Originally Posted by
gregf83
Not stupid. Typically younger (<50) riders will build for 3 weeks and on the 4th week reduce the volume but keep the intensity of the rides the same, maybe 70% of the volume of your 3rd week.. Older riders sometimes take every 3rd week easy.
I think your approach is reasonable and I would just add 30 min to the long ride on wed every week. You could try adding in some SST intervals on the trainer on Tue or Thur. I contradicted my previous advice not to do any intervals but I find the trainer too boring otherwise so I usually end up doing a couple of 20min intervals. I'd give it a couple of weeks with your original plan and see how it goes. If you've got the energy you can add more hours.
Thanks.
EDIT: So I just finished writing up my plan. It has me starting at 8 hours for my first week and ending with 15 1/2 hours. I almost have a rest week every four weeks (had to spread the first one further out because of travel) and after the rest week I retest my FTP to make sure I'm staying in the right zone.
Should I try to progress faster to the 15 hour weeks or keep with a moderate progression? I start out by adding 15% per week and then drop it to 10%.