This is an HRZ, HIIT, Climb, and Metrics based challenge that hopes to achieve the results of Power Zone training, but with a greater variety of classes and instructors. It is put together by the Peloton Data Junkies group. This challenge is designed to appeal to a wider audience of Peloton riders than Power Zone-only.
- Challenge start date: 6/17/2019
- Duration: 8 weeks
- Choice of schedules: 5, 4, or 3 rides per week with optional cross-training of your choosing.
- Substitutions: rides can be substituted for any ride of your choosing as long as it is of the same or similar type. Outdoor endurance cycling events count. Outdoor runs count. Substituting instructors is fine too. Just don't cheat yourself. See below for recommended substitutions.
- Strength work, cross-training, and stretching: you do you, no specific requirements! Enjoy the outdoors, luge lessons, rowing, go hiking, do cross-fit, go horseback riding, kayaking, or lawn mowing. Whatever rocks your boat.
- Time-crunch option: Life and work can get in the way, and that is okay. You can substitute 45-min rides for shorter, 30-min rides, but to get the most out of a shorter ride, you need to increase the intensity. You can do this by keeping your recoveries in higher output zones and/or pushing the efforts higher. For example, in a 30-min intervals class, you might try to get your recoveries to high zone 2-mid zone 3 as much as possible where in a similar 45-min class you would be doing the recoveries in zone 1.
- FTP test: optional, but it is helpful to get the most from the challenge. You need it for Power Zones on the tablet and to have better insight into your heart rate zones. Knowing your Power Zones can help to inform your efforts in other classes and also is a great way to assess fitness gains during the challenge, so we recommend going for it!
- Types of rides: HIIT/Intervals, Metrics, Climbs, HRZ Endurance/Power/Max Capacity, and extra credit theme rides.
- Order of the rides: more art than science, but it is designed to have hard days and easy days in a certain order; the 3-day schedule focuses on higher intensity workouts to get the most out of the challenge. (Similar to the Time-crunch option where intensity is increased to balance decreased duration, here you are increasing intensity to balance decreased frequency).
- Post graphs for accountability and discussion. Or don't. It is up to you. The #GraphertyMcGrapherson "topic" in PDJ will take you to that day's thread quickly.
See this guide.
Schedules for this challenge are available in both mPaceline and Power Zone Plus under "Data Junkies Training".
If you want to see the source spreadsheet and import it into your own tool or make your own printables, it is available here.
Printable PDFs are available here :