roll and stretch and sleep as much as you can.

honestly, scratch the sweet spot. It's not doing anything but making you tired. Tempo, okay a little. Threshold as over unders. VO2max....those will take you to the promised land!

Wrap up:

how much are you currently doing? Add a few hours to that. If you’re doing 10h, is 15 even worth it? Maybe, maybe not.

Look to build consistency versus just ONE BIG WEEK. people get sick.

Once you do this, can you add more hours to normal training?

Have fun and recover hard:
1. eat right
2. sleep right
3. stretch and foam roll
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[stijnb]

Wow. My question made it to a real online video session by Brendan ;-). Super answer as always...Ps: From Belgium, the cycling country 😛

[germanlondono]

Great video, as usual. NIce t-shirt as well.

Greetings from Bogotá, Colombia

[stijnb]

Ok, to recap. I did 12h30, 14h30, 10h, 15h (57h in December). Mostly Z2 work with one week zwift race for intensity. 3th week had less time, but started the Rapha500 that weekend and managed 17hours for the challenge. All indoor. .

[krispybacon]

Hats off to the guys/gals who put in those hours.

[veganpotterthevegan]

Do you really tell people to avoid going over z2 in winter to avoid sweating?😅

[markusseppala]

Good timing. I just started base, going to do 14h, 16h and 18-20 hour weeks as first block. Z2 and one tempo-burst workout per week.
Would you still do high intensity maintenance workouts if you're doing tempo-burst work with 30s of Z5-Z6 every 5 minutes between tempo?
It's been almost 2 weeks since last proper VO2max maintenance workout, I have hard time fitting them to the plan with the volume and 2 gym sessions per week.

[benvowles]

Thanks for the vid, in the southern hemisphere here, how much vo2 per week is required for getting peak fitness during summer? I'm riding 10-12 hrs per week since September and do 2 60min crits a week and usually another vo2 session as well but feel the quality isn't there yet for efforts over 3mins, if I try more vo2 I end up too fatigued though. Could you link your best vid I can follow up with? Cheers

[kochj]

Interesting that you would think something simple to just go and ride a bike and apparently all these lunatics complicated it to unknown measure. I just wanted to figure out how the hell do I get in shape? What’s my zone I need to keep that as far as my heart rate, But apparently that’s something no video I’ve seen on YouTube even mention it’s all complicated jargon