THE 48-HOUR RULE: HOW MANY HARD DAYS YOU REALLY NEED | Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 599

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// TOPICS COVERED

(00:00:00) Two Hard Days vs Three Hard Days Per Week

(00:01:41) What Hard Training Does Inside Your Muscles

(00:03:53) Why the Fitness Signal Fades Within 24 Hours

(00:07:21) How Much Recovery You Need Between Hard Days

(00:08:47) Where the Two Hard Days Rule Came From

(00:11:20) Research on Three Hard Days for Low Volume Riders

(00:14:48) What the Research Says Overall

(00:16:12) TrainerRoad Data: Two vs Three Hard Days

(00:18:51) Does Age Change the Answer?

(00:20:14) Does Training Volume Change the Answer?

(00:20:58) Do Three Hard Days Cause More Skipped or Failed Workouts?

(00:22:36) What the Data Says for Most Riders

(00:24:00) How to Add a Third Hard Day

Is it better to train hard two days a week or three? A 42-year-old listener has been told by his friends that three hard workouts a week is overtraining, yet he keeps getting faster while they stagnate. Coach Jonathan Lee digs into the research and a filtered sample of over 14,000 TrainerRoad athletes to settle it.

You will learn what a hard session actually does inside your muscles, why the adaptation signal fades within about 24 hours, where the two-hard-days rule came from, and how power PRs from 5 to 60 minutes compare for riders doing two versus three hard workouts per week, broken down by age and training volume. Plus, how to add a third hard day without digging a hole.

Topics: interval training frequency, VO2 max, threshold, sweet spot, recovery, mitochondria, low volume training, masters cyclists.

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